Chosen of the Wind
[I do not own Moana or How to Train Your Dragon.]
Let me know if there's anything you guys want to see! Reviews about anything are totally begged for. Keeps the motivation going.
—I'm not sure how I feel about how much Hiccup doesn't talk in this chapter. Even he's a bit annoyed. Also please tell me if you find typos or a part that is too confusing!—
Tid-Bit Notes: Merry Holidays again. Maybe all my update goals will be Holiday-Time-At-Least, and maybe Sometime-Early-Summer. Ya know, hopefully two updates a year, but At Least one. — artisticRadifyer
Summary:
After fighting the Red Death and a murderous tyrant by the name of Drago Bludvist, Hiccup wouldn't think he would have any more outstanding adventures as big as those. Yet, he must set off to try and stop this 'Darkness' that is spreading across the Barbaric Archipelago. Meeting two people who will not work together, being on a time limit, and trying to keep himself alive around God's, a Demigod, two limited-power elements, and a mentally challenged chicken does not help anything.
Chapter 6 — Eavesdropping Dawn
Everyone landed on the sand; one after the other.
"We're alive!" Moana declared, and Hiccup was 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 yell from Moana went unnoticed; no actual fear in the scream didn't catch his mind's attention. He continued after the complete second of silence on the small isle. "Since when can you glow?! It didn't even look like a Fireworm's glow!"
Toothless snapped a proud pose before his eyes narrowed back on Hiccup in suspicion.
"Do you know what it is? Or why you can…?" Hiccup asks.
The Night Fury's face fell into a dry stare at Hiccup's words. He very pointedly turned his back to Hiccup, and drew the man's gaze to the dragon's spine fins. A clear double clap of them was all Toothless showed him before he turned away in such a manner that his tail whacked Hiccup.
"...Take that as a 'no' then…" Hiccup dragged a hand down his face in resignation and exasperation at his wing's dramatics. He rubbed at the spot the dragon hit; it wasn't too hard, but enough to warrant a reaction. He had to wonder just how many things Toothless didn't know he could do.
Guessing Toothless couldn't do it on command either, Hiccup gazed at where he knew the journal was: safe and water free in the saddle. "We'll have to wait to figure it out I guess."
Toothless, done with the topic as well, 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 leaned out slightly to peer around Moana, while Toothless began creeping closer to Maui's side, sniffing the air around him.
"Really? 'Cause you're looking at me like I have a—" Maui gasped as he caught a glimpse of his flipper hand. He started patting his upper body frantically, then 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 man, 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."
Hiccup is impressed that Maui seemed to be genuinely apologizing, and was surprised the man could give what he considered a pretty solid one too. Vikings weren't that amazing at it; 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 repeated to himself. "That sounded like a swear word. Nice!" He really appreciated learning new languages to cuss in.
Maui continued the pessimistic speech. "We're never making it to Te Fiti. This mission is cursed."
Moana tries to placate him. "It's not cursed."
Hiccup was watching the conversation unfold from the returned Toothless' side, content on just trying to figure out what questions he needed to ask about the man's powers and their collective enemy.
The reverse mershark pointed to his head with a fin. "Shark head."
Moana hefts Maui's hook in range of the demi-god with some effort. "It's not…" she grunted, "cursed!"
Upon touching the Hook, Maui's form flails between a lot of different creatures only to end up as a regular mershark. The man thinks he's fully normal until…
"This is going to be a problem, though." Hiccup commented as the other three watched Maui fall to the beach face first; since the man had no feet to stand on now.
Maui groaned, checked out his tail, and then flopped all the way to the ground. "Cursed."
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 had to wonder if many of their songs were this depressing and Moana didn't like the choice on top of their situation, 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 just turned from steering, to Maui, who was propped out on the edge of the raft. "Can't you at least try?"
Maui returned her look with dead-pan eyes as he demonstrated his effort. "...Giant. Hawk." The man shifted through many animals that were not the Hawk, where Hiccup was kinda tickled to see the look he was giving her was present in each one. 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 went over and tapped him on the shoulder with an 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 holds up his hands to gesture the quotations, "…'Maui.'"
Maui sat up and a second later the Mini Maui tattoo was falling down his back, shortly landing on another tattoo. "Take a hike, tiny."
Moana's attention was drawn to the same tattoos. "How... do you get your... tattoos?"
Hiccup was beginning to think he wouldn't have to ask Maui any questions himself. He just needed to sit back and listen as Moana sleuthed everything out.
"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 keep asking for a better explanation. Maybe it was another word that didn't translate well.*
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 raised his arm to ward off the oar, but Moana slowly raised it above his head and tapped his hair. He stood swiftly and grabbed just below the paddle part of the oar. "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 shoved the oar back into her hands, "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 watching their companions. No sleep for anyone didn't seem very wise, but it was close to sunrise at this point anyhow.
The boat was silent for a few moments, neither of the southerners acknowledging that Hiccup and Toothless were awake.
Moana picked up where she left off. "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 was filing away a compliment about Moana's compassion for later. He doesn't think he has the ability to bring Maui out of his funk the way she was doing right now.
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. They gave me the Hook." Maui gently put a hand next to his Hook, just barely not touching it. "They made me... 'Maui.'" He held his hands up as if in reverence or praise to his name.
Maui's story was interestingly themed like Hiccup's own; cast off until some outside force made them liked. He just acquired a dragon companion, rather than being given a gift from the gods.
"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 empathise. Before he met Toothless, no matter how hard he tried and how much he gave, his efforts weren't enough for the Village.
Moana went to sit next to him. "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 got back up to keep sailing.
Hiccup looked between the both of them, impressed as he saw her speech working 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 silence, and Moana piped up. "I was thinking earlier to 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, "Worth a shot."
"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 them warily. "I would think you would want to prevent this from happening again, right...?" 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 safety dragon to feel protected, and forgetting it can light your 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, let's start with your smallest shape."
Hiccup didn't really try getting back into the conversation. 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 they didn't know each other either. He also didn't think the southerners were blocking them out just because they were from so far north.
Was being stuck on the raft together, without Hiccup and Toothless, really putting them 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, currently in the shape of a lizard close to the size of a Terrible Terror, bucked Hei Hei 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 whoop. He dove, slung around the back of the raft, and rocketed forward as Moana followed his movements in encouragement and awe.
Before he had even really thought about it, Hiccup let Toothless launch after the hawk; and let his worries melt off of him into the wind behind him once more. Excitement and anticipation thrummed through both of them at having a companion in the sky.
The three left the raft behind as they raced towards a cluster of natural, black, stone pillars, weaving and ducking through them easily for both parties.
Maui briefly transformed back into his natural body to swing at the top of a pillar with the Hook, smash it, and fly past the debris as a hawk once more.
Toothless and Hiccup, not to be outdone, do the same by blasting a pillar of their own and barrel rolling through the debris.
Both Maui and the dragon duo destroyed one more pillar each, before Maui led them back towards the raft.
Hiccup was itching 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, making Hiccup and Toothless briefly scramble to get out of the way as the shapeshifter fell. Hiccup saw the man pop up out of the sea to celebrate with Moana, and he and Toothless quickly headed down to ask.
Hiccup and Toothless hover near the raft as it slowly drifted by them, and flipped his helmet up to yell. "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 flipped his helmet down as they went off to the side and started working their way up.
He hoped Maui would come up soon. Since they didn't see value in his opinion on the man's own skillset, maybe the demigod would take a demonstration of physical skill since the last two fights were so lousy.
Hiccup directed Toothless up to do warm-up tricks or something 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 other than these people.
If Njord said this is the place to be, and no one wanted to cooperate with him, then he would just have to bide his time.