This upcoming week is going to be a bit busy for me, but I'll do my best to update as often as I can. I am particularly excited about this chapter though. Please read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't actually need to state this again, do I? I don't own Moana.

Chapter 4 - Mortal Danger

Moana's P.O.V.

Maui is crazy. He's gone mad and I couldn't be happier about it. When he told me his plan my first thought was that this was a suicide mission, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it might actually work.

We're going to bring my people back from the dead.

Pua and Heihei tried to stowaway on my boat, but I caught them before we set out. Pua snorted sadly when I pushed her back to the village.

"We should have kept the pig, it'd have made a good snack later," Maui tested the current and adjusted our direction.

I rolled my eyes. Honestly, does he not understand the concept of pets? "Pua isn't for eating."

He raised his eyebrow at me, "We can't eat the chicken, we can't eat the pig, do you eat anything other than coconuts and fish?"

"I eat chicken and pig, just not Pua or Heihei."

He shot me a questioning look, "If you say so."

I shrugged and pulled out some nuts to munch on. We had quite a journey ahead of us. "Exactly how far away is it anyway," I questioned, popping one into my mouth

"Five days southward, if the wind stays behind us," He closed one eye and raised his hand to the sky, measuring our location by the stars. We'd been sailing all day and night already.

I usually preferred to be the one setting the direction, but I didn't complain when Maui insisted he be the one to get us there. He knew exactly where we were going, and I only had a vague idea. I still watched where we were though, just in case he decides to go off and do whatever it is demigods do after finishing a major heroic deed leaving me to find my way back on my own. I wouldn't put it past him.

I'm not sure when I fell asleep, but I woke up in the morning to a splash in the face. "Ahh!" My arms flailed, trying to swat away what was surely Maui trying to wake me up. Opening my eyes, I saw that he was on the other side of the boat, snoring loudly. He'd fallen asleep draped over the steering oar.

I looked around to see what had splashed me and found a tentacle of water looking up at me. "Did you wake me up?" I asked the ocean.

In response, it dove at Maui, drenching him in seawater. He sputtered and coughed at the rude awakening. After recovering from the initial shock, he glared at the tentacle protruding beside the canoe. I stifled a laugh as he attempted to pull his now dripping mop of hair into a bun.

"Where are we?" I looked around, but found nothing to indicate where we'd drifted off to. Placing my hand in the water I concluded that we were still on course.

The ocean pointed upward towards the sky. My gaze followed and I saw the most peculiar clouds I'd ever seen. They floated directly above us, starting in a perfect circle. Outwards from the center protruded eight massive streaks. They looked a look like giant tentacles.

Maui looked up at the clouds, "We're here," he concluded.

I stared at him, confused. "But this is the middle of the ocean."

"Yep. Now comes the hard part." He glanced down into the water.

Then realization hit. "I think you're forgetting something." I gestured to myself, "I can't breathe underwater."

Maui crossed his arms, "Who said you were coming? You're staying to make sure the boat doesn't drift away."

My jaw dropped. No. No way is he pulling this now. "They're my people!"

"You said it yourself, Curly. You can't breathe underwater. Plus, you don't stand a chance against Kanaloa if things get hairy."

My blood boiled. "I fared just fine against an angry lava monster, and a giant crab when I was just 16 if you don't recall. Oh, yeah, and a swarm of sentient coconut-pirates. Remember that, or does none of that mean anything?"

"That was different," he dismissed, grabbing his hook, ready to dive.

To his surprise I tore it from his grip. "Different how?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. He still looked at me like I was no more than a child. I'm a grown woman for heaven's sake! "Because if you had died in any of those places you would have been fine."

I had no response to that. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His features turned hard as stone. "When a mortal dies, their soul lives on in the underworld; But if a mortal enters the underworld before their time and they get killed, their spirit is also destroyed. If you die down there you cease to exist."

I paused, shocked. "But what about you? What happens if you die down there?"

He just shrugged, "I don't know, to be honest."

I crossed my arms defiantly, "I'm coming."

He raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah, princess? And how do you expect to do that?"

"Don't call me princess."

"Daughter of a chief. Same thing."

"No it's not. And I'm technically the actual chief now."

"Whatever you say, kid."

Then without warning the boat started to turn in circles. The ocean was spinning faster and faster. It was all I could do to keep from falling off. A large whirlpool opened up, pulling us downward toward the ocean floor. So much mist sprayed in my face that it nearly choked me.

Our boat leaned heavily to the side the further down we went. There was so much sea spray that I could only barely make out the sharp rocks littering the ocean floor. We were nearly horizontal and my grip was starting to falter.

"Moana, hold on to this," Maui tossed me the other end of a rope that was tied around his waist, "Whatever you do, don't let go!"

I managed to wrap it securely around my wrist before he dove into the wall of water beside us. Or was it below us? I couldn't tell which direction was what anymore. The rope yanked me off my feet and into the water. I barely had enough time to draw in a breath.

The vortex disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. I found myself tethered to a shark - that I immediately recognized as Maui - at the bottom of the ocean.

It didn't take long for my lungs to start screaming for air. The weight of the water pressed down on me, crushing what little air I had left out of my lungs. We were so far down that even the sun could barely reach this depth. I doubted I'd be able to swim up in time before I drowned. My oxygen-deprived brain barely registered the rope pulling me upward. Maui was trying to save me. How very heroic of him. My grip started to slip.

That was the last thing I thought before I blacked out.