After reluctantly getting on the boat and beginning to set sail for the island, the feeling of uneasiness in his gut grew and he felt his heart beginning to beat faster. As the uneasiness grew, he began to feel sick. He'd felt it before: Nausea. He remembered telling Moana that if she started singing, he was going to throw up. But he didn't really feel nauseous then. And he sounded serious, but he actually wasn't. He was just trying to discourage her from singing, though he felt a little nauseous as he thought about it, and that was before he had told her. But that wasn't actual nausea...or was it?
He remembered being nervous before heading off to steal the Heart of Te Fiti. He remembered tales from people before he had set off to steal it saying that the Heart had a curse where it'd bring misfortune and suffering to those who had stolen it. He'd hoped the legend wasn't true, but he knew that Te Fiti was a goddess. But he just shook the thought of it being cursed and set off, telling himself that maybe she wouldn't mind if he borrowed the Heart, just so he could give humans the power to create life before giving it back.
As soon as he got to Te Fiti's island in his hawk form, he felt very nervous as he started to remember the story about the curse and took a deep breath to calm down before landing and heading off in pursuit of the Heart, telling himself it was only just a scary story meant to scare people out of taking it. As soon as he reached the Heart, as he put his hook on the Heart to dislodge it from its resting spot, he hesitated a bit due to nervousness coming back up before deciding to just get it over with and finally dislodging it.
Then he remembered that's where he felt it: the butterflies and the nausea as he made his escape, common sense telling him to put it back while his own stupidity told him to keep going, since it was for the humans, after all. He wanted to be loved and respected but his actions of giving them everything they needed wasn't enough for them, and by giving the humans the power to create life, there wouldn't be anything they could ask for that he couldn't give!
He remembered his escape - especially his escape from the boulder that landed on him that he simply broke as a blue light glowed from his hook - and recalled that he didn't notice Te Fiti disappearing as he flew to his boat due to his back being turned to her.
He then remembered the bad gut feeling coming back to him stronger than ever as Te Kā rose out of the rocks in front of him, but he wasn't about to let fear - and some old horror story - get in his way as he readied his hook and clutched it tighter in his grasp as he glared at the giant lava monster, ready to fight if necessary. He then remembered it starting to swing its hand at him as he jumped up high in the air, Te Kā's fiery hand meeting his trusty fish hook, the impact causing Maui to let go of his hook, sending it and the Heart under the ocean.
As for Maui, the impact sent him crashing down in the water on the shore of a deserted island with lots of rocks on it, his injuries being not too fatal thanks to being a demigod but he still felt hurt... Badly. He also remembered that he walked with a limp after that.
"Hey." Moana's voice said, snapping him out of his thoughts as he began to turn to look at her, "Why do you have a fear of cursed objects or even cursed islands?" Maui sighed, looking down.
"Look kid, before Te Fiti I heard about this curse that came with the Heart." He explained, his voice quiet but loud enough for her to hear, "They said that if you stole Te Fiti's Heart, bad things would happen to you. They called it a 'curse'... Before that I thought it was just a story meant to scare people into never stealing it, so I went. Long story short, yes, I did feel that bad gut feeling as I saw the island itself, but I continued on thinking it was just a story meant to scare people. I hesitated taking the Heart, but I stupidly decided to just get it over with and take it.
"After I ran to get out of there, my nervousness came back and part of me was telling me to put the Heart back as the other part was telling me that what I was doing was for the humans and if I gave them the power to create life itself, there would be nothing they could ask for that I couldn't give... Once Te Kā came up out of the rocks, the bad feeling came back to me stronger than before, but I wasn't going to let some silly horror story - nor my fear - get in the way of what I had come to do. After landing on that island...I realized the curse was true. From then on, I began to fear only things that were said to be cursed, having learned my lesson the hard way from Te Kā's fiery wrath."
"So the stories we knew about you weren't one-hundred percent true..." Moana said, her eyes wide in realization, "When my gramma would tell the stories she made you seem brave." She shook her head upon realizing how that sounded before quickly correcting herself, saying, "I mean, not saying you aren't... But the way my gramma said it, she just...made it seem like you went in there without any hesitance."
"Yeah, different people have different stories about me." Maui explained with a shrug, "Some say I...stole the Heart of Te Fiti so I could get the power to create life for myself while sharing it with the mortals. Also, about taking Tamatoa's leg, some people say I hadn't met him yet and I just...took it, possibly for some weird medicinal crap or something like that. Or I did it just to feed an island... But the truth is...we were both after the Heart." Moana's eyes were wide as she listened in awe.
"So you took his leg...just to get the Heart for yourself?" She asked. Maui sighed.
"No," he said, turning and looking at the water ahead of them, "I took his leg...just so I could get the Heart for you mortals, so you could have the power to create life itself." He looked back at her with a smile. "That's what I said when we first met, right?" Moana smiled and nodded.
"Yeah." She said, smiling back, "And it's nice of you to try to give us the power to create life itself, but...we could always pray to Te Fiti to create life for us." Maui chuckled, knowing she was right as he remembered his mistake.
As he turned to look ahead of them again, there was the silhouette of the island he had sailed to: the one that was on fire. His heartbeat once again started to rise and he started to sweat, and just as he looked into the sky, he noticed dark clouds looming over them.
Maybe the cursed island – he gulped – knew we were coming back. After the thought, he held his trusty fish hook to his chest, not noticing how tight he had it in his grasp. That is, until Moana had placed a reassuring, comforting hand on his shoulder. Then he realized how tight he was holding it.
"We'll be okay." Moana said, smiling assuredly at him, "We just need to figure out what is making this island cursed, solve it then go back on our way to my island." Maui smiled at her but his expression then quickly turned to disbelief as he heard her mention finding out why the island was cursed and solving it. Was that even possible?
"Look, Curly, I know you want to save the day again, but I don't think there is a way to solve an island being cursed like that." He said, shrugging her hand off, "I mean, if an island is cursed, it's cursed! There's no way around it." Moana rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Unless..." She began but trailed off, looking at him with just her eyes. Maui looked up at her.
"Unless what?" He asked, now curious as to what she'd say.
"Unless the island has an object on it that's cursed." Moana finished, now smirking at the demigod as if she knew for sure she was right.
"Oh no." Maui said, his eyes now wide-open with fear as he backed away to the edge of the boat, "Oh no no no, no... I am not going near any cursed objects. You can't make me!" Moana's smirk grew at this.
"I can't," she began as an idea popped into her head as she remembered how she convinced him to help restore the Heart, "but the sake of the humans can. So you wanna save the humans and continue being a hero to them like you were when you helped restore the Heart of Te Fiti, or...do you want to let them down by leaving the island cursed and not getting rid of the object if there is one? I mean, it's your choice." Maui scowled at this like he did when she fired the question of beating a lava monster back at him.
"Okay fine..." He said with a sigh of defeat, beginning to hold his hook tightly again as he looked at her with a serious look on his face, "Let's get rid of that curse. Well, somehow..." Moana smiled before running over to him and hugging him with a giggle.
"I'm glad I could count on you." She said, truly happy he decided to help her try to get rid of the curse, "You know, you really are brave, even when it comes to a cursed island or something." Not wanting to boost his ego too high nor give him something to brag about she added, "Well, I mean...sometimes." Maui chuckled.
"Well kid, as much as I'd hate to admit it, you do have your ways of getting me to do things." He said with a shrug, "Even when they're things I don't want to do." Moana smiled.
"I guess I do." She said with a shrug, "And it's something I guess I could be proud of, because sometimes you gotta have teamwork to get the job done." Maui stifled a laugh and smiled instead.
"Now where'd you hear that?" He asked her, nudging her elbow playfully, "It sounds like you got that from me."
"Well I may have learned a few things from you on our journey to restore the Heart." Moana mentioned with a smile, "But I'm sure that's one thing we both learned. Because there is no-"
"-I in team." Maui interrupted with a smirk.
"Maui!" She shouted with a laugh as she playfully shoved him. Maui chuckled.
"What?" He asked with a smile, "I'm just finishing the saying!" Moana giggled.
"I know." She said before looking ahead and seeing the island a few feet away. "So, you ready to get this over with?" She then asked as she looked back at him. Maui just had a worried look on his face, but upon noticing her looking at him, his worry seemed to fade and he gave an almost confident nod.
"Yeah." He told her with a slight smile, "Let's get this over with and return to the island." Moana knew he was still afraid of going onto the island after his realization from earlier, but she shrugged it off.
"Okay let's go." She said, grabbing hold of the rope and making the boat move faster, "We will find out the source of the curse, stop it, then go back-" Before she could finish as she docked the boat, she saw Maui climb off of it, the water level reaching his knees. Moana looked kind of concerned as she hopped off and stepped onto the island's sandy beach.
"Do you wanna know where I found the fire at?" He asked her, slightly tilting his head as he turned to face her, "Maybe that'll help us find this curse thing faster. Though as I put out the fire, I didn't see anything that seemed to have caused it." Moana smiled then nodded.
"Okay." She said as he walked up on the beach, still seeming hesitant, "Lead the way, Maui." Maui nodded then started to walk to the forest, his heart rate increasing a bit before he took a deep breath, trying to rid himself of the tension.
I know this chapter is only 2K words, but this chapter was planned to be them travelling to the island, so that's why it's a bit shorter than the last two.
Also thank you to Guest for reviewing! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
Anyway, I have plans for future chapters. I won't give too much away, but I'll give a hint: My plan for the future chapters is actually based on my idea for a possible sequel for Moana, so something will be happening with Maui. What will happen to our favorite demigod, you ask? Stay tuned for future chapters to find out!
Edit (3/5/20): Been meaning to do this for a while, but I edited out her thoughts of "Oh Maui, you and your fear of curses" and replaced her giggling with her looking concerned so she's more in-character. As for Maui easily opening up to her about his fear of curses, I'll just say that he felt he could trust her and was comfortable with telling her due to how she handled his explanation of how he was abandoned. Plus I'm not sure what I would replace his explanation of his fear of curses with and I feel that most of this chapter will have to be edited maybe (possibly shortening it a bit), so I just decided to leave his explanation in there.
I also added that an idea came to her as to how she could convince him to continue going to the cursed island and kept the original dialogue. I think when I originally wrote this chapter I felt it could be in her character to do that if she remembered how she had convinced him to restore the Heart of Te Fiti, but if you don't think she'd convince him that way, let me know how you think she'd convince him and I'll fix it.
