"Kai! Kai, where are you?" Moana called. Where was that boy? She adjusted her headdress and headed back up the slope to the Big House. She'd been searching for her wild child son since the sun was high in the sky over Motonui. He had chores and lessons to learn. Where was that boy?

"Chief Moana!" Alani called, gesturing her over as she finished weaving another basket. Moana smiled in spite of her frustration.

"Maita'i oe?" She asked, holding her hands out to her best friend.

"Maita'i vau. Why do you frown?" Alani asked. Moana sighed.

"My son. He's gone AGAIN. I don't know what's gotten into him." Alani smiled and adjusted Moana's headdress, which always seemed to be slipping down over her right brow. A hazard of being such a busy chief.

"That child is just like you."

"He's just like his father!" Moana stamped her foot. Then her expression loosened. She turned to look out over the lagoon. The sun was reflecting off the reef, which normally would have made her heart sing. But recently...

"I miss him."

"I know, sister. Aloha wau iā ʻoe. He will return. And you and the boy will be better for it."

"You are wise, sister. Aloha oe i."

"Go find that boy, send him to his auntie and I will pinch his ear."

Moana walked back up to the Big House and took a peek inside. No one but Hueihuei pecking at the floor mats. Where was her son? She looked around.

There. On the edge of the water, down by the fishing boats. She recognized his unruly hair. What was he doing there?


"And one day, I'm going to lead us voyagers across the sea. We'll conquer every single island there is." Kai said, puffing his skinny chest out. The children gathered at his feet ooo'ed at him.

"Will you be as great as Chief Moana?" One of the babies asked, flapping her hands at him.

"I'll be even greater than Chief Moana. Because I won't be afraid to go anywhere. And when I-"

"-Learn how to respect your elders, that will be the day we all die of shock." The Chief said, appearing behind him. Kai shrieked and dropped the oar he'd been using to gesticulate during his story.

"Children, Auntie Nahele is waiting to teach you dance. Please go to her." Moana said sternly. The children gasped and made a break for the village. Kai tried to saunter away, but Moana caught her son by the ear.

"Mom, mom, please... I was just telling stories-"

"Again, Kai? We've talked about this! No one goes beyond the reef anymore. Those are just stories!"

"But WHY. Why won't anyone tell me why we stay on our island anymore? I thought we were descended from voyagers..." Kai pouted, his black curls falling over his big brown eyes.

"Kai, I will not have this discussion again. You will be Chief when I am gone. You will understand then why I did what I did."

"But mom..."

Moana fixed her son dead in the eyes.

"We. Do not. Go beyond. The reef." She said in a dangerous tone. "You will learn why when you are older."

She turned her back on Kai and began walking up the trail to the village.

"My kupunakāne wasn't afraid to go beyond the reef. Neither was my father."

"Your father-!" Moana turned on her son, tears building in her eyes. She trailed off, staring out to sea. It was no use.

"Mama, I'm sorry." Kai said, shoulders sinking. Bringing up his father was his last resort in fights, it always ended them. But it made his mother sad.

"I'm tired, kai hawewe. Take me to the village." His Mother said, suddenly looking older than her years.

"Yes, Mama." Kai said, wrapping an arm around her waist. He helped his mother limp to their hut. The limp always got worse when she was tired. She had been in some sort of boating accident many years ago, long before they returned to the island of Motonui for good. She didn't speak of it.

Kai left his mother in her hut with Pua standing guard outside. He felt sick inside.

"Kai hawewe, what troubles you?" His auntie Alani said from her mat at the basket weaving area.

"Aloha ʻauinalā, Auntie." Kai plopped down on a mat beside her and began handing her coconut leaves as she deftly wove her baskets.

"I just saw your mother with that same expression on her face, little one. I said I'd cuff your ear, but it looks like she beat me to it."

"I don't like fighting with her, Auntie. She gets so sad."

"Why do you fight with your Mother, hawewe?" Alani asked.

"I want to do great things, like the chieftains of old. They weren't afraid of anything."

Alani finished a basket and added it to her pile. Then she flexed her fingers, which were already worn and sore from hard work.

"What makes you think that your mother isn't a great chieftain?" Alani asked, looking sideways at her adopted nephew.

"She won't teach the raft of wayfinding to anyone, she learned and kept it for herself. She never did anything amazing in her life."

"Help me up, nephew. I have something to show you." Alani said, shifting her heavy braid over her shoulder and holding out her hand. Kai scrambled to help.

They walked down to the water's edge, arm in arm. Alani was silent, just watching the waves. Kai kicked at pebbles, overflowing with questions.

"You've heard all the old stories from your kupunawahine."

"Yes, Auntie. We've heard those a hundred times. My Grandma tells them to anyone who will listen."

"That is the way of our people. We tell the stories of our ancestors so we don't forget who we are."

Kai scuffed at the sand and blew a few bits of hair out of his face. He didn't see where any of this was going.

"You have heard the story of Aukai, the great chief way-finder in the olden days." Alani continued. "He was the one who-"

"Found the way from the mother island of Te Fiti to here, yes I know- OW!"

"Respect your elders, or I won't tell you this at all." Alani said, holding tight to her nephew's ear.

"I will listen." Kai said, taking deep breaths - to calm the storm inside him, as his mother would say.

"Good. Now you've heard the old stories, but have you heard any of the stories of your mother's voyage across the sea?"

"No... She didn't cross the sea, did she?"

"She did. Many times. With your kupunakāne and kupunawahine at her side, too."

Kai let his Auntie's arm go, wandering down to the water and staring out at the waves breaking on the reef.

"I don't understand, if she did it so many times, why would she stop? Why wouldn't we be allowed to know?" He asked. The ocean lapped at his toes.

"Because bad things happened in the midst of so much bravery. Your mother loves you more than anything and wants you to be safe, hawewe."

"I know. But I don't understand." He kicked at the water and walked back up the beach.

"You will soon. You have so much of your father in you."

"I know that too. I just wish I knew who he was. Who I am." He wiped his nose.

"Soon, little wave. Soon. Now help me to your mother's side." She offered her arm and he took it.

As Kai helped his auntie up the slope to the village, he looked back down on the lagoon. The sun was reflecting perfectly on the ocean, just the way that made his heart sing. He burned to know what was out there.