Phew!OKay Guys, I totally smashed out a bunch of chapters for this fic, so i hope you enjoy. P.s, the rights for the movie are the to disney alone, but all my original characters are mine. Also, I have been trying to get everything in the language area as correct as i can, so if you're of the Pacific islands and I have gotten something wrong, please message me and tell me my mistakes so that I may fix them, i will really appreciate it. Anyway readers, enjoy.
Moana had been asleep on the deck when Ahonui shook her shoulder.
"Palu, we've seen the birds." He said quietly with a smile. Moana gasped and sat up, then stumbled to her feet.
"Where?" she said, and her friend pointed up. Moana's mouth gaped open in happiness when she spotted the white tern perched atop their Canoe. It gave out a friendly screech, then lifted off and flew ahead of the canoes. Moana squinted at the horizon, forcing her eyesight as far as it could go.
For a few moments, she didn't think she could see anything, and then she spotted a shadow of a line on the horizon. From this distance it wasn't green, but a single black bumpy line, barely the width of Moana's pinkie finger nail.
"Home!" She yelled, and pointed. Ahonui, her mother Sina, and some others of her tribe heard her call, and squinted in the same direction she pointed. When more and more of them spotted their homeland, they started to cheer.
"You've done it again, Palu." Ahonui said, nudging her with a smile. Moana smiled and looked away, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.
"You can call me Moana, you know." She said.
"I think I like calling you master Way-finder (Palu), it has a ring to it." He smiled at her while leaning against his favourite post again, and Moana smiled, looking away again.
There was chatter then, of what they were going to do when they got home, excited for the doubtless feast of their return and the opportunity to tell stories. Of course
Ahonui would exaggerate, telling of sea monsters and creatures of the sky that they had never really come across. Moana would join, obviously, and say the great Maui had grown even more, and helped them defeat giant sea dragons by throwing Moana at its head and shattering its skull. The children loved the stories of Maui and Moana working together, so those who voyaged made an agreement that every time they returned home, a new story, the most exciting of them all, would be based around that.
It would still take them a day or two to arrive home, but Moana could hardly wait. Her father and mother sometimes took turns into who should go on the voyage and who should stay and run the village, which they did this time.
"I cannot wait to see your father again," Sina said happily, standing next to her daughter.
"I can't either." Moana breathed out. "He will be so happy to see us. I hope nothing went wrong at the village."
"Nothing has gone wrong since the darkness, and you dealt with that. I don't think anything has gone wrong." Sina said, smiling at her daughter with a tilted head.
"Something wouldn't feel right, if it had." Ahonui added. "We'd know, I think. And the ocean would probably let you know, Palu."
"If you keep addressing her like that," Sina said with a laugh, "You might as well be her slave." Moana's mother walked down the canoe to attend to other things, as
Moana and Ahonui laughed.
"Well servant would be preferable to slave." He added.
"You are neither. You are my friend." Moana said decidedly, and waited for them to return home.
Maui thanked over and over again that he had his full strength back, because without it, he never would have been able to do this. She was as heavy as he remembered. She was more or less the same build as Moana, but she was tall and full of muscle from, well, being a goddess for thousands of years. She also ate like no other goddess Maui had ever met, and he'd gotten into lots of eating competitions with her that had lasted for days.
He carried her for ages, far across the seas, looking from island to island for Moana. He'd almost covered all of them before he'd decided that she must have headed home.
He gave out an annoyed screech like growl when he came to this realisation, feeling the burn on his hawk legs. His wings too, were tired, and his back. Their muscles ached from carrying her for so long. He had to take a break, and fast. He'd hoped to have found Moana by now, it's why he hadn't taken a break the whole time, but his body desperately needed it. Even a demi-god could get tired.
After a few hours of searching, he spotted a small island he had pulled up about two years ago. It wasn't big enough to colonise a whole village on, but was good as a resting place for voyages, and now, for Maui.
He sighed out in relief when he spotted it, and dived.
He landed among a dense part of the tropical trees, (choosing it in case a wind picked up later), lowering his great winged form to the green and luscious ground below.
Her body spread out in the grass comfortably, and Maui released his claws from her body, then dropped to the ground and transformed when he hit the grass.
"Urgh, well lucky you're heavy or anything." He said to her unconscious face, while trying to catch his breath. She didn't answer, but her chest rose and fell slightly, and the grass near her nose shifted slightly every few moments.
Maui couldn't help but stare. He hadn't seen her for a thousand years, but he felt that nothing had changed. She'd been the same each time he had seen her, from the time that they were only thirty years old, which was eons ago now. She had been an intermediary for the humans and gods, sending humans subtle messages as to what they were required to do, and asking the gods in turn for favours. Save this person's particular child, make the harvest good this year, and turn a special infant, which had been tossed into the ocean, into a demi-god.
To have a second chance.
Even though she had not done it herself, she had suggested it to the gods, only being a few years old herself, having the physical development of a full-grown god, but maybe not mentally. She had seen something, Maui didn't know what, in him. Something that the gods had too, and then had given him the hook and made him a demi-god.
In a way, he owed her his life, but he'd never tell her that. She'd just boast and dance around him and say 'I saved you, hahaha,' or something pathetic and annoying like that. He smiled at the thought, then shook it away, turning his head away from her face as he laid on the ground.
It took a little while, but when he started to feel normal, he stood. He was growing hungry, but he could eat when he found Moana. He could go ages longer without food, and didn't want to waste any more time. He transformed once more, feeling a little more energized.
He scooped her up in his claws, careful to not let too much of her dangle uncomfortably, then took off through the trees, heading to Motunui.
The wind was friendly, and headed in the same direction, making it a little easier. He just hoped Moana wouldn't be too busy to see to this, and hoped nothing had gone wrong on the voyage.
He had worried about Moana in the first year, worried that maybe she hadn't been ready to go out so quickly. But with each thing that had gone wrong on her trips, she had managed to survive and keep her people safe, so by the second year, Maui had forgotten to worry. Still, he hoped she was still okay. He cared so much about her, and she had helped him so much, he's not sure what he would do if she got hurt, or worse.
But Maui couldn't think about that now. He had to get the injured goddess, now demi-goddess, to the hopefully well Moana and her friendly island.
A few days later on the island of Motunui….
A masked face crawled from the shadows cast by the fires, it's face twisted angrily, and large angry carved eyes stared down at the little shapes below it, a forked tongue lashing from its mouth, carved into the wood. Harsh leaves were strung to the sides of the mask which rustles and hissed with each movement, as the mask-wearer stomped rhythmically to the music, his head jerking and tipping with the beat, and Ahonui's voice, muffled by the mask, was still great as he said,
"And from the deep came the largest and fiercest of all the sea Beasts. A serpent, bigger than any canoe you've ever seen, bigger than all of our canoes combined, crashed from the water!"
Ahonui jumped at the children sitting before the fire, and they flinched back and squealed.
"He was going to tear us to bits! And smash our canoes to splinters!" Ahonui yelled, grabbing a small wooden canoe he'd made hours before, and crushing it between his hands. The children squealed again, and gasped.
"But oh!" Cried one of the other voyagers in the background, "Moana and the demi-god Maui fought it to rescue us."
Moana jumped into the scene, in her ceremonial dress, with her famous oar in hand, and one of the larger voyagers with painted on imitations of Maui's tattoos, and some black sea-weed as extra hair, and a large carved fish hook, although it was nowhere near the size of the real one.
From there the trio imitated a fight scene, making it as elaborate as possible. The kids screamed and squealed and gasped and yelled 'look out Moana' at the perfect intervals. By the end of the battle, all three were sweating, but also smiling, luckily Ahonui's face was covered by the mask.
When it was over, Moana stood atop Ahonui's back as he laid on the ground, her oar pressed into his gut.
"And Maui and I threw the monster back into the sea!" Moana exclaimed, and the children cheered.
It had grown late, and the parents started to collect up their children as the fire-light died and the stars were hypnotising everyone into a sleepy state.
As the children dispersed with their parents, Moana hopped off of Ahonui's back, probably later than he would have liked, but she had done it for dramatic affect.
Ahonui stood and took off the mask without any of the children seeing. "And again I was made the monster." He said dryly, but with a smile. The fire-light was shimmering on the perspiration on his bare chest, and he had to rub his arm across his fore-head.
"You know that you're not big enough to play Maui." Said Lelei, the biggest villager, who was around Tui's age, walking up to them.
"No one is big enough to play Maui! He's huge!" Ahonui complained.
"And you're not." Lelei said with a chuckle, rubbing away the paint. "But I am. Big enough to at least play him."
"Boys, boys," Moana said with a laugh, "You're both big, okay? Next time, we'll just get Maui, to play Maui. The villagers love it when he comes to visit. Especially the children." Moana said enthusiastically.
"There the only ones. He isn't that good at telling stories." Ahonui mumbled. Lelei rolled his eyes, then cocked his head towards Moana,
"Goodnight Palu." He said.
Moana nodded to him as well, then turned back to Ahonui, who was still sulking. His hair was long and straight, and tied back. He wasn't huge, no, but was still a good foot taller than Moana, and was nowhere near the description of scrawny. He was a fisherman, and had loved the ocean as long as Moana, but never dared disobey Tui, and go beyond the reef. He'd been afraid of what was beyond, and of what would be back on the island even if he tried. He was in no position to go against what Tui had said.
But now there was no reason to fear what was beyond the reef, and he was on every single one of Moana's voyages, as her right hand, apart from her parents, and Maui pf course.
"You did brilliantly tonight. Being all attacked and that." Moana said kindly, taking her hair out of the braids that had been done for the performance.
"Thanks, but of course they didn't like me. They never like the villain."
"That's the point of being villainous, isn't it?" Moana teased. "Ouch!" She suddenly exclaimed, as some of her hair got caught in some of the shell beads of her dress.
"Come here, I'll get it." Ahonui said, putting his mask down and walking over. "You were never good with these things, even when we were kids. My mother said you never stopped squirming when your parents tried to get you into them."
Moana smiled at the memories. "I thought they were itchy, and heavy, and annoying. And my hair always got- Ouch!"
"Sorry." Ahonui said, as he carefully plied her hair away from the beads at her shoulders. He then moved to her back, removing any other ones there, and Moana felt herself go silent as she felt his fingers occasionally brush her skin. He wasn't standing uncomfortably close, or far away in nervousness, but if he noticed her awkwardness, he didn't say anything about it.
He removed the last beads and ties from her hair, then brushed a hand carefully through it to get any knots out.
"There you go, back to normal." He said, and went to pick up his mask again.
"Thank you." She said, and found herself looking at the sky, thinking about what Maui would say if he'd seen what had just happened. He'd probably complain, saying
'why him? He poured fish onto my hair. It took weeks to get the smell out!'
Yup, he wouldn't be enthusiastic about it at all.
But why was she even thinking about this? It's not like she had feelings. Just… you know… the occasional…wonder.
"Goodnight, Moana." He said in a mocking voice, making his jaw hang at a ridiculous angle when he said her name.
"Night, fish boy."
He pouted, but eventually smiled and shook his head. He turned to leave, and Moana watched him start to walk off, the fish tattoos on his back appearing to 'swim' with each twist of his muscle. Moana looked away, biting her lip. She really needed some of Maui's judgements right about now.
She didn't know if the gods were playing with her, or it was by pure coincidence, but she started to hear the beating of large wings, and the rustle of unnaturally sized feathers.
She turned with wide eyes towards the sea, where the clear lands made a path way looking directly at the sea, where the light of the moon made a silver pathway atop its waves.
A shadow of a great bird was hovering on the silver line, and eventually was getting closer. Other villagers spotted it as well, and cried out with joy, but then those voices turned to panic, and worry.
The hawk screeched, then came the deep cry of, "Moana!"
Moana watched as Maui turned on his path, circling areas on the island.
Something was wrong. He wasn't flying as evenly as usual, and his cries sounded panicked and wounded.
"Maui!" her yell was closer to a scream. His hawk head turned, silhouetted against the stars, and he changed his path immediately when he spotted her near the dying fire.
Moana stepped further back as he approached, and her eyes grew wide when she saw that he had someone in his claws.
"Curly, we need some help." He said as he lowered to the ground, and placed the person before her. A woman. A big woman. She would stand a few inches bigger that Moana's father, Tui.
When Maui let her go and landed, he transformed. He then groaned and sank to his knees, breathing heavily.
"Are you okay!?" Moana said, going to her knees in front of him, placing a hand on his huge shoulder.
"I'm fine Curly," he said, waving the concern away.
"Moana!" came another voice, and she saw Ahonui approach from where he had walked off. When he saw Maui and the woman, he stopped. "Whoa. What happened.?"
Maui turned and recognised Ahonui, then groaned. "Urgh, can you make him go away please?" he asked Moana.
"No, we might need him." Moana said, standing. She saw Maui's tattoo miniature nod in agreement, and Maui just groaned again, but didn't argue. Some more villagers had gathered.
Moana approached where the woman gracefully laid in the grass. Her clothes were tattered but apart from that, the only sign something wrong with her was that she didn't wake up. Her tattoos were a strange silver instead of the usual black or brown.
"Who is she? What happened?" she asked, kneeling down next to the woman's head, and checked for a pulse. She was alive.
"I'll tell you later, we just need to get her to your healing hut." Moana said, standing, his hand holding his hook loosely.
It took Tui, Ahonui, Lelei, and Maui to carry the strange woman into where the elders and healers took care of the islanders, which rarely was needed. Since Moana and Maui had put back the heart of Te Fiti, the amount of illnesses and diseases on Moana's island had decreased dramatically. She tried not to look at where her grandmother had passed away, only a few years ago. The men placed the stranger down, while Moana shooed away any other villagers and children that were not needed.
The healers then went to work, checking her pulse and lifting her arms and opening her eye lids, while Moana and her family watched. Maui sat nearby, watching with his fist pressed gently against his mouth, not moving a bit.
Sina saw him like that, and saw Moana glancing at him with worry, and the stranger woman.
"Moana, we'll leave. You can stay with Maui." She said, glancing meaningfully at her husband, who nodded in agreement. Lelei had already left to check on his own family. Ahonui didn't look happy about it though.
"Mum, are you sure?" Moana said, raising her eyes away from both demi-god and stranger. Sina nodded.
"You come get us when you want to, okay?" she said, and Moana nodded slowly, trying not to feel too grateful. They'd helped her this far after all, they would have deserved to stay if they wanted to, but Moana knew Maui would want them to go. Either that, or he was so focused on the stranger that he couldn't care less. Still, Moana wanted what was best for now.
"Thank you." She said, and pressed her fore-head and nose to her mother, giving her a hug, doing the same to her father, and watching them leave.
Ahonui approached her slowly. He glanced at Maui, then looked back at Moana. He was about to say something, but whatever it was, he decided against it. Instead, Moana stepped forward and gave him a hug as well. She felt him hesitate, then he hugged her back.
"You know where to find me, if, you know, you need someone to talk to." He whispered, and Moana nodded, then let him go.
He walked out slowly, continuously looking back at her, and she didn't turn away until he was certainly gone. When he was, she walked over and sat next to where Maui sat crossed legged on the floor.
As much as she hoped he was focused on the healers, he had enough time to nudge her. She looked up, and he was smiling mockingly. "Curly's gotta boyfriend." He whispered in a sing-song voice.
"He is not my boyfriend." She said with a raised eyebrow and twisted smile.
"Why him? He poured fish on my hair. It took so long to get that smell out." Maui said, tilting his head with an annoyed expression at her, and she had to stop herself from smiling.
Didn't I predict he'd say something like that? She thought.
"He's nice, and funny, and I've known him since we were kids. And he's not afraid of the ocean. In fact, I think they get along in a similar way you do." She said, raising her eyebrows at him.
Maui just rolled his eyes, and in their path they once again fell onto the body the healers were working around.
"Do you think she's going to be alright?" Moana whispered. Maui huffed a laugh.
"You kidding? If this kills her, I'll never let her forget it, and she'd be so mad." He said.
"Wait, so you…know her?" Moana asked.
"Yeah, she'd Hina, you know, goddess of the silver moon and the ocean. But why she got thrown down here…"
"Hina!?" Moana exclaimed. "The Hina?"
"Yup, same annoying and stubborn and champion at eating Hina. I've known her for thousands of years." He said with a smile, but as he saw her laid out on the floor, his smile faded. He shrugged then, and said, "But I don't know why the gods would have thrown her down here, unless…"
"Unless?" Moana asked, looking at him.
"The gods weren't happy, when I found her. She'd been thrown from the sky, almost at me. The only reason they would do that is turn her into a demi-god, and going from god to demi-god is a really big step down, so…" Maui said.
"So, she's been punished?" Moana asked. "Maybe she did something."
"But apart from being a pain in my especially nice ass, I can't think of anything bad she would do." Maui mumbled, his very expressive eyebrows pulled together in concern. Moana ignored the ass part.
In a few minutes, one of the older healers approached them.
"Palu, Maui," She said, and Moana stood. Maui, however, knowing he might make the healer nervous from his size, stayed seated.
"Yes?" Moana said.
"Well, we don't know everything yet, but it doesn't seem like she has any diseases or infections. To be sure though, we'll need to strip her down, so we're going to need
you to leave." The elder said.
"Oh." Moana said. She was trying to decide whether it was especially rude to strip down an ex-goddess. "Um,"
"Only myself and one other healer will remain, to give her the utmost privacy we can." The elder assured.
"But, I mean, you know, goddess and all, wouldn't she be kind of-," Moana said.
"Curly, it's fine. She wouldn't mind." Maui said easily, standing. "She isn't going to smite you for it."
"If you're sure." Moana said, and the two Way-Finders made their way out.
Both of them placed themselves onto some wooden benches that had been placed outside the hut. Both placed their elbows on their knees and their chins in their palms. After a few long moments, Moana turned her head slightly, still resting in her hands, and said,
"Do you want to go get something to eat? You look hungry."
He sighed, and shook his head. "I think…I think I'll stay out here, and wait. Thank though."
"I can go get us something," she said, standing.
"You sure?" he asked, looking up at her.
"Yeah. I'll only be a bit." She said. He smiled and said,
"Thanks."
Moana considered saying 'you're welcome' in the deep voice she used when mocking him, but figured he'd probably trip her over for it, and she was too tired to deal with that right now. But, she did say something before she left.
"You know, you looked really worried about Hina when we first went in there." Moana said with a coy smile, the same he'd given her when he'd talked about Ahonui.
Maui gave her a flat look under his defined eyebrows. "Well I flew half way across the ocean to get her here, so I want to make sure I get a 'thanks' out of her if she wakes up."
"So that you can say 'you're welcome'?" Moana asked with a laugh.
"You know it, Curly." He said with a smile, and she nodded, then went to get the food.
When Moana returned, Maui seemed half asleep as he leaned against his hand. She was carrying some fruit for them to eat while they waited, and stopped a few feet away.
"Maaaaaui." She said quietly. His eyes fluttered for a moment, and he looked at her, then said,
"I was just, ah, squinting really hard at that bug over there." He pointed to the ground. Moana raised an eyebrow.
"Riiiiiiight. Anyway, here's some food." She threw him a mango, and he almost dropped it in his attempt to catch. "You should really get some sleep if you're this tired, Maui."
"I don't 'get tired', curly." He said with a sceptical look, cutting away some of the skin of the mango with the small knife Moana handed him.
"Of course, you're the great demi-god! Who fights monsters and never needs sleep." Moana said the last bit in a deep voice.
"I will squeeze mango juice into your hair." Maui said with a threatening look, then bit into it while still looking at her.
"Seriously, we don't know when she's going to wake up. We can take shifts! I promise I'll wake you if anything changes." Moana said, taking a bite of her papaya. Maui lowered his Mango.
"As long as you promise, not to tell the villagers." He said.
"Cross my heart." She said with a nod, then added, "Well, unless of course you snore."
Maui glared.
"Okay fine," she said while laughing, "No telling, got it."
They finished eating, and when every villager apart from the healers and Moana had gone to sleep, Maui laid down in the thick grass, and went to sleep. He didn't snore, but he drooled, and Moana had to stop herself from laughing. He also had his mouth wide open as he laid on his side with his hook tucked into his arms, his 'silky' hair flowing over his face and curling into the grass around him. His tattoo miniature made no movements, but continued to hold up the sky.
Moana smiled, and waited.
It wasn't long when the remaining two healers came out, and Moana quickly woke Maui in time for the healers to not see the fact that he'd been asleep.
"There's nothing more we can do. We think she will be fine, but only time can tell." The elder woman said.
"We can keep an eye on her," Moana said.
"You don't have to curly, I can-,"
"Maui, no. This is my father's island, and I am the master Way-Finder. I'll do as I wish, and I wish to stay here, with you, to watch over Hina." Moana said, sounding more convincing that she would have been three years ago. Being Palu had taught her a lot, and how to be commanding without being cruel, was one of them. Maui's arm dropped and his eyes widened. Then he laughed.
"Okay, as you say, Palu. Just don't slap me with your ocean friend." Maui said, waving his hands dramatically at 'ocean friend'. He then made his way up the steps.
"Wait Maui!" she said. He turned. "Isn't she, you know, naked?"
"She's covered up my dear." The elder said with a smile. "You two are free to watch over her, but I will be checking in frequently." She said.
"Thank you." Moana said, and watched the old lady waddle off to her own hut. Moana then followed Maui up the steps.
Inside, the fire-lamps were still burning.
"You get some more sleep." Moana said to Maui, as they made their way over to where they had sat previously.
"You sure Curly?" he asked.
"Positively! I'll let you know when I need some as well."
Maui nodded, then curled up into a huge ball, and slept again.
Moana watched over the both of them.
