A lone pale flower floated on the surface of the ocean, spinning in slow circles as the water ebbed and flowed toward the bright reflection of the moon. For years Moana had offered flowers to the sea in the name of Vahi'a, hoping the fish woman might hear her whispered dreams. And Moana did so then, as Grandmother Tala had instructions, sailing her canoe toward the constellation that would lead her to Maui. It was a prayer for safe passage.
The sea was quiet that night, a rippling canvas of the sky above twinkling with stars. From beneath the mirror moon rose the woman of the sea, the flower catching in her hair, her face upturned toward the young girl kneeling at the edge of the boat. A wet hand reached from the water touching her cheek.
"Vahi'a. You are real," Moana breathed. It was a faraway memory, once thought a dream, of a dark hand with long slender fingers holding out a pretty stone. Her tail had been the blue of deep water and her hair the color of a burning sun, and she'd touched her cheek then with the same warmth as she had now.
Vahi'a smiled folding her arms over the edge of the boat holding herself up. She found Moana as beautiful as when she'd been a child. Vahi'a could see herself following this girl across the sea. The ocean had chosen right.
"This is awesome!" Moana squealed, quickly steadying the boat after her jump rocked it. "Grandma told me you were and that if I sent my dreams on the petals of flowers you might someday come. And now you're here. Did you get them?" she gasped as a new thought came to her, "you were there, you gave me the heart of Te Fiti. Have you been waiting for me this whole time? Do you know the ocean too?" Her silence was as sudden as her excitement, and Moana knelt by her again waiting for answers with bright eyes and a wide smile.
"Yes," Vahi'a answered slow and unsure.
Moana nodded wanting more. "To which part?"
She shrugged. "All of it." She pulled herself out of the water sitting at the edge of the canoe and wrung her long hair. When she let her damp hair fall over her shoulder and turned she found Moana sitting at her side as close as she could without touching her, eyes wide with mysticism as she leaned closer. "One question at a time," she told her, holding up a slender finger for added effect.
A large grin spread wide on the girl's face. "What's it like having a fish tail?"
Vahi'a opened her mouth to answer.
"And can I touch it?"
Releasing the breath she'd taken for a response her head cocked to the side giving Moana a look that fell somewhere between annoyance and endearment. How long had it been since she last spoke to a human? Her answer was the flick of her tail splashing Moana, who gave a surprised yelp before laughing. "I can swim anywhere I want," Vahi'a told her. "I've traveled every depth, met every kind of fish. Some are kinder than others."
"That sounds incredible," Moana quietly exclaimed, wishing to see all she had. "Do you ever miss the land?"
The small smile Vahi'a wore wilted as she looked at the water lapping against the side of the canoe. "I don't remember it much anymore. Some days I just want more."
This time Moana didn't speak. The longing heard in Vahi'a's surprisingly deep voice was familiar to Moana. Instead she turned to the stars seeing they had drifted off course and she quickly set them right. Turning back to the fish woman Moana found her eyes were on the sky too, her gaze tracing the hook that had been placed in the sky. Moana wondered if she'd tried to follow it. She sat at her side again, finding her face in the moonlight was a far cry younger than her many years. "We'll find Maui," Moana told her, "deliver him across the great ocean, and restore the heart of Te Fiti." She opened her grandmother's necklace to show the pulsing green stone.
Vahi'a reached a gentle hand to brush the spiral etched in its center. "She was my only friend, for a long time. I'd like to see her again, even if I can't run along her shore."
"Maybe she can give you your legs back," Moana said with more hope than Vahi'a had ever felt. "You could dance again."
Vahi'a smiled, a small thing curling only the corners of her mouth. "Maybe," she said without agreeing. She'd stopped believing she would ever return to the shore long ago, so long she couldn't remember. They spent the remainder of the night with Moana talking, asking questions of Vahi'a or telling her about Motunui. Until Moana fell asleep, and then Vahi'a returned to the water to steer them toward the hook in the sky.
She had gone this way many times before, knowing who she would find at the end. Maybe this time she'd finally reach it.
[*][*][*]
Bk-aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
With a startled gasp Vahi'a woke losing her grip on the canoe's outrigger and slipped into the water. Peeking above the surface Vahi'a looked to Moana seeing her holding something. She snuck closer watching Moana pick up a coconut, and underneath it saw a strange bird who screamed as he had before. Moana quickly placed the coconut half back over his head.
"It's okay, you're alright" Moana soothed lifting the coconut again.
Seeing it was only a bird Vahi'a pulled herself onto the boat. "What kind of bird is it?" she asked watching the way it tilted its head its eyes never seeming to go in the same direction.
"A chicken. His name is Hei Hei." She turned back to the chicken as it looked at the water around it. "See? Nice water," she said reaching a hand to the ocean to show him, and Hei Hei took two small steps forward to see. "The ocean is a friend of mine."
As if deciding she was right Hei Hei turned and walked straight off the boat. Vahi'a watched the bird with her head tilted in confusion. She waited for him to come back up and float on the surface, its little feet kicking underneath – like all the other birds. This one came up feet first. Her head only tilted further.
"Hei Hei," Moana called in a panic as she quickly climbed to her feet.
"Moa-" Vahi'a sighed as Moana dove into the water after the bird, forgetting in her worry there was a woman with the tail of a fish sitting on her boat. A gust of wind caught in the still open sail leaving Moana and Hei Hei behind. Another sigh. Vahi'a jumped in the water with a hand on the edge of the boat swimming against the wind so that she held the boat in place. It allowed Moana to catch up and she climbed onto the boat shivering and out of breath.
Vahi'a watched in silence as Moana set the bird down telling it to stay. Only for it to walk to the edge the moment she turned her back. Vahi'a raised neither hand nor fin to catch Hei Hei, she watched with mild curiosity but mostly exasperation as Moana set the bird in the storage hatch, where it proceeded to walk into the corner turn around and walk into the other corner. And then turn around and walk into the corner, and then turn around… "Did you bring him for food?"
"He isn't supposed to be here," Moana explained looking up at Vahi'a's unamused face. She looked an irate sea goddess, her sun-red hair blowing gently in the breeze, her mouth frowning deeply. "Don't worry, there's more to Hei Hei than meets the eye." They both looked at the chicken, who hit the edge of hatch and turned around and walking into the other edge. Vahi'a turned to Moana with a cocked brow. Moana gave an uncomfortable smile. "We just, haven't found it yet."
Taking a steadying breath Vahi'a turned away and stared at the endless expanse of sea around them, declaring all chickens stupid creatures. Though she had only met one. Moana supposed she was pretty, in a strange non-human way. Vahi'a was very long and thin, her eyes green like seaweed, her skin though dark was lighter than anyone Moana had met. And her hair, Moana had never seen the color except in the way the sun set over the ocean, a deep burning red. "Have you ever met Maui?" she chanced asking.
Vahi'a turned to where Moana knelt still trying to make a good knot to secure the sail. "I could not find him," she admitted. Moana's next question was whether she had followed the hook in the stars. "I could not find him," she said again.
"So you've just been waiting."
She nodded. "For you."
"For me?" Moana asked with a quiet uncertainty.
Vahi'a's answer was to tuck Moana's hair behind her ear, grazing her round cheek with her fingers. Vahi'a found her so very beautiful. "You asked me what it's like to have a tail. It is lonely."
Moana hadn't thought of that, there were no other people in the sea. With a smile she took Vahi'a's hand and told her, "you aren't alone anymore."
Her own smile was a quaint thing, finding fondness overflowing for this spirited girl. "No, I suppose not. I have you," she closed her hand around Moana's. "And the chicken." They both turned to Hei Hei, who now stood still pecking at the wood as though it were a handful of seeds – Moana giggled, and Vahi'a only continued to smile holding fast to Moana's smaller hand.
They sailed for some time, Moana steering them in a direction she thought was right. And Vahi'a her quiet companion who every so often lowered herself into the water and led them the actual direction they wanted. As night fell a cruel wind picked up tossing the canoe on angry waves. Vahi'a swam beneath them where the water was kinder watching the little boat, seeing Moana safe in her travels.
She returned when the sea had calmed, resting her arms on the wood as she looked at the innumerous stars in the sky. Moana continued to mumble the speech she would give Maui, her voice slowing and trailing off. The waves were small, almost nil, and it lulled them to sleep. Vahi'a had begun to dream when she felt the boat turn sharp, and the outrigger she was holding lift into the air.
"nononono," Moana pleaded grabbing the barred wood hoping to weigh it down. Her hand closed on Vahi'a's tail finding it wet and slick and she slipped falling into the ocean as the canoe overturned, flinging Vahi'a a short distance.
From beneath the water she saw Moana swim to the surface. Her eyes next found the chicken, whose head hit the deck of the boat over and over looking for air. Her hand fastened around his neck and she brought him to the surface, placing him on the upturned underbelly before she dove back down and set about collecting the fruit from the spilled baskets.
There was a deep angry rumbling from above, a flash of angry pale light. Oh no, she thought hurrying for the surface. Large dark clouds rolled in bringing with them cracks of thunder and violent swells. Now was not the time to be in the water – these were the times when Vahi'a swam low or found a cave to take shelter. She could do none of this.
"Help me," Moana said when Vahi'a head broke the surface of the water. The two tried pushing the boat back over. Vahi'a almost had it before a swell caught underneath dipping the boat on top of her. Moana clung to the side of the boat, and Vahi'a tried to get from underneath it while at the same time not losing them as the waves pulled and tore at her. It left her under the boat holding onto a bar of wood as the water rose and fell. A wave crashed over them and the wood groaned threatening to break. She saw Moana's hold on the boat slip and she was quick to grab her, holding herself to the canoe with nothing more than her tail as she caught the sinking unconscious girl.
She clawed at the wood pulling them to the edge and around where she held Moana's head above the water. "Stupid chicken," she muttered seeing Hei Hei clinging to the mast. What she meant to say was she was glad he'd been able to hold on, because she wouldn't have been able to go after him.
The storm raged a long few minutes carrying them far out to sea. Several times her hold slipped, on Moana, on the boat. But the sky cleared and the sea calmed. Vahi'a could breathe a little easier.
A wave swelled beneath them and the canoe rose, Moana hanging limp across a piece of wood. Another wave, a kinder one, pulled Vahi'a by the tail toward the bottom of the ocean. She fought against it at first - wanting to be at Moana's side, not wanting to lose her so soon after meeting her. But her efforts brought her no closer to the boat, which crashed on the shore of a small barren island.
An island. She swam to the surface looking to see there was in fact an island, Moana was now safe on its shore – and the chicken. A relieved breath left her as she swam a little closer, noting the place where the water shallowed and she knew without her father having to tell her that she could go no further. "Maui." She'd finally found him.