She was awakened by a sudden splash of water that came to her on a surface that was hot and…sandy. Her face was buried in the sand along with the entire front of her body. Pua and Hei-Hei's heads were hidden under wooden bowls, wondering where they were. Sora was lying on his back, imagining nothing but his younger years on Destiny Island with the typical sounds of birds and waves crashing tingling in his ears, the heat of the sun bearing down on his closed eye lids. Donald looked like a dead duck with the way his arms appeared to have flailed and his tail was straight up to the sky. Goofy was resting against a large boulder, his head leaning against his right shoulder and his legs were in an arched position by fifteen to twenty five inches high.
"Am I home?"
His mind was expecting Kairi to wake him up, but it was his willpower that allowed him to wake up in the first second his upper body began to lift himself up along with the opening of his eyes to see that while the beach and the ocean seemed the same, the surrounding territory was unfamiliar. He was further disappointed by this realization when he saw Moana storming up to the beach and shouting to no one in particular other than thin air.
"What was that for?! When I asked you to help me, I did not mean for you to wreck my boat on a desert island! How would you feel if one day man decided to poison you on the very day I needed your help the most?! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL THEN?!"
She calmed herself once she saw Pua and Hei-Hei with their heads underneath the bowls. As per force of habit, she went over to her two animal friends as Goofy and Donald helped themselves up. But when she came over to the large thirty-foot rock of white granite stone, what she saw made her eyes go wide with amazement.
There were at least six fish hooks drawn with bodies of tally marks, a total of 800, maybe even more. It gave her a hint and she was beginning to regret her harmful words to the ocean that actually helped her along the way. Seeing Sora rocking his head to the left with a small yawn, she asked.
"Do you think Maui is here?"
"Maybe," replied Sora once he saw the fish hooks. "If those marks of any indication."
Moana kneeled down to remove the bowls from Hei-Hei and Pua's heads, but her ears caught the attention of three thumping footsteps, aided by the shadow of a hunchback with his right arm over his head. She immediately figured who it was and her mind supported the initial fear that Maui did not take too kindly to strangers.
"He is here."
Moana's voice was quiet and sufficient enough to prevent her words from breaching the demigod's ears. Scooping the pig and the rooster into her arms, she and Sora hid behind the upturned hull of the boat, lying on its right side. Donald followed them, but Goofy was curious, though smart enough to whisper.
"Fellers, why are we hiding?"
"I don't think Maui likes strangers," Moana replied. "Now keep your mouth shut until I am able to tame him."
Finding the oar conveniently lying there with the blade facing upwards towards the rocks, Moana placed Pua and Hei-Hei on the ground and took the oar in her right hand, intent on using it as a weapon to tame the superior demigod and before she could even take action or even rehearse her words, there was a cry of:
"A boat! I have found a boat!"
Moana stared at the person holding the raft high above his head in his left hand. It was a man, muscular, brown-tanned skin, coal black curly hair and beady little pupils to match those brown irises. Around his neck, was necklace of ten different sets of teeth: A great white shark's tooth, an alligator tooth, the husk of a baby walrus, the front sabre tooth of a lion, the left molar of a tiger, the right incisor of an owl, the left wisdom tooth of a panther, the right central incisor of a brown bear, the left lateral incisor of a grey wolf and a denticle from an octopus. The only thing that concealed his modesty was a row of green ivy, pink leaves, green palm leaves, brown leaves, one yellow leaf and three more teeth belonging to an iguana, a rodent and a barracuda, held onto by three strings of brown rope.
The most interesting details were his black tattoos, covering a major part of his body. On his left ab was a four-inch version of himself holding up the sky, on his right was another four inch version of himself pulling on the sun with a rope attached to his fish hook over a crowd of people, his abdomen was embedded with another four inch version of himself holding the fish hook in his right hand under an angry feminine glare with long wavy hair and hands that looked clawed and underneath the figure were flamed waves centering around his belly button. His right ankle bore the shapes of arched windows while his left had spirals resembling nautilus shells. With waves representing rib cages over the exact location of said bones, his hips had squiggly lines surrounded by a border of smaller ones. His right elbow featured a seven inch version of himself in a black circle while a smaller picture of himself was seen pulling what looked like a kite or glider against a strong gale. Waves appeared on his wrists and on his left wrist were three lives of waves above rows of thin-outlined squares. A palm tree was represented on his left upper arm and underneath it were two other portraits; one of himself with his fish hook fighting against a bat-demon, the other showing a circular variation of himself facing a round creature with sharp teeth. His collar bone was laced with four rows of triangles, black ones facing downward.
To Sora, Donald and Goofy, this man was a living work of art.
"The gods have given a boat…"
He looked down at his unexpected guests, dropping his dramatic tone.
"…along with two humans, a duck, an odd-looking dog, a pig and a rooster."
He placed the boat down.
"It has been almost a millennium since I have received guests."
Moana positioned the end of the oar in the sand and spoke formally with her left fist against her hip. Sora stood tall and taciturn.
"Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, I am Moana Waialiki—"
"Hero of men…and women. It should be 'Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of men and women'. You may resume."
Moana was stunned by this interruption and Sora wanted nothing more than credibility if he was going to assist her, so he decided to wait until Moana cleared her throat and began again.
"Thank you. Anyways, Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of men and women, I am Moana Waialiki of Motunui—"
"And I am Sora of Destiny. You will board our boat, sail across the great ocean and restore the heart of Te Fiti."
Moana just stared at Sora, who shrugged his arms at how good he was at memorizing her speech.
"It takes a lot of listening to hear what you said yesterday over and over again, so I thought I could give you all the help you needed."
Maui, the demigod in question, just cocked his head to the right by five degrees and his face told the others that it was not a sign of acceptance. It was a sign of reluctance.
"It sounds to me as if you don't like me. I have been stuck here for a thousand years because of what I did to steal that thing."
"Out of pure greed and avarice?" asked Moana in an upset tone.
"I have kept myself busy from time to time. A demigod's mind is much stronger than a mortal's, that's why I haven't lost my mind over the lack of food or fresh water. Not that I needed to drink out of the ocean or anything. But the reason I stole it was because I thought it would make a perfect gift for mortals like yourselves: to have the ability to create life. I am immortal, it means you never die, and my physical age is what most mortals see me as."
His face was glued with a smirk and his hormones turned to seductive, peering over Moana.
"Strong, handsome and protector to all people regardless of sex, race or religion."
"That sounds very universal of you," Moana conjured up a friendly smile.
With his eyes at half-mast, a smug leer and a gesture of putting Moana and Sora under his left arm, he said.
"Well, what can I say except…"
His feet began to accelerate, pushing the two mortals into a small valley of rocks into a cave. Sora and Moana barely had time to administer this fact until Maui, twenty feet away from them in the opening, spoke the last words of "you're welcome!" and his hands sealed the cave shut with a large boulder used as a door. Moana, out of fear and in quick haste rushed to the boulder but it was too late for to even have the strength of pushing it back. Sora, knowing it was hopeless, leaned his back against the right side of the cave wall, his right hand covering his eyes in shame as the chieftess-to-be continued to pound on the door.
"Oh, you evil, vile son of a—"
"Please don't say it," Sora muttered, cutting her off before she could sprout the word "bitch". "I've already had enough swearing to last me a lifetime."
And he did get a lot of it during the Second Keyblade War, the big, bloody battle that finally ended Master Xehanort's ambitions of reshaping the universe in his image for good. Moana calmed her body and turned counterclockwise to face Sora, who removed his right hand from his eyes. His face was a mug of light sadness.
"And how do you expect us to get out of here?"
"I can try exploding the boulder with a fire spell, but in case you end up getting hurt, I think it would be best if you went behind me."
And so she did. Her hands were clutching to Sora's shoulders and her eyes were closed as she pressed the left side of her face against his hood. Sora held the Keyblade out in front of him as far as his eyes could go and whispered.
"Fireaga."
A tiny flame peeked out of the teeth of the Keyblade, growing within five seconds to turn into twenty-inch-long fireball, which shot out of the Key like a cannon and made contact with the boulder. The ground rumbled as fifteen pieces of stone, slabs and a heavy cloud of dust caught the attention of Maui, who was already on Moana's boat with the intention of cooking Goofy, Donald, Pua and Hei-Hei for food and had turned back in time to witness the explosion. Sora and Moana were still positioned like statues with the exception that Sora had his eyes closed to block out the dust and Moana was now clutching onto the hood, squeezing her eyes shut until they could go no further.
"I could witness something spectacular as that again and again," Maui congratulated before turning his tattooed back to them. "I hope you will enjoy the island!"
And with his right hand using the rope to rotate the sail by thirteen degrees, they were off with the Gummi ship still attached to the rope. But Moana, who had now opened her eyes, ran hurriedly to the water.
"Wait! We have to restore the heart together!"
Thus she finished as she made her way into the water and Sora followed after her. Seeing her struggle to swim after them at a speed of 0.5 miles per hour, Sora would have used his handy-dandy Keyblade Glider to scoop her up and fly over to the boat, if it hadn't been for the ocean, who formed a five foot mount up to Moana's shoulders and stood there, perfectly motionless for a minute. Sora, with no time to spare at this chance jumped into the water with her and it too gripped him in a slightly taller mount. There was little time for them to prepare to hold their breaths as a current dragged them under the water, spinning them around at a slow pace but everything around them seemed to be going fast.
Meanwhile on the boat after providing the animals with some berries, Maui, smug and confident with the continuation of his heroic deeds, was surprised at the sight of the two humans shooting upwards into the air as the water around them evaporated upon touching the wooden surface. The demigod's mouth was agape and his right eyebrow was raised in puzzlement over how such a feat by a mortal could be achieved.
"I did not see that coming."
While Sora made sure that his naturally spikey hair was still just the way it was, Moana, her hair still soaked from the ride, turned clockwise to face her false hope of an idol. She was determined to restore peace, no matter what.
"I am Moana Waialiki of Motunui. This is my canoe and you will journey with me-"
Without so much as an effort, Maui proceeded to pick up Moana, intent on throwing her into the water. But no sooner had he lifted her about fifteen feet off the canoe when the right hand of Sora's swift reflexes caught her left ankle and the two began to tug for a duo of seconds until it was Maui who gained the upper hand and Sora released Moana from his grip, confident that the ocean would put her back.
"It would be wise if she came with us," Sora sneered, crossing his arms.
A small, animated tattoo found in Maui's left ab seemed to agree with him. It also crossed its arms in an exact imitation of Sora's.
"Don't bother about it," Maui explained. "We should just get going."
"To Te Fiti?" Sora's eyes widened with hope along with his smile.
"No, to freedom."
And that was when Moana appeared on the bowsprit, followed by large goblets of water that fell back into the ocean. Even though she had been soaked for the third time, the chieftess was undaunted yet deterred by the demigod's coarse mannerisms.
"I see you have returned," she said unenthusiastically, looking bored to go with the voice.
"Yes," Moana flipped her hair before presenting him with the heart. "And you will redeem yourself by restoring the heart and prevent the darkness from consuming my island into devastation."
Maui looked at the heart in Moana's right hand, held by her index and thumb fingers. His decision was made.
"That thing is bad luck."
His left hand reached for it, but Moana held it back as far as she could go.
"Then consider doing it yourself, I am leaving."
He held up his arms and dived face first off the starboard side of the canoe. His stamina and strength which physically left him stuck at this young, muscular age did not require him to breath, but there were time where Maui did not know his own strength based on memory and if he was aware, it would be nothing more than an insult, like when just now, the water engulfed him into a bubble, pulling under the canoe to the port side and throwing him onto the wooden surface.
"How dare you!"
But all he received in return was a jet of water, about 50 gallons at least, being squirted at him.
That was enough to make Moana laugh after all the hard convincing she had to put up with. Sora, Goofy and Donald tried not break any breaths of laughter by simply holding them back with their hands. After settling her laughter down, Moana looked at the heart and questioned the demigod.
"Are you afraid of this?"
Maui shook his head.
"No."
But the resilient, miniature tattoo of himself was in a state of weakness when he chattered his teeth at the very sight of it. Maui had to agree with his moral subconscious.
"Don't you dare even try to bring that in front of me. That heart is no more than a mere curse. When I took it, I was dammed from the sky and I lost my hook as punishment. So get it away from me, or so help the gods that I make another attempt to retreat again."
Moana, her eyes at half-mast and her smile on the vapid verge of a grotesque kiss, held the heart further to Maui by three inches.
"Really?" she teased.
"To think," Donald said to his comrades. "A great demigod afraid of a powerful jade."
"Even Hercules wouldn't be so timid over that," Goofy whispered in a rare moment of intelligence.
"As a demigod of the wind and sea I will smite you into oblivion!"
"Go ahead if you may," Sora called from the bowsprit. "But once the world dies into darkness, do not even think about crying to us."
"I just so happened to find out for myself that the heart does not give you power at all. It traces the person holding it brings death to that unfortunate soul."
"And what sort of wicked demons would be after this?" Moana switched the heart into her left hand out of pure childishness.
"Plenty who do not know what it does. If I were you, child, I would hide it before the enemies of Te Fiti find out that you are in its possession."
"No, we are going straight to Te Fiti so we can restore it to her. Mahalo ame he mea ʻole."
Maui, understanding it as "thank you and you are welcome" could only agree in his head that he would do it for the sake of redeeming his past sins. Now if he could only get his fish hook back as well…