Sorry I haven't been updating like I promised! I've had a sequence of cascading life crises, a bunch of long hours at work, and this past month has been just generally insanely busy. I should be working on Butakoci Siwa again shortly, though, as soon as I finish a prompt fic for the Moana Holiday Exchange.
In the interim, here's a little tiny short I scratched down while making tea.
"What are you doing?"
"Digging."
Well, that seemed obvious. Tamatoa was crouched over the sand just past the fringes of the beach, under the shade of the palm trees. He barely looked up at Maui's question, answering with an air of nonchalance. Instead the crab stared intently down at the soft earth, claws poised at the ready and his antennae held low, flicking slowly as if searching for a scent.
Then, without warning, he darted forward and drove his claws into the sand. The crab shoveled dirt behind him with reckless abandon and Maui had to jump out of the way to avoid the spray of sand being carelessly flung around. There was a gleeful and mildly disturbing gleam in Tamatoa's eye as he dug deeper into the sand. After a moment, his head disappeared into the widening hole leaving visible only the borrowed spiral shell that Tamatoa wore. Curious, Maui stepped closer and peered over the curve of that shell, trying to make out what was going on without much success.
Just as quickly as he'd started the crab popped back out of the hole, a triumphant grin splashed across his face. There was something squirming in his claw, struggling futilely against Tamatoa's unyielding grip. It was a little hermit crab, which looked very much like a tiny version of Tamatoa himself if not for the smaller crab's distinctly less expressive face.
Maui had barely gotten a glimpse of it, however, before-and to Maui's shocked surprise-Tamatoa tossed the little crustacean into his mouth, shell and all. There was a sharp crunch that made Maui wince, then Tamatoa looked up at him, eyes dancing with an impish light.
Maui stared at him, a nagging feeling of unease somewhere at the back of his mind. "Uh," he started awkwardly, "don't you feel some sort of kinship with those little crabs or something?"
Tamatoa tilted his head. "Do you feel a kinship with the pigs you eat?" He said it innocently enough, but his puckish grin couldn't hide the teasing jibe behind those words.
Maui snorted, but he couldn't help but laugh at the clever little crab's joke-even if it was at his expense. Tamatoa turned back to the sand, antennae hunting for another hermit crab to dig up. Maui just shrugged and sat back down in the shade of the palms. He soon forgot all about that light touch of unease sparked by the crab's excessive enthusiasm for his grisly task, the thought casually pushed aside. No reason to worry about all that today. After all, Tamatoa was so small. What danger could he really pose?