After reading and getting inspired by a few of fanfics following the Hooked Wayfinders trend (such as Our Future Together by CartoonJessie and The Chief's Wife by BadOctopus, and I wholeheartedly recommend you read their fics first before reading this one! Seriously, their stories are amazing!) with a few of the Maori legends. The character of Hinatea (who's name means Fair moon in Maori) came to mind; so after Hinatea's conception, the next step came creating her own storyline that wasn't a repeat of the whole plot for Moana, which would be hard to do given Hinatea's age. Fortunately, while I was doing research for the story, did the main theme came to mind, and those themes were family and fatherhood.
Anyway, that's enough rambling/explaining the basis of the story from me.
I tried to keep the setting and culture as accurate as possible, so please if you spot any misinterpretations or if the characters are OOC in any way please let me know so I can fix it!
This chapter and any future chapters are currently unbetated, and I tried my best to use the correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but if you spot a few errors, or if any of the characters appear OOC please forgive me. Once again I tried the best I can.

And I do apologize in advance if this story is offensive to anyone of actual Polynesian descent out there. I tried my best to keep the cultural aspect to it as accurately as I could.

I hope you enjoy my very first Moana fic on this website!

Please check their works on Ao3 (archiveofourown)

Prologue: The Moon

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Big, heavy footsteps pressed against the sand as a large, broad figure wielding a giant fishhook, walked toward the shore, where the fishing boats sat slightly tilted on the sand. The Wayfinders of Motunui were returning tomorrow and being the great Demiguy he was, he was going to surprise them with the greatest haul of fish all of the islands will ever see...if he could get The Ocean to help him in his endeavor.

Maui, dawning a new dark green lavalava, stood tall, valiant and strong; depictions of his favorite transformations were sewn together over several traditional plant patterns. He turned to the tattoo on the left side of his chest; depicting the moment he lifted the sky, and said after taking a whiff of the fresh ocean air, "Okay! So what'll it be, Giant Hawk?" Mini-Maui immediately turned that idea down with a quick shake of his head. "Shark?" Mini-Maui slowly pinched his index finger and thumb together, indicating his host was close.

The amused expression on Maui's face quickly changed to confusion when his tattoo counterpart lifted his own giant fishhook and quickly shapeshifted the top half of his body to a shark.

His face immediately fell flat, "No. It was bad enough seven years ago, and it's gonna be even more ridiculous now." Maui then poked Mini-Maui and said, "Can we get real here, please." Mini-Maui shrugged before finally shapeshifted into a hawk.

"Hawk it is," Maui replied with a dimpled smile, finally pleased just to be able to shapeshift into something not stupid. He had his giant hook up raised up in the air, ready to thrust it down just as he was about to let out his famous cry, when suddenly without any warning the familiar twinkling sound the living mini-tattoo echoed as he suddenly started jumping frantically and furiously started pointing behind his tall, larger than life host.

"Hm?" His Demigod host looked down at his bicep and saw his mini-tattoo counterpart frantically waving in a feeble attempt to get his host to look behind him.

Maui looked down at his raving tattoo with a straight face as he said, "I can't understand you when you start screaming." With a stomp and narrowed eyes, Mini-Maui stopped, started tapping his foot and pointed behind him. Curious, Maui turned, looked behind him toward the village path behind the beach and saw… nothing.

Suddenly a childlike giggle resonated from his left, only to stop when he turned and looked and then the same squeaky sounds of laughter came again to his right. A sneaky grin slowly crept up to his lips as he wholeheartedly made the decision to partake in a certain future––Maui pause with one eyebrow raised and his brown irises looking above him as he stood there in thought. What would be a fitting name for this sneaky little girl? Demi-demigoddess? Quarter goddess?

The giggles appeared again and Mini-Maui quickly dashed from Maui's bicep to his shoulder and down his back to give the little sneaky three-year-old dark curly haired girl a silent scolding but before he could even begin to waddle his inky finger, Maui turned and easily scooped up the girl in the lightly coloured, red leaf patterned lavalava with one hand.

Fits of squeals and giggles came soon after as Maui declared rather proudly holding the girl high up in the air, shouting for the whole island to hear. "Behold Hinatea, The Greatest future Demi…uh... Quarter Goddess in all of Motunui!" Little Hina let out an adorable dimpled smile as she clapped her hands before Maui started bouncing her on the palm of his large hand.

"Higher!" Hina squealed.

Maui lowered his arm down to look her in the eye as he asked.
"What's the magic word?"
She replied. "Please..." He chuckled,
"Anything you say, Your Highness!" Maui then proceeded to lift his arm straight up and continuing bouncing her while adding a just a pinch more of his phenomenal strength in each toss, so she would go higher and higher and stopped when Hina slowly stood up on his hand to look straight up, keeping a fixated gaze on the moon. There was a certain faint cry she could hear echoing inside her as she continued gazing upon it, and this cry had been one she'd been hearing for as long as she could remember. Hina slowly took a step forward toward the edge of her father's hand.

Panicked, Maui quickly put her down before she could fall, and watched as she slowly walked toward the beach.

Hinatea or Hina as she was referred, slowly toddled on the sand heading toward the ocean with her tiny hand reaching out toward the moon's reflection in the water. Maui stood there watching in pride with an opened mouth lopsided grin on his face, ignoring Mini-Maui's insistence on taking her back to Tui and Sina's fale before they would be scared half to death at their granddaughter's sudden late-night disappearance!

Maui poked him and said,
"Hey! I haven't seen my awesome daughter for three weeks, what's five minutes gonna hurt?" Mini-Maui threw his hands up in the air and crossed his arms before he turned letting his back face forward as the twinkling sounds of his huff echoed. Maui rolled his eyes while letting out an annoyed groan before he turned his attention back to his little girl on the beach.

There was no way he was going to miss this.

Realizing he was being ignored, Mini-Maui continued on with his small tirade, unaware that Maui's fingers were slowly nearing him till he was flicked off the tattoo mountain only to land head first on boulder tattoos located on Maui's back, and immediately went unconscious.

Maui's shoulders shook softly as he let out a light satisfied chuckle before he turned his hook upside down and leaned against its handle, while Hinatea continued on approaching the waves as it hit the sand.

Right on cue, The Ocean slowly lifted itself up into a swell and curved down at the girl. Hinatea stared up at it for a moment before she moved back a few steps and leaned over to her left, desperately trying to look up at the moon behind The Ocean.

Maui frowned in confusion and worry by his daughter's gripping fascination with the moon. Suddenly he let his fishhook fall sideways in the sand and quickly ran over to grab her, as she was a second away from walking directly inside The Ocean. Potential future Demigoddess or not, she was still technically human, and if there was one thing Maui knew, it was that humans—babies especially—would drown.

He picked her up and said as he lifted her to his shoulder, "Okay Shark-bait it's way past your bedtime!"

Hinatea stretched out her arms as she tried to dig herself out of her father's gigantic arms.

"What? Papa, I wants to go back!" Mini-Maui, now conscious, raced up to Maui's right shoulder blade, stood directly where Hinatea could see him and started wagging a stern finger at her.

IIIIIIII

The Ocean watched as Maui took his daughter back into the village, making sure that the two made it to the village safely; and once Maui's form disappeared up the slope that separated the beach from the mainland, The Ocean slowly twirled back and moved the tip of its head toward the glowing moon.

IIIIIIII

Maui felt unsettled on the inside as he turned to glance at his daughter, who, from the moment since she could talk, told him the strangest notions about the moon; some of which he'd already knew, and the rest... well they were puzzling even for him.

Soon the orange glow of two lit wooden torches were moving quickly in front of them.

He sighed, turned to his daughter and said, "Look, as much as I love rescuing drowning babies from sharks and sea monsters, I'm not risking your life just so I can be the world's greatest hero again." The more he thought about it, the more he kinda missed that sense of bravado and the huge emotional boost it gave his ego. But what did that compared to them battling monsters and performing good deeds together as a Demigod and Demigoddess father and daughter duo? Nothing.

He waited a thousand years to be a hero again, so what's the difference another fifteen to eighteen years gonna make?

"Besides!" He said while putting her down, before he knelt to her height as a slightly aged Sina and Tui came over with relief written on their faces, "Mommy's coming back tomorrow and we'll meet up with her at the beach."

Sina thrust the bottom of her wooden torch in the earth and lifted Hinatea up, sighing in relief, before she greeted her young granddaughter with a hongi.

Tui, whose dark hair had started to turn gray with age, walked over toward his wife and granddaughter, and also greeted Hinatea with a hongi before he turned to Maui and asked, "Why aren't you with Moana?"

Maui let out a confident laugh and said, "Relax, she's got everything taken care of."
Tui crossed his arms and eyed his son-in-law with a stern gaze,
"That's beside the point, Maui. You've lived amongst our people for four years, and I'd thought you'd learned our ways by now."

Maui replied with a boisterous tone his voice, "And I have!" Sina coughed purposely, keeping her eyes trained on him before she nudged her head toward Tui. It took him about a second to realize his offense. Maui slapped himself on the forehead for forgetting, "Oh! Right, right, right." Before he cleared his throat and walked over to Tui, and greeted both of his in-laws with a hongi, which Tui and Sina gladly returned. With that out of the way, Maui gave him a sincere apology and explanation for his sudden return,

"Sorry 'bout that, I meant no disrespect! And as to why I'm here… well, I actually wanted to surprise the wayfinders with some fish, but then I felt bad about not seeing my kid for a few weeks, so I thought there's no harm in coming by to check on things…" He then let out a nervous chuckle as he added, "…and I might've woken her up by accident. Definitely an accident!" Tui shook his head in response to Maui's explanation. Sina walked over toward her husband, still carrying Hinatea in her arm, and placed her hand on Tui's shoulder before she turned to him with a nod and smile. Tui let out a soft sigh before he smiled as well.

He turned to Maui, putting on a stern face and said, "Since you were the one who woke her up, you're the one who's going to put her to bed."

Maui scoffed as he cracked his knuckles, "Don't worry, I'll get her to sleep in no time." Tui raised an eyebrow before he turned to his wife with a skeptical look on his face.
Sina paid him no heed and graciously walked over to hand little Hina over to him. She put her hand on her son-in-law's forearm, patting it lightly as she said in a nurturing voice, "Goodnight Maui."

Maui smiled warmly at her and said, "G'night Sina, and you too Tui." Sina returned his smile with a sweet motherly grin of her own, she then leaned over, kissed her granddaughter good night and gave Maui another hongi to bid him good night, before she and Tui headed back to their fale.

IIIIIIII

Finally, alone, Maui carried Hina on the palm of his hand, all the way to the fale tele and walked through the malae, climbed up the stone steps to the big house and entered through the front section.
She protested, "We're not 'pose to be here 'lone, Grampa say so."
Maui quickly shushed her before and said in harsh whispers, "Hey, hey, you're not alone okay? You're with the one and only Maui, and this's our secret, no tattling."

Hina let out an uncomfortable whimper as she looked up at the high circular dark ceiling, and the support poles, just as Maui was putting his hand down so she could get off it. Hina reluctantly got off her father's hand and looked back up at the dark high ceiling with her scared little eyes.

Then she felt her father's large finger underneath her hand. She looked up and saw his gentle eyes and reassuring face smiling back at her as he told her,
"Don't worry, I'm here." Hina slowly curled her fingers against his large index finger–though they barely made it to the edge of his finger–and followed his lead as he brought her toward the back of the fale tele.

He carefully sat down, cross-legged and put his fingers together and cracked his knuckles as Hina was settling herself on his lap. "Alright my favorite little troublemaker, what story do you want your all powerful, amazing demigod dad to tell?"

Without even giving her mind a second to think, she shouted, "Moon!"

Maui raised an eyebrow and said in a joking manner, "Well look who's getting obsessive?"
Hina persisted, "I wanna hear a story of the moon!" Maui let out a toothy chuckle, revealing the small visible gap between his top front teeth, raised his hands and gently waved them up and down so she would settle down,
"You sure?" He asked as he raised his hands and said, "You sure you're brave enough to hear the terrifying tale…" He paused for the suspense before he yelled out, "Of Rona and the Moon!" while raining down his tickling fingers on her neck, stomach, sides and little feet.

Taking pleasure of hearing his daughter's high pitch shrieks of laughter for a minute before he slowly pulled his hands away. Hina's laughter continued for a few more minutes before they slowly subsided with short breaths and several coughs that her father tried to soothe with gentle pats to her back. Finally, they came to complete stop, and Maui couldn't help but ask just for the heck of it,

"Are you really sure you wanna hear that scary story?" And because he'd already told her all the stories he knew about the moon... except for this one.

Hina got on her knees and half lifted herself on his lap, her hands pressed against his lavalava and begged,
"PLEEEAAASEEE!"
Maui raised an eyebrow and replied with a cheeky tone in his voice, "Nah. That's a story no child should hear."
His daughter, unable tell if he was being serious or not, immediately became slightly despondent at his response. Maui stared at her with calm eyes and a lopsided smile before he shrugged and said,
"Well, I can't say 'no' to that face." Maui shook his head and chuckled again before he looked and saw her confused face, a gentle smile came to his lips as he said, "All right, Princess. It's story time." Hina let out a surprised gasp and looked up at him in confusion. But he kept that gentle sincere smile on his face, and she quickly figured out that he was really going to tell the story. She let out several happy giggles before she got down; scooted over and sat so close to the upper part of her father's lap, her right arm touched his stomach.

Maui put his arm on her back, so it acted as a support for her back and to catch her when she fell asleep in the middle of the story.

He began telling the tale, "A long long time ago. Way before I was born, there lived a woman named Rona. She was the daughter of Tangaroa, The God of Sea—"

"What's that?" Hina asked him. Maui didn't mind the interruption really, not from someone so young, and certainly not from his own daughter.

He began to answer her question, "Well, you know that Daddy was raised by the gods, right?" Hina nodded and he continued, "Each God—and Goddess have…" He paused trying to find the word, "…a job they need to do, and Tangaroa's job is to take care of the sea and everything in it."

"So the sea is Ta-ta?" Hina asked. Maui tried not to laugh at the abbreviation, but a quick snort managed to sneak its way out of his lips before he could stop it.

He cleared his throat from any laughter still trickling down there, "No, no, The Ocean has a mind of its own. Trust me." He told her before he muttered, "I found that out the hard way." He waved her over and whispered in her ear, "But just between you and me, I don't think even 'Ta-ta' can control The Ocean." That made Hina giggle, and her giggles were and still are the most beautifulsounds he would ever hear.

"Now, back to the story. Tangaroa had a daughter named Rona, who like her dad was in charge of the sea. Her job was to control the tides—she's the reason why a huge tidal wave hasn't struck Motunui yet. So don't forget to thank her later. Anyway, one night—much like this one—she went out to the river collect water, all without a torch." Maui lifted his hand up to stop Hina from interrupting and continued, knowing that she would fall asleep at any second—at the same time his three-year-old daughter let out a soft sleepy yawn that went un-noticed. "No, she didn't take a torch, she had the moon's light to guide her way. And with the help of the moon, she was able to cross the dense jungle and make it to the river. She filled her water gourd till it was full and turned around, ready to head back home." Maui paused, watched as Hina started rubbing her eyes and patiently waited till she stopped.

"Rona turned, ready to head back home, when the moon wanting to trick her, suddenly hid behind the clouds and thus made everything dark. Rona had trouble seeing where she was going and—"

Thud.

Maui looked down, having just barely felt the weight of his daughter's back on his hand, and saw she had fallen asleep. He muttered, shaking his head. "Works every time." Mini-Maui made his graceful appearance by peering through a couple of tattooed boulders and immediately smiled at the sweet sight.

He chuckled, and this prompted his tattoo counterpart to turn toward him with a glare and put his little inky finger to his lips. Maui sighed half-rolling his eyes as he carefully lifted Hina up off the ground so she could settle in his arm, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't wake the kid."

Hina instinctively snuggled closer to the warmth of her father's chest. Mini-Maui, with his hands resting on his cheeks, lay down on his stomach as he watched his host's daughter with an endearing look in his little eyes. He then looked up at Maui and saw an all too familiar certain twinkle in his eyes. It was the same glimmer of happy disbelief he'd witness on the day that this tiny precious being came into his host's life.

IIIIIIII

Maui took soft steps back to Tui and Sina's fale, where Hina usually stayed during his and Moana's journeys. He entered and saw that his in-laws were already asleep, so he did his best to make as little noise as possible for a demiguy of his impending size as he headed over to Hina's little fala moenga and very carefully started to set her down.

Hina let out a soft groan in response to the change. Maui quickly froze with Mini-Maui biting his nails in response; fortunately, she didn't wake. Mini-Maui let out a silent sigh of relief as he wiped his forehead. Maui simply chuckled with that toothy lopsided grin of his as he gazed upon his daughter with endearment and fatherly pride in his eyes as he memorized her features.

She had his eyes, but her mother's long lashes, but his lips, and quite possibly her head shape too—he hopes she will—and there was her nose; it was a combination of them both; meaning she would most like have his wide nasals, though not as profound, but that meant she wasn't going to be a looker when she grew up, and that fact hurt him more than anything in the world, all because she took after him.

'I'm so sorry, Hina.' Maui thought; blaming himself for cursing his precious, kind, and caring little girl with his looks.

Though one thing was sure, she'd inherit their best qualities in terms of personality, and he hoped that would be more than enough for her to be accepted once she comes of age, with that thought still lingering his head, he pulled her elaborate sandy brown flower patterned blanket to her chin and rubbed his hand against her soft curly hair, before he turned, smirking to his best mini-tattooed friend and said,

"We got some fish to catch."

IIIIIIII

The walk back to the beach was unsurprisingly peaceful, and the bright glow of the moonlight only added more to that serenity. Maui walked over; with three fishing nets, all lumped together on his shoulder, to where his hook had dropped in the sand and carefully picked it up before he examined it for any unlikely damages. He nodded approvingly, "Yeah… still good."

Suddenly he got the urge to look up at the night sky and stare straight at the moon. Hinatea was born on a bright moonlit night like this one, hence the name 'Hinatea' which meant 'Fair Hina' or 'Fair Moon' depending on how accurate you wanted to be.

But something was off about the moon, and he couldn't quite see just what it was yet. So he kept looking attentively, as did Mini-Maui. Finally, he noticed something. A small crack…too small for mortal eyes to see, but it was there at the moon's imprints of Rona's bucket. Then it hit him, the moon wasn't supposed to be full or this bright.

That lunar cycle should've passed two months ago. He looked down at the ground and turned his head in thought. 'What's going on?'

A feeling started stirring in his gut—and no it wasn't hunger. It was something else. Something far deeper within his core, but he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder, it was Mini-Maui reminding him that they were running on a very limited time.

"Okay, okay buddy." Maui sighed and said without his usual enthusiasm, "Let's just get this over with." He put the edge of the nets in his mouth, lifted his hook and let out a muffled version of his famous cry and shaped shifted to his favorite form.

The giant hawk.

IIIIIIII

As these troubling questions rang through his mind; off in the far distance in Tui and Sina's home, Hina had woke and was currently standing out at the entrance of her grandparents' home, once again entranced by the moon. She tilted her head to one side for a moment before she straightened her head back up again, then she stretched her hand out to the moon and asked with innocent eyes, "Why you crying?" to the beautiful bright full moon in the sky above.

List of terminologies:

Lavalava: A traditional piece of attire made from mulberry paper or hibiscus bark, which is worn around the waist.
Hongi: A Maori gesture that can be used as a greeting or farewell by pressing your forehead and nose together.
Fale tele: Translated to 'The Big House' in English; is an important Samoan gathering house, used for Chief Council meetings, family gatherings, funerals and Chief title investitures.
Malae: A large outdoor clear grass area used for celebrations, gatherings, and ceremonies.
Fala moenga: A mat made from Pandanus leaves usually used for sitting or sleeping.