David looked Mary in the eye, she was about his height. “We are here to help. I don’t know how yet, but we are here to find out. We must see the truth.”
Mary looked at him curiously, but nodded in understanding.
“We must concentrate on our task here now David. You will be safe from the police until after the slaughter. We can talk afterwards if you want to.” Mary put the camera back to her eye, as if it was an emotional shield from what was about to happen.
David focused back on the pod of Dolphins, moving ahead of the line of boats. It looked like a lot, maybe a hundred or so.
As the outer cove narrowed, one of the boats fell back and started to deploy a net across the gap that floated on yellow buoys, presumably to prevent the dolphins from escaping.
The little fleet then moved around the pod, still banging their crude pipes, driving them into a smaller cove that came back directly underneath where they were standing.
“Skye,” Said David, “I thought there were no dolphins left in the ocean.”
“Don’t you see David? We have gone back in time. Back to when there were still dolphins swimming free. When the ocean was still alive.”
David felt the cove guardians’ attention snap to them as they heard what Skye had just said.
David looked at Mary, “This is going to sound like a really weird question, but what year is this?”
Mary’s mouth just opened and closed like a fish, as if it was trying to form words that hadn’t quite come from her brain yet. “It’s twenty thirteen,” she finally blurted out. “And what do you mean by ‘when the ocean was still alive’?”
Another boat deployed another net at the entrance to the little cove, trapping them even tighter.
Skye replied to Mary. “We are from the not too distant future. And the ocean is virtually dead there, except for a few small pockets.”
“Then we will fail, its inevitable? We’re wasting our time?”
“Not if we have anything to do with it Mary,” David said with determination he wasn’t sure he could back up.
A small open boat came tearing across the outer cove from within the harbour, lifting the outboard engine as it floated over the nets. A young-looking Japanese couple, squeezed into wet suits and jumped into the water with the dolphins.
“They are selecting the pretty ones for captivity,” Mary explained. “They will be taken back to the harbour nets and trained to perform tricks. Then they will be sold to dolphinariums all over the world to perform shows until they die a horrible death in captivity.”
The young man gently dragged a dolphin by its tail back to the boat, where a small sling was wrapped around the dolphin’s body and then it was secured to the side of the boat. This happened six more times before the boat started its motor and headed back out of the cove, dragging the poor things backwards through the water at speed.
The banger boats drove the remaining dolphins deeper into the cove and deployed yet another net. The cove was now a churning mass of dolphins. There was clearly not enough room for them all. Some were porpoising, bobbing up and down in the water vertically, trying to breathe.
Mary pointed out a mum with a young baby who was clearly struggling. The mum was going underneath its calf, and lifting it up so that it could breathe, it was so exhausted.
The mood among the cove guardians tensed as several men got into black wetsuits and jumped into the water brandishing wicked looking knives.
Several dolphins were throwing themselves against the rocks as the evil men began stabbing the dolphins in their backs, directly behind their blowhole.
The beautiful blue water of the cove suddenly began to turn red as the dolphin’s blood spread out amongst the pod who continued to swim through it.
David felt sick, his head was spinning. “Why don’t they fight back? Can’t they just jump out?”
The cove guardians’ cameras were clicking and whirring.
Mary turned to David. “They never jump over nets. Their sonar sees it as a wall that extends above the water line. They would only ever jump over a net if they were taught how to. And they don’t fight back, because they are placid, peaceful creatures by nature. It is not in their nature to harm humans. Unfortunately.”
“Well, I can’t just stand here, I have to do something. This is Horrific. Don’t they understand what happens once they have killed them all?” David made to jump over the little fence.
The sounds of the dolphins thrashing in their death throes reached them up on the knoll. The killing cove was now crimson red with the dolphin’s blood.
“Please David,” Mary implored him, “Don’t do anything, as we will all be arrested. Learn today and fight tomorrow. If we take action against these bastards, we will not get our story out to the world.”
More small boats were now tying the murdered dolphins to them, and then transporting them back toward the harbour behind them, ready to be butchered and processed into meat for sale.
At that moment a light breeze sprung up and brought the smell of death up from the water to the onlookers on the knoll. David wretched with the smell. A smell he knew he was never going to forget.
Skye, Flynn and Timothy were on their knees, vomiting right alongside him.
“Where is that fucking dragon when you need her?” gasped Skye between heaves.
There was a mighty crack of thunder and eyes for miles around snapped skyward.
The Beginning
Thank you so much for reading Land Of The Thunder Dragon, I truly hope that you have enjoyed the story and will join me when Grandpa Jack and the kids return to attempt their first mission in:
Outer Space Nature Boy
The Tragedy Of Taiji
I would be extremely grateful for a good review if you have enjoyed the book.
Cheers, Dave Williams.
Author’s Note:
While the majority of this book is fiction, the story of the dolphin slaughter at Taiji, which goes on for six months of every year is painfully true. You can find out more here: https://www.dolphinproject.com/campaigns/save-japan-dolphins/frequently-asked-questions/
The wonderful cover design was created by Simon Janik at Tide Creative. Thanks so much for your great work Simon. You can get in touch with him here:
http://www.tidecreative.com.au/
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