Chapter Five: Finding Maui
"Woooooooooaaaaahhhhhh…" Moana said, as I stepped off the sailboat. "That… is definitely the fanciest ship I've ever seen."
The Northuldra helped us load the ship with the supplies Moana had gathered in baskets. Moana took them down to the cabin as Honeymaren and Yelana pulled me aside. Honeymaren gave me a big hug and told me to watch out for myself, before it was Yelana's turn.
"Elsa, the Northuldra have decided to head back south towards the forest's edge until this is cleared up. But more importantly…" she said, stepping closer. I was rather surprised when she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug as well. "… do be careful, Elsa. The forest wouldn't be the same without you."
Surprised as I was, I graciously thanked her and assured her I would be safe. I stepped onto the sailboat, and Moana was already exploring the small ship as I asked Gale for a current to sweep us out to sea. She stood behind the wheel, eyes taking in everything.
"Elsa, what is this?" she said, giving the wheel a cautious turn. Upon seeing the ship turn as well, her eyes widened a moment more, before she grinned. "Cooool…"
She spun the wheel around, and the ship swerved, nearly throwing me off-balance. Moana suddenly seemed much more in her element than I had yet seen. She began scurrying up the mast, taking in the view as she left the wheel unmanned. She grabbed a rope in her teeth as she swung about like a monkey, tying knots and furling sails to best pick up the wind Gale provided.
"Wow, this is actually pretty easy!" she said, landing behind the wheel again.
"Well, you certainly make it seem so." I said, laughing. I turned to the front of the ship. The sun was already about to set, and I yawned.
"I'm going to go below-decks for a little while, Moana." I said, heading down into the cabin. I avoided the baskets that Moana had put down here, before sitting down on the cot. The gentle rocking of the ship told me that even Nokk was tired tonight. The waters would be smooth for Moana.
Spirits like me didn't need too much rest. We tended to stay awake a lot of the night. But it was still crucial to get some sleep.
Just as I was about to close my eyes, I heard a small chirping sort of sound. I looked down at the baskets Moana had brought.
Bruni sat on the wicker lids, staring at me with his big blue eyes.
"A stowaway, eh?" I said, grinning. "Well, c'mere. You can sleep here for the night."
Bruni leapt down from his perch and scuttled up the wall until he came to rest on my hand. Steam rose, and his tiny reptilian body was hot to the touch, but I was used to it by now. I closed my eyes to fall asleep.
It only felt like a few moments later when I woke. It was darker than before, and the ship felt… tilted.
I sat up, and Bruni shot awake as well. He seemed to always have more energy than the rest of the Spirits, maybe with the exception of Nokk. I stood and stretched, before heading up to see how Moana was doing.
She was asleep, leaning against the wheel as she snored lightly. I grinned, and walked over to her.
"Moana?" I said, tapping her. She sighed, but did not wake up. "Moana."
She cracked her eyes open. I could tell that she was only half-there. I sighed.
"Moana, you fell asleep. What direction are we supposed to be headed?"
Moana slumped, and tiredly pointed in a direction off to my left. I eased her from the wheel and helped her slump down into the cabin. I was honestly a little surprised that her energy had held out this long. All the normal people had to sleep at some point or other, and she seemed to be one of those kinds of people that use up energy as soon as they get it.
I finished helping her to bed before I went up and manned the wheel myself. Gale had long since gone off to do his own thing, and Nokk was so silent the water looked like smoothed glass. This wouldn't be too hard.
Bruni perched on my shoulder as I looked around. "Bruni, did you see which way she pointed again?"
The Spirit of Fire looked around for a moment again as well. Finally, he seemed to recognize something or other and pointed it out to me. I turned the wheel, and redirected the ship.
This felt like it was about to be a long day, but I didn't know why.
Daylight was beginning to break, when I heard a thumping from belowdecks.
Moana scurried up onto deck, looking around for a minute. When she saw that I was at the wheel, she relaxed a little. She walked up from me, and I happily relinquished the wheel to her. Whatever she saw in this sailing, I didn't share her excitement.
"What happened? How did I end up down there?"
"You fell asleep at the wheel last night. I helped you down there, after you told me which way to go."
Moana frowned. She took a bit of rope in her hands, and climbed up onto the railing on the side of the ship.
"Moana what are you—" I asked, but she jumped off before I could ask her what she was doing.
She reappeared a second later, climbing up the rope she had used.
"We're off-course. Quick fix." She said, turning the wheel a quarter-turn as she shook her hand to get off the excess water. The ship readjusted, and we were on the right track again.
"How did you learn to sail?" I asked, finding a good place to sit for a minute. My legs were killing me.
"Maui taught me. I had to… well, I had to bully him into it though."
I could feel my eyes sparkling with my amusement. "How did you manage to do that?!"
Moana's eyes gleamed with mischief, and she grinned. "He may or may not have been under the influence of a sleeping dart."
I smiled. "Not the easiest instructor to find yourself with?"
Moana raises an eyebrow at me. "You, are a very perceptive person, Elsa of Arendelle."
I shrugged. "It's a gift."
Moana turned back to her sailing. Bruni perched on top of my head, stretching in the sunlight.
It was a few hours before Moana said anything.
"Hey Elsa, you might wanna brace yourself," she said.
I opened my eyes from my light doze.
"Wha—" I began, but suddenly, the ship swerved sharply. A shadow felled over me as I gasped.
The spire that we had seen in Ahtohallan.
The ship swung around, coming up to the side of a small harbor-like protrusion of rock, and Moana leapt forward.
"Howdoyoustopthisthing?!" she asked as she looked for something or other to stop the ship. Obviously, she was used to much lighter ships. Ones she could stop by herself.
I waved my hand, and ice froze the ship in place.
"Done." I said, standing.
Moana grinned as we stepped off the ship. I looked up… and up, and up, and up.
"Maui's in there?!" I said, feeling a moment of vertigo.
"Most likely." Moana said. She began scrambling up the vertical rock face as I watched. "With any luck, he didn't just pass right by this place."
I reached into my powers and extended my palms. My frost coated the sides of the mountain, and a spiral staircase rose up around the sides, leading to the top. Moana got down from the rock face and walked over to the stairs.
"Geez, must be nice to have magic." Moana laughed as she began climbing.
"Sometimes, anyway." I said, smiling. I began to climb up behind her as we went along. My goodness, this was a very, very tall spire.
Finally we reached the top, but when we got there, Moana's face fell.
"Oh. I forgot about this part." She said.
There in the center of the top of the spire sat an intricately-carved image of a gruesome face. There didn't seem to be any other ways… into anywhere.
"Well, do you think we should wait for him?" Moana asked, sitting down. "The only thing I've seen able to open this entrance is Maui, and I don't even know what he said to open it."
I looked around me for a moment before seeing a thin crack running along the jawline of the face. As though the jaw of this thing could open up…
"Wait, are you telling me that this is a locked entrance?" I asked. "The mouth opens?"
Moana nodded. "But I don't think we can—"
I looked out over the water. Hopefully he could hear me.
The four-note melody of Ahtohallan rang out over the water as I sang into the wind. I could feel Gale rustle my hair, carrying my message over the waves.
He was relatively quick today, and the message made its way to the Enchanted Forest, because the spire began rumbling. Moana backed up, standing on the lip of the carvings. I followed suit as the mouth began rumbling, opening wide and revealing a long, long, long drop. Moana gaped at me.
"What the—"
"Earth Spirit." I answer, looking down. My face would've paled, but I don't know if my skin was really capable of paling much more. "That's a really long way down."
Moana scoffed. "My friend Maui would have said that it's a lot farther down than it looks, but it's not that far. There's water at the bottom."
She tucked her knees up and jumped into the hole, hair rustling as she fell down. Not wanting to see her go alone down to who-knows-what down there, I jumped after, following close behind.
Like she had said, there was water at the bottom. It pulled at my dress, the current dragging me down fast.
But just when I thought my lungs were about to burst, I was suddenly falling… out of the water?
In a world I never knew existed, water hung over me as the ceiling of a great cavern. The landscape was colorful, but immediately I saw how deadly it was. Pink flowers ate whatever came near that moved. Mountains shifted, as I realized they were giant sea creatures.
Moana was hurtling towards the ground faster than I or she would probably like. I reached out, and my powers responded.
A slick ice platform appeared below us, leading into a gentle slide to the bottom. Once we were both safe and unharmed, I dismissed the ice.
"Soooo…" Moana began, looking around at the large expanse in front of us. "I don't know where Maui would be past this poi—"
There was a giant geyser explosion to our left, steam rising all the way up until it reached the watery ceiling above us. As much as it startled me, I was more startled by what I saw standing next to the geyser.
A strange black shape that looked as though it were wearing an ornate mask. It was moving towards us erratically, and Moana backed up, her expression becoming afraid for the first time since I'd seen her.
"Nononono, not one of those." She said, backing away faster and faster. "Last time I saw one I got lucky!"
I raise an eyebrow and point at the creature. Immediately, it becomes completely engulfed in ice, unable to move at all. Moana stares at the block of ice for a moment, her jaw slack.
"Oh." She says, relaxing again. "That's a nice bonus."
I chuckle for a second, before I suddenly hear something behind me. Whatever passes for plant-life down here rustles, and I instinctively turn towards it, hands beginning to steam as this tropic air meets my ice.
A large hand breaks through first, and this is followed by a large bone hook, a giant foot, and finally a face.
Maui.
"Hey, it's 'Chosen one'!" he says, eyes flicking between Moana and me. "Who brought another mortal into Lalotai."
He says it like he's told her time and time again. I crack a quick smile before standing tall.
"I am Elsa of the Enchanted Forest, and I am definitely not quite mortal."
Maui gives me a 'once-over', before scoffing.
"Nah. You don't look like any of the gods to me." he says, shrugging. "Although now I do suppose I should probably help you two get out of here again."
Moana scoffs. "Maui, you really should have more polite manners than that to Elsa. She's a Spirit."
Maui once more turns back to me, frowning, and extends his forefinger. He pokes me in the head, and I nearly lurch back. Moana wasn't kidding. This man is definitely super-strong. Maui scoffs again.
"Princess, I'm pretty sure nobody can touch a spirit." Maui said, laughing. "Now hang on, I'll get you two out again."
"Maui, we came to—AAAGH! Put me down!" Moana begins, as Maui simply picks her up with one hand and carries her over his shoulder to the nearest geyser. He eyes me.
"You coming, or do you wanna stay down here in the Realm of Monsters?" he asks gruffly.
I compose myself. It wasn't exactly the welcome I was hoping for. How the heck had Moana befriended this man? He seemed very unsocial.
But then I remembered what Moana had said. 'He's not so bad if you can beat him in a fight, know him, or both.'
Well one way or another I had to get his help. I walked over, standing on the lip of the geyser.
With excellent timing, the geyser exploded, catching me, Maui, and Moana in its spray and sending us rocketing up towards the water. Just before I crash into it, I take a deep breath and call out.
"Nokk!" is all I can say before I'm suddenly engulfed in water. A current comes up from under me though and we are all rocketed upwards, until we're literally spit out of the ocean and onto the rocky harbor where the boat bobs gently nearby. Bruni glances at me from over the side, and begins clambering towards me over the sand. Maui sits up, and Moana untangles herself from him.
"Maui!" she says, though her eyes sparkle with some amusement. "That's not why we came to find you!"
Maui stands, and throws his hands into the air. "Not interested on a quest!"
He stops when he sees Bruni, who looks up at him with a frown.
"Uh, hi, small blue lizard?" Maui says, trying to step over him. Bruni suddenly sets himself ablaze, and Maui retracts his mildly burnt foot with a howl.
"Owowowowowowow!" he says, hopping back towards Moana. "Why are you always enforcing stuff with magic?!"
Bruni clambers up my shoulder, still eyeing Maui. "Actually, this time it's me asking you. I need your help, and Moana has suggested I come to you."
Maui sighed deeply and looked at the sky. "Is this why you let me off the island? Continually doing errands?"
The sky thankfully does not respond to him. If Gale had suddenly had a voice, I might just have lost it right then.
Maui looks back at me. "Where did Moana find you? You definitely don't look like you're from around anywhere near here."
I conceded this point. Next to the two of them, I looked downright porcelain. Bruni settled down as I walk over to Maui.
"I'm from Arendelle, but I need your help. The Enchanted Forest is darkening, and Moana said that you knew how to stop it."
Maui shoots Moana a look, who gives him a shrug in response.
"I don't know how, but her forest has the darkness." Moana says.
Maui sighed, before walking down to the seashore. "I'm still not interested. And I'm pretty sure whatever blue fire-lizard-thing you have there can't come into the water, sooo—"
Maui turns into a fish and swims off.
Moana sighs, walking over to me. "I'm sorry, but I don't know if we can get him to—"
It isn't a moment later that Fish-Maui is spat back onto the beach, as Nokk emerges from the water, his neighing-laughter reaching my ears. Fish-Maui manages somehow to scowl before turning into a large hawk. But it still doesn't work, because Gale blows against him, and won't let him into the air. Maui slumps down onto the beach on his back again, defeated and once more in human form.
"UGH! Why do you always have some weird force of nature helping?!" he says, gesturing towards Moana and me. He grunts and sits up, sighing. "Fine. What quest are we going on now?!"
"Well, we should probably go ask Te Fiti what's going on…" Moana begins. Maui laughs.
"Princess, how exactly are you planning on waking up Te Fiti, hm? I woke her up by stealing her heart, and paid for it by waiting on a stupid little island for a thousand years." Maui said, lying down on the white sand. "She's not gonna just wake up because we come knocking at her door, asking politely what the heck is going on."
"Well, if you've got a better idea, then let's hear it, or at least let's hear it on the wa—" Moana began, but was interrupted a moment later.
The ground began shaking.
Bruni was holding on tight as I was thrown around a little, the ground shaking me off my feet.
"What is happening?!" I ask, throwing my arms out to steady myself.
"Something that is definitely not good." Maui said, gripping his fishhook tightly.
I hear the sound of breaking water behind me, followed by Moana's squeaking yelp. I turn around.
Two, ginormous eyes are peeking out from the water, staring at me. As the eyes begin to rise, I gasp.
It's a crab. The largest crab I have literally ever seen. On his back was enough gold to finance Arendelle for the next thirty years, at least. I heard Maui curse under his breath.
"Tamatoa." He grunted. "Wanting round two?"
Ah. So this… thing, was Tamatoa. The crab continued to rise from the ocean, until he was nearly on top of us. When he spoke, I began to freak out for a few moments. His voice was huge, and deep. It had a whimsical rhythm to it, strangely. But not that it was made any more pleasant by it.
"As I recall, Maui, I was getting the better of a certain semi-demi-mini-god." Tamatoa taunted. "Anyways, I heard you were back in town, and I wanted to see you drown."
I blinked, before looking between the two opponents. I leaned over to Moana. "Does this crab always talk like he's about to erupt into song?"
"You have no idea." Moana whispered back.
Tamatoa must have had good… hearing orifices, to hear me. He scowled and craned his head down, nearly coming parallel to mine. With his right claw, he picked me up with little to no effort at all, and studied me closely as I tried to get out of his crushing grip. My arms were pinned to my sides, making it nearly impossible to shoot my ice.
"Who is this insolent little human?" Tamatoa asked, squeezing only a little, I assumed. "And why must she ask for her—doomin'? Is that a word?"
I rolled my eyes internally. Wow. He actually was trying to think of ways to speak in song. Maui almost facepalmed.
"No, crabcakes. Now shut up and fight m—" Maui began, but Tamatoa began laughing, before setting me down. Moana gave me a sympathetic look, rubbing her ribs. She definitely felt my pain.
"No, no no, I can't fight you. Once bitten, twice shy…" he said, gesturing to a stump of a leg. I had no idea what the actual story behind that was, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know. "But the humans must die. I challenge them to fight for their lives, before we make our dives."
Maui looked very, very confused.
"Why on earth would I let you just—" he began, but Tamatoa moved like lightning.
In an instant, Maui was out of sight, blasted off the ground by Tamatoa's claw, and soon he was out of sight. Tamatoa looked down on me and Moana and began laughing.
"I can't stand that dude. But now, perhaps I can enjoy my seafood." Tamatoa said, menacingly. His claw began to move down towards us.
I frowned. He was gonna try to eat me? Let him try.
Bruni was moving before I was. In a few moments, he had erupted into a tiny dancing flame, and was quickly scattering up Tamatoa's claw, leaving a trail of fire in his wake.
Tamatoa screamed and began flailing around in the water like he had a firecracker tied to his wrist… which I suppose he had. Bruni grew his fiery form until he was nearly as big as Tamatoa. He grappled with the giant crab in his fiery wyvern form. Tamatoa was not having any of that.
In desperation, Tamatoa tried to escape Bruni by diving under the water. Bruni shrunk down, cooling off until he was the little blue lizard I knew and loved once more, perched proudly on my shoulder. With a wave of my hand, I made sure Tamatoa couldn't resurface anywhere nearby.
Or at least I thought.
Tamatoa broke through the thick layer of ice I set down like it was paper. He glowered down at me, but I still met his gaze. The fires that had been all over his carapace were extinguished, but the char-marks wouldn't easily leave. Moana hid behind me, as he tried again to reach down towards us. I held up my hand, and my powers responded, blasting out such a tightly packed funnel of ice and snow that Tamatoa's claws were incapacitated. Just like Moana's initial reaction, Tamatoa's first reaction was to study the sparkling ice encompassing his hand.
"My, my, my, what have we got here?" he asked, forgetting all about me and the ball of wintry power I was amassing behind him. "Looks like a sparkly… shiny…"
"Oh, Tamatoooaaaa…" I said, in a sing-song voice. Tamatoa turned, looking down at me and Moana. "You forgot somethiiiiing…"
Tamatoa finally noticed the ball of ice and snow above me, swirling like a whirling hurricane.
"A—" Tamatoa said, finally realizing that I was channeling my power into the wintry attacks. "—A human with… magic?"
"Wrong. Next time, think twice before attacking the enchanted Spirits." I said. Bruni growled in agreement as I launched my super-sized snowball at Tamatoa.
It hit him head on, snapping his head backward like it had been shot with a cannon. As the snow broke on contact with the crab's head, Gale lent me a little force to smash Tamatoa back down into the water, down into whatever under-world was below. The land of monsters. The land his kind belonged.
When the water finally calmed again, I heard a voice behind us. I spun around, hands steaming, but I only saw Maui staring at me with his eyes wide.
"Uh, wow. That… that was…" he said, before trying to shake off his expression of bewilderment. "That… was…"
"Maui…" Moana said, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, it was impressive and you know it."
Maui grudgingly admitted that it had been cool.
And just like that, I found that what Moana had said was true.
I beat Maui in a fight he couldn't compete in.
We left soon after the fight, but as we left, I could almost hear the crab's voice, resonating through the water.
"Where does he keep finding these people?!"