Author's Note: There is ice everywhere. I can't actually leave the house; it's too slippery. My poor uncle apparently fell on the ice this morning and broke his hip, it's so bad out there.

I needed to go grocery shopping today, and I am very, very hungry. I apologize in advance for any typos. There is no food in my house, and the hunger is getting the better of me…

Chapter Six

"-aaaaaaaah!"

Moana landed in her most graceful attempt at a heap behind a large patch of brightly-colored coral. She squatted down and hid herself, just in time to avoid being seen by the five women walking by from the other direction, each of them dressed in vivid woven robes and sporting elaborate tattoos all over their faces, necks, hands, and arms. They were all carrying sacks over their shoulders and bowls overflowing with what looked like seaweed and ocean plants. The one closest to Moana looked even younger than her, no more than fourteen or fifteen. She had tightly curled ringlets of fair hair, and robes that were splattered with bits of rusty red, which for a terrifying second made her clothes look as though they were drenched in blood.

Moana shivered and flattened herself against the coral, trying to breathe as quietly as possible.

Okay, she thought. So, we made it to Rarohenga, probably. Now what?

The tattooed women were all making their way procession-style towards something on the horizon, a sort of palace-like structure made out of the same beautiful bright coral that Moana could see was growing all over the nearby landscape. As they passed, the woman at the end of the procession stumbled, shook her head, muttered something to herself, and then straightened up again. She was moving more slowly than the others, and although Moana couldn't quite see her face, there was something intimately familiar about the way she held her shoulders and about that little mutter.

Carefully, Moana crept out from her hiding place and hazarded a few steps closer to the parade of women. Almost immediately, however a terrible shriek emanated from the direction of the palace, and Moana had to cover her ears to block out the terrible sound, falling to her knees in the sand. It was a cry of agony and rage, but not a human cry. No human lungs could have that much breath control.

The tattooed women all stopped, stood perfectly still for a moment, and then stared at each other. The scream rang out again, and this time they all threw up their hands and went running in the direction of the sound, gathering up their robes and leaving the seaweed and sacks lying in a jumble on the ground.

Finally, when the screams had died away, Moana got slowly to her feet again. When she looked up, she found one of the women standing over her, smiling and shaking her head.

"Moana," murmured the woman, chuckling a little bit under her breath. "I should have known. As soon as I heard Hine-nui-te-po's scream, I thought, 'who could have made the goddess that angry?' You had that effect on your father, too, if I remember rightly. Even after all these years, you're still our Moana; always making waves."

Moana stared.

Her Grandmother, Tala, stood before her, wearing a quiet white robe and with beautiful new tattoos of happy children and rejoicing villagers encircling her shoulders and traveling up what was visible of her chest. On the undersides of her arms were the faces of the terrible monsters she'd once told stories about during Moana's youth, and on her chin were chiseled the leaves from a coconut tree.

"G-Grandma?" Moana blinked, startled by the tears that had begun to well unbidden at the back of her eyes. "Is…is that really you?"

"Oh yes…well, what's left of me, anyway," sighed Grandma, winking. "But, hey, look; no more cane!" She waved her empty hands around for a moment to demonstrate, then grinned. "Never liked that thing much anyway…it only slowed me down."

She threw her arms around Moana. "Oh, how I've missed you, my child. I figured I'd find you here eventually, but not for another many, many years to come! Nice of you to visit your old Grandmother. What a lucky lady I am, eh?"

"I've missed you too, Grandma," whispered Moana, burying herself in her grandmother's embrace. "B-but…but I'm not here to visit. I'm-!"

"Oh, I know why you're here." Grandma nodded and jerked a thumb in the direction of the palace. "That's what the screaming was all about, I'm sure. You're our favorite demigod's new Chief-in-shining-armor, aren't you? You're here for Maui. Part of me knew that you'd come the moment I heard of what Hine-nui-te-po had done….and it's a good thing, too. The goddess is becoming impatient. If Maui holds out on her too much longer, she will lose interest and feed him to the creatures of the deep….or maybe she'll kill him herself. She certainly has been in a testy mood ever since he arrived, so it's hard to say."

"Grandma," explained Moana, "the sea has turned against us. It's…I think it's under the control of Hine-nui-te-po. It's doing her bidding and taking our villagers' lives. I have to convince the goddess to make it stop."

"Shouldn't pick sides in this kind of a love argument," muttered Grandma. "Never ends well, I can tell you. You would think that the sea would be old enough to know that by now."

Moana just gave her a blank look.

"The sea and the goddess of death are old friends, Moana," explained her grandmother patiently. "No doubt the ocean is irate on Hine-nui-te-po's behalf, irritated at the terrible trick Maui played on her. You'll have to convince it to let its anger go if you want our people to live in peace again. If anyone can do it, then you can. After all, you know the ocean better than almost anyone, don't you?"

Moana was stunned.

"So…it's not the goddess that I have to convince, then," she said. "The ocean…The ocean's doing this of it's own free will? I…I'm not sure I can believe that."

"You may not want to believe it," retorted Grandma, "but trust me when I tell you that it's very hard when a friend is struggling with a question of romance. The waters of love are rocky and difficult to navigate, Moana, even for the gods. Cut the ocean a little bit of slack, mmm? It's probably only trying to be loyal."

"By killing our people?" Moana was indignant. "How the heck is that-?"

"By taking out Hine-nui-te-po's anger on the people to whom her faithless lover keeps running back," clarified Grandma.

Moana gritted her teeth. "That's…that's just stupid! What good does the ocean or Hine-nui-te-po think that's going to do? I mean, it's not like she can force him to fall in love with her just by…well, by destroying everything else! Ugh! That's not how any of this works…uh, right?"

Moana, who had never actually been in love as far as she could remember, was reasonably certain that everyone in this situation was acting like ridiculous children.

Then again, she reminded herself, who am I to judge? I mean…maybe it'll make sense if I ever…nope. No, actually, I'm pretty sure this'll always seem stupid. I mean, come on! Can't we all just TRY to get along? There are plenty of fish the sea, right?

Grandma shrugged.

"Be that as it may," she went on, "it's up to you to sort this whole mess out. If the goddess murders Maui, that will only deepen her anger and make the Ocean's sorrow on her behalf even worse. You'll have to get in there, save Maui, and then convince the ocean to release its anger…before things get any more out of hand than they already are."

"No pressure," muttered Moana, but her heart wasn't really in it. She'd known she was in for a mess when she'd first started out on this quest.

Her grandmother gave her a comforting little pat on the shoulder.

"I believe in you, Moana," she murmured encouragingly. "Oh, and take this."

Removing her white robe, Grandmother placed it carefully around Moana's shoulders.

"This is one of the robes that the Tarehu must wear to obtain passage in and out of Rarohenga," Grandma explained. "Without it, you'll never get in to Hine-nui-te-po's palace, either. It's a little small on you; probably because I've shrunk a bit with age, but I doubt anyone will notice."

Moana turned and looked back at the palace.

"Maui's in there?" She swallowed, nodded once, and set her jaw, steeling herself for an ugly encounter. "Okay…then that's where I need to be. Thanks so much, Grandma. I'm really glad I-!"

Before Moana had a chance to finish her sentence, she heard a familiar whooping cry, and turned just in time to see Maui himself running by as fast as he could, with several robed and tattooed women at his heels. As Moana watched, Maui raised his hook over his head and transformed himself into a shark, which went racing through the water like a shot, leaving his pursuers in the dust.

"…or," muttered Grandma, shrugging, "maybe you won't need the robe after all. In that case, I'd like it back, if you don't mind, child. It's a bit cold down here."

Moana was still watching Maui the shark. He had almost made it around the corner and out of sight when there was an abrupt burst of multi-colored light, and the goddess Hine-nui-te-po was standing before him, blocking his path. She raised her hands over her head, uttering a few words that Moana couldn't hear, and Maui was suddenly in human form again, clutching his hook with one hand and holding up the other as if to shield himself, watching apprehensively as the goddess took several slow steps towards him.

"H-Hine-nui-te-po!" He grinned, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck and slowly but steadily backing away from her. "I was just, um, stretching my legs! Or, uh, my fins, as it happens. Hey, so…can we talk about this? How about it? I was thinking, maybe we should take some time apart for a bit, get our heads on straight, you know? Come on, now, there's no reason to get angry. You, uh, you don't have to look at me like that. You've got really, really piercing eyes; has anyone ever told you that? I bet you get that all the time."

Moana sighed.

"Here you go," she told her Grandmother, passing the robe back. "You're right, I don't think I'll be needing this. It was great seeing you, Grandma, but…I gotta go."

"Go get 'im, Moana,." Grandma pumped her fist encouragingly in the air.

Without a backward glance, Moana took off running in the direction of Maui and Hine-nui-te-po. She could hear her grandmother calling something after her, but she couldn't make out just exactly what it was.

Author's End Note: Yay, we finally got Maui and Moana into the same location! I really want to write the next chapter, but I desperately need some food first. I'm gonna see if I can bargain with my roommate. Thanks for reading!