Authors: Sally Grindley

Feathers in the Wind (8 page)

Turn the page for a taster of
Joe’s exciting adventures on an exotic island in

Shadows under the Sea

Joe and his family are trying to protect endangered
seahorses in the Philippines – but the fragile coral reef is threatened by a criminal gang.

Joe has the chance to expose them, but will he risk his own life to do it?

Chapter 1

‘Name the smallest horse in the world,’ Peter Brook challenged his two children.

Aesha had just returned from swimming practice. She dumped her bag in the middle of the hall and joined her father in the kitchen. Joe, hearing the sounds of his sister and mother’s return, had appeared from upstairs, where he had been doing his homework.

‘A pony,’ he said.

‘Funny, ha, ha!’ scoffed Aesha. ‘That’s not a type of horse – it’s just a young horse.’

‘No, it’s not,’ argued Joe. ‘A pony is a particular type of horse with a small build. Isn’t it, Mum?’

Binti nodded. ‘Joe’s right, love. You’re confusing pony with foal.’

‘Shetland, then,’ Aesha said sulkily. ‘Who cares, anyway?’ At thirteen, she was four years older than Joe and didn’t like it when he proved her wrong.

‘That counts as a pony, and I said pony,’ Joe objected.

‘You’re both wrong.’ Their father grinned. ‘I’m thinking of something much, much smaller.’

‘I know!’ cried Joe. ‘A seahorse!’

‘Correct,’ said Peter. ‘Go to the top of the class.’

‘That’s cheating,’ Aesha grumbled.

‘As my favourite little water baby, I thought you’d be the first to guess.’ Peter held a bowl of peanuts out to placate her. ‘Now, guess who’s been invited to photograph seahorses in the Philippines!’

‘And guess who’s going with him!’ said Binti.

‘The Queen,’ Aesha suggested.

Her father pretended to cuff her.

‘You, Dad? And you, Mum?’ Joe questioned.

‘Anyone else going?’ Aesha asked cautiously.

‘Pick your swimming bag up off the floor if you want the answer to be yes,’ Binti instructed.

‘We’re
all
going to the Philippines for four weeks over the summer holidays,’ Peter confirmed the minute Aesha had emptied the contents of the swimming bag into the wash and put it away.

‘Cool!’ said Joe.

‘It’ll be rather hot, actually!’ said his father.

‘Even better!’ Aesha joined in. She hated the cold, and even though she had enjoyed their recent trip to eastern Russia, where her mother had been invited to work with tiger experts, she much preferred the idea of going somewhere hot.

‘What will you do while we’re there, Mum?’ Joe asked.

‘I hope to learn a little more about seahorses,’ she replied. ‘They’re not something I’ve ever had to deal with. However, since more and more people are keeping them in aquaria – because they’re cute – it might be as well if I were better informed.’

Binti was an international wildlife vet who worked locally with sick animals, and regularly travelled overseas to lend her expertise where it was needed.

‘I bet the seahorses don’t like being kept in aquaria very much,’ said Joe.

‘Unless you’re a real expert, they’re very tricky to look after,’ replied Binti. ‘Seahorses are fussy eaters and get sick and stressed very easily, especially if they don’t have somewhere to hide or are put in with other fish that take their food.’

‘People are so dumb,’ said Aesha. ‘Why do they have to turn every animal into a pet?’

‘It’s one of the reasons they’re becoming endangered,’ Binti said.

‘What, people?’ Peter grinned.

‘Bad joke, Dad,’ said Aesha. ‘Will we be able to go snorkelling?’

He nodded. ‘Of course – you’ll be like a couple of beetles scuttling around on top of the water.’

‘How long is the flight to the Philippines?’ Joe wanted to know.

‘It’s around twelve hours to Hong Kong, and then another two and a half hours to Cebu,’ said Binti.

Joe groaned. ‘I hate long flights – they’re so boring, and I can never get to sleep.’

‘That’s because you spend your time imagining that everyone else is up to no good.’ Peter laughed.

‘That’s not true,’ Joe protested. ‘Just because I thought someone on a plane was a smuggler once . . .’

‘When are we going?’ Aesha asked.

‘Two days after you break up from school. You children just don’t know how lucky you are.’

Joe looked at his father. He thought he probably
did
know how lucky they were – his friends told him often enough. It would have been easy to think that everyone travelled to far-flung corners of the world on a regular basis considering his family’s lifestyle, but his friends assured him that wasn’t the case.

‘Poor Foggy will be off to the doggery again, I suppose,’ Joe said, pushing his bottom lip out sadly.

‘Poor Foggy will be off to Waggy Tails Boarding Kennels, as usual, where he’ll be seriously pampered and spoilt, leaving your mother and me teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.’

‘As an endangered species, I’m sure the seahorses will be very grateful for any sacrifices Foggy makes on their behalf,’ Binti replied, smiling.

Chapter 2

Since his father’s announcement, Joe had been counting down the days to their trip and now, the day before they were due to leave, he was amazed to discover that the Philippines were an archipelago of over seven thousand islands in the Pacific Ocean. He hadn’t given it much thought until then.

‘Only four thousand are lived on,’ his father told him. ‘The rest are too small or are uninhabitable.’

‘Will we stay on just one of them?’

‘We’ll stay for several days on Jandayan Island, which is where many of the studies on seahorses are being carried out, and then we’ll go island-hopping.’

‘Cool!’ said Joe.

Binti explained that there were at least forty species of seahorse in the world.

‘The largest is the big-belly seahorse, which is about the size of a banana, while the smallest is Denise’s pygmy, which is about the size of a pine nut.’

‘I can tell you something about seahorses too,’ said Aesha. ‘It’s the male that gives birth to the babies and he carries them in his pouch.’

‘Quite right,’ Binti agreed. ‘Depending on the species, he can be pregnant from nine to forty-five days, and may have between five and two thousand babies in his pouch.’

‘Two thousand!’ Joe exclaimed.

‘I know something else,’ said Aesha proudly. ‘Seahorses mate for life.’

‘Ah, isn’t that nice,’ said Peter. ‘Just like your mum and me. Though when she gives me one of her scary looks, I wonder if I haven’t made a big mistake.’

Binti gave him a scary look and chased him with a tea towel. Joe joined in, pulling the worst face he could, and Foggy, their schnauzer, woken by the excitement, scurried round Peter’s legs, barking loudly.

‘I knew it! My son’s taking after his mother, and even the dog’s against me,’ Peter cried dramatically. ‘I bet a big-belly seahorse doesn’t have to put up with such treatment. I’ll have to retire to my shed for a bit of peace and quiet.’

‘A seahorse doesn’t have a shed to retire to,’ Aesha observed.

‘More like a stable!’ Joe chortled. ‘Ha!’

‘You’re all mad,’ said Binti, ‘and I’ll be hopping mad if you don’t hurry up and finish packing.’

‘Do you mean island-hopping mad?’ Joe said, grinning.

‘Ha, funny, ha,’ said Aesha. ‘You and Dad tell the worst jokes.’

‘Nobody would think we were going away for a month tomorrow morning from the state of your rooms,’ said Binti in exasperation. ‘Now move!’

‘It’s that scary face again,’ Peter said.

Binti picked up a broom and swept them out of the kitchen.

Joe ran to his bedroom, shoved his model-making kit under the bed, grabbed his underpants, T-shirts and shorts from the drawers and dumped them in the case Binti had left out for him. He took his camera from the shelf, wrapped it in a towel and placed it carefully in a corner of the case. Then he picked up his flip-flops and a pair of sandals and threw them in on top. He could hear Aesha complaining that her suitcase was too small to accommodate everything she needed, and his father replying that she wouldn’t require her ball gown and tiara where they were going.

Joe was incredibly excited. He had been on plenty of trips with his parents before, but this one promised to be particularly fascinating, and he would have plenty of opportunities to take photographs like his father. He loved travelling on boats and he had never snorkelled before, so that was something else to look forward to. There was also something very appealing about seahorses that made him eager to see them in their natural environment. He laid his brand new flippers and snorkel mask in the suitcase, hoping that this was going to be his best adventure yet.