Chapter 3
More
Gramma Sae lead Katniss to a rock wall on the side of the mountain. "You brought me to a wall." Katniss sighed.
Sae laughed. "You've been told all our people's stories... but one." Sae removed a stone from the wall and it collapsed revealing a cave. "Do you really think out people stayed within the reef?"
Katniss stuck her head in the mouth of the cave but it was too dark to see anything. "What's in there?"
"The answers to the questions you're asking yourself." Sae smiled. "The answers to who you're meant to be." Sae gave her granddaughter a torch. "Go inside, bang the drum, and find out."
Katniss went inside the cave and saw a boat with a swirling pattern on it. She moved toward it and reached to touch the wood. Katniss wondered why they had all those boats if they didn't cross the reef. Her grandmother told her to bang the drum. She moved away from the boat and noticed an even bigger one, she climbed onto the boat and noticed a drum. She took the mallets and banged on the drum. Then the boat lurched forward and Katniss had a vision.
Her ancestors were sailing past the reef on this boat they were singing a song.
"Tatou o tagata folau vala'auina
Le atua o sami tele e o mai
Ua ava'e le lu'itau e lelei
Tapenapena
Olo, olo vaka
Aue, aue
Nuku i mua
Te manulele e tataki e
Aue, aue
Te fenua, te mālie
Nae ko hakilia kaiga e"
Her ancestors sailed on the ocean, and they were good at it too.
"We read the wind and the sky when the sun is high
We sail the length of the seas on the ocean breeze
At night we name every star
We know where we are
We know who we are, who we are
Aue, aue
We set a course to find
A brand new island everywhere we roam
Aue, aue
We keep our island in our mind
And when it's time to find home
We know the way
Aue, aue
We are explorers reading every sign
We tell the stories of our elders in a never ending chain
Aue, aue
Te fenua, te mālie
Nā heko hakilia
We know the way"
The vision ended with the song and Katniss stood there processing what happened. "We were voyagers..." Katniss finally said. Her ancestors were voyagers. Why couldn't she be one? Katniss ran out of the cave shouting in excitement. "We were voyagers! We were voyagers!" She stopped by her Gramma Sae. "Why'd we stop?"
"Maui..." Sae said. "When he stole from the mother island, darkness fell. Te Ka awoke, monsters lurked, and ships stopped coming back. The ancient chiefs forbid leaving the reef. The darkness sucked the life from island to ancestors." Katniss frowned. "But one day, somebody will journey past the reef, find Maui, deliver him across the great ocean to restore the heart of Te Feti." Sae took Katniss' hand. "I was there that day, the ocean choose you." She motioned to the ocean as it came to life before them. Katniss remembered the ocean coming to life when she was a child.
"I... I thought it was a dream." She said in awe right before the ocean splashed her.
Sae laughed and pointed to the night sky. "Our ancestors believed Maui lies there, at the bottom of the hook."
"But why did the ocean chose me?" Katniss asked. "I don't even know how to make it past the reef... I should ask dad." Sae watched Katniss run back to the village where her father was having a meeting. "Father!" Katniss ran inside. "We have to sail across the reef!"
"What?"
"There's a cave filled with boats," Katniss explained. "We can sail across the reef, find Maui, make him restore the heart of Te Feti, and save the island."
"Katniss-" Her father started.
"The ocean chose me!" Katniss said.
The chief marched outside toward the cave. "I should've burned those boats a long time ago."
"Dad," Katniss pleaded. "Just listen to me- we can voyage."
"The ocean-"
"Chief!" A villager called to him. "It's your mother."
"Gramma," Katniss whispered.
The chief and his daughter were lead to where Gramma Sae was laying down, the chief stopped to talk to the healer, while Katniss sat by her side.
"You must leave now," Gramma Sae said.
"Not now," Katniss sniffed. "I can't."
"You must," Sae reached for the necklace she'd been wearing. "Follow the fishhook." She took the necklace off. "And when you find Maui, you grab him by the ear." Sae opened the necklace, inside was the heart of Te Feti. "You say I am Katniss of Motinui. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Feti.." Sae closed the necklace and placed it in Katniss' hands.
"I can't leave you." Katniss cried.
Sae took Katniss' hand. "There is no where you could go that I won't be with you."
Katniss kissed her grandma, stood and walked away quietly. When she got into the trees she heard someone say that her grandmother had passed away. Katniss stopped walking, tears running down her cheeks. Katniss began to sing a sad song.
"She showed me day after day
How to find my way
She taught me how to rely
On the wind and sky
She raised me to love the sea
She believed in me."
Katniss continued walking. Her feet felt heavy and her heart ached.
"I know we used to be bold
From the tales she told
I know she left me prepared
From the things she shared
There was more she wanted to see..."
Katniss stopped walking and ran to the cave her gramma showed her earlier. She looked at the boats remembering her voyaging ancestors.
"Staring at the barrier together on the shore
We practiced all the names of everyone who came before me
Voyagers, warriors, ancestors in our line
Their blood runs in mine"
Katniss remembered the boat with the swirling design on the sail, it looked like the heart of Te Feti. She knew she had to take it. Katniss secured the necklace holding the heart around her neck and moved toward the boat.
"She always knew more
She hungered for more
She taught me more..."
Katniss wiped away her tears.
"And now I know
She'd want me to go"
Katniss pushed the boat into the water, jumped on the boat, and guide it to an opening in the cave leading to the open ocean.
"Okay," Katniss breathed. "I can do this. I just have to remember what Gramma taught me."
"To navigate, you have to keep your island in your mind
You'll know what lies ahead if you remember what's behind you
Want to find the answers to the questions that you still don't know
You just have to go, find more
I wanna know more
There's always more
How can I stay?
She taught me the way"
As the boat crossed the reef Katniss remembered where her grandmother told her she'd find Maui. She found the fishhook constellation in the sky and sailed toward it.
"Every turn I take
Every trail I track
Every path I make
Every road leads back to the sea
I am sailing to the edge of the sea
And it calls me...
Katniss go now
Katniss don't stall
Don't worry 'bout how
Just answer the all of the sea
There's nothing there holding me"
Katniss looked over her shoulder at her island, her home as it shrunk in the distance. She knew her father would worry about her.
"If I had time
I'd say goodbye..."
Katniss looked away from Motunui and promised herself she wouldn't look back until she restored the heart of Te Feti.
"I will cross the divide, I will ride
I will see what's on the other side
With the ocean as my guide, on the tide
I will go where no one's ever been before
There's always more"
Encouraged Katniss sailed throughout the night and practiced what Gramma Sae told her to say when she found Maui. "I am Katniss of Motunui. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Feti." She said. "I am Katniss of Motunui. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Feti." She repeated it over and over careful not to forget a single word.
Everything was going fine, but conditions can change in a blink of an eye out on the ocean. The wind picked up, knocking Katniss' canoe over, Katniss clung to the overturned vessel and tried to remain calm. The ocean chose her. "Um... ocean," Katniss said. "I could really use some help..." The storm picked up, the waves grew more violent, and Katniss hit her head and passed out.
I used two songs in this chapter, the first one is from Moana and is called We Know The Way, and the second song is an outtake from Moana called More (Reprise). I apologize if any of the lyrics in We Know The Way are spelled incorrectly, every where I check words are spelled differently. Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, tell me what you thought of it in the reviews.
