Ok, so the third chapter, let's do this.
After Maui flew off, Moana couldn't help but feel confused. On one hand, Maui was, well, Maui. If anyone could change her fate, it was him. She knew he wanted her to be immortal, she knew he wanted to marry her, and in her heart that's what she wanted as well. On the other hand, her village needed her, and did she really want to stay alive forever? Did she want to see her nieces and nephews die? Did she want to be forgotten by her people, except in legends? She gazed down at her arms, which were intricately tattooed with their exploits. Past the tattoos, she could see the veins in her skin. Moana knew she was beautiful and that she was aging well, but knowing that every new wrinkle put a gap between herself and the demigod she loved made her hate each sign of age.
"Maui," She sighed his name before getting up and resting her hand on her father's grave. "Father, what do I do?"
She heard a voice behind her. "He certainly doesn't know, no son of mine was foolish enough to fall in love with a demigod."
Moana jumped and shrieked. '"Will people please stop talking from behind me? How about a tap on the shoulder or announcing yourself first?" Her anger quickly dissipated when she realized that she was yelling at Grandma Tala.
"Oh! Grandma! Sorry." She twirled her hair around her fingers, blushing with embarrassment.
The ghost smiled, she didn't care that she had scared her granddaughter, she wa, well, s a ghost after all. "Your father wanted me to tell you that death isn't really all that bad, and that the coconuts in the afterlife are amazing."
Moana chuckled. "Why can't dad come visit me like you do?" she said softly, her eyes welling up with tears.
Tala enveloped her granddaughter in a hug. "I was a priestess, we get special favors sometimes, even if we are reduced to the village crazy lady."
Moana pondered for a bit, letting her grandmother stroke her back. "Grandma, when I die will I get to come back to always be with Maui, like you and me?"
Her grandmother clucked. "When the love between two people is strong, they will always find a way back to each other." She put her forehead on Moana's and hummed. "Like the waves to the shore, you will always find each other time and time again after every storm."
Moana smiled. She could feel her grandmother getting lighter in her arms, it was time for her to go.
"Moana, before I leave, I must tell you, that Maui is brash and seeks to defy an age old prophecy, do not let him go confront Hine-nui-te-po alone, his brothers will betray him, as they have tried to do for centuries out of jealousy. Goodbye, Moana, I love you!"
With that Tala faded back into the waves as a blue manta ray.
"Hine-nui-te-po? Who the heck is that?" She wished Maui were here, he would have either known who the hell it was or he would have had a good joke, he probably would have said "bless you." to a name as long as that.
Moana set out to find someone who knew about the prophecy and the hine-whatever person when she felt a coarse hairy head bump against her leg. It was Pua's grandchild, Stitch. Moana was always running into her old pet's children, she had to stop eating pork just because she couldn't bear to eat the children of her favorite animal friend, it was a bit of an ironic tragedy.
"Hey little guy, what are you doing here?" The little bluish black pig rolled over in the sand, but backed away from the water, all of Pua's offspring were terrified of the Ocean.
Soon, a short little girl who happened to be Moana's favorite niece came bounding through the underbrush. "Stitch! Get back here and put on this dress right now!"
Moana laughed and picked the pig up gently. "Lilo," She cooed. "Shouldn't you be in Hula practice?"
Lilo shyly looked up at the chief, trying to hide the pig-dress behind her. "The other girls pick on me, so I figured I could dance with Stitch instead."
Moana picked the little girl up in a hug. "Hey, it's ok, people used to pick on me for loving the Ocean, and people picked on Maui for being a bit, hard on the eyes. Now look at us! We're heroes!"
Lilo laughed, she loved to hear of her aunt and the demigod's exploits. Moana continued. "People change, you just have to keep listening to the voice inside you and discover who you are, and be true to that, and if you are, then who knows how far you'll go?"
Lilo nodded solemnly, as if she knew that this was important information.
"In fact, why don't you try being chief for a day while I go find out what is going on with Maui? Just make sure to listen to your grandma Sina."
Lilo gasped and grinned. "I'm going to order the medicine to punish all my friends with ugly wart spells!" She grabbed Stitch and ran off towards the village.
"The medicine man!" Moana exclaimed. "He would know about the prophecy!"
Moana ran across the village, ignoring the many people who expressed their condolences. "Sorry, I can't talk right now, I have to get a tattoo!" She screamed out at anyone who tried to drag her attention away from the task at hand.
Because their village was small, ever since Grandma Tala died the tattoo artist had a triple duty as artist, medicine man and storyteller, since he had the most wisdom and storytelling abilities. But his rule was that he only told stories while creating tattoos. The longer the legend, the bigger the tattoo. He was a bit of an oddball but a wonderful artist.
Moana sprinted up the hill towards his hut and burst in. "I want a giant hawk on my back!" She exclaimed, not realizing that she had walked in on the old man without knocking and had found him naked. She whirled around and grimaced. 'And pretty please I need to hear about the prophecy of Maui and Hine-nui-te-po."
The old man immediately started grumbling as he put on his clothes. "You damn kids these days, even the chief lacks the basic decency to knock." He waved his fist at Moana's back. "You had better pay me well, young lady, I expect at least a fortnight's worth of fish for this."
"Oh- well of course! Anything for our beloved, prestigious tattoo artist." She said, trying to inject respect into her voice.
"Turn around, I'm decent, and get your ass on the mat. I'll tell you about the damn prophecy and I'll give you your damn hawk."
Moana knew from years of getting tattooed by the old man that he would give her a great design that fit her, with as much pain as he possibly could inflict. She sat down on the mat and grit her teeth as he began tapping on her back with his tools.
"So," he said as he began the ritual. "Why does the chief want to know about an old prophecy made by an angry, lovesick goddess?" Tap Tap Tap
Moana gave a little eek of pain. "Well, Maui wants to wed me, and he seems to want to stop me from aging somehow, and knowing him he would try to fight death itself, no matter how stupid that is." Her voice was breathy with pain. Had tattoos always hurt this much? She wished she was like Maui and they could just appear. "Grandma Tala told me to find out about the prophecy to protect him."
"Maui isn't one to protect." Said the old man. "He is a force of nature, he is a child with the power of a god, he is uncontrollable and will die doing some great feat for the sake of man." Tap Tap Tap. "He really is the least selfish being on the planet, but has the biggest ego."
"A long time ago" The old man started his story with the classic phrase, and Moana was taken back to her Grandma's hut when she listened to her as a child. "Pleasant memories, pleasant memories." She repeated in her head.
"Maui was made into a demigod and eventually went back to see his family who had refused him." Tap tap tap. Moana could feel the lines of ink starting to form on her skin, it would be hours before he was completed, but hey, some artists took days, as long as he took to get his pants on he was an incredibly fast tattooer.
"Upon finding his family he realized they had all aged, and he had not." Tap tap tap. Somewhere outside a pata-tai bird called, it sounded like a human laugh. "He eventually watched them die." Tap Tap Tap "Thus began Maui's feud with death." Tap tap tap, Moana prayed to the gods that it would be over soon. She was no wimp and no stranger to pain, but this HURT!
"Hine-nui-te-po is the goddess of death, she tried to woo Maui, but she was too ugly and old, so she vowed that Maui would one day be inside her naked as a man and a woman, and on that day he would die." Tap tap tap.
"Sooo, all Maui has to do is not have sex with an incredibly ugly, old woman?" That doesn't sound so hard." Moana said.
The old man gave her a particularly hard knock this time and cocked his eyebrow at her. "Try being married, it happens all the time." Moana rolled her eyes.
"The thing is, the key to immortality is inside her, life inside the goddess of death, like a new island springing up from a volcanic eruption. He must go inside of her to get it, but he risks his life."
Moana winced. "So, is the prophecy set in stone or can it be avoided?"
The old man didn't speak for a moment but continued working. "I suppose it could be changed, but it would take another god, and most of them have it out for Maui."
They sat in silence for an hour or so, listening to the sounds of the ocean, nature, and the rhythmic tapping.
The old man cleared his throat finally and stood up. "You're done, you may go now."
Moana stood up slowly, her entire back ached and throbbed, she couldn't see it, but she couldn't wait to see Maui's reaction. The old man nodded approvingly at his work. "Maui will come back, he knows the prophecy and would only attempt to steal from Hine-nui-te-po as a last resort, he may wait years. But when he does go, travel with him, and see if you can convince one of the gods to change the prophecy." He ushered her out the door and assumed his grumpy nature.
"And the next time you come asking for stories, knock on the damn door!
Moana went back to her hut where her mother, sister and nieces were preparing supper. It felt empty without her father and Maui there. Despite the recent passing of her father, the place was lively, they knew that their father was at peace. Sina gasped when she saw Moana.
"Moana, your tattoo is gorgeous!" Her mother stroked it with her fingertips, causing Moana to wince. "Oh, sorry!" Her mother retracted her hand and described the tattoo to Moana, who never would see it for herself, because you know, no mirrors.
"It's a giant hawk, whose wings depict you and Maui holding hands, surrounded by children." Sina laughed. "Is there something you want to tell me, Moana? Are you finally pregnant?"
"Ew! No, mom!" Moana coughed, not wanting to sound like a spoiled teenager. "I guess that the medicine man didn't quite get my vision, but that's ok, I wonder what Maui will think? He will probably laugh so hard he will shake the volcano awake!"
Suddenly, Maui's booming voice echoed through the island. "HONEYYYY, I'M HOOOMMMEEE." Moana rolled her eyes, he was back.
Nani, Moana's sister, piped up. "Well why don't you ask him yourself?"
More Maui/Moana fluff in the next chapter. Tbh I kinda want to make a lemon chapter just because every lemon I read on here is so unrealistic and kinda sucks, I want to write one that is painfully real about their first time having sex together…. But I kinda want to keep it clean. What do y'all think? I'm thinking I'll keep it clean, leave it to the imagination, who wants to write about sex when I could actually spend that time having sex? Or eating? Or building up romantic tension in my writing?
