"Maui!" Moana exclaimed upon seeing Maui's hawk form fly up to their boat in the dead of night. He de-transformed and landed, startling awake Keoni.
"W-wha-?!" He stumbled around as he stood, and grabbed his club ready to fight, pointing it at Maui, who was surprised by his reaction and lowered the tip of the club with his finger.
"Easy there, kid." Maui turned to Moana, "so where're you heading Curly?" Moana smiled and readjusted the sail.
"Heading east. Fetia gave me another dream, and Keoni has a faint memory of his family's boat heading east."
"Did your village ever have a destination in mind?" Maui asked Keoni, who frowned with uncertainty.
"Honestly, I would hope that they did, but I don't really remember a whole lot."
"What… exactly happened?" Moana asked softly, a question that received a look from Maui, but she ignored him. She was interested to learn more about the boy she'd be traveling with for a while. He was sweet and soft-spoken, but he was always ready to defend himself if needed. Plus, he knew how to be resourceful.
Keoni lay down on his back on the other side of the boat, watching the stars.
"I think… I was maybe 15 or 16, and the Darkness had pretty much taken over our home, nothing was growing, all our food was gone, and the fish had disappeared. Our chief ordered an exodus, everything had to either be destroyed or taken with us, and we took out our ancestors boats and left. Maybe, I dunno, 2 days in, a huge storm hit, and in process of trying to save my sister, I was thrown overboard by a huge wave. And when I woke up, I was shocked I was still alive, and I was all alone…" He sniffled, trying to suppress the bad memory.
Moana sympathized with him but didn't push him to continue.
As Moana focused on the stars again, she saw something strange. There was a shimmer, and then… clumps of stars just… vanished, right before her eyes. She rubbed her eyes, hoping she was just seeing things, but upon opening them again, groupings of stars were just gone.
"Uhhhh, Maui?"
"What's up?" She pointed at the sky.
"That." Maui's eyes widened.
"Oh boy… That's weird."
"What should we do?"
"Hope more don't disappear? That's gonna be a huge problem."
"But why would they disappear?" Moana asked, scratching her head.
"I have no idea, but I have a feeling this has something to do with Fetia."
"I agree…"
"Is everything okay, guys?" Keoni asked, sitting up. Moana pursed her lips, wondering if she should tell him.
"Oh, just wayfinding stuff, don't worry about it." She assured him with a smile. After getting him off that island, she didn't want to put any more stress on him. She now needed to figure out a plan B should the stars affect wayfinding. This was connected to Fetia in some way, but how?
Dawn broke, and Moana spied a small island poking up beyond the horizon. She beamed and woke up Maui and Keoni.
"Hey, I found us a place to rest. Wake up you two." She nudged them both awake and they helped her dock the boat and disembarked. The island was small, with small rocky cliffs dotted with caves and a huge reef. It was covered with thick foliage and a nice little beach.
Upon jumping off the boat, the ocean reared up, greeting Moana. Keoni was taken aback by this initially, but he got the courage and walked up to Moana's side filled with curiosity.
"The ocean's alive?" He asked, gaping. Moana smiled, more than happy to introduce her friends to each other. The ocean "looked" at Keoni before dousing him with ocean water, making Moana laugh.
"It likes you!" Keoni had to smile awkwardly as he flung water off of him.
"The feeling is mutual." Maui approached them.
"Mini Maui says that-" Keoni interrupted him.
"I'm sorry, what's Mini Maui?" Maui gestured to the little tattoo version of himself on his body, who winked at Keoni. Keoni blinked in awe and disbelief.
"Whoa whoa wait, so the ocean and Maui's tattoos are alive?" Moana nodded.
"Yeah, basically! Pretty cool huh?" Keoni didn't know what to say.
"So you were saying, Maui?"
"What I was saying was that Mini Maui tells me we should be careful on this island, there're legends of a Taniwha that lives here." Moana rolled her eyes.
"Please, Taniwha's are just stories, they aren't real." Maui gave her a look.
"You thought I was just a story, yet here I am!" Keoni rolled his eyes at that. But he agreed with Moana, he'd heard stories about the legendary, fearsome Taniwah. A giant creature that lived in dark caves and/or near dangerous currents, it could look almost anything.
"Yeah, the same story that caused Te Ka." There was an awkward silence as Moana and Maui just processed the sass coming from Keoni. Maui just stood there before mumbling.
"Touche."