Liam and Matthew had always been a little eccentric. From a young age, the two friends had been fascinated with the things that man had not yet discovered.
Was there a man out there who could change into a wolf by the light of the moon? Or some type of creature that could change its skin with just its thoughts?
The boys had grown up dreaming of solving some of the world’s greatest mysteries. They were now in their 20s and were finally living the adventure they always had dreamed about. They had gone to the different regions of the United States in search of Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and other amazing creatures. They lived out of Matthew’s van, which proudly sported a “I break for Bigfoot” bumper sticker. Their parents hoped that this adventurous streak was just a phase and that their two sons would return and start their lives.
Well their streak was not broken today. They were currently in Brazil a couple miles away from the beautiful beach.
“I have rented a small boat and we already have the scuba gear. The locals claim that it lives out in one of the barrier reef.” Liam said, holding up a beautiful drawing of a very strange creature. It had the face and torso of a man, but the body of an aquatic serpent.
Matthew continued driving down the dirt road.
“Do you think we will actually find proof of a mermaid?” He said.
“Man! How many times do I have to say that this is not a mermaid? We’re not looking for Ariel frolicking in the water! The locals say whatever this thing is, it has been alive for centuries. The Latin name for the creature roughly translates to water god.
Matthew laughed. “Okay, okay!” He said. “Do you think we will find proof of this ‘water God?’”
“Well if there’s proof, we will find it and record everything for research sick sake.” He said confidently.
Soon they made it to their location. They parked right by the sand of the beautiful beach got out of the van. An old man in fishermen gear was waiting by the shore by a small little fishing boat. The two young men walked up to him and Liam spoke in broken Spanish.
Liam handed the man the money he had promised and just like that, the old man patted him on the back and walked a couple hundred feet away where his own beat up truck was parked. He got in, waved goodbye good-naturedly, and left.
Liam looked back at Matthew. “Miguel says that we can have the boat for 12 hours, but I doubt we will be out there for more than four.”
Matthew nodded in agreement and the two young men began unpacking the scuba equipment from their van. They stripped out of their last layer of clothing, revealing the wetsuits they already had on.
They double checked that they had their waterproof camera and also made sure that the waterproof protective covering was on Matthew’s phone as it would be the one they would take with them. When they were sure they had everything, they pushed the tiny boat deeper into the water and got in.
The boat had a small, rusty motor and it took multiple tries to get it to turn on. Finally it came on with a roar and the two friends were off.
They followed the coordinates to the rough location of the reef. The scenery was beautiful and there wasn’t a person in sight. The sea water infiltrated the air causing a wonderful mist to go up their noses.
It took about an hour to get to their location. They slowed the boat down as they saw the rocks poking above the water in the distance. Smiling, they dropped the small anchor attached only with a single chain. They put on their scuba gear and with a quick “You ready?” they jumped out of the boat.
The reef was beautiful, with colorful coral and dazzling fish swimming about. The rocks were spread sporadically about causing certain areas to be shallow. They had parked their boats next to a drop off that led into the deeper waters of the ocean.
Matthew and Liam spent half an hour taking pictures and looking over the reef when Liam noticed something. On a little rock crevice, there seem to be something etched into stone. It looked to be some type of language. Was this the language of their mystery creature? The boy snapped pictures excitedly and studied the area more closely.
Suddenly Matthew started hitting Liam and pointing in the distance. The boys couldn’t believe their eyes. In the distance was a figure, approximately 10 feet long. They could not make out many details in the distance but they could see the profile of a long tail and what looked to be a human torso. Liam snapped his pictures in disbelief. They had actually did it, they had found proof of this creature. In the blink of an eye the silhouette was gone and the boys were left swimming there in amazement.
They look to each other, signaling to go up to the surface, and began to rise. As they broke the surface of the water, they began to laugh.
“We actually did it!” said Liam. “We have photographic proof of the creature!”
“Dude,” Matthew said. “We are going to make so much money. We just discovered a whole new life form!”
The boys were high in their excitement as they began to swim back to the boat waiting about hundred feet away. They both had thoughts of the mystery creature and what their futures held. Suddenly a thought crossed Matthew’s mind.
“You don’t think people will try to capture it will you do you?” He said, suddenly feeling guilty.
Liam paused before saying “That may happen, but think about how great this will be for the scientific community. I mean, this could change everything we know about our world. About evolution!”
Matthew nodded somewhat solemnly and tried to put the thought away from his mind. Giddiness overtook him again. It felt like they were dreaming, the gravity of this not fully falling on them yet. They were approaching the boat.
Suddenly Matthew felt a great pain in his leg as he was pulled down, the water around him turned red with his blood. He thrashed, unable to breathe, as that tight pain grew worse and worse. From far away, he could hear Liam calling his name.
As quickly as it came, the pressure on his leg evaporated and he began to float to the surface.
In that moment he was petrified. All he could think was that this creature had attacked them for being in its territory. Whatever it was, it had evolved in water and would probably be able to overtake them easily. He looked around wildly as Liam screamed and what he saw surprised and terrified him.
The mystery creature hadn’t attacked them at all. Circling them mere feet away was a tiger shark, easily nine feet long.
Matthew couldn’t move his leg and tried to verbalize that he wanted Liam to get back in the boat, but words would not come out. Even if they could come out, Liam saw Matthew as a brother and would never leave him in the water.
Both boys held onto each other, one shook in fear and the other in shock. They felt foolish not recognizing that perhaps the greatest of beasts are already well known to mankind.
They watched as a large fin came straight at them. Maybe one of them would survive to tell the tale.
Suddenly the shark was thrown backwards out of the water landing back in it about ten feet away. Matthew and Liam once again could only stare in shock.
Rising to the surface was a magnificent creature. While it clearly had a head and torso, that was as far as the resemblance to a human went. Silvery-gray scales covered its entire body. It sleek build sported great muscles. It had no nose, and its eyes were a deep pitch black.
The creature swam in front of the two boys and stared the shark down. The shark backed down immediately, and swam away.
The creature turned around and studied the two boys for a moment. Matthew and Liam were overwhelmed with awe and fear.
And just like that, it dived down and out of view. They floated there for a moment, before Matthew began to feel faint. As if sensing his friends growing weakness, Liam linked an arm around him and led him to the boat.
With great effort, both boys were able to get in. The anchor was raised and Liam got the motor running as he grabbed the cell phone and called for help.
The paramedics met them at the beach where they had left. Matthew couldn’t stop shaking but no longer felt any pain. He was going into shock.
Liam only said the Spanish word for shark as his friend was thrown into ambulance and rushed away.
The next morning found Liam sitting next to his friend in the hospital. The doctors had worked hard and saved Matthew’s leg. Because they had such a hard time speaking Spanish, the hospital brought a translator that could speak English.
“You say it was a shark? Do you know the kind?”
“Tiger, I believe. Yeah I’m pretty sure.” Liam said.
“It was likely an accident. If it had truly been hunting you it would’ve come until you were dead.”
“It did come back!”Matthew said, a little drugged out. “It was coming back towards us until HE saved us.”
“Who saved you?”The official asked.
“The water god.” Liam said somewhat dumbly. “We ran into it and it saved us from the shark.”
The man obviously did not believe the boys. “Oh really, you have any proof?”
Liam and Matthew looked at each other for a moment, deciding something silently. Liam took out his camera, rewound it, and pressed one button.
Delete.
“Nope.” They both said.