Author's note: After some considering and a lot of research, I've decided to do a sequel of La Matafaga and I really hope to be up your expectations. I really want to thank you guys for all the support and reviews. I'm using the wonderful game "Ori and the Blind Forest" as one of my inspirations for this take where we will meet many strange and daunting characters. Enjoy!

1. Tuulafoaʻia

Many centuries ago, when mortals still crossed the oceans, my children took good care of them. We always watched them from a certain distance, knowing that one day they are here and the next one, they are gone. They are strange creatures. So complex and full of wonder that I often find myself wondering how such tiny creatures could evolve from the mud of the islands. They are so different and yet so similar, capable of doing incredible things for the ones they love and yet that same energy is poured into horrible feats. My children brought me wonderful stories of them but I never came across any them or fully understood what was behind their actions. At least, not until the Ocean brought me something that changed the world forever.

It was after a very stormy night. The silence of the first sunrays was broken by an unfamiliar sound. It was a sound like one never heard before in this part of the ocean. It was from a human offspring! Had I known how deeply I was to be involved, I would've obeyed my first impulse and walked away. I found him floating among my waves, as a small bundle of seaweeds and flesh. I picked it up carefully. It was hardly breathing and it was shaking like mad because of the cold. It was going to die soon from hypothermia and probably of hunger. His brown skin was getting paler by the second as it curled into a ball, in a vain attempt to keep himself warm. Despite his appearance that was more like an animal than a man, bigger in size too, I felt moved by the poor creature. He had been abandoned to die in my waters at a very young age. He had a life ahead of him, I could tell, but without a family, he would perish. My deep instinct was to find its mother. I send waves to all the islands to find her and I was able to track her down to a marvelous fale. She was Queen Taranga, mother to four sons, and she didn't seem sad for her lost child. My rage could have made the ocean swallow that village whole but I decided that I had better things to do. I breathed life into the small boy and decided to raise him as my own, far from those mortals who had left him to die. My children welcomed the baby with joy and he was named Maui.

The moment his lips touched the sacred milk of Papa, he became immortal, a half god and a giant among men. I was proud of my child and I taught him all I knew so that he could achieve happiness but it was soon clear that Maui knew he was not like my other children or me. He was different and I loved him because of that but Maui wanted to know more. He had heard about mortals and longed to meet them but when he heard the truth about his mother, I saw that scar in his soul bleeding. The tattoo that appeared between his shoulders only served as a reminder of that open wound. The thought of mother abandoning her child to die became a burden to my son and I knew that he wanted to know why Taranga had thrown him into the sea. I couldn't tell him. I couldn't hurt him like that so I just told him that humans were strange and that not even I knew why. Maui became determined to find it out and over the course of the centuries; he became a strong and crafty deity. I gave him his magic fishhook, made out of the jawbone of one of his ancestors so that he would put his strength and magic to good use. And Maui did. He used his sharp mind to trick and defeat foes that made mortals tremble and much to my surprise, he dedicated his talents to help them. My child was going back to those who dumped him. He even went to find his mother and brothers but was rejected.

At first, I couldn't understand why Maui dedicated so much energy in helping those who envy and feared him. He was a stranger to mortals and yet, he did everything in his power to help them in life. Even when he thought he had settled down with my gorgeous daughter, Hina, he kept on going to the humans, like drawn to them. I knew my child was a grown-up man but I sensed that his heart was still the one of a young boy, an abandoned boy. When she disappeared, something changed inside my son. He became vain and selfish but I knew that deep inside he was hurting.

It broke my heart when he even tried to steal the Heart of Te Fiti to prevent mortals from dying but after he helped that young woman, Moana, to put it back, I realized that perhaps I had misjudged my son. I needed proof that he was still the child I once knew.

If Maui was still in love with Hina and was moved so deeply to help humans, I needed to know why. It was my only way to understand why mortals had been able to create things like art or love. Only then, I could have my child back.

I wrote this while listening to the OST of Ori and the Blind Forest.

I read again the myth of how did the gods found Maui and added the little recap of the movie.

If there are any OCs in this story many of them are from the Samoan myths so go gentle on me, guys.

More soon! Leave a review, please!