Far out off the coast of eastern Australia, there was a phenomenon that had been known for some time by the ancient people of the Pacific. It had been a way they had selected their warriors. But as time went on and wars destroyed history, it was forgotten.
“Would you give me my mask?” Josh yelled.
Matt grinned. He playfully pulled the mask out from behind his back and tossed it back to Josh.
“Would you two stop fooling around? We’re the first people to see this reef!” Liam called from the side of the boat.
“Hey, it may be new to us, but we can still have a little fun!” Matt smiled.
Recently, they had discovered a previously unknown reef a few miles off the coast of Northeastern Australia. They of course hadn’t told anyone.
“How’d you manage get this rust bucket all the way out here?” Sam called from by Liam.
“Oh hush.” Chris grinned. “It was cheap!”
Chris, Liam, Sam, Matt, and Josh were all friends in their early twenties who shared a passion for freediving. They had been around Australia and back, and loved exploring unexplored places.
The blonde and fit Josh had been an avid lover of water from a young age, and had met Matt, a bit more of the jokester type, in middle school. Matt had dark hair and a kind face, but would pull a prank on you at the soonest opportunity. The tall and crazy smart Liam was a bit more serious than the rest, but still willing to have some fun. He was all about conservation, and had been the one to find the reef. Sam, the charming jock all the girls fell for had met the others on their travels and had stayed with them ever since.
The brown haired and buff Chris has bought a boat some years back from a retired fisher. It has been in terrible shape, but he had fixed it up soon enough. It had become their ‘headquarters’ so to speak, but they still poked fun at it every once in a while.
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Josh called, punching Matt in the shoulder.
“Someone has to stay and watch the boat. What if we came up and it had drifted away?” Chris called back.
“Fine, I guess your right,” Sam sighed. “We’ll tell you if we see anything.”
Chris watched as the rest of the group, already in the wetsuits, jumped over the side and into the cool water. Ever since they had started freediving, they had learned to hold their breath better. As a result, they could usually stay down for two or three minutes.
As Josh followed the others down, they looked around. The reef was indeed beautiful! There were some types of coral they hadn’t seen before, and that was a rarity.
Liam roller his eyes as Matt smiled and pointed to a particularity luminescent piece of coral.
“Don’t touch it.” he mouthed and wagged his finger.
At that, Matt grinned and poked the coral. As Liam was about to roll his eyes again, a shockwave of some sort shot out from the coral, spreading in all directions. All four in the group were blown back slightly by the wave.