Chapter Ten
The Marketplace
Moana woke up to sunlight bursting through the dirty glass windows of her quarters. Remembering what had happened the night before, she groaned, feeling absolutely horrible about being so hostile to Tracy and Melody. She knew she had overreacted to Tracy's magic mishap and Melody's noble attempt to resolved the conflict, but still, she couldn't bring herself to apologize to them. She got off the mattress and changed into a dark red tank top and white shorts. It felt weird to her, as she was used to wearing clothing made out of materials found on her island. Pulling on a pair of boots, she was impressed by how comfortable they felt. She walked out of her quarters towards the stairs leading up to the deck. Climbing to the top of the stairs, she walked out onto the deck to find Maui gazing out into the horizon.
Maui sensed her presence and turned around. "Morning, Moana." He grinned.
"Morning." Moana replied emptily, picking up a packet from the stack of combat rations that Melody had left behind on the deck the night before for their breakfast.
"You know," Maui began cautiously. "You were pretty nasty last night. What happened?"
Moana looked at Maui. "Long story short, the sea witch couldn't control her magic and I ended up with purple goo stuck in my hair," Moana ran her hand through her hair. "It took me ages to wash it all off last night!"
"Yeah I get it, but still," Maui replied boldly. "Your little outburst was kind of excessive. I mean, don't you think you were a little too harsh on Tracy and Melody?"
"I know, I know," Moana rolled her eyes. "Okay, I admit, I was a jerk last night, but can you really blame me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, don't tell me you're not suspicious of that sea witch?" Moana blurted out rather loudly.
"Well, the prophecy never did say anything about an octopid joining us to fight the Major." Maui mused.
"Exactly!" Moana cried. "And Melody brought her on board without a second thought!"
"Hey, Melody can be trusted." Maui took on a slightly more defensive tone. "She's been an integral part of this journey so far."
"And that's another thing," Moana continued. "I never asked for a team of strangers from around the world to help me in my vendetta against the Major." Maui paused, at a loss for what to say next.
"I was perfectly content with feeling sorry for myself back on the island, but you convinced me to get back in the fight against the Major. I thought for sure you meant just the two of us! But then you rallied an 'alliance of warriors' from across the world, claiming that they were a part of your beloved 'prophecy'." Moana stared at Maui crossly. Deep down, she was glad to get all that off her chest.
"Moana," Maui began, after waiting for her to simmer down a little. "You and I both know that there's no way we can take on the Major alone. We've already tried that, remember? With this team, at least we stand a chance now."
"But of all people, Tracy and Melody?" Moana shot back rashly.
Now Maui was confused. "Wait, Melody? Tracy I understand, but what's your beef with Melody?"
"Forget it." Moana pursed her lips, realizing that she had let her tongue slip. She didn't like Melody, but she didn't want Maui to know the real reason why. She resented Melody's optimism and cheeriness, especially since Moana had just lost her people. Sure, Melody had offered her condolences, but she had a constant light and hope about her that Moana just couldn't stand to be around. Everyone else seemed to love her though, even her best friend, Maui! And then, if that wasn't enough, Melody had added fuel to the fire by bringing a totally shady sea witch on board their dangerous mission. Melody had been completely trusting of Tracy, while Moana simply saw her as a liability. This was something Moana couldn't understand. How could Melody see the best in everyone, especially a sea witch? She couldn't explain it, but there was just something about Tracy that felt scratchy to her. She shook her head. "Where's the rest?" she asked, eager to change the topic.
"Elsa's brooding in her quarters as usual, and Melody's talking to Tracy." Maui replied. He knew that Moana was hiding something, but decided not to say anything. Not yet, at least.
###
Down in Tracy's quarters, Melody stood leaning against the window with arms folded while Tracy sat on her bed cross-legged. They had been going at it for the past half an hour with no apparent progress. "Then again, you know that you didn't have to fight with Moana last night. She's still grieving the loss of her entire village."
Tracy rolled her eyes. "I already told you, I apologized. It's not my fault village girl wanted to pick a fight with me over an accident."
"Yeah, but even so," Melody continued. "Practicing your magic up on the deck?"
"What did you expect? I'm Morgana's daughter after all. Magic is in my blood." Tracy retorted.
"And yet, somehow goo ended up in Moana's hair." Melody raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine, I could use a little more practice. Never did get the hang of the whole sea witch thing." Tracy admitted.
"Look, you're not in the Bermuda Triangle anymore, so there's no need to keep acting like a sea witch." Melody replied with concern, walking closer to Tracy, who was still sitting on her bed.
"But see, that's the thing. I am a sea witch. I can't change that."
Melody sighed, seeing that the conversation wasn't getting anywhere.
"I'll get a better grip on my magic, alright?"
At that moment, Tracy and Melody heard a knock on the door.
It opened, and Elsa peeked in cautiously, wary that a magic blast would suddenly be hurled her way. "Maui is up on the deck shouting for us. I think we've reached."
The three girls headed up the stairs to the deck, to see Maui pointing at something. They looked and saw that they were fast approaching land. "Agrabah." Melody turned and picked up a couple of packets of combat rations, holding them out. "Everyone grab a pack. We're going to need the energy for whatever's ahead of us today."
As they approached Agrabah's harbour, Moana lifted up her arms and narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. The waves that had continuously pushed the ship through the water over the past day finally started to break apart, causing the ship to lose momentum and slow down. A new wave formed at the front of the ship, pushing against the ship's trajectory, bringing the ship to a gradual stop right in front of the pier.
Maui dropped the ship's anchor into the water and tied a rope to the ship's beam. He jumped out of the ship and landed on the pier. After tying the other end of the rope securely to the pier, he signalled to the others that it was safe to dismount from the ship.
The girls dismounted from the ship and joined Maui on the pier.
"There," Moana pointed at another ship, her tribal spear in hand. "The Major's ship. He's here in Agrabah."
Melody placed her disassembled recurve bow into her spacious quiver, and covered it with a detachable flap to conceal the arrows and the bow inside. "Maybe bringing your spear into the city isn't such a good idea." She said to Moana cautiously.
"Why not?" Moana looked at her spear in puzzlement. Was something wrong with it?
"Our goal is to blend in with the crowd. Wielding a spear is just going to attract unwanted attention."
"Fine." Moana shrugged and tossed her spear back onto the ship.
"We have to assume that the Major has already found the Cave of Wonders and has gotten whatever he was looking for. He's got no choice but to come back here through the marketplace, so we'll blend in and try to cut him off in there."
"Wait, why the marketplace?" Maui asked. "Isn't it crowded in the morning?"
"The harbour is pretty big," Elsa remarked, looking around at the harbour. "If we wait for the Major here, he could come from any direction."
"She's right," Melody continued. "The Major doesn't know we're here. We need the element of surprise, so the marketplace is our best bet. I know there's going to be a lot of people there, but I think we don't really have a choice. It's a necessary risk we're going to have to take, but just be careful to keep the fighting away from the civilians."
"We're gonna need a lookout," Maui chimed in. "To give us a heads up when the Major is approaching."
"Right, so who's going to do that?" Melody asked.
"Not me." Tracy said quickly.
Elsa looked at Melody. "I'll do it." Being the lookout meant that she wouldn't have to be a part of the action, and being involved in a fight was the last thing she wanted right now. This was actually a good deal.
"There looks like a good spot to watch the marketplace." Moana pointed to a flat roof of a shophouse that was elevated above most of the other buildings. The town of Agrabah generally had short buildings, with the exception of the royal palace.
"We're going to need you to be on standby too," Melody added as they began to walk inland from the pier. "If you spot us getting overwhelmed, use your powers to level the playing field. It looks like a clear line of sight from the roof to the marketplace."
"Alright." Elsa agreed as they arrived at the entrance of the marketplace. She hoped that it would not come to that. Maybe Melody and the others would be able to handle everything on their own, then she wouldn't need to step in and risk having her powers spiral out of control.
"Wait, one last thing," Moana stopped Elsa as she began to walk away. "How are you going to warn us when you see the Major nearby?"
Elsa raised her palm, and snow fell from above them, a cold breeze subtly blowing against Moana and the others who stood before her.
Melody smiled reassuringly at Elsa, and she nodded back lightly in acknowledgement. The Snow Queen walked towards her lookout point above the marketplace. Her heart pounded in her chest. This was it. This was her chance to prove to herself that her powers could be used for good. She really hoped that Melody was right in seeing something more in her than just a monster. Walking into an alleyway, she looked up at the roof of her designated building. She couldn't possibly take the conventional route of entering the building and using the stairs to get to the roof as she needed to avoid attracting attention.
Elsa looked around, and saw that the alleyway was empty and that no one was watching. Crouching and pointing her hands towards the ground, strong blasts of ice came from her hands, making contact with the ground. The ice anchored into the ground, and rose back towards her palms. The pressure of the blasts moving back towards her lifted her up into the air. As she reached the roof, she angled her palms. Her trajectory shifted, and she landed on the roof of the shophouse gracefully. Okay, now where was the rest of the team? Elsa looked over the top of the roof at the marketplace below. It was extremely packed with locals running their morning errands with rival merchants shouting loudly to be heard above one another. The marketplace was filled with many colours of various goods: fruits, clothing, meat, bread and even trinkets for tourists. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, squinting to try to make out where her team was. There. She spotted Melody and the others waiting in one of the alleyways with a brown goat.
"Remind me again why I have to do this?" Maui complained, his tone filled with irritation.
Tracy chuckled, totally unfazed by the demigod's transformation into a goat.
"We need to avoid attracting too much attention." Moana explained.
"Can't have you running around in your palm leaves." Melody added, stifling her laughter.
Maui groaned. This was outright humiliating. He had already been Melody's horse back in Arendelle and had made a complete fool of himself. He thought that was horrible enough, but now, he had to shape-shift into a goat in order to blend into Agrabah's culture of locals keeping domesticated goats. How mortifying.
Elsa smiled, humoured by the sight of Maui as a brown goat.
"Hey!"
She spun round quickly like a cat, and saw a man standing on another roof a few shophouses away. He wore a jacket, covering his military vest, armed with a combat knife and a musket. He had to be one of the Major's mercenaries for sure. To her horror, the man began running across his rooftop towards her. This wasn't part of the plan! Elsa panicked, forgetting that she needed to keep watch over the marketplace. All she could think about was getting away from the man. She wasn't prepared to fight! She looked around desperately. The roofs of the various shophouses seemed to be rather close to one another, which her pursuer obviously knew, since he was having an easy time leaping across the rooftops to reach her. Elsa took in a deep breath, looking at the shophouse roof next to her. The roof didn't seem all that far away. She took a few steps back, and ran towards the edge of her roof, leaping into the air. Please don't fall, please don't fall. She landed on the roof of the next shophouse clumsily. That wasn't too bad.
"Stop!" Santos shouted. He had not expected to see anyone on the roofs other than himself, especially not a young woman whom he was now chasing across the rooftops. Major Kane had sent him ahead to the marketplace as a scout to make sure the coast was clear and to watch the marketplace from the rooftops to ensure that the mercenaries would have a safe passage back to the ship without having to face any new threats. Santos had thought that it was just paranoia on the Major's part, but now he understood why. Apparently, someone else had the same idea.As he leapt across the rooftops in pursuit of the young woman, he mused to himself how he had gotten himself stuck in the middle of his current predicament.
Santos didn't even want to be on this mission with Major Kane, but he had no choice but to obey his every command for fear of being obliterated from existence by the Major's snake totem. In the beginning, before all this, he had stuck with Major Kane just to make sure that his old superior didn't lose his mind. However, over time, Santos had found himself being subjugated to Kane's insanity, having no choice but to do his bidding. "I said stop!"
Elsa looked over her shoulder to see the man still clamouring across the rooftops in hot pursuit of her. She had gained some confidence having successfully navigated her way across the various rooftops of the shophouses, using her powers to propel her for further distances at times, and she had picked up speed. She had a slight advantage over the man chasing her, as she wasn't bogged down by all the heavy military equipment the man was carrying. However, this also left her at a disadvantage, as she wasn't protected from attacks. If the man suddenly decided to shoot at her, she was certain that she would be done for. In fact, that puzzled her. If he was really one of the Major's mercenaries, wouldn't he have done so already? She was under the impression that the Major and all his mercenaries were cold blooded ruthless killers.
Coming to the edge of the rooftop, Elsa forced herself to an abrupt stop, glancing to the next rooftop. It was rather far away, and she was sure that she couldn't make it across safely. She glanced back anxiously to see that the man was closing the gap fast. There was no escape for her this time. It looked like she was going to have to face him. Get control, get control. Elsa was terrified, but she knew that she couldn't afford to allow her emotions to get out of hand, as that meant she wouldn't be in control of her powers. She hoped that her powers would be enough to help her hold her own against the man and make it out of the confrontation alive.
Tensing her arms, two sharp icicles formed in her hands. That was a little excessive, but she needed something to defend herself. Whatever that would work. She wielded them like daggers, fearfully pointing them at the man who had finally caught up with her.
"Whoa, calm down!" Santos exclaimed, drawing his own knife in defence on pure instinct. He instantly regretted it, as he had only done that as a reflex action based on his training, and it obviously made the girl more frightened.
Without thinking, Elsa threw the icicle at Santos wildly, and he dodged it quickly. With the other icicle in hand, she lashed out at Santos. Wait, the team! She had completely forgotten about her job as the lookout in her mad rush to escape!
Santos, who had trained in close quarter combat, expertly avoided the girl's attack and held on to her wrist with one hand, and quickly delivered a non-lethal chop to the same arm, causing her to drop her weapon.
Panicking and not thinking rationally about what she was doing, Elsa grabbed Santos' forearm with her other hand, and his arm began to freeze from her touch.
He let out a sharp yell in pain, pulling away from her quickly.
"I'm sorry!" she winced. She had not meant to do that.
Santos looked at his arm, which had turned a shade of blue. He shook it, trying to get some feeling back into his arm, and walked towards Elsa again. "Listen to me!"
"Please, stay away from me!" In fear, Elsa held out her hands, palms facing the man. Unintentionally, a stream of ice erupted from her hands, knocking Santos backwards and he dropped to the ground in a daze. Elsa was shocked. She had let her powers get out of control, and yet somehow she hadn't ended up dead yet. Running quickly to the edge, she looked out over the rooftop that she was currently on, scanning for her teammates. Looking left and right frantically, her eyes finally found the team in the marketplace alleyway. She glanced around at the marketplace and a couple of buildings away, she spotted a group of foreigners clad in military gear that stood out distinctly from the Agrabah locals, walking through the marketplace towards the team's direction. This was it. Looking back at the team, Elsa stared hard in concentration, raising her palms to chest level.
A cold gust of wind enveloped Melody and the others from seemingly out of nowhere, and snow started to fall in the alleyway where they had hidden. "Is it getting cold?" Tracy remarked, biting into a fruit that she had discretely stolen from one of the merchants in the marketplace.
"That's the signal," Melody quickly started reassembling her recurve bow.
"He's here. Let's go." Moana slapped the fruit out of Tracy's hand, and Tracy glared at her in annoyance.
Melody finished assembling her bow, and undid the flap on her quiver. She walked out from the alleyway armed with her bow, followed by Maui, Moana and Tracy. Maui shape-shifted from the donkey back into his human form, and the warriors stood abreast in the middle of the path, just as Major Kane and his mercenaries came face to face with the warriors.
Writer's Commentary:
My challenge in writing this chapter was to make sure that the entire thing didn't feel like a Fast and Furious or James Bond movie. This one required several drafts and rewrites as it felt too spy-ish the first few times. I had to try to stay true to the characters and the world that they were in, having them solve problems and analyze situations in ways that made sense for their personalities.
For example, how would Elsa alert the others to Kane's arrival? Initially, I had Melody hand out communication devices to stay in touch, but then that didn't sit well at all. It was leaning into Avengers or spy territory. So to stay true to Elsa's character, I had her use her powers to warn the team, which felt a lot more synonymous with who she was. The chase sequence between Santos and Elsa was incredibly fun to write, and was half inspired by the Mombasa chase sequence from the film "Inception". Again, I had to make a conscious effort to write the chase sequence from the eyes of our heroine, Elsa. How would she escape from a mercenary and what would she be thinking in that moment?
I hope that it was a fun chapter to read, as I certainly had fun writing, especially that tiny bit where Moana antagonizes Tracy by dropping her fruit. We'll see what happens when Major Kane and his forces face off against the team for the first time.