"So what's the plan?" Moana asked. They had reached the island the afternoon of the next day. Moana had spent the day contemplating the events of the night and Maui had blessedly left her to her thoughts, although his smug humming had caused her to cringe at times. She had resolved to keep her hands to herself. Maui was her friend. Her big, goofy, oafish friend. Nothing more. Even if she did want more, what on earth could she, a mere mortal, offer the likes of him, a demigod? No, the trickster could have anybody he wanted, and he would not want a mortal. Mind made up, she focused on the task at hand.

"Plan?" Maui echoed in puzzlement.

"Yes, plan!" Moana exclaimed. "You said he was an octopus. Aren't they like really smart?"

"You're thinking starfish. Octopuses aren't smart. Octopuses? Octopi?" Mauis brow furrowed as he tried to decide which was proper. "Bah, anyway. No, this guy'll be dumber than a box of rocks. He'll probably just try to bite me or something."

"So... Plan?"

"Curly, I don't do plans. Cramps my style!" And with a cheeky grin, he transformed into the giant hawk and took off for the island.

Sighing, Moana steered for the cove.

She reached the cove half an hour later. She could see Maui circling the island, far up in the air, looking for his quandary. Looking around herself, she tried to determine if any of her people remained. She could see no smoke from the village fires, the dock was decimated. Floating timbers and destroyed boats littered the cove making maneuvering difficult. Disheartened, she secured her canoe and sat on a low log trying to decide what to do.

Squishy? Why was the log squishy? And why was it moving! With a startled yelp, Moana leapt up and tried to back away from the very much alive and writhing tentacle she had sat down on. Before she knew it, the tentacle had wrapped about her and an enormous being was rising almost majestically from the cove, skin shimmering and changing to camouflage itself with its surroundings. It was beautiful in a terrible way. Lazily, almost like an afterthought, the suction cups started moving Moana towards its mouth. Moana screamed and fought to break herself free. She saw a broken oar stuck between two cups and lunged for it as she passed by. She plunged it as hard as she could into the soft skin between the cups. Taniwha screeched in surprise and dropped her. Moana hit the sand at a run, dodging the flying debris Taniwha was tossing up in his agitation. She had almost gained the forest when a tentacle snaked around her again and jerked her back. Tightly twisting around her body and legs, Taniwha brought her to his large and bulbous eye.

Moana took a deep breath "I am M-"

Mortal. The voice from the creature born from deep and silent depths of the cold ocean floor bubbled in a frightening cacophony of liquid sound.

"I... wha..."

You are mortal. You are nothing. At most, a snack.

The suction cups started dragging her towards the mouth again. Moana fought with everything she had. Suddenly a stone the size of a hut crashed into the side of Taniwha's head.

"Hey! Calamari! Why don't you try eating me instead?"

With a hiss, Taniwhadropped Moana and surged towards Maui.

Moana wasn't as graceful with her second landing. She hit the beach in a near belly-flop, a rock smacking painfully just below the collarbone. Rolling clumsily to her feet, she fell again to the sand stunned by the sharp pain. After a moment she gathered her wits and checked to see how extensive the damages were. Nothing broken, but it smarted something awful. She looked up to see how Maui was faring, was shocked to see he looked to be losing.

The tentacles had a grip on his hook and his torso, slowly prying them apart. Despite his great strength, Maui was losing his grip. Then, with a mighty kick, he pulled himself free, wrenched the hook from the grasp of the tentacles and severed one from the body. Taniwha roared in pain and threw itself on Maui, a writhing mass of moving flesh. Moana held her breath as Maui disappeared beneath the shifting skin. It seemed like forever as she waited, silently chanting c'mon Maui! With a wet sucking sound, Taniwha unraveled himself, holding up his prize. Maui struggled against the ever turning and twining tentacles, trying to get free enough to slice off or punch the offending appendages. Taniwha started slamming Maui into anything that it could reach. The ground, the ocean, the trees, the rocks, even itself. It wasn't long until the demigod was dazed, no longer struggling and seeming to only focus on holding on to his hook. With a flash Maui shapeshifted into a lizard and started running towards the head of the enormous monster. Taniwha started a complex twisting motion, running his tentacles over his head and down the other appendages, sloughing off the debris caked to his skin and making it near impossible for Maui to gain headway. Maui fell into the water, flashed, and a giant shark swam towards Taniwha, sharp teeth glinting. Taniwha released his ink into the water, skin quickly adapting to it's surroundings making it near invisible. Maui surged from the water, shifted again to the great hawk. Taniwha started rolling and twisting down the beach, making huge waves surge into the sky and causing extreme turbulence in the air. Maui struggled to stay aloft, then changed again into his human form, hook held over his head, coming down, intent on severing another tentacle. Taniwha smacked him midair and Maui went flying, skipped like a skipping stone across the water of the cove, face planted into a small hill near Moana and lay still, his hook a few feet from his body. Taniwha wasted no time, he slithered quickly, gracelessly on his damaged limbs, to Maui. He picked up the groggy demigod and started squeezing. Wrapping his tentacles tighter and tighter around the great mans torso, legs and neck. Mauis face began to turn a hideous purple. His muscles bulged and corded as he tried at first to break free, then to just keep enough space to breathe. Taniwhas laugh was like the groan of a rock cracking under great pressure.

"I" Moana snatched up a large chunk of reef. "am Moana of Motunui!" She took aim. "And you will let. Him. GO!" Shrieking the last word, Moana threw the chunk as hard as she could. Her aim was true and it struck Taniwha directly in the eye. With an earthshaking roar Taniwha released Maui and writhed in on himself, tentacles lashing, tearing up trees and causing enormous waves. Maui ran for his fishhook. With a triumphant yell leapt at the monster, hacking and slashing, tearing out great chunks of the rubbery hide. Taniwha, now in death throws, made one final lunge towards the ocean and fell heavily on the beach, twitched, then moved no more.

They stood, exultant on the sand. Breathing hard, adrenaline thundering through them both. "Wooooo! We're alive! We did it!" Moana crowed to the sky, throwing her arms in the air and dancing about. Caught up in the excitement, Maui ran to her, caught her up, spun her out at arms length, then spun her back into his arms. Placing his meaty hand between her shoulders, other hand sliding down to the small of her back, he swept her up and held her to his massive chest. Her hands flew to his chest and arms, fighting to stay balanced. His lips found hers. The moment their lips touched it was like a cold bucket of seawater was dumped on him, yet a volcano of burning heat and desire ignited in his core. He hadn't meant to kiss her, he'd just be caught up in the emotion of the moment, had followed the wave as he usually did. Chagrined, he broke the kiss, started to pull away. Then her hands were around his neck, soft lips seeking his, her body arching against him. Surprised, he hesitantly allowed the kiss to continue, reveling in this new warmth spreading through him until he was tingling all over.

To say that Moana was surprised at the turn of events was an understatement. Charged from their recent battle, she had been giddy when he had spun her around. When their lips met it was like she was struck by lightning, every nerve charged, her mind a whirl with the hurricane of emotions. When he had pulled back, she had just reacted, not wanting the wild storm to end, only knowing that she loved the way this man made her feel.

Encouraged by her enthusiasm, Maui refreshed the kiss with more ardor. He lowered her to the ground gently, slid his hand from the small of her back to her waist. His thumb gently caressing a circular path from her back, across her ribs, to her soft belly, then, teasingly, to her hip following the line of her skirt. His other hand, still beneath her shoulders, felt her already accelerated heart rate increase its tempo, hammering against her rib cage. Pulling back, chuckling softly, he reigned in his passion. "No heart attacks on my watch, curly." He loomed over her a moment more, staring into the voluminous depths of her eyes before releasing her completely. He stood, turned and stretched noisily. What on earth was he thinking? This slip of a girl had gotten to him more than he thought. He was a demigod, he knew he could be overpowering in more ways than one. He had to keep himself under tighter control. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Moana, mentally or physically. It was just the adrenaline from the fight, plus years of not satiating the mortal craving for sexual pleasure. That's all it was, right? Maybe he shouldn't have kissed her last night either. With a small smile, Maui thought about her soft lips.

Moana sat, coming down from the tides that wreaked havoc inside her. What was wrong with her? She was smarter than this. He didn't want her, not like that. And she didn't want him like that. Did she? This was just the result of extreme emotions and adrenaline from the fight, surely. She stood, brushed herself off, and looked at the wrecked beach while trying to gain her composure back. She heard a call from the forest line. Swiftly she turned and saw a few people running towards them. Still alive! Her heart leapt with joy, her people lived!

*Notes*

Yay action! I'm relatively happy with how this turned out. Not a typical action/fight scene, I tried to bring a bit of creativity to it. I might re-write some of it to give it a bit more clarification. Not exactly happy with my explanation of Taniwha's voice. I can hear it in my head, but am struggling with conveying the sound to words.