Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 44
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 44 of 56
CHAPTER 44
“Get out!” Chapawee said, no longer mincing words. “And stay out!” she added. Chapawee had already tried to be diplomatic. She was in no mood to pretend that she was negotiating with the interlopers. Trying to salve their egos was not worth the effort it would take. She didn’t respect them enough to even attempt it any longer. Anyone who would put their own current interests above that of everyone else for all time was not worthy of being mollycoddled.
“Try to make us!” one of them retorted.
“You and what army” — another one of them started to say, but it was too late. Rinky raced around them toward their big trucks, which were loaded down with equipment and supplies.
As the interlopers turned to see where the giant Duck-billed Platypus was going, Drako climbed up and over all of them — literally up one side and down the other — each in turn. The weight of the giant Bearded Dragon (his bad case of halitosis may have also played a role) caused them to topple over, backward or sideways, and against each other, causing a domino effect.
“Next time I’ll bite you and pretend you’re a cricket!” Drako hissed, her neck black as coal. She let off some pent-up energy by doing several quick push-ups while watching her adversaries. “One false move, and you’ll find out that I am not remotely close to being a pacifist,” she advised them.
The men only heard grunts and hisses, but Chapawee obligingly interpreted Drako’s declamation to them.
Terri was tremendously proud of her fellow Reptile, but did not want Drako to steal the whole show. After circling above the interlopers and laughing hysterically, she dive-bombed them, strategically snatching a bit of hair from one of them on every pass. By the time she was finished with them, one of them was sporting a mullet, another a Mohawk, another had a ‘do’ that looked like something Dennis Rodman would come up with after a week-long bender, and yet another had been snatched bald-headed.
“Hey, come back here with my toupee!” he cried out. Terri didn’t care what he said, though; it was obvious that he was disgruntled, but Terri expected as much, and Chapawee didn’t bother to interpret his demand.
Terri deposited the bits of real and fake hair on the branch of a tree. It wasn’t long before some Oropendolas flew off with the pieces to bolster their nests.
As Terri came sailing back toward them for the next round of hair-snatching, the men turned tail and bolted away — even the one who had no more hair to lose; he was afraid Terri would start yanking off other pieces of his anatomy.
The failed interlopers sought refuge in their trucks, but it was too late for that; Drako had popped the tires with his venomous spur, and Spider Monkeys had joined him in the disabling of the vehicles by climbing underneath the chassis of each, yanking off the gas tanks and everything else that was yank-offable.
As the men saw this depredation occurring, they forgot about their fear for a second, overcome by their anger over the vandalism.
“Hey, you can’t do that!” one shouted, pointing at Geoffrey, one of the Monkeys, who was gleefully stuffing dirt clods down the gas tank.
Geoffrey didn’t know the exact words being spoken, but he got the gist from the man’s body language and tone of voice. Neither was the meaning of the Spider Monkey’s reply completely lost on the complainant. He was basically saying, “Yeah?!? Just watch me!”
Chapawee, enjoying the entertainment immensely, did make a comment to the men being evicted, but they weren’t paying attention to her at the time. She said, “Tell it to the marine life.” This was not just a zinger. It was the cue for the Caimans to emerge from their watery habitat.
Unaware of what was happening behind them, the men looked around for tree branches or large rocks to use as weapons to try to drive off the Monkeys. Then they heard a series of squeaks and grunts coming from behind them. Wheeling around, they saw the pod of Caimans, led by a particularly large one named Levi, approaching them. And the outsized Reptiles weren’t dawdling.
The Caimans didn’t move as fast as the men did from that point on, though. The latter lost no time in “lighting out for the territory,” and their shrieks of terror were heard receding into the distance for quite some time.
Seeing the former tough guys and macho men flee in such terror brought to Drako’s mind Chapawee’s other name: They Are Afraid Of Her.
Those men would never attempt to set foot in the Amazon Basin again. Nor would those who heard their tale do so, either. Their employers (former employers, that is, as they tendered their resignations as soon as they reached what they termed “civilization”) would need to hire someone to take their place. Those employers also had some equipment (trucks, specifically) to replace.
The financial backers of the operation did not relish having to invest in more equipment, but what was even more difficult for them was finding replacement workers — finding men brave crazy enough to take on the animals of the forest was nigh impossible.
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