Me: *waves as she holds a shrunken down plushie sized version of Tamatoa in her arms* *To the tune of the 'item get' music from Legend of Zelda, she sings the following* I shrunk down Tamatoa! :D

Tamatoa: *To the writer* WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! CHANGE ME BACK NOW YOU EVIL HUMAN NERD! THIS IS UNDIGNIFIED AND YOU KNOW IT!

Me: Because I have a feeling I know how you will react to some of the reviews. Also tumblr was way ahead of me on shrinking you down. Any who, onto those responses.

jhalpernkitcat: *laughs at the reaction to the chain reaction* Maui's tattoos on his legs are really close to that particular area if you've seen 'The Art of Moana' so of course he'd have a few reasons to check there. I was kind of the same with Heihei in the movie, but I'm not a vegetarian so I guess that Maui wanting to eat him didn't bother me too much. (Plus he almost got eaten himself, so that was a bit of karma). The funny thing is that if you've found the animation test video for Moana on YouTube (it's 2D animation style) Tala says that her husband came back as a handsome shark, which made your reaction even funnier to read for a couple of reasons. Maui isn't traditionally handsome, but I could see Moana finding him a little attractive (I think Disney guys like him and Ralph from Wreck it Ralph are more visually attractive than most of the Disney princes, if I can be honest.)

multyfangirl18: I got to be honest that we are getting to the point that I could end up giving away spoilers for this fan fic so I can't say any more on that subject. I'm glad I was able to give you a good laugh though.

Nausicaa of the Spirits: *As I hold Tamatoa* We both owe you an apology. Tamatoa was angry at me and I guess it came out wrong when we wrote that response. Sorry about that. *holds him towards you* What do you say, Tamatoa? :)

Tamatoa's reply to Nausicaa of the Spirits: *angry but also embarrassed* The only person who has wronged you is the idiot holding me, but I promise I won't chase after you. If it makes you happy, I'll let you come to my place for a bit and you won't have to worry about me eating you.

ChangelingRin: Ah, it's one of my readers from my Zelda fan fics! *jumps up in down in excitement and accidentally shakes Tamatoa in her hands as a consequence* Hi there! I love that you recognized me during the A/N through my writing :) I love it when someone changes up an AU or an adaption of a story and I admit that it would be cool to see a version of the Little Mermaid that doesn't involve romance. (Wait a minute, does Ponyo count? They seemed way too young to be having a real romance in that film.) I'm glad you are enjoying this fic and reading your comment made me even more relieved towards myself for not making this a romance based fan fic.

Enigma: Thanks! Uh wait a minute your name sounds familiar... are you one of the readers to my Zelda AUS? My memory tends to be bad sometimes.

Child of music and dreams: *author struggles to hold onto Tamatoa as he tries to lash out and crawl out of her grasp*

Tamatoa's reply to Child of Music and Dreams: I WILL NEVER USE ANYONE ELSE'S VOICE BUT MY OWN, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! YOU'D THINK I'D ALLOW THIS HUMAN TO STOOP THAT LOW?! *GLARES ANGRILY AT HOLYMAIDEN24*

Me: *To Tamatoa*Hey calm down! This is why I had to shrink you down because I knew you'd say something like that! Now you owe another person an apology!

Tamatoa: *groans* Ok, ok, sorry, reader who goes by 'Child of Music and Dreams'! As funny as that idea would have been, I'd rather not use Maui's voice. The writer has other plans for this fic that doesn't involve making this a complete adaptation to the version of the Disney film. *Calms down*

Me: Well, I know this chapter may not do anything you guys are waiting for but hopefully it will still be enjoyable. In case anyone is wondering, the dance Moana is practicing is meant to be the Taualuga. Remember her ceremonial costume with the cool headdress? I believe that was meant to be the sort of dress you wear for that dance and the Art of Moana book says that it was inspired by that exact ceremony. The dance is a pretty big deal and I recommend checking into it.

Oh yeah, I was at the coast near the Pacific recently and seeing the ocean made me think of Moana (listening to the music on my ipod was a nice touch too). I did see a crabbing boat on the ocean and though I did not see any David Bowie crabs, I did have a crab melt sandwich which is soooooo good and I recommend it if you aren't a vegetarian.

*Tamatoa is understandably horrified at the last part. Tamatoa glances at writer's arm and grins evily* Annnnnnd, I guess that's *Tamatoa pinches writer's wrist as hard as he can to the point that he cuts through her flesh and nearly breaks said wrist*-

SONOFA (CENSOREDDUETOTHISBEINGADISNEYFANFICANDKIDSAREPROBABLYREADINGTHIS DESPITETHETRATING)! *screams bloody murder and runs off while trying to throw Tamatoa off her arm. Then rolls around on ground with the crab still attached to arm* LET GO, LET GO, LET GO! DAVID BOWIE CRAB WON'T LET GO!

Chapter 5: A struggle between two

And so began Moana's increased tasks of preparing for the arrival of the visiting Chief and his people in three weeks time. She stood in the community fale before a few of the villagers while her father watched her progress from the sidelines.

"So," Moana tried her best to calm down, smile, and not be nervous. "What is there to do so far?"

"We need to clean up the Royal Marae." One villager pointed out. "We also need to restore parts of it so that it can look good as new."

"We need to do repairs to this fale." Another villager glanced around the inside and looked up at the roof. "I can see a few tapas that could be replaced and the roof might need some patching up."

"Some of us also need some repairs done to our fales." Another person jumped in.

"Funny you say that," Moana wanted to laugh. "Our roof needs to be repaired."

"We could make some more tapas and baskets in case they would like to trade with us." One villager added. "They may have something that we might need."

"We can make a few more tools too." One of the fishermen suggested. "Maybe a few spears and nets as a start?"

"Ok, we might be pressed for time but maybe we can do that." Moana decided.

"We also need to make a proper enclosure for the animals, considering how often the animals escape." A woman added. "Including that brain dead bird that keeps showing up. He keeps getting into the grains and poking holes into some of my tools."

Ok, perhaps this was a little more than she expected.

"We will have to tidy up some of the areas around the crops too."

"What about the harvest?" A man added. "We don't want them to take too much of our food and we don't know if they will bring anything along with them."

"Well we are the hosts, are we not?" A woman countered.

"We don't even know what could come out of this! They might hate us for all we know!"

"Then why would they come here to begin with?! It's not like they'll take everything we own, including the food!"

"And suppose they want to take food with them on the way back?!"

Moana was starting to feel a little overwhelmed as this argument continued on. It took her a moment to try to think of how to solve this problem, but before she could say anything, her father quickly stepped in. "I can assure you that they have good intentions." Tui quickly cut them off. "I know that Chief Hoani will be arriving with his siblings, in addition to around ten of his people. If you include his guards, that would make it sixteen, thus bringing it to nineteen visitors total. If we plan this out carefully then there is no need to worry about a shortage of food."

The villagers remained silent for a moment before they nodded in agreement. "We could manage if we are careful." One of them tried to be optimistic.

Moana felt a little disappointed in herself– already her father had to step in for her and the day only just began.

She then sensed that someone was watching her and when she turned around, she saw that the man she had found yesterday was standing nearby with his arms crossed and was watching the scene with interest as if it wasn't an everyday thing for him. Now that he was instructed by her father to watch over her, he was now just a sight that caused her some discomfort instead of curiosity. Before he noticed her looking at him, she quickly turned her head away.

He wasn't really going to follow her father's orders, was he?

"So where exactly is he staying at?"

"Huh?" Moana turned away from the coconut tree and looked to Talia (a girl who was around her age). Both girls were helping to harvest the coconuts that were ready to come off the trees and Talia was currently holding onto an empty basket.

"The man you found." Talia explained. "Is he in your fale or did your father let him stay in one of the unoccupied ones nearby?"

Moana made a face at the idea of the man being in her fale (because, really, did she need to have him around her for that long?). "Yeah, I think there's one that father allowed him to live in for now. I can't really see him living with us and I don't think I want to."

"Why not?" Talia chuckled. "He seems rather interesting and I'd want to try to communicate with him if I were you."

"I don't want him following me around everywhere I go!" Moana protested as she threw her hands out. "Plus I saw things that I want to forget." She grimaced as she recalled what he did on the shore before she helped him get to the village.

Talia was about to ask what Moana meant before she smirked. "You know he's right behind you."

"What the–?!" Moana turned around and sure enough the man was a good few feet behind her. He looked as if he had been watching the other villagers go about their ways but the smirk on his face indicated that he had been listening to the conversation the entire time. It made Moana feel embarrassed but there was something about his smirk that she didn't like. Was it because it seemed like he was enjoying what he was listening to? It was like that one moment when he first met the rest of her family the day before when it found her struggle with the basket to be amusing.

"You're not actually going to follow my dad's orders, are you?" She asked him. The man turned his head towards her and didn't drop the smirk, nor did he make any response to the question.

"You could help us get the coconuts." Talia suggested to him. "Moana is good at catching them but she's good at climbing too." She held the basket towards Moana.

Instead of responding to the girls, the man took one look at their tree and ran towards it. Then what shocked Moana was that not only was he able to begin climbing up the tree in almost half the time it took most villagers, but he was able to do it in a way as if he had it it many times before without even taking a moment to pause. She wasn't the only one–others who weren't busy just stopped and stared at what this man was capable of doing. He finally reached the top, grabbed a coconut, and then allowed himself to slide back down the tree with one arm while the other held the coconut out before he dropped it down into the basket. He landed back on the ground with a flourish and smirked at both Moana and Talia who were rendered as speechless as the others.

"H–how the–?" Moana gapped and her jaw dropped so far down that it could have fallen off.

"That was awesome!" Talia grinned as the shock wore off for her. "You do that a lot, don't you?!"

The man's smirk turned into the hugest grin imaginable, but now there was something about it that Moana didn't especially like. It was prideful, but it also felt condescending as if he thought himself to be better than the others because of this. Why was it that each time she was given a glimpse into his personality she ended up liking him less and less?

"Well you look like you were built for this sort of thing." Moana couldn't help but retort. "Not all of us have the strength to do what you did."

"Aw, you're just jealous that he was so fast." Talia teased Moana. "It does take a lot of skill to get up into those trees."

Of course, neither of them realized that the man before them had done this sort of thing since even before their grandparents were born. Not only was he quite skilled at it, but he could have done this task in even less time than he just did if he had his full strength.

"Yeah, except he didn't check to see if there were any more up there." Moana pointed out. This made the man lose his smirk and he gave Moana a small glare as he mouthed something that Moana didn't pick up. If she had, she would have read the words 'I'm the reason you have coconuts to begin with, kid!'

"I can prove it!" Moana declared as she turned towards the tree. "I know you missed some." She went over and proceeded to try to grab onto it like most of the others who had done this with ease.

"Uh, Moana, where's the rope?" Talia asked. When Moana turned to Talia, she added "You need the rope for your feet, remember?"

"He didn't use the rope!" Moana jabbed a thumb at the man who now seemed to find the whole thing amusing. "Wait," Moana realized what she said. "He... didn't... use a rope." She looked at the man again in amazement and that arrogant grin came back on his face. "He didn't use a rope?!"

"Maybe we should just collect the coconuts in the baskets." Talia laughed as she picked up a basket for Moana.

Moana was scowling as she and Pua took a walk later that day. She was also unaware that the source of her concern was silently following her from behind, though Pua did look back once in awhile.

"He didn't use a rope!" She exclaimed. "How do you do that without worrying about getting hurt?!" Granted he wore out pretty quickly after doing the same thing a few more times and ended up falling asleep, but it was enough to impress everyone who were probably now talking about this with the others. She sighed as she glanced out to one of the shorelines as she thought back to what her father told the man.

"He really isn't going to keep me from the shores, is he?" She wondered out loud for what had to be the twentieth time that day. It was very tempting to give it a shot and she smiled as she recalled that he was probably still asleep under one of the trees.

With a grin, Moana made her way towards the sand that stood between her and the water. Just when she made two steps into the soft sand and felt it swallow up her feet, she felt something latch onto her head and she squeaked. She only had to look around to see the man carefully clutching the top of her head with one hand and he was giving her a smile that clearly said 'Nice try.'

It took Moana a moment to process that his hand was large enough to completely cover the top of her head before she realized what was going on. "You... you're actually going to listen to my dad, aren't you?"

The man nodded.

"Well I'm not going anywhere near the shore with you around!" Moana couldn't help but snap as she threw her arms in the air and stormed off.

Hopefully he wouldn't follow her during her dance practice.

The next day, Moana tried to climb up the coconut tree with a rope though it took her more time than she needed and wearing a skirt was not helping matters.

"I know there was more up this tree!" Moana grunted as she strained herself to reach the top. "Just a little–!" She finally made it, only to discover that none of the coconuts left were large enough to pick off the tree.

"Oh you got to be kidding me." Moana hissed as she looked down to see the man look up at her with a very smug 'I told you so' sort of look before he went to the tree and shook it. Moana yelped and hung onto the tree for dear life. "Oh, this means war!" She angrily declared.

A little later on, Moana tried to run to the ocean with Pua beside her, but this time she not only tried to take the path that went to the fishing fale, but this time she made sure that the man wasn't following her.

Low and behold, the man was somehow already there and was sitting down near the fale while carefully making barbs upon some spears.

"What the–how?!" Moana gapped at the man who looked up and gave her a nonchalant shrug. In all honesty, he had picked up enough clues to figure out where she would go and took a quicker path to get to the fishing fale.

"Why aren't you out there with the others?" Moana pointed to the canoes that were getting further and further away from the island as the fishermen prepared to make their catch of the day. "Someone like you could get a huge fish to last us for days!"

The man hesitated in his task and gave Moana a blank look.

"You don't have to babysit me!" Moana added. "Just go out there and help us like you helped out with the coconuts! I'm pretty sure watching me isn't that fun."

The man made a grimace at those words and Moana didn't understand why. "You can help us fish, can you?"

The man shook his head no.

"Why not? Is it because you have to watch me?"

The man continued on with making the barbs. A thought struck Moana and she asked "You're actually not that great at fishing, aren't you? Its ok if you aren't."

The man flinched at this and scowled at her. She could tell right away that he would deny it if he could, but the hint of embarrassment in his eyes confirmed what she suspected.

"Sorry! Geez!" Moana held her hands up. "I guess I was wrong." She walked off.

Maui really wanted to let the girl have it as she walked away. 'I fish up islands, not actual fish!' He tried to yell at her, despite the fact that nothing came out of his mouth. 'Big difference!'

He sighed and decided to get up and go after her (and bring the spear with him in case he could have a chance to work on it later) when he saw that her pig was staring up at him with a strange look.

'What?!' He mouthed.

The pig used one of his feet to make a fish hook in the ground as his reply.

Maui threw his hands up in the air and walked away. There was no point in trying to explain this to another person or let them know that, yes, there was something he was notoriously known for not being good at.

Unhappy that no real progress had been made in his investigation, Pua snorted and kicked at the sand. Things were going to get worse at this rate and Moana would never be able to pick up on Pua's clues if her annoyance towards this man continued to grow. Still, Pua was determined to get his answers and fully confirm that this was indeed Maui.

Another day passed and a new one came.

Moana was nearing the end of her dancing lesson with the younger children and when she briefly glanced behind, she saw that the man was sitting cross legged on the ground and watching the moment. She had no clue why, but he seemed to be enjoying himself a little more lately. Maybe it was because he enjoyed the fact that people were amazed at what he did with the coconut climbing but she could still detect a smugness that was getting on her nerves.

He had quickly become a topic in her community as people tried to guess who he was or where he had come from. A lot of them were easily impressed, including the children, and when he wasn't watching her then he was offering help in any way he could (besides fishing, of course). Yet there were times where he seemed to try to interact with some of the villagers, but he couldn't get very far with limited communication skills. They appreciated his help, but ask questions about his personal life or for opinions, then he couldn't flat out answer them. In fact, he seemed somewhat reluctant to answer a lot of questions about himself, including what happened to him. Not even Moana or her family had learned anything since the first time he was at their home.

Unfortunately for this strange man, some of the people on Motonui were a little nervous about him. She overheard a few people wondering if perhaps he had escaped from a great battle and was going to bring it to this island. Others were put off by his appearance and wondered if he was punished by the gods because no one could have scars as peculiar or as oddly placed as his.

She turned her head back with a sigh. "Ok, you guys are doing good!" She encouraged the young children as they copied her. "Remember to move in time to the beat inside you and–" She stopped when she saw a young child who was not part of this group come dancing towards them.

No.

Oh no–not this kid–anyone but this kid! She knew what he was going to do the moment he came into the picture.

Please no, please no, please no. She could already tell that the man behind her was watching this kid with extreme curiosity. Sure enough, the kid broke down into his own dance routine which seemed to be from another world of its own.

Don't do it, don't do it, don't to it! She pleaded, but it was too late. The child ended the dance with an over-exaggerated pout and a wink aimed at her that also made her extremely uncomfortable.

When the other children stopped and stared in confusion at what was behind Moana, she knew that it was too late. With a groan, she turned to see that the man was once again laughing his head off, despite the fact that not a sound came out of him, but this time it was enough to make him fall on his back and it looked like he was about to pass out from laughing too hard. This in turn made some of the children laugh and Moana was too embarrassed to get them to stop.

She turned around to the cause of this and the little boy just gave her an innocent smile and skipped away. Then she realized something that only made things worse–the kid almost looked like a miniature version of her 'protector.' It was enough to add salt to the wound that she currently had.

"Why do the gods torment me so much?" Moana groaned as she held her face in her hands.

Another torment came later when she was asked to solve a certain matter and it involved the roof of a fale.

Both Moana and her 'companion' could only stare dumbfounded as a bunch of chickens were resting on top of the fale, including Heihei who rolled back and forth upon it in an attempt to scratch his back.

"See?!" The owner jabbed a thumb at a couple of boys who snickered at the sight. "These little ingrates thought it would be funny to do this to me."

"It was worth it!" One boy chuckled to the other as they each gave the other a high five.

"How exactly did–?" Moana shook her head. "Well, I suppose you can have them get some help with their parents and get them down as safely as possible."

"And they have to clean the other side." The owner demanded. "I don't have time to change any part of the roof."

"What do you–oh." Moana grimaced in disgust and slapped a hand over her face as she realized what the owner meant. "Just–y–yeah, they can do that too." She hurried away from the house as fast as she could and made sure not to walk around it and accidentally look up.

"It's just feathers!" One of the boys giggled.

Later in the day, she once again tried to run for the ocean but at the very moment she was about to touch the sand, a now familiar pair of hands grabbed her and she was hoisted over the man's shoulder.

"Come on!" Moana tried to wiggle free, but the man wouldn't budge nor let her go. She was getting so fed up with this man that her stubbornness was getting in her way and a certain idea came into her head. She knew that the part of the man's back that was hiding under his hair was the most sensitive part of his body, if the way he always winced when he tried to touch it was any indication. Despite how much her compassionate side protested, she raised her hand as high as possible before smacking it down on that part of his back as hard as possible and the man quickly let go of her.

Moana didn't see the agony in his face or the scream he tried to let out as she fell to the ground, but she had no idea how fast he would immediately retaliate. She barely got a running start as she tried to get away from him, but he caught up to her within seconds, grabbed her by the arm, and forced her to spin around to face him with enough force to almost pull her arm off.

She found herself face to face with the man as he kept his hold on her. He was barring his teeth in pain, but his brows were scrunched up and the look in his eyes was so enraged it was as if he could bring a tempest upon her head within seconds. She felt that he really was going to lash out at her for what she had done and it terrified her.

What Moana didn't expect was that he would tie her foot up with a rope that was tied to a tree in the village like she was an animal. This time he kept his eyes on her and the fury within didn't leave him for one second, which was enough to cause Moana to not directly look at him. Maybe she did go too far that time in getting back at him, but she couldn't bring herself to apologize so instead she turned to a little scene that was occurring near the tree.

"You see these?" A fisherman nearby was showing off different types of coral to his children. "These are one reason why the ocean can be dangerous. As beautiful as coral can be, it can also be very deadly." He lifted up one piece of coral that was grey but had very delicate and thin edges. "This one could cut through your skin and you wouldn't even be aware of it until you saw the blood. Some even have barbs on them."

"Really?" The youngest child asked as he made to reach out for it.

"Yes and if you fall off the boat, pray to the gods that the waves will not push you into the coral." The fisherman warned the children. "There is no telling what will happen if you do."

Elsewhere, Tui saw what exact state his daughter in as well as the odd rage the man was directing towards her. It was strange, but it wasn't enough to make him too concerned.

"I'm not even going to ask what happened." He shook his head and walked away.

Later that night, it began to rain and it perfectly reflected the mood of both Moana and Maui. Both found themselves sitting at the threshold of the Chief's fale and both of them were trying to not look each other in the eye as they were angry at each other for their own personal reasons.

Moana held onto Pua as she tried to think of how much the man next to her had treated her as both a child and as an animal in one day. Worse yet, it earned a lot of chuckles from the other villagers which was a massive blow on her own ego.

He's so infuriating! Moana mentally growled. Arrogant, doesn't treat me like a person, always one step ahead of me–

Meanwhile, Maui was looking off into the distance as Heihei was pecking at the wood right next to him instead of trying to eat the grains he had offered to him. He was angry that the little brat tried to escape by hurting him and taking full advantage of the fact that his upper back was still currently the most sensitive part of his body. He thought that she would be a bit more respectful to him after all he'd gone through and he thought she would try to be nicer than that, but apparently he was mistaken. She knew he was helping her and her people out, but that apparently wasn't enough for her.

Its humans like you that made it harder to have any respect to your kind. Maui also mentally growled. Is this the thanks that I get for trying to help you out, you brat? You could at least–

Sina sighed at the sight as she struggled to work on a new tapa, despite how nauseous she had been feeling lately. "This could have been avoided if you hadn't made him follow after her." She harshly whispered to Tui. "You had to ruin what could have been a more pleasant friendship than this storm we have to witness."

"Well what else could I have done?" Tui whispered back. "I'm sure this will get fixed sooner, if not later."

Sina opened her mouth to say a few choice words when she felt her stomach lurch. She quickly covered her hand over her mouth and scrambled to get to her feet before running past both her daughter and the strange guest and off to the side of the fale.

Neither Moana or Maui acknowledged the sound of Sina vomiting somewhere near the side of the house.

The next day, Moana struggled with making a new basket alongside Talia and her friends. She tried her hardest not to look at the man as he sat some ways away by a tree and was working on making barbs on another spearhead while Pua was trying to paw at the ground to get his attention. In truth, Pua was trying once again to draw a fish hook, but the man had no idea why the pig was doing it and he didn't care.

"So," Talia asked Moana. "Is it true you were tied to a tree?"

Moana ignored Talia.

"No, no, NO!" Someone screamed in the distance.

Maui turned his head to see that one of the villagers was chasing after a group of pigs that were charging towards them as fast as they could and they didn't seem to be aware of this.

Moana picked up what was happening without glancing back and sighed as she set her basket to the side while Talia and the others ran away with their things. She just wanted her luck to change back again and get these three weeks over with.

A little later on, Moana sat in Tala's tapa and her spirits were getting low to the point that she was not even joining in the storytelling. Trying to help stop the pigs was not a fun experience for her and although Tala's words of heroism and monsters to the children were soothing, but it wasn't enough to calm Moana down and she couldn't help but stare at the tapa of Maui.

"I could really use some of your cunning right now." Moana couldn't help but whisper to the depiction of Maui. Although the demi-god's grin was getting a little too familiar looking to her liking, she still wished there was a way she could be level headed and try to manage the tasks that kept piling up while trying to get away from her 'guard.' She glanced back to see that the man had been staring intently at the tapa of Maui as well, but when she saw him looking at her, he turned his head to look at something else. Had she looked a little closer, she would have seen Pua staring at this observation, but her mind was too preoccupied.

Pua's annoyance over the fact that Moana was not picking up the parallels between the image on the tapa and the man in the room was steadily increasing. Perhaps if she was a little more clear–headed, it would have been more obvious.

Moana sighed as she looked at the tapas for something to distract her, but her eyes hesitated on the one that showed an eel. It was the same eel that her father used when joking with her mother since she shared the same name as the Sina from the tale about that eel.

What if–? She turned to the tapa of Maui and made sure that the man couldn't see her smiling at it. "I owe you for this." She quietly whispered to the tapa. Maybe Maui could truly be on her side for this one.

"I got an idea for a game!" Moana clapped her hands as she stood up. Tala hesitated in her storytelling and watched as Moana turned to the children who were eager to hear this. She saw that the man was looking at the other tapas and wasn't paying attention, which made things even better for her. "One of us gets to be the eel from the story of Sina and the Eel–"

"You can't be Sina just because she and your mother share the same name." A girl declared, causing the other children to giggle.

"Ok, you can be Sina then." Moana shrugged. "One person gets to be the eel and the others get to be the villagers who go after him." She looked up and pretended to point to them. "Eenie, meenie, miney–" She saw the man scowling at Tamatoa's tapa and pointed "–him!"

The children shrieked in delight and all of them ran towards the man, who finally turned around in confusion. Moana took her chance and right when the children threw themselves onto the man, she quickly ran to the tapa of Maui, pushed him aside, and ran out of the fale towards the forest. There was no way the man could find her if she was quick enough.

Meanwhile, Maui was forced to deal with a terror as great as any high ranking monster he had encountered in the form of a bunch of easily excited children. Although he adored the love and appreciation that children gave to him out of all the mortals he had encountered, this was too much for him to handle as they all piled up on him.

Tala just laughed as Maui tried desperately to pull the kids off of him and was clearly in a panic over it. "I'm pretty sure she went towards the forest!" She yelled as loudly as she could over the shrieking of the children.

With what little strength he currently possessed, Maui fought off the village children, even as they determinedly tried to latch back onto him. It was only when he finally reached the other side of the fale that Tala declared "Ok children, I believe the eel needs to take a break." and they all finally let go of him. He would owe that woman a huge thank you when he got the chance while her granddaughter was going to get something a lot more different.

Maui finally broke through the tapa walls just in time to see Moana vanish into the woods. 'Oh you have got to be kidding me!' He mouthed before running after her as fast as he could.

Moana raced through the trees as fast as she could and took every shortcut she knew to a spot where there she could see the ocean. There was no way the man could find her there and she was positive that it would take him ages to do so, considering how large the woods were. She let out a laugh as she darted this way and that way and leapt over rocks and logs. If she ever saw the real Maui at any point in her life, she would let him know about this little moment since she owed him a good laugh as well as a thank you.

Finally she came to a spot overlooking the ocean that wasn't too far away from civilization, but it was far out enough where she could be alone. All that separated her from the water was a wall of rocks that could send her safely into the deep water below if she so wished since they were that far out.

Moana laughed as she had to sit down since her feet were killing her and her throat was on fire, not to mention how furiously her heart pounded. "Ah, that was good!" She let out a breathless giggle as she allowed her feet to dangle over the rocks. "Hopefully they didn't overwhelm him!" She could only imagine the look on his face when he had realized what she had done and it lifted her moods considerably.

"Though," She frowned "maybe I've been taking this too far. I suppose I did hurt him too much yesterday and I only made things worse with that trick of mine." A part of her hoped that he didn't get hurt through what she did to him.

"He's pretty determined though, I'll give him that." She admitted. "In addition to being a kid in a man's body at times." She laughed at this as she looked at the ocean. It was so nice to just finally be alone without having someone after her and she could just clear her head after all she had to do today.

She closed her eyes and imagined herself swimming in the ocean's depths alongside the creatures within it. She could see the fish, but also turtles and maybe a few sharks–perhaps one of them could be her grandfather, like her grandmother told her once before. She could almost see the strange, voiceless man as a shark within her daydream, though she was unaware that a certain someone had finally caught up with her and was watching her from behind.

Maui had to admit that this girl was pretty clever, but not enough to surpass him in terms of cunning. He pulled up this island once before, had been here a few times in the past, and knew exactly where the shorelines would be. It also helped that he was able to track her down by the footprints she unknowingly left behind in the ground and the fact that he heard her voice a few moments ago, which lead him right to her.

Sure, that was a pretty good trick she pulled on him, but she was about to learn what would happen if she tried to surpass a demi-god (well temporary non-demi-god at the moment, but it was still the same thing) without proper foresight. He quietly walked behind her as she continued to talk to herself and peered over her head to see how deep the water was.

"I guess he can be scary, but not as scary as I thought he would be." Moana continued on in oblivion. "I still wish I knew where he came from."

Ok then, Maui decided–if this kid wanted the ocean so badly, then she could have it.

Moana suddenly felt a pair of large hands shoot under her arms and grabbed her sides. The moment she let out a squeak, Maui hoisted her up into the air and then tossed her out over the rocks as far as he could.

Moana let out a cry and Maui watched in sadistic glee as she went soaring through the air and flapped and kicked all four limbs outward before dropping right into the ocean with a tremendous and very satisfying sounding splash.

He knelt down on the rock and watched as the teenager struggled to get back to the surface and when she broke through, she looked around in confusion before looking up to see him giving her the biggest grin he could manage.

'You can try to do all you can and try to run all around Motonui, but you'll never be able to outsmart Maui!' He boasted to her, even if she couldn't make out what he tried to say. Moana could make out only the key fact that he had bested her in the trickery department and was immensely proud of himself because of this and she could only let out a frustrated cry.

"You are enjoying this, aren't you!" She yelled up at him.

Maui's grin only widened. This little moment of great satisfaction made all of his current suffering worth it. He could do this again if he wanted to, provided that she wouldn't see it coming when the moment came.

Moana only sighed as she tried to find a spot where she could get out of the water and back on dry land. She had to be careful what she wished for from now on.

There was now twelve days left until the arrival of the Chief. Although some progress had been made towards the preparations, there was still much to do and Moana still had to perfect her dance for that event. Tala aided her grand daughter in the dance as one girl sang and a boy clapped his hands in time to the music to help Moana out.

"Gently." Tala gestured for Moana as she moved her feet. "Remember that this dance is not supposed to be fast. Pretend that you are the water gently rocking back and forth if that helps. Feel the power of this dance and let it guide you. Trust in it." She smiled as Moana tried to slow herself down.

Moana tried her best with this dance, but after having to help clean up the Royal Marae and walking back and forth so often today, she was feeling exhausted. Her mind was also racing with too many thoughts and she couldn't get herself to calm down. All the work was beginning to pick up and it seemed to never end.

"Remember that your smile must be genuine." Tala reminded Moana. "Try to think of positive thoughts for this lesson. Recall our heritage and be proud of it. Our ancestors are on your side."

Moana was struggling to find a reason to smile. Not even the sounds of the singing could help her out and when she saw the man staring at her in front of the community fale, she could only think of what he had done the previous day when he tossed her into the ocean.

He certainly had a way of granting her wish while also obeying her father at the same time.

She wasn't the only one to not feel entirely happy. Maui was not thrilled that he barely made any progress with any of the villagers, despite how long he had been here for. Sure he had earned their admiration and some respect, but he had not made a genuine connection to any one to the point that they truly got to know him. Not even with any of the children when some of them had already taken a quick liking to him. The fact that everyone seemed to be busy didn't help matters and when he saw some of the village females give him flirtatious looks, he could only hear the warning 'infatuation does not count' and he had to continue on. Also he liked the women's' admirations, but he didn't feel a draw towards any of them in particular.

And yes, not being able to talk was really annoying and not helping matters. He missed boasting about what he could do, simple conversations with others, being able to sing and even the sound of his own voice.

Then there was the Chief and his family. He liked the old woman and her way of not caring what everyone else thought about her, he had to listen to Tui now and then, but Sina tended to be too ill to stay around to chat sometimes and he had a strong feeling that he would need to stay away from her.

Then there was the daughter and the biggest reason why he had little time to try to beat the time limit. He admired her stubbornness, but it was really annoying at times and she still didn't really want to try to actually like the things he did for her and her people. Also her little trick did strike a nerve with him since he was not used to others outsmarting him. Yes, he remedied that, but the fact that she did catch him off guard was something he was not used to.

He understood both sides of the quandary between father and daughter to a certain extent. The father was concerned about his daughter (maybe too much) and the kid was still learning things. He knew little of parental love (thanks to lack of experiencing it himself) but he knew it when he saw it and would do anything to make sure a child knew how lucky they were to have that genuine sort of love (whether said parent was related by blood or not). Yet he understood the need of a young person to have time to herself and be near places she liked. He just wished that he hadn't been thrown into this family conflict since it was a part of the mortal life that didn't really appeal to him.

"Not good enough."

He snapped his head up to see that Tui had watched part of the practice and had approached Moana while the singer and the boy ceased their part in the practice. "You need more work on this. There needs to be more grace in your movements."

"I'm trying!" Moana protested. "If you could allow me to have some time to practice more and have someone to help me out more than once a day then I could get it down in time!"

"We can't afford that at this point." Tui countered. "Your grandmother cannot help you every day and you will be needed to tend to the other issues at hand. And perhaps if you stopped running off and practiced on your own, then this would be less of an issue."

Too stressed to even care anymore, Moana finally snapped. "I need time to compose myself too! I can't do everything at once or do one thing after the other without a break!"

"And yet here I stand without having my past stress take over my well being." Tui crossed his arms. "You won't always afford the luxury of a break."

"You're just saying that because I keep running off to the ocean!"

"Perhaps you should give her a break." Tala cut in as she sensed where this was going. "The last thing we need is for her to be too stressed out to perform the dance when it is time."

"You have to grow up, Moana." Tui continued. "Childhood won't last forever."

"I'm not a child anymore! Why do you keep treating me like one even when you give me so much to do?!"

"Well you should stop acting like one. I've heard that you have done some things that I would expect from the village children and not the future Chief of–"

"STOP!" Tala yelled as she couldn't handle another argument between these two at this moment. "You two both need some time away if this is going to end in disaster. I think Moana will get the dance down in time so I say that she may be able to go off on her own for a bit."

"He won't let me." Moana frowned. "Because he has to trust another to watch over me and make sure I don't do something that he doesn't want me to." She then hurried off with Pua dashing after her.

Tui sighed as he held his face in his hands. "She has to quit this behavior before its too late. It will give her trouble in the future."

"She's not the only one." Tala almost sang as she grabbed her cane and hoisted herself back on her feet. "Sometimes our greatest virtue is also our greatest fault if we aren't careful enough."

Maui took this as his cue to go ahead and leave since there was nothing more to be done and he figured Tui would try to tell him to go after his kid if he saw him slacking off.

He ran a hand through his hair as he walked away from the community fale and tried to think some things over. When was the longest time he ever resided amongst humans? Here it felt like an eternity when it should have normally been in an instant for him. He moved his hand away to look at it and realized that time had slowed down for him, but not in the way he was used to and in other ways it was speeding up on him. His body had only briefly returned to its original mortal state and yet he was sure that it was aging on him since everything felt so different. He was now only too aware that he was physically somewhere near Tui's age; didn't he himself look younger the last time he had seen his own reflection? Was it possible that he could still age as a demi-god?

He didn't like that this body got exhausted quicker than it used to, even if it was still in better shape than an average human's. Even picking Moana up that one time did not have the same ease as it should have been and took more effort than he was used to for something of her size. How soon did such thoughts like these occur to a human? It felt too soon for him in his opinion as either a mortal or a demi-god.

This all had to be because he was currently stuck as a mortal. There was no way he would think such thoughts if he still had his powers.

He glanced up to see that Moana was heading somewhere, only it did not appear to be anywhere near the shorelines that she so desired. She didn't even bother to turn around to see if he was following her, but perhaps she was too caught up in her frustrations to realize this. Though when he listened closely it sounded like she was humming a song that he never heard before.

He had some options; one was to turn back and let her go and another was to steal a boat and leave this island for another location. The final one was to just follow her and see what would actually happen when she was free to be herself and was far away from the others as possible.

He chose to follow her and see what would happen this time; he wouldn't try to pull her aside if she made it to the shoreline. Maybe there was a way to salvage what was left and try to earn her friendship so that he could get some of his things back. If not, then he would have to be ready to put up a fight for whatever would be taken from him.

Oddly enough, Moana really did choose not to go anywhere near the shore, but instead she took a certain route that went beyond the outskirts of her village while she still hummed that same song. Carefully he followed her and made sure that he was out of sight, but he did not see that her pig kept giving him a glance now and then.

Finally Moana came to a cliffside with a wall of green leaves crawling down it. She let out a deep sigh of relief before pushing the greenery aside to reveal a wall of rocks with a certain hole of a gap on one side. Moana then stepped through what was apparently a secret passage behind the leaves, with Pua following close behind.

Not one to resist an opportunity to explore a secret (especially one close by that he had missed) Maui followed her trail and went to the entrance of the secret passage.

It was time to see what the little princess was hiding from the rest of the world.

I swear that I wasn't trying to make Maui go through a weird mid-life crisis. Also, no really–that kid really did look a lot like a young Maui. Did anyone who also noticed that find it really weird?

*Applies bandages to wrist* Tamatoa managed to snap my hand off, but I survived. *waves hand cheerfully*

So, yeah, no carriage ride or dancing to please the other for these two. I kind of figured that they would be at each others necks because of the circumstances and because of their own personalities, which made it a lot more enjoyable. Still I'm glad I can finally start getting to the chapters I really want to write out after doing this one.

Interestingly enough, while it seems to be a common fact that Maui was terrible at fishing for actual fish, one version of his story of him pulling up an island said that he was pretty good at making tools, which is why he was making that spearhead in the first place in this story. And yes, I have seen that clip for the short 'Going Fishing' for the blu-ray when it will come out. I was hoping that it would take place after the movie because the island looked like Motonui, but its not and its pretty much confirmed if you see that Maui is missing a certain tattoo on his body.

Oh, and one more thing:

I am one of those writers who likes doing illustrations for their stories and this fan fic was no exception. Check out my deviantart account or my tumblr account (I go by tornrose24 on both sites) so see some drawings for the first four chapters of this fan fic. I'm not going to do this with all of them, but I couldn't resist.

Also, *sighs* yes, if you look at the accounts, you will see that I have my own humanized version of Tamatoa but he has recently had more added to his design in my sketchbook and those drawings will show up when I get the chance to ink them digitally. I can confirm that Tamatoa WILL show up in human form in this fic but I am planning on keeping his description to a minimum since there are so many awesome versions of him as a human out there and I want to give my readers the choice to imagine their favorite version of him. There are so many versions on tumblr alone and I recommend checking those artists out. I'll discuss this subject a bit more when we get to the right moment in the story.

Now if you excuse me *takes out laptop and glares at Tamatoa who is still plushie sized* I'm going to show Tamatoa the 'le Poisson' song to remind him why he should be glad he's not Sebastian.