A little ways away from the island he had left, which he jokingly referred to as Fire Island since the whole fire thing and not knowing what exactly could have caused it, Maui had felt the water and was now trying to pull up the island he had found after feeling the water was warm and dropping his fish hook into the water.

As he pulled up the island, he did the same exact thing he started to do with the last island he'd pulled up since he discovered that was easiest for him and much easier on his back.

Seeing the top of this island in less than five minutes and the weight being lighter than the last island he pulled, he realized this island must be a small island. But that didn't matter to him since not every mortal needed a large island.


Twenty-five minutes had passed and Maui had finally pulled up the island, which seemed to have plenty of greenery like trees and such. Maui was confused as to how the plants seemed to be able to live completely submerged under water.

How is that even possible? He thought, It's almost like something out of a fantasy! Heck, maybe even a cartoon!

He then remembered Te Fiti and suddenly realized that she could be the one keeping the plants alive, forming some sort of barrier to protect the plants as they were underwater. But after he stole the Heart, how did they remain protected by the barrier if there even was one?

He found out that Te Kā was actually Te Fiti after Moana had finally restored the Heart with his help. But one-thousand years ago, he had no idea Te Kā even was Te Fiti and never even thought about the possibility! Besides, his back was turned on the island, so he had no idea the goddess Te Fiti had disappeared before becoming what he thought was a "lava monster" since it had appeared in front of him to keep him from getting away with the Heart.

After the thought, he figured that the ocean had kept the barrier around the islands despite it becoming unsafe for people to sail on, since the wrath of Te Kā only affected the mortals' ability to sail since the ocean was always full of huge, dangerous waves that could capsize Wayfinders' boats or push them away in another direction.

He wasn't too aware of the damage him stealing the Heart of Te Fiti had done since crashing on the island, but he remembered having nightmares about it from time to time before suddenly jolting awake and breathing heavily, the nightmares having to do with him sailing before a large wave came and knocked him off his boat, causing him to fall into the water only to be pulled down forcefully by the water with no way to swim back up to the surface. Then his nightmare would end.

He often told himself it was just a nightmare though, nothing serious. Though he had no idea it was true until late one night when he couldn't get to sleep and was sitting on the rocks looking out at the ocean, a thunderstorm started up. He had no idea it would be his last night on the island he called a "filthy pile of pebbles", since the next day he'd meet Moana.

As he remembered all that stuff, he didn't realize how long he'd been standing on the edge of the boat until the ocean reached out a tentacle and poked his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts as he shook his head.

"What?" He asked as he looked back down at it. The ocean then made a gesture as if reminding him of his plan to visit Moana, the gesture being a waving motion with its tentacle then splashing up at him as if it was throwing something back at him.

Moana... Maui remembered, eyes wide as he looked at the ocean, remembering when the ocean once threw the Heart of Te Fiti back at him and the time it threw Hei Hei into Moana's arms when he had gotten the hang of using his hook again, That's right! I was going to visit her and tell her about the island I'd pulled up earlier! He then smiled at the ocean and said, "Thanks buddy."

The ocean then gave him a nod before going back into the water as Maui pulled the rope attached to the sheet and began to sail back to Moana's island.


As Maui approached Moana's island in his boat, he noticed her standing on the shore, looking out at the ocean as if awaiting his return. Maui smiled at her and shouted, "Hey, kid!" This seemed to get her attention as a big smile quickly spread across her face.

"Maui!" She called excitedly, the biggest smile he had ever seen now on her face as she quickly walked as close to the water as possible, "I've been waiting for you to return! How have you been?"

Still the same girl, I see. Maui thought with a smile as he reached the shore and got off his boat to hug her, You know, despite being Chieftess, she hasn't changed much.

Before he could walk over to hug her, Moana rushed over and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

"Maui, I've missed you..." She said, gently pulling away from the hug, "After we last saw each other...I thought you were going to be gone for a while, especially since-"

"I know kid, I've been gone a few days." Maui interrupted with a playful roll of his eyes, "And I know how much you must have missed my big muscles and beautiful, silky hair." Moana just rolled her eyes and giggled.

"Yeah, sure." She replied playfully, "I did miss that, but only in your dreams." Maui chuckled.

"Ouch." He said before looking up at a palm tree that had some ripe coconuts on it. Moana giggled at his reaction before seeing what he was looking at.

Hmm, I'm kinda hungry right now. Maui thought, still staring up at the palm tree, Maybe I could have a coconut to hold me off until lunch. Realizing how hungry he actually was, he then thought, No, I don't think a coconut would even hold me off. I need some real food... In my belly! He then chuckled inwardly to himself, remembering the time he told Hei Hei that he was going to love him in his belly.

"Is something wrong Maui?" Moana asked, seeing him still staring at the palm tree. Maui then snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her.

"No, I'm fine kid." Maui replied, smiling at her, "I'm...just a little hungry is all." Moana smiled gently at him.

"Well why don't we go into the village and get you some food then?" Moana suggested, "How about that?" At this, Maui began to feel excited, but decided to contain it to the best of his ability.

"Yes please." Maui said, unable to keep the excitement from showing up a little in his voice, "I'd love - I mean, greatly appreciate - that." Moana giggled softly, knowing her best friend in the whole world was trying to be professional.

"Then come with me." Moana said, still smiling as she began to walk towards the village. Maui noticed something was different about how she had said that and how she sounded.

Instead of saying, "C'mon!" and trying to drag him along or something like that, she sounded calm. He couldn't help smiling as he followed her, knowing in his heart that she'd make a great Chieftess.


Maui and Moana both arrived in the village and as they walked through it, Maui started to catch the attention of all the villagers. He didn't know if he liked the attention he was getting as he walked through a crowd of people who believed in and worshipped him, but on any other occasion he'd admire the attention. But he wasn't so sure about now. He was actually worried about being surrounded by people and asked a bunch of questions or being asked for his autograph, since he knew he was extremely popular with her people.

Maui decided to just ignore them - as much as he hated ignoring his fans - and continued to follow Moana, keeping his eyes on her so he wouldn't worry too much about the large crowd watching him pass through. Having tons of fans was one thing that was tough about being a demigod. But it was also one of the blessings of being one. It all just depended on what he was doing or trying to do. Right now, being a popular demigod with fans crowding him and asking for either his autograph or something else was not a blessing.

After they had made it through the crowd, Maui couldn't help but breathe out a quiet sigh of relief, partly because the people in the crowd hadn't stopped him. He looked around, trying to find any nearby places which could serve food before spotting a table with food on top of it.

Holy... He thought, but trailed off. He just stared at the different fruits and meats that were on the table, like pork, chicken and...steak? He smiled as he rubbed his hands together excitedly.

"You know, it is almost lunchtime." Moana said, gesturing to the areas where people were cooking the food, "And here you were looking at a palm tree saying you were hungry." She crossed her arms as she playfully rolled her eyes with a smile.

Trying to hide his embarrassment, Maui said, "Uh, well...I didn't know. Like, I wasn't really sure... You know, that's what living on a filthy pile of pebbles for one-thousand years does to ya." Moana just snorted and rolled her eyes playfully once again, her smile never leaving her face, obviously amused by Maui's excuse.

"Yeah. Right..." She said, looking at him again, "Next thing you're gonna tell me is that the gods granted you magic powers that you can still use even without your hook." Maui looked shocked.

"How did you know?" He asked her, his mouth hanging open. Moana giggled.

"Lucky guess...?" She said with a shrug. "I don't really know. Unless I'm actually a demigoddess who has the power to read minds." She then added playfully as she pointed both her fingers to her head. Maui snorted as he tried to hold in a laugh.

"Yeah, no." He said, a giggle escaping him as he spoke, "That can't be possible." Moana just looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh? And why not, Mr. Human-Turned-Demigod?" She asked with a bit of playful sassiness in her tone, her arms once again crossed, "Weren't you human before?"

"No- I mean, yeah, I was!" Maui said, holding his hands up, "But the gods have to grant you special powers and, well...they have to find you worthy of being a demigoddess." Moana snorted and rolled her eyes.

"So you're saying I'm not worthy of being a demigoddess?" She asked, sounding serious but with a hint of playfulness in her voice.

"Hey, I didn't say you are unworthy." Maui said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm just saying that the gods have to find you worthy. And I'm sure you are worthy of being one but you have a village to run, so..." He shrugged.

"So?" Moana asked, putting her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow as she smirked at him, "I can double-task."

"Look, being a demigod requires going other places besides your own village." Maui explained, "So even though you say you can double-task, it'd be almost impossible to lead your village and help other islands' villages too. I mean, I occasionally visit you from time to time but I still do my job of pulling up islands and helping people." He then suddenly remembered why he had visited her in the first place. "Speaking of helping people, I found an island that was huge before extinguishing a fire on another island." Moana looked shocked.

"An island fire?!" She asked, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open out of shock, "How did that happen?!" Maui shrugged.

"I dunno." He replied, seeing the food being put out finally, "I couldn't tell what had caused it, and if it was an object or something, then...it may have burnt up in the fire because I didn't see anything where I had extinguished it."

"How big was it?" Moana then asked, looking like she knew something about it and was trying to remember the details.

"Well it wasn't that big." Maui said with a shrug, "It looked like it had started not too long ago, like maybe an hour or so... Or maybe thirty minutes."

Random island fire... An hour or maybe thirty minutes... Is this island...cursed?! Moana thought before looking up at Maui. "Take me to where it is." She said in a serious tone, "After lunch we can go." Not wanting to seem like he was questioning her, Maui just nodded.

I wonder why we're going there. He thought, beginning to walk towards the food, Is there something going on there? Did the island catch fire randomly? And if so, what could have caused it? Maui had this weird feeling in his gut telling him he didn't want to know...as if it already knew. He gulped.


After Maui had eaten lunch, he walked to the boat and checked the supplies. Not like he really needed to. He knew they probably wouldn't need any supplies since the island wasn't too far away. He just figured he'd do something to get his mind off that bad butterfly feeling in his stomach.

Suddenly he remembered getting it once as Moana held the Heart of Te Fiti up to him and close to his face, him believing it was cursed and telling her to get it away from him. He shuddered at the memory, not only because he was scared of it, but because his gut was telling him the island was most likely cursed. He sighed, turning around only to see someone running up to him.

Out of surprise and from being startled, he gasped and held his chest, letting out a few heavy breaths before calming down and realizing it was Moana.

Not wanting to seem like there was anything wrong, he leaned against the boat before smiling nervously and saying, "Heeyy, Moana! What's up? You ready to go to that island?" He then thought, 'Cause I'm sure not!

"Are...you okay?" Moana asked, looking confused, "Because usually when you greet me you're like, 'Hey, kid!'" Maui just sighed.

"Look kid, I have a bad gut feeling about that island now." He explained, looking down and gently kicking the sand, "I mean, I wanted to ask you why we were going...but I didn't wanna seem like I was questioning you. Then after that, I got a bad gut feeling about the island. The same bad feeling I got when you showed me the Heart of Te Fiti on the boat after we first met... I think the island might be cursed." Moana's eyes widened as she realized something:

Not only was Maui afraid of the Heart of Te Fiti, but he was afraid of anything he believed was cursed. She didn't know why, nor did the stories say he had a bad experience with curses before. He just seemed to be afraid of them for some unknown reason...and she wanted to find out why.


Okay so I figured this would be a good place to end the chapter (since it's already at 3K words) and I hope you enjoyed! I had to figure out where the plot was going so I didn't publish the story after making the first chapter like I normally do since I had no idea where the plot would lead. So I just decided to wait until I finally got to a place where I could finally give it a name and a description.

This is all for now, and I will be starting on the third chapter. So until then, well...just rate or leave a review, but only if you want to or feel like it.