Chosen of the Wind (Version 2)
[DISCLAIMER]
[I do not own Moana or How to Train Your Dragon.]
-CONTENT NOTES-
I agonized over this and was so anxious because I asked friends to help me beta, but never got a response, so I just wasn't able to move forward for a hot sec there. I was too unsure of how to approach the Haddock reunion, so it'll be in next chapter, but I really want to know what you guys think. I'm a bit stumped.
–FORMAT NOTES–
I don't know if I'm all that decent at action writing.
MY NOTES
Thanks for being patient. Please please let me know what you think!!
-artisticRadifyer
Extended 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 to save his village. Njord chose just him, a runaway heiress, and the demigod that triggered the decay, to fix things. But there is no 'team' in 'chosen,' and the mentally challenged chicken that might be food, can't change that.
Chapter 8 - Cracked and Split
The Berkians diligently looked for the raft that was swallowed by fog a short while ago. Once the vessel was found Toothless warned the water bound duo of their incoming landing. Hiccup pushed his helmet out of the way to talk. "What does 'Te Fiti' look like? I could see how far out we are if I knew what to look for."
"I…don't actually know." Moana curiously answered. She turned, and noticed Maui had his gaze trained on her. "... What?"
"I figured it out." Maui jumped down from his position on the top of the mast. The man turned his back to the others, and explained the scenes that moved across his skin. "You know the Ocean used to love when I pulled up islands. 'Cause your ancestors would sail the seas and find them. All those new islands, new villages... It was the water that connected them all. And if I were the Ocean, I think I'd be looking for, a... curly haired... non-princess... to start that again."
Hiccup supposed he was lucky to be on the raft to have heard the growth of one of the members in their team. Toothless pressed into his side comfortingly as Hiccup also mentally tallied the Ocean's mention; another that did not include the Wind.
Moana sounded touched by the man's words. "That is literally the nicest thing you've ever said to me. ...Prooobably should've saved that for Te Fiti."
Maui nodded serenely. "I did." He gestured grandly to a sliver of black, barren rocks in front of the island in the distance, which peaked out through the gradually thinned fog. "Moana of Motunui: I believe you have officially delivered Maui across the great sea." He copied the teen's whisper-cheer. "Moa-NA, Moa-NA, Moa-na…! You're so amaziiiiing!"
Moana smiled and handed the oar over. "It's time." She gestured for him to take to the sky. "Go. Save the world."
The exchange left the viking wondering if Moana had a role in this mission, by the way the demigod worded his congratulations. However, Hiccup didn't know of any prophecies to draw from. His discomfort grew and he unhappily wondered what else he must have missed from being in the sky.
"We'll do our best." Hiccup quietly said. He flipped his helmet down, hunkered close to his living-home, closed his eyes, and his wings launched them into battle.
The island in front of them shook when Hiccup focused on the world around him.
A blazing plume of smoke violently ripped the ground open to molten depths of searing, red, liquefied earth. A mass of hot then hurtled in their direction from out of the smoke cover.
Toothless blasted the projectile, which altered and avoided the intended target, Maui. Another two sailed through the aerial battlefield, and Toothless repeated his offensive defense shot to both. Hiccup congratulated his plasma shooting other self at the same time Toothless let loose a challenging roar. "Nice, Bud!"
Maui closed in on the smoke, when a giant, sweltering form leapt up and spiked him out of the air and back into his demigod form. He saved his fall by capturing his Hook, and returned to Hawk form. He transformed in time to avoid a low blow from Te Ka, but a quick backslap however, connected and smacked him out of his animal form again, and into the sea.
Hiccup briefly searched the water, worried and unsure if he needed to keep an eye on the lava rock-throwing god, or Maui. But as he looked, he saw the glowing Heart still moved with speed, so he sighed with a bit of relief, and assumed the demigod was handling himself fine.
Another lava ball hurtled over the sea during his brief distraction, and seemingly in spite of his thoughts and Toothless' intervention, the shot seemed to still just barely miss Maui. Yet another quickly launched, aim switched instead at an area further out.
Toothless blasted the shot and by following its assumed path, they saw the teenager was sailing closer to the island and the battle with the raft on her own.
A loud, crumbling noise caught his attention, and he saw the molten figure's hand stumble into the water which cooled to become unmalleable stone flesh. Familiar with forges, Hiccup was relieved to see the physics and the fire of the world weren't screwed around on this deity.
Hiccup and Toothless return their gazes back onto the raft, and find the male southerner had returned to it.
They saw Teka reignite the stone hand, and the being roared.
The raft was at full speed, Maui and Moana both near the rear of the raft, and out of the corner of his eye, Toothless saw a long arm come down swiftly towards the two. He pumped their wings and gunned them as far out of the blast zone as possible, and consequently, the northerners' duo flight took on a sudden, fast, upward incline. "OH BUPKIS! TOOTHLESS!! NJORD?! What–?!"
An overwhelming blast of force exploded below them in answer, and the northern duo got tossed around the sky haphazardly. They struggled to right themselves in the air after the blast passed, and upon recovering, they looked around.
"Do you see them, Bud?" Hiccup asked. They circled a few times, scanning rampant waves for their companions' raft. Toothless barked when he spotted the vessel, and veered them in the correct direction.
The raft was still drifting slowly away from the blast point, Moana down but stirring, and Maui holding his newly scorched, flickering Hook.
They landed on the raft. "Are you both ok? What exploded?"
"I think I'm fine." Moana answered breathlessly, torso supported by her arms to look up at the demigod. "Maui, are you okay?" When he didn't answer, she tried again. "Maui?"
A heavy silence sat in the air when Maui fully turned and gingerly displayed the Hook and its damage in both hands.
"Oh." Hiccup didn't realize how badly the Hook had been damaged from his earlier sighting in the air.
"I told you to turn back." He solemnly stated, looking at the Hook.
Hiccup was quietly confused until Moana hesitantly explained herself as she stood completely. "I thought we could make it."
"'We?'" Maui shifted his gaze to glare at her.
"...I thought... I could make it." She amends. "...We can fix it!" She took a step forward.
Maui spoke venomously. "It was made by the gods. You can't. FIX it."
"Next time we'll be more careful." Moana declared, fists braced in determination, and then knelt down to attend to a rope on the raft. "Te Ka was stuck on the barrier island. I-It's lava. It can't go in the water. We can find a way around!"
"I saw too." Hiccup added. He watched Maui's expression darken further as he and Moana tried to reason with the demigod. "We just need to, y'know, actually make a plan this time."
"I'm not going back."
Both Hiccup and Moana stilled themselves in disbelief.
"Wh--…?" Moana stood again. "We still have to restore the Heart!"
Maui wasn't meeting their eyes again. "My Hook is cracked. One more hit, and it's over."
"Maui, you have to restore the Heart!"
"Without my Hook, I am nothing." The demigod stressed.
An unnerving chill went down Hiccup's spine and he and Toothless drew closer together without even a glance.
"That's not true!"
"WITHOUT my Hook, I am NOTHING!!"
Hiccup stared at Maui in astonished shock, and watched the Heart fall from the man's presented palm down to the deck. He spoke up as the demigod passed him. "You're giving up?"
Moana picked up the Heart and soldiered on after Hiccup's question went unanswered. "We are only here, because you stole the Heart in the first place!"
"No," Maui snarled, "we're here because the Ocean told you you're special and you believed it."
"The gods literally made YOU 'special!'" Hiccup reminded Maui. "You're. special!" Hiccup defended the mortals on the raft, his words beginning to rise in volume. "What's wrong with us being on the list at a lower roster than you?!"
Maui shouted. "It didn't matter! We almost died!"
"Did you not know the risks we would be facing?! We all knew it was DANGEROUS!!"
A beat passed.
"I am Moana of Motunui." The teen suddenly started a seemingly rehearsed speech. "You will board my boat–"
Maui interrupted and turned away. "Goodbye, Moana. Hiccup. Dragon."
"--sail across the sea–"
Maui quickly rounded back to yell at her as she cradled the stone to her chest. "I'm not killing myself so you can prove you're something you're not!!"
"--and restore the Heart of Te Fiti!!" She brandished the Heart in his face. "The Ocean. chose. me!"
"...It chose wrong." He solemnly declared. The demigod turned away, and failed the first transformation he attempted with a grunt of pain.
Hiccup was incensed. "They must have chosen 'wrong' between all three of us, then!"
The man paused before he successfully turned into the Hawk and flew away without another word.
Moana yelled after him. "Maui!"
"Come. ON!" Hiccup exclaimed, and contemplated launching after the Hawk to force Maui to play his part in the mission. He quickly reasoned that they probably couldn't force the demigod to help without handicapping said help and defeating the purpose of having the shapeshifter around.
A gust of shifting, powerful wind picked up to create ripples in the water that gently grew against physics. Mist twirled around the rising mound of water elegantly.
"...Why did you bring me here?" Moana asks the Ocean quietly, gaze directed down in hurt and shame.
Hiccup glanced at the teenager, remembering old and recent times he whispered doubts to his other self after a shared nightmare while they laid next to each other in the woods, as far from admiration as they could get, wearily waiting for the sun to rise. He inhaled to speak, to maybe try to comfort the girl, but she continued talking to the water, and he supposed he could figure out what she needed to hear once he heard more of the problem.
"I'm not the right person." She slowly held the Heart in her palm out to the water, looked up, and started to plead at the mound. "…You have to choose someone else."
A terrible feeling slowly bubbled up in Hiccup as he listened to the other champion of Njord's choosing rescind her role in saving her people, and any background ideas to utilize the remaining southerner's help evaporated from Hiccup's mind. Toothless nudged his rider and wrapped his tail around their feet, glancing between the humans and the display of power by Njord.
She shifted the Heart in her hands. "Choose. someone else." Another shift moved it back to her palm. "Please."
The peak of the mountain of water didn't respond at first, and then moved to 'look' at Hiccup, and the gust of air swirled away from the liquid to dance around both him and his wings.
Moana looked too, and her trembling hand sank to her chest. "Oh." The tears she had held back spilled from her gaze. She handed the responsibility to Hiccup. "H–here." And she wilted to the deck of the raft in despair.
Hiccup turned the green stone in his hand over a few times. "...We… …we're the backup plan." Toothless crooned softly, trying to comfort his human half.
Moana sobbed.
Hiccup incredulously shook his head at her. "Wh– I– Are we just–" His hands flailed in emphasis as he spoke. "Are we invisible to you two? You just now–You just now, forgot we were even here!"
She looked up at him through her tears as new horror creeped onto her face. "...What…?"
"It feels like neither of you want our help! You both: brush off my advice, never seem to want to directly communicate with me, you don't expect help from us in battles, and basically haven't let us work with you!"
Moana stared at him, speechless as her tears continued to fall.
"You both don't seem to need us!" Hiccup sharply shrugged and continued with his eyes averted and with less energy. "It feels like we've been… unnecessary to this mission, until now." A dark, self deprecating smirk appeared on his face. "It seems I'm not 'useless' here. Fancy that, Bud." He looked back to the Heart. "…Just a backup plan."
Moana shook her head, and futilely wiped her face of tears. "I'm--I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…"
Hiccup sighed and sat down, and Toothless settled behind him like a warm rock to lean on. They stay silent for a few moments. "...I know. You did really try. The two of you just… weren't very inclusive."
Moana sniffled, deflating further with stress.
"...If it's alright with you:" Hiccup eventually spoke after a few more moments. "May we please sleep here? We'll leave when we've rested up."
"Su–sure, of course…" Moana weakly agreed.
He thanked her, and Hiccup and Toothless relaxed further into each other; becoming a warm pile of comfort.
It was only a few minutes later that Moana gasped.
His other half chuffed in interest, and Hiccup opened his eyes to scan their surroundings as well. He followed his dragon's gaze and spotted a brilliant, glowing, opaque creature that serenely flapped past in the water under them. He sat up to see the animal's position better, and found that its form reminded him of a Seashocker from the Tidal Class of dragons.
It glided upwards towards the surface of the ocean, and the creature dissipated into a concentrated glow that rose out of the water and settled into the form of an older lady sitting on her knees.
Simultaneously, a crash of thunder followed a brilliant, out of place strike of lightning across the clear, starry sky, and a crackling bolt of energy splintered off it to land in one of the last open spots on the raft to render a familiarly large man.
"You're a long ways past the reef." The elder lady spoke first. "Guess I chose the right tattoo."
Moana launched herself into her grandmother's arms with tearful relief. "GRAMMA!"
That was all Hiccup was able to comprehend in his periphery before his attention was completely tunneled to the appearance of the spectral warrior in front of him. "...D- ...Dad?" He asked, disbelieving his eyes' input.
The Chief of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe of Berk, Stoick the Vast, oh Hear his Name and Tremble, Ugh, Ugh, stood before his sons with a gentle smile on his face.