"Moana?" Alani called as they crested the hill to Moana's hut. A group of villagers were gathered outside, crowding the doorway.
"Mom?" Kai dropped her Auntie's arm and ran up the steps, shoving villagers out of his way as he went.
"Sister?!" Alani was right on his heels.
"Kai Hawewe, come here." The Lapau Wahine said, gesturing him inside. Moana was laying very still, surrounded by candles.
"Mama?" Kai grabbed her hand and pressed it to his face.
"Dear one..." Moana said, opening her brown eyes. "There's no need to worry, I am just tired."
"She's exhausted." Kai heard the Lapau Wahine say to his auntie. He tuned them out and focused on his mother.
"I'll stay by your side, Mama. No more wandering." He said, kissing her hand. His mother smiled and closed her eyes. Kai snuck a glance back at Alani, who was staring worriedly at his mother.
A week passed. Moana barely made it from her bed. She would put on a brave face and go out into the village every day, greeting her people, but afterwards would collapse in bed, exhausted.
People talked behind their hands. They stopped when Kai walked by, but he knew what they were saying. His mother was dying. He would have to learn to be chief, and soon.
Another week passed with no change. Kai grew angrier and angrier, and no amount of deep breaths would calm the storm inside.
"Kai Hawewe, can you help me with this fishing trap?" Mokka asked him as he walked through the village. He looked from the trap to his friend's face. He had no clue how to help! But he was obligated, as chief. His mother had been entrusting more and more of her duties to him.
"Kai Hawewe, the crops on the North side have failed, what should we do?" Koa asked. Kai wanted to scream. He wasn't his mother, this wasn't his job yet.
"Kai Hawewe, the coconuts-"
"Kai Hawewe, the roof-"
"Kai-"
"Hawewe-"
"Moana would-"
"-Can't you?"
"STOP!" He screamed, about ready to rip his hair out. The village froze.
"I can't do this for you. I don't know how to fix things or plant things or do anything a Chief should know! I'm not my mother, I'm not like her at all! I hate this island!" He screamed at them, anger overflowing. Everyone looked at him, then fixed on something behind him. They all dropped their eyes. Kai took a deep breath and turned around.
"Kai?" His mother was there, standing on her own for now. Behind him, he could see his Auntie's angry eyes. He'd crossed a line.
"Kai?" Moana called again. She was crying.
"I'm sorry, Makuahine. This isn't me. I'm not a chief..."
"You're right. I should not have placed so much faith in you, keiki." His mother said simply. She let her headdress slide into her hand, handing it to Alani. She turned away.
"Keiki? You still call me a child? I'm almost a man, mother. I'm almost 14 summers!"
"I became chief when I was your age!" Moana said, her voice ringing with power. "I crossed oceans to save my island and my people."
"I want to cross oceans! You won't let me!" He swore, the villagers around him gasping.
"We do not go beyond the reef because the ocean is no longer safe for our people. As much as my heart resists this, I have resolved to keep my people safe, I-" Moana began to cough, horrible gasping coughs.
"You are a coward, mother. I don't want to be the son of a coward." Kai turned on his heel and ran away from the village, ignoring his mother's cries of pain.
Kai ran until his lungs were fit to burst. His blood was boiling, the tempest inside still going full force. He ran up the mountain, to the top. He stopped, leaning on the stone pile of chiefs. The sun had just set on the island, bathing him in moonlight.
His mother had taken him here last summer, telling him the story of the stones. Each one was laid by a chief of Motonui, making the island higher and higher. At the top was his mother's, before that her father, then on and on and on, back to Aukai the Great.
"I'm not fit to be a chief." He said, punching the pile. His hand stung, but the shallow scrape quickly dissolved. A talent he'd had since he was a baby. His wounds healed instantly. One time he'd falled down a short ravine into a rock pile, something that certainly should have broken his neck, but he emerged to jump in his mother's arms, completely unscathed. His mother said it was a gift from the gods, keeping him safe.
There was a rocky click, and the pile of stones began to shift. Kai swore and moved to correct his mistake. He would never live down the bad luck he'd get for breaking their sacred spot. He pushed with all his might and righted the heavy stones.
"That was close..." He said. He noticed his mother's stone was shifted. Something was off about the stones beneath. He could just barely see over the lip of his kupunakāne's stone. It was hollow. He pulled his mother's stone off and set it aside. The stones beneath hers were hollow, and there were objects stuffed in the small hole. He pulled them out and blew the dust and moss off. There was a bright pink shell, the kind that sometimes washed up on the beach, and a few tapestries. He unravelled the first.
It was old, the symbols weren't drawn the same way anymore. It was the story of Aukai the Great, who sailed across the sea to find Motonui. But the story continued...
His people had voyaged away from Motonui many times, but then Maui, demigod of the air and sea, stole the heart of the mother island, and things went bad. There were no more voyages.
Then, a hero stepped up. A girl with long hair took a boat away from Motonui, found Maui, and returned the heart to the mother island. Life was restored.
"Mom?" He gasped. She'd been the girl in the story. But why would she keep it from him? He picked up the next tapestry.
There had been many voyages to the mother island and back, the people of Motonui had travelled the world again.
"But things went wrong..." He said out loud, flipping the tapestry. There was a picture of a giant monster facing down a boat. His mother was at the prow, her stomach round with child. This had happened when she was pregnant with him? She was holding a shining beacon of light. Behind the monster was the island of Motonui.
So she'd led them past the monster... Why couldn't she do it again? Why didn't she kill it?
The final tapestry showed the legend of Maui, the god of air and sea. He'd brought all the great things to their world. Why wasn't he still bringing them gifts? Why wasn't he still pulling up islands? Why had he turned his back on them?
He looked at the pictures scattered at his feet, then down at the village, rage boiling inside of him. Why had she kept this from him? Did she think he wouldn't find out?! He threw the tapestry on the ground.
"I hate you!" Kai cried, shoving the rocks of the chiefs. There was a loud crack and the pile toppled, some of the older rocks crumbling to nothing.
Kai stopped, breathing hard. There was another tapestry in the rocks. He pulled it out. It showed a cave, with hundreds of boats hidden inside. The cave was sealed and the entrance hidden by waterfall. He looked up. The Great Waterfall.
The tapestry fluttered to the ground on top of the pile of rubble, Kai was gone.
"Kai?" Moana's weak voice echoed around the empty hut. Something had woken her.
"Moana, are you alright?" Alani asked from her mat by the door.
"Help me up, something is wrong. Where is my son?" Moana asked, struggling to sit up.
"He hasn't come back to the village, Hinoi said he saw him climbing the mountain."
"We have to go up there. Help me." Moana insisted. The two women lit a torch and began to hobble up the mountainside.
Kai held up a torch in the great cavern, the breath stolen from his lungs. He was surrounded by great boats, bigger than the Great House.
He spied a small boat on the edge of the fleet, a simple wind skiff. That was perfect for him.
As soon as he shoved the canoe into the water and jumped aboard, something inside of him began to sing, quieting the storm inside. He pulled on the sheet, and the skiff pulled forwards out of the cave and into the bay. A few more ropes, and he was sailing directly for the reef. Sailing was like second nature to him.
A wave broke over the canoe, dousing his toes in warm water. He let out a whoop. One more wave, and he was over the edge of the reef. He didn't give Motonui a second look.
"No..." Moana's breath left her as she set eyes on the destruction on top of the mountain. The stones of the chiefs were toppled everywhere, some crushed into dust.
"His strength is growing..." Alani said.
A tapestry fluttered to the ground, brushing over her foot. Moana picked it up and felt a tear track down her cheek. It was the story of Aukai the Great - her son's namesake.
"He's seen the tapestries?" Alani asked.
"I should have told him long ago." Moana replied. Her chest hurt.
"Chief Moana!" A villager cried from the path. Kehai ran up to them, panting hard.
"What is it?" She asked. The villager pointed to the horizon, where the moon was high above the sky. A single boat was silhouetted on the sea.
"No..." Moana said, the breath leaving her once again. "Kai!" She clutched her chest, falling to her knees.