Chosen of the Wind (Version 2)
[DISCLAIMER]
[I do not own Moana or How to Train Your Dragon.]
-CONTENT NOTES-
–FORMAT NOTES–
MY NOTES
Thanks for being patient. Please let me know what you think!!
-artisticRadifyer
Chapter 7 - Eavesdropping Dawn
Everyone landed on the sand; one after the other.
"We're alive!" Moana declared, and Hiccup was emotionally right there with her for only the moment it took for him to get his helmet off.
Hiccup's face now uncovered, he immediately turned to Toothless, "Wait, wait." The confused, surprised noise from Moana went ignored; the lack of fear in her scream failed to catch his full attention. He continued after a complete second of silence on the small island. "Since when can you glow?! It didn't even look like a Fireworm's glow!"
Toothless assumed a proud pose.
"Think you can do it again?" Hiccup asked rhetorically, and gazed at where he knew the journal was: safe, and water free in the saddle. "We'll probably have to wait to figure it out, though."
Toothless turned to the subdued tones the other human companions were making; which in turn got Hiccup to start paying attention to them as well.
"But, ah…" Maui trailed off.
"Mmhmm, mmhmm."
"I'm sorry." Maui made a stopping motion. "I'm tryin' to be sincere for once, and it feels like you're distracted."
"No! No! Pffft, no way!" Moana tried reassuring Maui.
Hiccup and Toothless shared a bewildered glance, making sure they were both seeing the same thing. Hiccup distractedly made his way closer to Moana, while Toothless began creeping closer to Maui's side while sniffing the air around the large man.
"Really? 'Cause you're looking at me like I have a--" Maui gasped as he caught a glimpse of a fin in place of his hand. He started patting his upper body with the thin fins frantically, then his posture wilted with a groan. "...shark head."
"Whahahaaat?" Moana bends in the middle with her laugh, and her next breath in stumbles down her throat. "Do you have a shark head? 'Cause I…"
Hiccup stays silent, interested that this doesn't seem to be hurting the demigod, and also that Maui himself wasn't any more alarmed than the amount he had already been.
Maui stops her rambling with a fin, "Look. The point is... For a little girl... child... thing, whatever... who had no business being down there… You did me a solid. But you also almost died."
Though he noticed the word 'sorry' was absent from the speil, Hiccup was impressed at how Maui admitted he was wrong, and was surprised the man could give what he considered a pretty solid drawback. Vikings aren't that amazing at apologizing sincerely; himself included.
"And I couldn't even beat the dumb crab! So, chances of beating Te Ka:" Maui plops onto the sand, not paying any attention to Toothless who had to scrabble back away from the man, lest they collide, "bupkis."
"'Bupkis?'" Hiccup quietly repeated to himself. "That sounded like a swear word! Nice!" He really enjoyed learning new languages to cuss in.
Maui continued the pessimistic speech, and accompanied it with a few dismissive head shakes. "We're never making it to Te Fiti. This mission is cursed."
Moana tried to placate him. "It's not 'cursed.'"
Hiccup watched the conversation unfold from the returned Toothless' side. Questions concerning the nature of the Hook's powers flew through his head. It didn't seem to be necessary for the item to be in contact with its user to do even a partial change. Was there a limited duration? An exhaust that required replenishing? Was there a limit on how many animals Maui could shift into?
The reverse mershark pointed to his head with a fin. "Shark head."
Moana hefted Maui's Hook in range of the demigod with some effort. "It's not…" She grunted as she completed the hand off, "'cursed!'"
Upon the Hook's touch, Maui's form flailed between a lot of different creatures before the flashes settled. The man smiled at his returned-to-normal hands.
"This is going to be a problem, though." Hiccup commented as Maui fell face-first into the sand.
Maui groaned, checked out the shark tail that made him fall, and then laid limp on the beach. "Cursed."
--That Fic Version of a Cut-To--
Hiccup and Toothless had come back down from flying for the second time that night, and were trying to fall asleep through Maui's admittedly good, but slightly too loud singing of a song both southerners seemed to recognise. Hiccup wondered if many of their songs were this depressing and Moana didn't like the choice, or if the man was butchering a song that was meant to be uplifting. Either way, Moana seemed irritated when he started, and hopefully would be the one to make him stop.
What can I say-, except:
We're dead soon…~
We're dead soon…~
Hiccup opened his eyes to stare aggravatedly at the mast, but a glance at the other side of the raft had him hold his position.
Moana had finally turned from steering, to Maui, who was reclined out on the edge of the raft. "Can't you at least try?"
Maui responded with dead-pan eyes, obediently outstretched his arm slowly to touch his weapon, and demonstrated his effort with exaggerated, clear actions. "...Giant. Hawk." The man shifted through many animals that were not the Hawk -- during which Hiccup was amused to see the look the shifter was giving her was present in each form taken. The demigod pulled his hand from his weapon and went back to the song; interestingly in the exact same position he was in before he touched it.
HEY!
It's okay- it's okay-
We're dead soon…~
Moana walked over and tapped him on the shoulder with the lone oar. "Alright. Break time's over. Get up!"
"Why? You gonna give me a speech? Tell me I could beat Te Ka 'cause I'm," he held up his hands to gesture quotations with his fingers, "…'Maui.'"
Maui sat up. "Take a hike, Tiny." A second later the Mini Maui tattoo fell down his skin, and shortly landed on another tattoo. The man didn't resume his singing.
The silence over the raft felt thin and careful. Hiccup bleakly believed even if everyone stayed quiet now, neither he nor Toothless would be able to sleep if this unsure atmosphere that teased their group didn't leave.
"How... do you get your... tattoos?" Moana slowly inquired.
Hiccup shifted minutely. He didn't add himself to the query, and quietly waited to see if Moana would finally get information out of Maui the way Maui gathered from them.
"They show up. When I earn 'em."
"How'd you earn that one?" She poked the one she is referring to, a wide black block with white silhouettes Hiccup was too far away to see clearly with the little light the moon offered, and drew back. "What's that for?"
"That's, uh... man's discovery of Nunya."
"What's Nunya?"
"Nunya business."
Hiccup still didn't understand what 'nunya' was, and was kind-of disappointed Moana didn't ask for a better explanation. Maybe it was another word that Njord's gift didn't translate well. His wish that burned down in his core was fanned as he entertained the thought of unreliable magic.
Moana tapped Maui in the back with the paddle of the oar. "I'll just keep asking." ...Tap. "What's it for?" Tap, tap--
"You need to stop doing that." Maui didn't look in her direction at all, and he spoke with a controlled tone. He used his arm to ward off the oar for a moment, but Moana then eased the oar over his head to tap his hair. He stood swiftly and grabbed just below the paddle. "Back off!"
Moana tried to pull it out of his grip as she rephrased her demand. "Just tell me what it is!"
"I said," Maui pushed the oar into the girl's hands to shove her away, "'back off.'"
With her oar back in her control, she rammed the whole thing sideways into him with no effect. "Is it WHY your Hook's not working?!"
Maui threw her off the boat.
Hiccup couldn't possibly say that he slept through that, so he quickly sat up and avoided the water that returned Moana. Toothless warbled at him, giving up dozing as well in favor of directly watching their companions. No sleep for anyone didn't seem very wise, but it was close to sunrise at this point anyhow.
Another moment passed, and neither of the southerners acknowledged Hiccup and Toothless.
Moana directly addressed Maui's unwillingness to let others help. "You don't wanna talk? Don't talk. You wanna throw me off the boat? Throw me off…!
"You wanna tell me: 'I don't know what I'm doing?!'" Moana raised her voice at herself, "I know I don't!" and then she was quiet again. "I have no idea why the Ocean chose me. You're right...! But... my island... is dying. So I... am here. It's just us three, and I want to help... But, I can't… if... you don't let me."
Hiccup filed away a compliment about Moana's compassion for later. He didn't think he had the sincerity to try and bring Maui out of his funk the way she was.
It took a moment, but Maui began speaking. "I wasn't, born a demigod. I had human parents. They, uh… took one look, and... decided: ...They did not want me. They threw me into the sea... like I was... nothing.
"...Somehow, I was found by the gods." Maui gently placed a hand next to his Hook, just a hair from contact. "They gave me the Hook." He held his hands up as if in reverence or praise to his name. "They made me... 'Maui.'"
Maui's story was interestingly themed like Hiccup's own. They were both cast off until some outside force made them liked. He just acquired a powerful dragon companion, rather than a powerful divine gift.
"And... back to the humans I went. I gave them islands, fire, coconuts." The demigod chuckled. "Anything they could ever want."
"You took the Heart for them…" Moana stated. "You did... everything, for them. ...So they'd love you."
"It was... never enough."
Hiccup could empathize. Before he met Toothless, no matter how hard he tried and how much he gave, his efforts weren't enough for the Village.
Moana sat next to Maui. "Maybe the gods found you for a reason. Maybe the Ocean brought you to them because it saw someone who was worthy of being saved. But the gods aren't the ones who made you 'Maui.' You are." And with her point made, she stood and returned to sailing.
Hiccup looked between the both of them, impressed as he saw how her speech worked its way through the demigod's mind. As Maui sat there, Hiccup turned to Moana and loudly whispered. "Good job."
"Thanks. Sorry we woke you up."
"Ah, it's--it's nothin' to worry about." Hiccup waved the apology off, and Toothless snorted at the passiveness. Hiccup hissed at the dragon. "Shut up, Bud."
Maui came up to them, ready to get going.
Moana agreed with his determined expression. "Yeah!"
A bit tired of staying quiet after doing so all night, Hiccup took the opportunity to ask his own questions. "So, how exactly did you learn to use the Hook the first time?"
"I just thought of what I wanted. It wasn't hard at all, and I want the forms I've been thinking of; so I'm really not sure what the issue is."
A moment of thought, and Moana piped up. "I was thinking earlier that you should just kinda, focus on one at a time." She made a few hand gestures to go with her next words. "Maybe even smallest to biggest?"
Maui paused, and shrugged. "Worth a shot."
"But, if that's all it takes, then I think I know why it's not working."
Maui and Moana simply looked at Hiccup.
Hiccup looked back at the different degrees of tolerance shown on their faces warily. "I thought you would want to prevent this from happening again...? Losing control of your Hook?" He was pretty sure Maui was so caught up on the Hook itself, wanting the general power it gave him, that it eclipsed what he wanted out of it. Like having a dragon to feel protected and have company, but forgetting it can light a wet bonfire as well.
"Which is why I'm going to try getting back in my groove."
"Yeah, I think he just needs practice after not having it for so long."
"Are you sayin' I'm rusty, Curly?"
Moana shrugged and turned away haughtily. "Maybe. Now, start with that smallest shape."
Hiccup didn't bother to suggest anything else. He was beginning to think these two didn't believe he and Toothless could help. He knew the two didn't know either of them, but the southerners didn't know each other either. Was being in the sky really putting him and his night fury so far out of the loop? If so… Did he even want to change that? He could relax further. Not worry about them wanting anything out of him, since they already don't expect much.
He watched as Maui, in the shape of a lizard similar in size to a Terrible Terror, bucked the chicken into the water. He flinched a bit as the chicken was launched back into Moana's arms, shrugged on his helmet, and got ready on Toothless to go to the skies.
Maui leapt into the water with flair, burst out as a full bodied shark, and shifted into a very big Hawk shape with an excited cry. He dove, slung around the back of the raft, and rocketed forward as Moana watched his movements in encouragement and awe.
Toothless launched after the Hawk, and Hiccup allowed his worries to melt off of them into the wind once more. Excitement and anticipation thrummed through both of them at suddenly having a companion in the sky.
The airborne three left the raft behind as they raced towards a cluster of natural, black, stone pillars, where both parties easily weaved and ducked around the stone formations.
Maui briefly transformed back into his natural body, swung at the top of a pillar with the Hook, and flew past the debris his attack made as a Hawk once more.
Toothless and Hiccup, not to be outdone, did the same with a plasma blast, and barrel rolled through the debris.
Both Maui and the dragon duo destroyed one more pillar each, before Maui led them back towards the raft.
Hiccup itched to amp up the speed, and was going to challenge Maui to a game or a race when the demigod flashed again.
Maui had become a very, very large fish.
Hiccup and Toothless briefly scrambled to get out of the way as the shapeshifter fell.
The man popped up out of the sea to celebrate the successful practice with Moana, so he and Toothless quickly headed down to ask.
Hiccup and Toothless hovered close by instead of trying to keep pace near the raft as it slowly drifted, and flipped the front of his helmet up. "Hey! You wanna race or somethin'?"
Maui gestured to the oar he just handed to Moana. "I'm gonna teach her to sail right first! I'll take ya on soon!"
Hiccup and Toothless would just have to settle for it. "We'll see you when you're up here!" Hiccup closed his helmet as they went off to the side and worked their way higher.
He hoped Maui would come up soon. Since the other two didn't see value in his input, maybe the demigod would take a demonstration of physical skill instead, especially since during the last two fights he felt like he simply witnessed they were so lousy.
Hiccup simply adjusted as Toothless needed and decided he would enjoy himself regardless of the mission. Even if he and Toothless didn't leave an amazing impression on the trip, he would still help where he could. He could lean back and let someone else do the planning; especially since he had no leads on the Darkness other than these people the gods pointed them at.
If Njord said this is the place to be, and no one here wanted to cooperate with him, then he would just have to bide his time until the threat to his village is found, and make his own plan again.