There was no sign of it.
The two of them had searched all around where Maui had been passed out in the sand, but there was no trace of his hook anywhere. Maui had been asleep just above the high tide line. The tide had come and gone in the night, leaving the sand between him and the sea smooth. But beyond that towards the land, there were no footprints either. A crafty thief could have come and gone along the water if they had timed it right, but they would have at least left some traces behind. A scent trail, at the very least.
There were, in fact, traces of a smell Tamatoa could not identify, but it was faint and hard to discern amongst the smells of the sea and the distinctive scent of a demigod. He had tried his best, but in the end Tamatoa was forced to throw his claws up in defeat. The look Maui had given him in that defeat was one of disappointment and Tamatoa, despite knowing this was all Maui's own fault to begin with, nevertheless felt chastised. He'd failed his friend.
Antennae drooping dejectedly, Tamatoa followed Maui along the trail to the village. They'd have to continue their search there. He stared up at Maui's back as they walked in sullen silence, looking at the drawings still visible there despite Maui's best efforts to scrub them away in the sea. The dye was persistent, though, and would probably linger a while before finally fading away. Weeks maybe. Tamatoa couldn't help but crack a smile. Now everybody would know he was part of the story too—at least for a little while, until the dye wore off. And maybe someday he'd show up in those tattoos for real.
They had barely made it more than halfway down the footpath to the village when a pair of women appeared on the trail ahead of them. They had been chatting gaily amongst themselves, but when they spied Maui they suddenly fell silent. Tamatoa peeked around Maui's legs to see why.
The women were staring with wide eyes at Maui's face, decorated with painted-on antennae. Then their gaze traveled down to see the other drawings on his chest. The taller woman hastily put her hand over her mouth, muffling a giggle. The shorter woman, however, at least attempted to keep her composure and maintain some sense of decorum in the presence of a demigod. For about half a moment, anyway. Then she burst into peals of laughter. Unable to contain herself, she turned and fled back the way she came. Her companion followed swiftly and their laughter hung in the air even after they were out of sight.
Maui turned slowly and fixed Tamatoa with a wordless glare.
Tamatoa was trying to contain his own snickering without much success, pincers held at his mouth to hold the laughter in check. "You should have showed them the ones—" A guffaw escaped him, slipping around his claw. "—on your back, too."
Maui was not amused. He spun on his heel and continued marching back to the village. Stolen hook or not, he really was being a poor sport about all this.
The humans were already bustling about with their morning routines—preparing food and readying fishing nets and all that other stuff humans did—when Tamatoa and Maui arrived in the village.
As they walked through the village, there were more muffled snickers from many of the humans they passed. Some had the good grace to try and conceal their laughter, but others were far less successful. Maui's expression darkened with every jeering giggle and he cast increasingly baleful, glowering looks back at Tamatoa.
Well, Tamatoa had just about had enough of that. It was Maui's own fault that he'd lost his hook and that he was covered in rude drawings. He probably wouldn't have lost his hook at all if Tamatoa had been there!
Yet, Tamatoa was still going to help find it. He was betting he could find it first, too! Surely Maui would be impressed then! If he found it, Maui certainly wouldn't leave him behind next time.
Eager to prove himself, Tamatoa couldn't help but grin a little. "I'm gonna search the village for your hook," he told Maui, then hurried off without waiting for a reply.
A surreptitious peek behind him with one eye earned Tamatoa a glimpse of Maui staring after him, the demigod's expression one of mixed confusion and irritation—framed by the artistic rendition of antennae painted on his face. Tamatoa stifled a giggle, then ducked around a corner and into the shadow of a sturdily built vale.
Alone now and out of sight, he considered his options. He'd start by searching the quiet outer buildings of the village, then work his way in towards the busier areas. Let Maui go ask the humans questions and see what good that did him. Tamatoa knew better than to trust the humans, never forgetting his first nearly disastrous encounter with them.
His claws clenched just thinking about it—the feeling of the net closing around him, the terror as he was dragged off, and the hands closing around his legs and pulling. Even more than a century later, it still stayed fresh in his mind. They would have eaten him like he was just some common little crab. Well, he wouldn't be little forever and then—
He shook off the memory. That was a long time ago. Besides, the humans stank of lies. No, Tamatoa would do the smart thing and just go dig through their homes, where they kept their treasures, to find where they had stashed Maui's hook.
With that in mind, he crept stealthily from the shadow of one structure to the next until he reached the more isolated huts along the village perimeter. Sidling up silently to the entryway of one, he carefully slipped his antennae around the corner and into the open door. The vale was empty and quiet, with the only smells being those of regular human habitation.
Not wasting any time, he hurried up the stone steps into the hut. With a practiced eye, he did a preliminary search. Aha! He zeroed in on a little area partitioned off by hanging tapa cloths, ornately painted in intricate designs. He ducked under the trailing edge of the barkcloth and was rewarded with a collection of trinkets and oddities tucked into reed baskets. For a moment he forgot his task and dug eagerly through the piles of carved bracelets and pretty seashells. Then he pushed aside some coconut shell pendants and a glint caught his eye. Tamatoa stared, dazzled by what his claws had uncovered.
Shimmering even in the dim light was a pearl. Not just any pearl, but one of a quality that even Tamatoa had rarely encountered before. It was an iridescent dark green, but touched with gold and purple that emerged as the light played over it. He'd never seen a pearl of such radiant beauty before. Transfixed, he picked it up delicately in his pincer and slowly held it up to admire it. The pearl gleamed enticingly in a stray shaft of sunlight, brilliant and beautiful and shiny.
There was a shuffling noise outside the vale and Tamatoa was startled out of his trance. Oh, right! He was supposed to be looking for Maui's hook! He looked around quickly. Well, it wasn't here and someone was coming.
It occurred to Tamatoa that now that he no longer needed to wear a borrowed shell for protection, he had nowhere to stash his treasures. His mind raced, trying to figure out what to do, and the steps outside drew closer.
Coming to a snap decision, he reached back and tucked the precious pearl between his underside and his tail-like abdomen, pressing his abdomen tighter against himself to hold it in place. Then he dashed outside and back into the safety of the shadows under the vale, just as one of the villagers appeared and entered the hut. Tamatoa crouched in the darkness, listening and waiting until he heard the footsteps exit the hut and retreat once more.
The coast clear, he emerged from under the structure and grinned. Time to check the next one! Moving quickly from shadow to shadow, he pressed on and continued his search of the other buildings.
It soon became obvious, however, that the hook just wasn't here. By the time the light was beginning to slant into afternoon, he had searched nearly every home in the village and had found nothing. Not a trace.
He was just about to set off to find Maui when he caught a whiff of something he couldn't quite identify. The scent was faint and overlaid with the stink of the human village and Maui's scent. It was hard to pinpoint, but he did his best to follow it anyway as it wound through the village. He wasn't even sure it was really anything more than just—
Oh, there was Maui! Just up ahead, the demigod was conversing with a strange man. This villager would have been considered quite attractive by human standards, tall and lean, yet highly muscled under his smooth, dark skin, and possessing a certain charismatic presence that drew the eye. He stood poised with a lazy arrogance not too dissimilar from Maui himself. The man probably made the women (and the men!) of the island swoon. Tamatoa, however, was utterly unimpressed.
Scent trail forgotten, he hurried over. As Tamatoa approached, however, the stranger walked away. Maui turned, a far more cheerful look on his face now—the demigod was practically grinning.
"There you are!" Maui called to him in the first friendly tone he'd used all day. "C'mon, I've got a lead!"
Tamatoa tilted his head to the side, flicking an antenna curiously. "Yeah?" he replied tentatively.
"There's a giant eel, living in a lake back in the hills," Maui told him, eyes already brightening at the prospect of a good fight. "Probably the thief!"
Tamatoa squinted at him, eyestalks pulling closer together thoughtfully. "An eel? In a lake?" Well, that just didn't make any sense. He hadn't smelled any old eel by the beach, after all, and just how was an eel in a lake up in the mountains going to steal Maui's hook down on the beach? "Maui, I don't think—"
But Maui wasn't listening and started off across the village, heading towards the outskirts. With little else in the way of options, Tamatoa hurried after him.
He caught up just as Maui stopped so suddenly that Tamatoa nearly crashed into him, but he managed to skid to a halt just in time. He stretched his eyestalks to peer around the demigod's legs. They were on the very edges of the village, where the cleared area of human habitation began to fade back into wild, untamed forest. A trail was cut into the woods and it lead away from the village, overgrown and poorly maintained. Blood red dirt marked its pathway, with vines and creepers edging across as if the forest itself sought to reclaim it. It wound up the hillside until vanishing into the darkness of the trees. Farther up, past where the path vanished, the trees were blanketed in heavy fog. There was an ill favored look about the whole thing.
Tamatoa looked at the path skeptically. "You sure this is right?"
"That's what he said," Maui replied with a shrug.
"Who said?"
"That mortal," Maui said, barely glancing back at him. "The one I was just talking to. The one who looked almost as good as me."
Tamatoa narrowed his eyes, ignoring Maui's boast and instead focusing on what was actually important. "How do you know he was telling the truth? What if he took your hook?"
Maui snorted, blowing a strand of hair out of his face. "Nah. The humans wouldn't take it, Tamatoa. Why would they?"
Tamatoa could think of a few reasons, but he kept his mouth shut. He didn't trust humans any further than he could throw them—which wasn't very far at all. Nowhere, in fact. These humans in particular had not made a good impression on him and he was even less inclined than usual to believe anything they said.
Maui, on the other hand, always seemed to bend over backwards for them and ate up their attention, accepting everything they told him. Again, Tamatoa wondered why.
There was little time to dwell on this, though. Maui was already starting up the path, striding off determinedly. All Tamatoa could do was hurry after him once again, scurrying up into the forest.
They carried on in silence for a span, with only the singing of birds in the trees to break up the quiet as they climbed the hillside. Well, Tamatoa couldn't abide that. Dead space in a conversation never suited him.
"Maui?" he called to his friend to get his attention.
"Hm?" was the reply.
"Why didn't you come back to get me last night?"
Maui's steps faltered and he nearly tripped over a root jutting out into the path. He turned to look back at Tamatoa. "Uh..."
Tamatoa looked up at him expectantly, stepping around the same root with great care. "I was hungry, you know," he went on pointedly.
"Uh, well." Maui at least had the decency to look a little abashed. He rubbed the back of his neck in an awkward gesture. "Guess I forgot. I'll make it up to you, though. Next time."
Tamatoa gave him a long, scrutinizing look. "You promise?"
"Sure, kid."
"And the next time they won't let me in?" he prompted, not letting it drop at just that.
Maui seemed uncomfortable under Tamatoa's gaze. "Er..."
"You're a demigod, you can change the 'rules' if you want to," Tamatoa pointed out.
"Maybe, but—"
He was going to try and weasel out of it. Irked, Tamatoa went right for the jugular and straight up asked, "Why is their attention so important to you?"
Maui appeared to fumble for words a moment. When he did speak, it was brightly—too brightly. "Hey, look! There's the lake!"
Tamatoa clicked a pincer, annoyed. He was opening his mouth to complain about the obvious diversion, but then he followed the line of Maui's gesture.
They had crested a ridge and a narrow valley lay ahead. Mist clung to the hills around the low area, wisps of grey smudging their summits. The verdant hillsides marched down towards a vast lake, nestled amongst them. A bit of fog covered it as well, obscuring the majority of the lake from view and muting the faint gleam of sunlight reflecting off its glassy surface. The muddy red path snaked its way down, descending through the lush vegetation and ending right at the lakeshore.
Tamatoa stepped up to Maui's side, peering down into the valley.
"C'mon," Maui beckoned cheerfully. "Let's go kick some eel tail and get my hook back."
With that the demigod started off jauntily down the path. Tamatoa stared after him a moment, still frustrated and doubtful, but then a thought occurred to him. Maybe if he could prove himself again here, Maui would see that he could be just as valuable as the humans. More, even. The humans only lived a handful of years and couldn't do near the things Tamatoa could do. He'd just have to show Maui that. With that in mind, he quickly followed after his friend down the hill.
Maui had a head start on him, but Tamatoa was determined to catch up. Nimble on four legs, he scampered down the path. It narrowed, growing steeper and more treacherous as he descended. It was as if the forest was closing in to ward off unwanted visitors.
He was doing quite well, though. Quite well until—just as he reached Maui—he suddenly stumbled, his many legs tangled in a long creeper vine near where the path widened onto a muddy stretch of lakeshore. Claws flailing, he somehow managed to regain his balance and stay upright though.
Irritated at himself, he huffed. He wasn't off to a very good start if he couldn't even make it down the hillside without tripping. As he gingerly picked his legs out of the ensnaring vine, he cast a quick glance over to Maui and hoped fervently that the demigod hadn't seen the embarrassing misstep.
Maui, however, wasn't looking. He was stooped over and peering curiously at something on the ground. The demigod reached down slowly to pick it up. "Tamatoa," he called, an odd note in his voice. "What's this?"
Tamatoa squinted to look, then his eyes went wide. In the demigod's hand was a perfect, darkly gleaming pearl. It must have slipped from where he'd tucked it against his tail when he had stumbled. "Hey, that's mine!" He skittered towards Maui, claw outstretched to snatch his newest treasure back.
Maui straightened and turned to look at him, scowling so fiercely that Tamatoa stopped cold and even backtracked a few hasty steps. "Where did you get it?" Maui demanded, countenance darkening.
Tamatoa opened his mouth to reply, but never got the opportunity.
Maui went on, very nearly seething. "You stole it, didn't you? Like you stole that food from the feast last night."
Oh. Uhoh. Apparently that hadn't gone unnoticed either. "Maui, I—"
"You're just bound and determined to ruin everything, aren't you?" Maui growled, not letting Tamatoa speak.
Stung, Tamatoa's antennae flattened back and he shrank away from the demigod, feeling very small in the face of Maui's temper. "But, I—" he stammered.
Maui held the pearl out, clenched in a white-knuckled fist, and thrust it angrily in front of Tamatoa for emphasis. "What happens when they find out this is missing? They'll throw me out of the village!" the demigod continued to seethe, but Tamatoa could hear a deeper undercurrent of desperation in his voice.
He crouched lower, flinching back as Maui stepped closer to tower over him. He tried again to get a word in. "I—"
"They'll hate me!" the demigod interrupted once more, shouting now. "Is that what you want?!"
The demigod was looming over him now, face twisted and angry. Something shook loose in Tamatoa, however, and he broke out of his cringing crouch. Lightning quick, he lunged for Maui's legs, pincers open. "Who cares if they hate you!" he shouted back, unable to keep the hurt out of his voice. "They're not your friends, I am!"
Maui jumped back in shock, only just avoiding the wild snap of claws. He stared, blinking uncomprehendingly, down at Tamatoa for a long moment. Then the anger began to recede from his face, replaced with the beginnings of a more sheepish look.
Tamatoa only glared back, claws wide in open threat. He'd had enough of this nonsense today. It wasn't his fault that Maui lost his hook, but Maui had been nasty to him all day just the same and Tamatoa was sick of it.
Maui took a half step forward, looking almost contrite. He opened his mouth to say something that Tamatoa certainly hoped was an apology, but before he could say a word there was a roar of water.
Tamatoa jerked his eyestalks around to look just as an enormous wave of lake water was upon them. He frantically scooted backwards along the silty shore and out of the path of the onrushing wave, but Maui was caught unprepared and was shoved roughly back by the wall of water, which almost seemed as if it had been aimed straight at him.
"Maui!" Tamatoa yelled, watching helplessly as his friend disappeared under the water.
A long moment passed, then the demigod emerged, coughing and sputtering, as the water drew back into the lake. Relief washed through Tamatoa, but it was short lived. There was another great roar of water coming from the lake and he turned just in time to see its source.
Emerging from the lake was an enormous eel, rising up like a sea serpent from the depths. Tamatoa's first horrified impression was of massive, needle-sharp teeth—lots and lots of them in a long, narrow snout. Brilliant, sea-blue eyes gleamed beyond that toothy smile, burning with a sharp intelligence that usually meant a more serious threat than just some regular run-of-the-mill dumb monster.
The rest of the creature began to lift from the water—a long sinuous body in a dusky teal color, mottled with contrastingly bright, blazing orange markings in intricate patterns that seemed to glow with their own light even in the afternoon sun. It was taller and wider around than even Maui stood tall, but it's length was impossible to discern with much of it still submerged beneath the murky lake water. A flowing dorsal fin ran the length of its body from behind the head as far back as Tamatoa could see, a long streamer of turquoise fluttering along the eel's spine.
He barely had time to register all this when the eel's thick tail flicked from the water and landed between him and Maui, slamming down with a wet thud in the muck at the lake edge. The eel followed up with a snarl and a snap of sharp teeth, lunging forward to drive a surprised Maui back from the water.
"Who dares disturb the creatures of this lake?" The eel's voice was undoubtably female, throaty and fierce but with a certain melodic rhythm to it.
Dripping wet with fetid lakewater and looking rather ridiculous with pond scum in his hair, Maui refused to be driven farther back and held his ground. He went through his usual spiel—identifying himself, his titles, and whatever. Blah blah blah. Tamatoa had heard it all about a million times by now.
"—hero of men. And I'm here for the hook you stole from me!"
"Some hero," the eel hissed derisively through glistening fangs. "I am Abaia, protector of this lake! And I stole nothing from you, demigod. Leave my domain in peace. Go back to where you came from."
"Not without my hook!" Maui yelled back, face set in harsh lines. He pressed forward, fist raised, only to be repelled by flashing teeth again.
Then the eel's tail curled closer around Tamatoa, hemming him in on all sides and blocking his view of Maui. He strained, trying to look over the massive body, but try as he might he couldn't see anything but more eel.
He could hear well enough, though. Maui was clearly making a go at the monster if his loud taunts and challenges were anything to go by. That, of course, and the foul language. Tamatoa was pretty sure Maui would throw him off the canoe if he repeated some of those words within the demigod's earshot.
Well, Tamatoa wasn't going to just sit here, held captive, and let his friend fight alone. He gingerly stepped closer to the eel's mottled tail. It looked wet and slippery, but he figured he could climb over it anyway. He reached forward to get a clawhold and start to climb. His pincer had just barely brushed the eel's skin when he yanked it back, recoiling in disgust. It was slimy. The eel wasn't wet, it was covered in clinging, nasty mucus. Eww, gross!
On the other side, Maui was yelling something and there was another snap of teeth. Tamatoa screwed his face up, repulsed. There was going to be slime all over him and he was going to be so filthy. He shuddered. Well, Maui had better appreciate the sacrifices made to get back to him. Wincing and trying not to think about the nasty slime, he reached up again and started to climb. It was slippery footing to say the least, but he managed to pull himself up and over the top.
Then he lost his footing in the slick slime. He snatched at the long dorsal fin, but it slipped through his claws and he tumbled down, landing with a squelching splat in the mud. Dazed, it took him a moment to recover, but once he had regained his wits he groaned. He was covered in mud—mud and sticky, smelly fish slime. Disgusting! He glanced at the lake, wondering if he had time to rinse off first—
"I'm not leaving without my hook!"
—no, probably not.
Maui had broken a heavy branch from a nearby tree and was swinging it savagely at the eel. It was a poor substitute for his hook, but he must have had at least some success with it—there were a few gashes running down the eel's side. Nevertheless, the eel had him backed up against a massive rocky outcropping and there was little room left for him to maneuver.
"Stubborn oaf! You are leaving," the eel hissed back, clearly quite angry. "You will not threaten the creatures under my protection."
Tamatoa blinked, eyes drawing closer together. A thought began to take shape. He opened his mouth, but Maui's yelled first and drowned out whatever he was going to say.
"Give me my hook, or I swear I will drain this lake and send you and everything in it down to Lalotai where you belong!" the demigod snarled, a brash threat that even Tamatoa thought was a bit harsh. Needless to say, Maui was apparently still in a bad mood.
It was also apparently the dead wrong thing to say. The eel roared with a fury far beyond what she had previously displayed. Surging forward with nearly blinding speed, she snapped at him again. This time her teeth closed around his makeshift weapon. Abaia jerked her head up in one sharp, upward motion and wrenched the branch out of his hands. Flinging it away, she glared down at him fiercely.
"I will kill you first," she promised with cold certainty.
Her tail whipped forward, slamming into Maui and pinning him to the rocks before he could do anything about it. Fangs bared menacingly, the eel drew back to strike.
"Wait!" Tamatoa shouted, yelling as loud as he could to be heard this time.
The eel suddenly stopped, twisting around to focus her enormous blue eyes on Tamatoa. There was no malice in her gaze, however. Instead, she looked upon him with surprising kindness.
"Stay back, little one," she instructed patiently, "I will handle this."
She ducked her head to gently nudge him away, but he darted nimbly out of the way. "No! He's my friend!"
Abaia cocked her head, squinting to look first at Tamatoa then back to Maui, then back to Tamatoa again. "No, dear. This is just another smelly, pushy demigod."
Well, she wasn't wrong. Tamatoa would have snickered had the situation not been so potentially perilous. "I know, but he's with me!" he insisted.
"Is that so?" The eel's tail shifted, wrapping swiftly around Maui's legs. She lifted the demigod up to get a better look at him—a better look at him upside down, actually. Maui dangled by his ankles and was not happy about it, holding his lavalava up with one arm and flailing at the giant eel with the other, all the while yelling unflattering things about her ancestry.
Abaia ignored all that, casually turning him this way and that to look him over. Her sharp eyes lingered on his tattoos, then turned back down to look at Tamatoa.
"Is this you? Rescuing him from Abere and her swamp witches?" she inquired, indicating one of the 'tattoos' that Tamatoa had added to Maui's back.
She actually sounded rather impressed and Tamatoa couldn't help but feel a burst of pride.
He grinned, standing up straighter. "That's right!"
"And this one," she went on lightly. "You saved him from a mo'o?"
Tamatoa was practically beaming now, utterly thrilled to have his victories celebrated for once. "Uh huh!"
Maui had stopped struggling now, staring at them in confused silence.
"Such a clever crab!" Abaia said, genuine praise in her voice. Then she made a sound that might have been a laugh, peering at the little legs drawn on Maui's back. She looked back to Tamatoa with an amused gleam in her bright eyes.
Tamatoa didn't hold back a snicker now, but quickly got ahold of himself. "Well, he needs a lot of saving sometimes," he told her, solemnly and with as straight a face as he could muster.
Abaia lowered her head down to his level. Maui was still held aloft with her tail, but her eyes were only on Tamatoa now. She looked long and hard at him, then made a thoughtful sound. "You are a special one," she said slowly. "You are not actually from my lake, are you?"
"Nope," Tamatoa said automatically and without thought, then his antennae swept up in alarm. If she didn't think he was from her protected lake, did that mean she'd turn on him? "Uhh…" he floundered, trying to come up with something to fix his misstep.
Now the eel really did laugh. "Do not worry, little one. You may not be of my lake, but all creatures born of water are under my protection."
Tamatoa's antennae relaxed in relief.
"What's your name, clever little crab?" she asked him.
Preening at the praise, he stood taller and gave her his most winning smile. "Tamatoa."
"Hmm," she said, eyes distant as if in contemplation. When she spoke, it was kindly but firm. "Tamatoa, you are too good for this windbag." She flicked her tail for emphasis, making Maui yelp.
"Well, he's still my friend," he insisted once again. "Uhh, so can you give him back? In one piece?"
The eel made a sound like a sigh. "If you insist."
She uncoiled her tail, dropping Maui unceremoniously from her grasp. He landed with a heavy thud and another undignified yelp.
Tamatoa grinned and hurried over to him. The demigod had a perplexed look on his face. The whole shift in the fight seemed to have put him utterly off balance, actually. That was fair, Tamatoa supposed. It wasn't often they encountered monsters who turned friendly all of the sudden. But why was Maui looking at him so strangely? He didn't have time to make sense of it now, though.
Abaia slithered closer and stared coolly down at Maui. "You're not the only demigod on this island," she told him flatly.
Maui's confusion only seemed to deepen, looking up warily at the giant eel. "Huh?"
"There is another. A jealous, arrogant, headstrong type," she gave him a stern, sharp look. "As most demigods are."
If Maui was offended, he wisely managed to keep it to himself. "And? So what?" Mostly, anyway.
Abaia was watching him closely now. "Find him and I have no doubt that you'll find your missing hook."
"Oh."
The eel's gaze didn't waver. "I cannot leave this lake, demigod. Even if I had some use for your lost toy, how would I even gotten it?"
Tamatoa felt vindicated. That was exactly what he had thought from the very start!
Maui looked scandalized at her calling his hook a 'toy' and opened his mouth as if to object, but then paused and seemed to course correct somewhat. After a long moment, he finally spoke again. "I guess that makes sense," he admitted, though each begrudging word seemed pried out of him at great cost.
Awkwardly, he looked at Tamatoa, then up to the eel looming above them. Suddenly he seemed eager to leave. "Well, then we'll just be going then—" He stood and stepped back towards to the trail.
The eel's tail fell lightly into his path to cut off his exit, but she turned her gaze onto Tamatoa now instead.
"If he treats you poorly again, Tamatoa, you come tell mother Abaia. I will set him straight," she instructed firmly, smiling as kindly as a giant eel monster with a mouth full of wickedly sharp teeth could smile.
Tamatoa couldn't help giggling just a bit, but he flicked an antenna in acknowledgement anyway.
"There's a good crab," she said, then lifted her tail away and retreated back into the lake. "Good luck to you," she said as a parting farewell, then slipped soundlessly back into the dark waters without even a ripple to mark her departure.
Tamatoa grinned widely, staring after where the eel had disappeared. "I like her!"
Maui snorted.
"She's probably right, you know," Tamatoa told him, matter-of-factly. He glanced back at the water.
The demigod muttered something that just might have been grudging agreement, then he shrugged dismissively. "Maybe," he said, with his usual easy, casual tone firmly back in place. "But we needed to go check the village again anyway, so might as well."
It was Tamatoa's turn to snort this time. Apparently Maui was going to play this off like it was his idea or something. Typical. He considered calling the demigod out on it, but Maui was already walking back towards the path.
"C'mon, Tamatoa," Maui called back to him. "Let's go find this guy."
Tamatoa hesitated. His eyes swiveled back between his friend and the lake.
"Tamatoa!" Maui called again, a touch more insistent now.
"Okay!" he replied hastily. "Just a second, I wanna rinse off!"
"Well, hurry up!"
Tamatoa scurried back to the water's edge and splashed in just deep enough to clean all the gross mud and mucus off himself. Satisfied with his work, he waded back out to the water's edge.
As he stood there flicking the water off his antennae, a swift, tiny wave pushed towards the shore, as if directed just at him. When it rolled back, he caught a tiny glint of shine washed up in the silty lake mud.
A wide smile spread across his face.
He glanced up the trail; Maui was picking his way up the slope again and paying absolutely no attention.
Quick as could be, Tamatoa reached down, delicately plucked the pearl from the lake, and tucked it safely away once more. Beaming, he waved a claw at the dark water and the unseen eel swimming somewhere beneath it, then he turned and hurried up the trail.
"Wait up, Maui!"