Kama'aina – Child of the Land

Te-Fiti lay quiet.

Green and at peace for the first time in so many years, she was more island than goddess as she sank her cheek into the ocean, letting the current lull her to sleep. The full moon shone down brightly on her rich forests.

The sky was clear and studded with stars, swept clean by a strong breeze that sighed through the trees. This and the muffled crashing on the shore was a lullaby, the same lullaby she'd listened to with her sleeping ear since the dark times when she began. It was so good to hear it again, to be herself without being tormented by the emptiness inside.

No wonder she slept.

But the quiet was disturbed by the beat of wings. With a purple flash and a rattle of lightning, a great eagle landed on the shore before shifting into the figure of Maui, the demigod.

Purposefully, Maui had landed close to where he remembered Te-Fiti's face being when she returned to her ageless sleep, right after receiving his new hook and escaping as quickly as he could from her forgiving eyes.

It'd been months since then. He'd tried to take his hook and his freedom and fly alone across the seas as he once did, looking for adventure, trying to make new stories…but irresistibly, his mind was drawn back to Moana, to that island she'd fought so hard to save. Eventually, Mini-Maui tipped the vote and he turned his eagle wings to Motunui.

And for all the time since, he'd been living with Moana and her people, flying with their boats and watching them build their villages anew on every island they could reach, spreading across the sea like a thousand bright, shining little heroes. Almost like his own creation, in a way. He was proud of them.

But he hardly looked it now. His shoulders were tense as he softly went towards the grassy cliff that was probably, approximately Te-Fiti's face. "Te-Fiti?" he whispered. His voice caught. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, letting the hook fall unnoticed beside his feet. "TE-FITI!"

His demigod shout was loud enough to startle some seabirds nesting nearby. They rose into the air and flew away, screeching in sleepy outrage as they disappeared around the cove. Maui didn't notice. All he knew was that Te-Fiti showed no sign of waking up. Nothing stirred in response. No waving trees, no gesturing ferns…no sign of her eyes sliding open to glare at her nephew.

His stomach dropped to his feet. All the fight in him seemed to drain away. With slumped shoulders, he slowly turned and picked his hook up, letting it drag on the ground as he walked with heavy feet towards the shore, like a little boy whose toys had all been broken.

Mini-Maui looked up at him, face full of bittersweet comfort. His bigger counterpart didn't seem to notice. It was so hard to get someone's attention when you were a part of their skin and yet you didn't want to hurt them…when they were too fragile to tolerate even a simple touch without breaking.

Maui's eyes were shining in the light of the moon, brimming at the edges as he sniffed roughly and flicked his hook out. It burst into a hum of energy.

At the same time, a giant hand of forest and loam, tangled with vines, seemed to rise out of the sand, blocking his way.

Maui wheeled around.

Te-Fiti's big green eyes and her beautiful face seemed to have shifted like magic out of what was once a great hill. She blinked softly at him, giving him a silent, questioning stare that beckoned him to come back.

He did. For a few steps. "Sorry to wake you, Te-Fiti…Anake (Aunt), but I was just wondering…since you were awake just this year, then maybe you wouldn't mind talking to me."

She was silent. He kicked his feet. "I mean, I never get to talk to anyone…you're all so busy or you're all asleep all the time. How…how's Cousin Tawhiri? He's always busy moving the winds around. That or chasing clouds…" he chuckled. "Can you believe, he unleashed a whopper storm while I was in eagle form, and he didn't even tell me? What a jokester. Amazing to think we used to play around the Whistling Rocks together…but then he got his job, and I still had some growing to do…it always gets me, ya know, that I missed being older by eight hundred years."

Te-Fiti didn't answer, but her hand folded into a fist, her thumb rubbing her finger nervously. Maui barreled on, leaning on his hook, trying to be casual. "And, and Laka…she still dancing? She made any good hulas? Cause Moana's people…they're making new songs. I just wondered if she was helping with that. That's kinda her specialty, so I thought maybe she'd seen me hanging around the village."

Maui paused and worked his lip nervously with his teeth as Mini-Maui did the same. He glanced up at the starry sky, at the bright, round moon that hung there in all its beauty. It seemed to reflect in his brown eyes and stay there a bit longer than was normal as he looked down and met Te-Fiti's gaze. There was something altogether vulnerable in his forehead, in his face. "And how…how's Hina? Does she…do any of you guys…ever talk about me?"

Te-Fiti's green eyes welled with mournful pity, exactly what Maui didn't want to see. Bitter, fragile anger rose in his face like the sea crashing against the shore. His eyes were hard yet shining still as he mockingly saluted her. "As I thought. G'night, Te-Fiti. Enjoy your beauty sleep."

"Now, Maui…that isn't any way to talk to your Aunt."

At the sound of a voice…a small, female voice, Maui whirled around, hook held out defensively in front of him. "Who's that?!" Thankfully, he wasn't startled enough to shriek.

"I am myself." An old woman was standing in the shallows. Actually, she was a spirit. He could tell by the florescent glow that framed her like blue fire. A giant manta-ray was gliding around the waves, a spot of light in the wine-dark sea.

He lifted an eyebrow. "And 'myself' is?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" she clapped both hands together and laughed. Perplexed, he lowered the hook and stared at her. There was something familiar about her face…her eyes, maybe. The old woman continued, "You need a friend right now…but Moana isn't here, and there are no ancestors for you to call on. So Kanaloa asked me for one last favor."

"The ocean?" Maui glanced out tiredly at the body of water that had propelled so many events during the struggle to cure Te-Fiti. She was his grandmother…willful and deliberately confusing and straight up kooky-dooks, as most grandmothers were.

"Why are you upset, demigod?" The ocean might have summoned her as a mouthpiece. Or maybe she'd just been wandering someone's dreams and heard his shouting. Her eyes, wide and crazy and lined with wrinkles as they were…they felt safe. As if they'd seen enough madness to accept his story, and seen too many crimes to judge him harshly…and she was also dead. The one adventure he had yet to experience.

"Eh, it's nothing, but…" Somehow, the lie died on his tongue. He found himself trusting her enough to complain. He flung his arms out wide. "Humans taught me how to talk, and to use my voice. But the gods only speak to me in my head, and that's almost never. Why won't they talk to me? They can, can't they? I mean…they're gods."

She shook her head, closing her eyes. "That's not what's bothering you, is it?"

He should have been angry that she kept asking questions, never offering answers. But her words forced him to think, to look inside himself at dark spaces he'd much rather have forgotten, festering wounds he'd rather ache from than try to cure.

Maui's fists clenched. "Why…" the word hurt. It was thick, guttural. He felt as if his heart was bleeding. If he stopped now, he might cry in front of this old dead lady. He choked and tried again. "Why did they… forget me?"

She sighed gently at him. In one soft motion, she was kneeling in the water, sitting on her heels. Maui had seen many a grandmother take this position by the home-fires before a group of children. He took a few steps down the shore and awkwardly lowered his huge bulk at the level of dry sand that the waves hadn't touched yet.

She looked up at him, the blue fire reflecting in the water, her wide eyes bright with untold memories. Her hand twitched as if she wanted to reach for him. Instead, she dragged her fingers through the waves, letting little ripples dance and sing around her. "Let me tell you a story, Maui. A story you wish was never written. A story of a child of the land who became a child of the gods."

A woman once lived as she pleased with a feral tribe, and her only aim in life was to escape the laws of men and gods and nature. She met many handsome men who, like her, wished to be free of all laws. Like her, they lived as they pleased. When she was with one man, she forgot the law of love. When she turned to another, she forgot the law of loyalty. And when she had her first child, she forgot the law of motherhood.

When her little boy was born, this woman took the bloody palm leaves of the birth-pain and threw them into the sea. Her husband wished to be free of fatherhood and so he left her, and she took the necklace he'd given her and threw that into the sea as well. Then she looked at the little boy and decided to see a thing, a thing she had made, a thing she owned, a thing she could destroy if she wished. She took the baby by the ankles and threw him into the sea as well.

And so she removed herself from the story of his life, and she is torn from this world and long dead. Now and for all eternity her spirit wanders, forever lost, free not only of laws, but free of friends, of joy, of worth and reward, and free of love, as she wished.

But Kanaloa, the ocean, saw the tiny life fall into the water. The baby had screamed and cried as he fell, but as he sank into the warm, sun-lit waters, his little eyes snapped open. His clenched fists opened, his little mouth turned up in a smile as he stared around him, unafraid.

And Kanaloa felt her heart flutter within her. Before the moment was broken, before the baby could drown, she lifted him up into the air and held him towards the light. She paused, not knowing what to do as the child sneezed and cried and breathed once more.

Then, she sailed him towards the horizon, that place where the sun, the moon, the wind and the sky meet, that place all men strive towards yet never reach…where the gods live.

And the gods became as small as they could, and they looked at the baby and touched his little hands and heard him laugh. And Hina, the moon goddess, felt the law of love take hold. And she made her white arms small so she could hold him, and she felt the law of motherhood take hold. So she told the other gods that she would care for the little human child, so that he would not die but grow to be a man.

At Hina's bidding, her sister Te-Fiti pulled up the first island. This was to be the little one's horizon, his place to rest and grow, where no sharks could eat him and no jungles could lose him. Every night, Hina made herself small so she could watch over her little son. She sang him lullabies and showed him how to swim and taught him how to fly. And every day, while she slept, his cousins came to play with him.

And these were Tawhiri, god of wind and storms, Laka, goddess of song and dance, and Tamanuitera, god of the sun. But one by one, they forgot him, and grew large again, and flew away. Only Hina remained.

And when the little one became a man, Hina ordered Time itself to never touch him, turning her son into a demigod, immortal. And she made him a magical fish-hook with which to play tricks and perform great feats. And on his skin she drew the first of these, proud and pleased at what the little child of the land had become. And she whispered in his mind what she wrote on his skin…that he was wonderful. And that his name was Maui.

But gods cannot be small forever, and they cannot remember all little things. And so at last Hina grew large again and returned to the stars in the sky.

And for the first time in his life, the child-become-a-man was alone. But he was free. And so he set out to find adventure. He found humans, small people like himself, living on the other islands Te-Fiti had pulled from the sea. But Te-Fiti had fallen asleep, and the people had many children and not enough land to live upon.

And so Maui used his magical fishhook to pull more islands up from the sea. And he was loved for it. But it was not enough. Maui saw that the humans were bent double as they went about their tasks, and that even his cousin, Tawhiri who had forgotten him…even the sun was forced to squeeze between sky and sea. And so Maui went to Ao-Rangi, the father-sky, and fought with him. And he pushed Ao-Rangi up and away from the land, so humans could walk upright and the wind could fill their sails and send them speeding to the islands Maui had made. And the humans loved him.

But they hardly had enough time to make these ships, for as soon as the sun came, shedding light across the land, it was gone again, leaving cold blackness behind. There was no time to build and no time to sleep, for Tamanuitera was moving too quickly across the sky, excited to have so much room now that Ao-Rangi had grown so tall.

So Maui lassoed his cousin with the magical fishhook and halted him a moment, and asked him to slow down. But the sun only laughed at him, for he was nothing more than a demigod. And so Maui, angered, fought with Tamanuitera as well, and defeated him, forcing from him a promise to move more slowly across the sky. Humbled, Tamanuitera agreed. And so the humans had their day and night, and Maui was loved.

But now that the nights were long and dark, Maui saw that the humans needed fire. Only Grandma Mahuika, the goddess of fire, possessed it. And she lived in the underworld and shared it with no one. So Maui pretended to visit her and put her to sleep with the longest story ever told. When Mahuika's eyes had closed, Maui turned himself into a Hawk and flew into the fire, braving the flames to grab a single coal. Ever since then, Maui's eagle has had wings singed with red.

But as he flew away, listening to his grandmother's upset screams, he dropped the coal and it hit a tree. Maui broke off a branch and shook it. Once more, fire sprung up. It was this branch that Maui brought back to the humans. Ever since then, fire has been hidden inside wood. The humans had light and warmth to banish the darkness. And once more, Maui was loved.

Finally, Maui decided that it was not enough to simply lift islands for the humans. He wanted to make them, too. And so he stole the heart of his Aunt, Te-Fiti. Because his own beat within his chest he didn't realize what he was taking away from her. Yet he was still stealing…he had forgotten the law of ownership. And so did her grievous harm.

And Te-Fiti was transformed into Te-Ka. And she had forgotten Maui and herself, and knew only loss. She struck him down and her heart was lost to all, even Kanaloa, for many centuries.

But the gods, all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins…were greatly angered. Many wanted to take his hook and his immortality away, and return him to the sea where they found him.

But Hina would not let them speak of it, and she found Maui and returned him to his island. Many a time before she had left him there as a punishment, guarding it to make sure he did not escape before his lesson was learned. But inevitably, she would forget, and he would transform and fly away, free of consequence.

But he had no hook, and when Hina seemed to once more forget him…this time, he could not leave.

"Seemed to?" Maui interrupted her. He reared to his feet, sand falling from his knees in a curtain as he towered over her ghostly form. "She forgot me!" He was shouting now, his brown eyes brittle, his fists trembling as Mini-Maui looked scared. Maui pounded his chest. "She abandoned me!"

The old woman was unfazed. "No, Maui. She was silent, yes…but Kanaloa told her to be so. Your grandmother, like all grandmothers, is a very smart woman whom nobody listens to. Several times before she had counselled Hina on what to do with you, but the moon-lady was too tender to show you the stern hand that you needed. But after Te-Fiti, she was ready to listen…to Kanaloa's plan."

Silence. Maui's breathing grew quieter, even as something in his eyes seemed to splinter and break. He sat down again, dropping his head into his hands, hiding his face in a curtain of black hair. She watched him sadly. When she spoke again, her voice was gentle and deep like the ocean itself, irresistible as it washed over him.

"The ocean knew you had to at least help bring the heart back to Te-Fiti, to make restitution. But someone else was needed, a human who didn't know what it was like to be utterly alone…a human who wasn't powerful or proud, but cared enough to help. Someone kind enough to bear you, someone strong enough not to give up on you."

"And so, the ocean chose Moana, my granddaughter."

Her voice couldn't help but grow warm with pride. Maui lifted his face and gazed at her, new understanding flickering, even as his heart thrummed with envy at the affection in her tone. "So you're… yeah, Moana did help me, a lot." He was completely honest, and exhausted by it.

"Moana was chosen for her heart, you know, not her courage or sheer stubbornness. A baby turtle, an addled chicken, a broken goddess, a lonely demigod...just as she saw that Te-Fiti was hidden under Te-Ka, she saw that you were hidden under yourself. And she showed you that it was alright to come out, to make yourself small…it worked out so well, in fact, that at the same time as Moana discovered the truth of Te-Fiti…you offered your life for hers, attracting Te-Ka's attention with the haka, challenging her to destroy you instead of my granddaughter."

In a second, Grandmother had left the water and was standing before Maui. Her hand touched his cheek and it felt warm and very real as he stared down at her, eyes wide, hardly daring to breathe.

"It was brave, and good, and I will never forget it." She smiled. Then, she pinched his chin playfully, breaking the moment. "Even Te-Fiti remembers…"

Maui glanced at the great eyes that stared down at him. Te-Fiti nodded slowly. Almost stunned by this revelation, Maui blushed. Grandmother turned and pulled him by the hand towards the sea. The water rushed up around their ankles, strangely warm and glittering with starlight.

"The ocean," she said, after a long moment, "is not like the sky or the wind. She is wrapped around all the islands where the humans live. They sit in the skin of her and she feels them at all times. She does not race above them or stare down at them from on high. She cannot forget them because she is full of their tears. She always knew that, although the gods saved you, they were not all that you needed. You needed your people. You needed to be small. And your mother agreed. You do realize what Maui means, don't you?"

"Another question, huh?" Maui answered softly, and this time he sounded warm and fond, like a friend, or a comforted child leaning against her knee during the storytime. "Yes, I know. Maui means…'to live'."

Suddenly, Te-Fiti's hand overshadowed them both. Maui and Grandmother looked up and saw one of her flora covered fingers dip down towards his back, towards the terrible tattoo that sat there. Maui flinched. Only the feeling of Mini-Maui patting his arm reassuringly and the pressure of Grandmother's hand around his wrist kept him calm as his aunt's earthy touch brushed against the stain on his skin, and the awful pain and memory that came with it seared his eyes.

When at last he found them, Maui came to the village of Motunui and pretended to be a wayfinder from an island far away. He reinforced the people's trust in Moana's strange ideas, and helped them in getting ready for a great voyage, repairing the fleet hidden in the cave and gathering food and provisions for the journey.

Using his great strength he did the work of ten, and told stories so real that both children and their parents stayed to listen, thunderstruck by the detail, the vision of it…as if he had really fought those monsters and performed those wonders. Their awe pleased Maui. But Moana waited for a quiet moment and then told him not to try and impress them to earn their love…admiration and even gratitude, she said, is often fleeting and doesn't last.

She cajoled him into joining the fathers and their sons for a game of ball. She challenged him to play as a human named Maui. Without his godly powers, Maui failed abysmally. But the men laughed good naturedly and taught him some of the moves he needed. One of the toddlers sat on Maui's shoulders and called out the rules. Maui began to do better.

By the time the game ended, everyone was exhausted and worn out. Maui wasn't. He carried all the children home to the village for dinner while the weary fathers trudged behind him and gossiped about their wives. At the home-fires, Maui talked about the scores and laughed at the villager's stories of previous games. He listened to Chief Tui wax on and on about the gifts of the coconut, and he laughed aloud for reasons only Moana could understand.

The next day, Maui began to partake in smaller chores, jobs that were disgusting and small and tedious, where he couldn't show off and he couldn't just make it go away. He harvested and gathered, he dissected coconuts and wove baskets, and Moana pinched him every time he tried to use his hook. Soon he simply went to work in the morning without it, leaving it leaning against the wall in Moana's hut.

Women old and young flirted with him because he was so big and strong and mysterious, always willing to lend a helping hand. Fathers and husbands eagerly competed with him to finish chores or pull the biggest fish from the sea. Children followed him everywhere until he complained about it to Moana, and then they still followed him. For them, not for love, Maui invented swings and let them braid his hair as he worked. He went sailing for two days around the islands with Moana and some others, teaching them the art of wayfinding, preparing for the great voyage ahead. And still the hook rested, unused, in the hut.

Finally, the night before they left Motunui for new horizons, Moana told a story by the home-fires.

The way Grandmother told it, Maui was a villain who, because of his greed and cunning, brought a terrible curse upon the world. But those children were growing up and the new ones wouldn't remember the darkness. So Moana changed the story… "Maui the demigod wasn't evil. He wasn't always brave or smart or perfect either…but that's because he is like us. More than any other god, Maui loves, always loves, we humans. He is a trickster god who brought us gifts and keeps us safe. He is a hero."

Moana looked across the room at Maui and smiled. His eyes stung and his chest ached as he smiled back.

Maui shuddered and stumbled backwards as Te-Fiti's hand left him. He felt cold and scared, clutching at himself, terrified of what he'd expected to see and confused by what he hadn't. "That…wasn't the right memory," he mumbled at last, glancing at Grandmother for reassurance.

Mini-Maui threw his mini-hook and caught the tattoo in question, pulling it up and over Maui's shoulder and down to his chest, where he could see it.

"Wha…?" Maui couldn't finish. The woman was still there, hair streaming behind her, arms shooting out…and so was the little baby, helpless, kicking in the blackness as he fell towards the sea. Tiny arms still stretched back towards his birth-mother.

But the sea was gone. In its place was a crowd of people, their faces upturned, their arms spread wide, ready to catch the infant.

Baby Maui was no longer being thrown into the sea. He was landing, safe, needed, wanted…into the arms of the people of Motunui. Mankind. His people.

"You see…Hina did not abandon you, Maui," he thought he heard Grandmother say as the world became blurry and he felt tears filling his eyes.

I sent you home.

Arms encircled him. Warm, strong, and human…except the tattoos glowed white instead of dark, and when Maui looked up, it was the very moon herself come down from the sky, the giant who once held him up to the stars and taught him to fly and sang him lullabies.

"Mama…" Maui whispered. His voice broke.

Her warm brown eyes smiled. Her silver hair brushed against his and tangled with it as she rested her forehead against him, gracing him with the Hongi, the kiss of breath and life. She smelled like the sea. She smelled like stardust and fire.

She smelled like home.

Maui grasped her soft sweetness, holding her even as she was beyond him, unreachable and yet here, large and yet small…the moon, and yet his mother. And he knew he was crying like a baby but it hurt so much to know that she remembered him still, that she had not only saved his life but given him a new one.

And Hina held him, even as he would someday slip away…human, mortal, tiny…a child of the land, something she could never be. Something she couldn't hold onto forever. The gap in his teeth, the way he laughed, the song in his story...he was beautiful and bright to her. But like so many things in this world he was fading. He was ephemeral.

But not abandoned.

Never forgotten.

The laws say I am your mother, Maui,

She pressed her cool face to his warm one, felt his tears on her cheek, felt him hug her and something like a human heart stirred within her. He could hear her in his mind. The sudden tightening of his grip made it certain. She kissed his brow.

And even if I were free of that law I would love you.

I will always love you.

Author's Note: I loved the movie Moana so very, very much. The music and story and graphics were all exquisite. So I wanted to explore Maui a little bit, and what it would be like for one of us puny mortals to be raised by elemental, ageless beings called gods. I wanted to take a man who, after being made immortal, must have been so very isolated for so much of his life...perhaps explore his divine family a little bit, perhaps lay some damage in him to rest. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review if you want to feed my plot bunnies! :)

Also Note: Image does not belong to me. Baby Maui was drawn by the very talented Skydrathik on deviantart...who has drawn other Maui stuff, so go check it out! :)