Daimones - Book 1 of the Daimones Trilogy. Booktrope Publishing Edition

Appendix

Unexplained death of scores of animals continue to today. Following are verbatim excerpts from cited newspaper and appeared at the indicated dates. Had Dan Amenta written down these events in his Daimones journal, they would have appeared like this:

March 2011: Approx. 1,200 penguins were found dead on a remote beach in southern Chile. Time

April 2011: Millions of sardines washed ashore nearby. In addition, thousands of the rare Andean flamingo abandoned their nests in the north of Chile, leaving their 2,000 chicks to die in their shells. Even worse, no one could say concretely why these animals had died. Time

April 2011: According to Francisco Nique, president of the Association of Fishermen of Puerto Eten, in the span of 10 or 12 days, 1,200 dead pelicans along 160 kilometers have been found between Punta Negra, in Piura, and San Jose creek in Lambayeque. Perú 21 press

October 2011: Thousands of dead waterfowl wash ashore at Wasaga Beach, Canada. The Star

January 2012: Dead herring mystery for Norway; locals left scratching their heads after twenty tons of the dead creatures are found on beaches in Nordreisa. The Guardian

May 2012: 60,000-100,000 dead fish found in three creeks in Maryland, USA. The Baltimore Sun

May 2012: Thousands of Mozambique Tilapia found dead since last week; experts blame pollutants in the river. Ironically, Mozambique Tilapia is considered one of the most resilient species of fish, known to withstand unfriendly environmental conditions. Pune Mirror

May 2012: At least 2,300 dead birds were found along beaches between Cartagena and Playa de Santo Domingo, Chile. CNN International

May 2012: The Peruvian government reported 5,000 birds, mostly pelicans, and nearly 900 dolphins have died off the country's northern coast, possibly due to rising temperatures in Pacific waters. Scientists scrambled to pin down what caused such a massive toll. AFP

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In those times, local TV channels sometimes reported the facts though as a strange and abrupt twist of the normal course of natural events: interesting—for a second—but nothing to see, move on.

Whoever tried to talk seriously about the animal deaths—trying to discover a pattern—was treated as an eccentric, a delusional simpleton seeing conspiracy around every corner. People reacted to the deaths by raising shoulders, regarding the unexplained quirk about the natural world as worth no more. Some even accused naturalists of trying to profit from the quirkiness to grab more funds for their research and projects.

Regardless, thousands of dead birds and tons of fishes had been found floating ashore, belly up, without any apparent reason. "The sky's not falling," people said. Indeed, it wasn't the sky that was falling, only previously live and healthy winged animals. Yet, too many fell.

We had enough reasons to wonder what killed them, clear signs that something was seriously wrong. Initial investigations showed evidence of unnatural events, damage in the breast tissue, blood clots in the body cavities, and much internal bleeding. All major organs though were normal.

In some cases, acute physical trauma led to hemorrhage and death with no sign of any chronic or infectious diseases. Thousands of animals of the same species suffering a traumatic end all together—all of a sudden—around the world with no apparent cause or link. Concerted investigations should have started, but nobody pushed for them.

People had more important issues to deal with; the world faced a period of great uncertainty and huge changes affecting everyone at every level. We kept living our own lives until the last day.