My name is Jonathan and I can only pray that my discovery will not lead to any disasters. All I can say is there is an ancient atoll in the Pacific home to a dangerous tribe and I lived with them for six months and even began learning their language. Of course I will explain my situation starting from the beginning point.
I am an anthropologist and was studying key human evolutionary traits of a tribe that I am sure you have heard of who are known for their long dives due to their enlarged spleens. I began hearing legends on my travels of a similar tribe around a set of sunken islands and I could not pass on the opportunity. I went as soon as possible with a crew of ten men.
We searched for quite some time and I continued my research, then Dr. Hans pointed out an atoll nearby and we began to explore. It honestly seemed like a dead end, but we stayed in that location for a bit to eat our dinner and relax. As we prepared to head out, the waters suddenly became choppy and rough. Large waves formed before we could prepare and in less than a blink of an eye, the ship was turned over.
We spent hours in the cold ocean trying to stay afloat. Slowly I began to see my crew drop down and I never would speak to them again. One by one they would lose their lives until I was the last one and I could feel my senses failing me as I began to slip away. The water was no longer cold to me as I fell into the depths. My eyes closed and I felt a calming peace and then darkness and nothingness.
I woke up surprisingly on some table. I looked around and I was in a barely lit room alone. The air was stiff and had a strange odor. Not a soul was near me for an hour or so. Then a door opened and a large grey man walked in. He was dark grey except his chest and stomach it was a lighter color. He easily over eight feet tall, and had body fat evenly spread through his body, it was a thicker layer of fat, but not in the flabby way we’d see in most people. He spoke to me, but I couldn’t understand a word. It reminded me of some kind of pigeon talk, but the sounds were longer and seemed to focus on frequency.
My first month there I began to pick up on some words to describe food, which was mostly seafood and some weird plant life that feeds off of the geothermal vents nearby. I learned the name of the tribe, the Anjai. They have ceremonies where they dance around a fire with stone masks on, I’d later learn this is their retelling of their creation. I also spoke discovered we are close to the atoll and near another island where some fruits are gathered and minerals mined. The people even seemed to have some thin tail and webbed toes. They could swim for hours before needing air and they were incredibly fast. I examined their teeth and they were mostly thin and sharp, but still have what looks like some kind of molars.
By month two I was able to ask how directions and how they were. And learned some stories they had including their creation myth. They claim that before man there were three gods of the seas and four on the land. The three in the sea had conflict. The first god created fish to display dominance, the second god brought the wolves of land to the sea, and the third god pleaded to his brother on the land and brought his newest creation to the seas as his own. This creation was soon what became the Anjai tribe. They spent generations building their underwater village in an air pocket in an underwater cave. They have seen people from time to time and called them cousin, or at least that’s the only I could interpret it as.
Month three, I could somewhat communicate with the tribe, though far from fluently. I was getting used to the raw fish and odd plants and unfortunately I had to find a way to get fresh water from the salty seas and the cave luckily provided a way to access fresh water. I did learn of a war that was once fought long ago between the land tribe and the Anjai tribe. The people were fierce warriors who traversed the seas onto another island and hunted their food. This led to conflict and eventually a war that led to many deaths. The people would settle on an island west of their village and it seemed their war ceased. I can only imagine who they fought, but they decided to stay in their cave and seas to never see such a cruel people again. This did lead to an unfortunate sect of their culture of what is best called the man-eaters. This sect was banned centuries ago since they practically invited more men to cause conflict. The Anjai wanted peace and isolation, so to join this cult would be to sign your death warrant. This would explain a couple of the people I have seen that have given me some rather strange looks.
Month four, I got to examine a corpse of one of the Anjai people. He died of natural causes and the chief of the tribe knew roughly what my job is and granted me access to learn more about their people. The spleen was massive, their fat layer was thick, their hearts were just magnificent. Their nasal passages were different from ours as well, but still pretty human. The nose was flat and wide, so stretched it was like two nostrils on the side of their faces, but the bridge was faintly human except there was some extra tissue that seemed to help with their diving. Their ears were all but vestigial, their necks was non-existent, just shoulders and muscles leading from the torso and shoulder to the head. The muscles here still seemed to allow for some kind of movement, though limited. I was amazed at this specimen. It was like looking at a transition fossil of the ancestors of the modern whales. Month five, there are rumors going around and it doesn’t seem good. The man-eaters cult has been growing and the chief is getting worried. It seems that every one they kill, three more seem to take their place. In a matter of weeks, they became the dominant force and began to surround the chief. His guards fought them as much as they could, but it was just a massacre. I fled as they made the chief’s body unrecognizable. At this point I realized they didn’t just eat men, but their own kind. It was just a bloodbath and anyone I could call a friend was gone. I had to flee. My problem was I could never make it to the surface, let alone find land.
Month six, I have been trying to find a way to escape and been practicing my breathing while designing a raft. After weeks, I finally did it. I held my breath and took my raft to the sea and then quickly made my way to the surface. The speed and pressure change was absolute torture, but I was alive and floating down the sea. Seven days passed and a fishing ship passed by me and the men rescued me. It was some fishing company from a small town on a Japanese island. I was hospitalized and my university made sure to help in every way to get me back on my feet and explain what happened.
I wrote down my findings and my experiences, but they are shrugging it off and suggesting that I was in a delusional state when I was found and I may not have any reliable memories of the missing months. I still have the beaded necklace that the chief gifted me made from shells, but this wouldn’t be enough to convince anyone besides me. I hold it fondly remembering the pleasant memories, but I am always reminded of what lurks there now and the Anjai tribe are far from what it was and has become a warring tribe. I pray that nobody is unfortunate enough to cross their path and that they have no means to bring war to anyone. Just please be careful in the Pacific.