Author's Note: I thought I would never get home today. Dear lord.
I am in a rather uncomfortable situation with one of my clients that makes Wednesday nights always a little tough, but hopefully I can churn out Chapter Eleven before midnight. Challenge accepted, let's do this.
Chapter Eleven
By the time Moana and Maui managed to limp up the path to the village, most of the people of Motunui were already gathered there waiting, chatting frantically amongst themselves, staring down at the faraway sea with wide, frightened eyes. Moana could hear people whispering things like "such a nightmare, like an earthquake," and "what are we supposed to do now?"
"Moana!" Her mother and father rushed to meet her as she and Maui made their way through the throng. "We were so worried. What were you-?"
Moana shot her parents a look that conveyed very clearly, yes, we are going to talk about this, I promise, but now is NOT the time.
Out loud, she announced, "Mom, Dad, don't worry, I'm okay. Um, this is my friend, Maui. You may have heard me mention him once or twice."
The surrounding villagers gasped, and several people began to back hurriedly away. The buzz of frantic chatter increased, and now everyone was pointing at Maui, not at the sea. Maui gritted his teeth and looked down at his own hands for a moment, obviously and uncharacteristically embarrassed. Moana frowned.
"He's a little tired," she went on calmly, "because he just pulled an entire island out of the sea to save it from being destroyed in a huge flood. Do you think we could find somewhere for him to lie down for a bit and get his breath back while I go talk to the village council?"
Moana's father took a quick, sharp look at Maui, then at his wife, and then out at the terrified people of Motunui.
Please, Dad, pleaded Moana silently, please be cool about this, just this once, for me? I…I really need your help on this one. Please.
Moana's Dad paused, and took a deep breath.
"It is…a honor," said the former Chief Tui quietly, nodding, "to have you visit our humble village, Maui of the Wind and Sea. Thank you for protecting our daughter, and for saving our island. We are forever in your debt."
Unexpectedly, and rather slowly due to his old injuries, Moana's Dad knelt down in the sand and bowed his head before the demigod. Maui looked genuinely startled, and when he opened his mouth to reply, nothing came out.
Moana's Mom smiled her brightest, most welcoming smile and quickly followed suit, kneeling alongside her husband. One by one, still muttering, with their eyes fixed on their former chief, the villagers of Motunui all knelt and lowered their heads.
Trying not to show her immense relief, Moana collapsed to her knees as well, leaving Maui standing alone in the midst of his supplicants.
"Uh, y-you don't need to do that," he mumbled, shaking his head. "Really, it's…I mean, you're welcome. Really. Please…please get up. I'm um, glad to be here. Very glad. You could say I'm a…big fan of your Chief."
He swayed a little on his feet, and Moana's Mom was instantly up on again and at his side, slipping her arm underneath his and steering him over towards Moana's house.
"You must be exhausted," she murmured sympathetically. "It just so happens that I've got a freshly made bed all put together just waiting for an overtaxed hero like you. Come on, let's get you inside."
Moana's Mom looked over and shared a quick, knowing glance with her husband before ushering Maui hastily along the path towards home.
Moana started after him, but her Dad shook his head.
"Moana," he reminded her, "the council is waiting."
Maui turned and gave Moana a half-hearted attempt at one of his overconfident grins.
"Go lead your people, Great Chief Moana," he assured her teasingly, full of almost believable bravado. "I'll be fine. See you later."
With that, Maui and Moana's Mom disappeared into the house, leaving Moana to follow her father into the council chambers where the Tohunga and the rest of the elders waited.
They were sitting around on woven mats in a careful semicircle that had once intimidated the heck of Moana, back when she'd first become Chief. There wasn't a single other person in the room anywhere close to her own age, and only two of the village council beside herself were women. Still, these were all people whom Moana had known from the day she was born, and some of them had helped raise her. The fisherman on the far right had helped her reel in her first big catch, and the woman way in the back was her mother's sister, an aunt who had taught her to cook sweet potatoes just the way her Dad liked them best.
Moana knew these people, her people, and as she looked around at their worried faces, she knew that right now, more than anything, it was her duty to help calm their fears.
Before she even opened her mouth to begin speaking, however, everyone had questions.
"Is it true?" An ancient fisherman wanted to know. "Did you really travel to Rarohenga? Did you see her? Is she as beautiful as they say, in person?"
Moana's aunt had other concerns. "How are we supposed to catch fish if we can't even get down to the beach? It'd take days to navigate those cliffs. What will we eat? What will we do now?"
"Maui," murmured a bald coconut farmer, shaking his head. "I don't get it…is he the real thing? But…but I thought he was just a legend. I mean, old Tala always said that the tales were true, but-!"
"How could you bring him here?" A sharp-voiced grandmother scowled at Moana, crossing her arms and glaring. "He brings nothing but destruction and trickery wherever he goes, and YOU should know that best of all! What will he do to us, now that he's found our island?"
The questions went on and on, coming in from all sides until Moana's head was spinning.
"Please," she began, "please, listen! I…I don't know what we're going to do about the fish, and I…well, yes, okay, the stories are true, and I do understand your concerns, but…hey, is anyone listening to me? Please, everyone, let me-!"
"Enough." Moana's Dad's voice cut through the rising tide of chatter, quieting the room in an instant. Even the angry grandmother fell resentfully silent, still pursing her lips and gazing doubtfully between Moana and her Dad.
"Your Chief is speaking," muttered Moana's Dad, shaking his head. "You would do well to listen instead of behaving like a bunch of frightened chickens."
He turned to Moana, nodded at her, gave her the floor.
Moana cleared her throat and straightened up, uncomfortably aware that no matter how hard she tried, she probably couldn't top her father's impressive stage presence.
"Listen, everyone," she began. "I know this is a tight spot. I know how much of a mess we're in, and no, no, I don't know exactly how we're going to get out of it."
The murmurs began again, but Moana refused to be deterred.
"Yes" she said, "I did go down to Rarohenga, and I did meet Hine-nui-te-po. The sea is furious because Hine-nui-te-po is angry, and the only way that we're going to get our lives back is by finding a way to calm that anger. I don't know exactly what to do, but I make you a solemn oath that I WILL find a way to please the goddess and to appease the ocean. I will do whatever it takes, even it means going back a hundred times to the realm of the dead to make sure that we can keep living our lives in peace, the way we always have, partners with the water, no longer afraid of the ocean. Once the sea's anger is abated, Maui can put the island back where it was, after all. This is just…temporary. We're going to be fine."
If she was being honest with herself, Moana had to admit that she wasn't completely sure Maui could do that. Still, it made sense that if he could pull the island up, he could probably figure out how to push it back down. She decided to worry about that later.
We'll cross that line when we get to it, she assured herself. First things first; how to calm down the ocean.
"I brought Maui back with me," she said quickly, hoping her face didn't give away how uncomfortable this half-truth made her feel, "because if anyone can help us to reason with Hine-nui-te-po, then it's him."
"He's the one who got us into this mess in the first place," snarled the angry grandmother. "If it weren't for his trickery, then-!"
"Yeah," agreed the old fisherman. "I've heard the stories, haven't you? Old Tala used to tell the tale of how Maui the demigod cruelly tricked the goddess of the dead into falling in love with him just so that he could steal from the realm of the dead! How are we supposed to trust a guy like that? What's he supposed to do to help us?"
Well, thought Moana, annoyed, for starters, he did kinda save all your lives just now. Have you forgotten already?
"He's a thief and a heartbreaker," agreed the grandmother. "We don't want his kind in our village, divinity or no divinity. He's nothing but trouble!"
Do you even know what he tried to steal? Moana could feel her face starting to get hot as she struggled to keep control of her temper. He went to Rarohenga to get the secret to immortality. He didn't do it because he was bored, or because he was greedy, or because he wanted riches from the deep or anything like that, he-!
"He did it for you!" The words tumbled out of Moana's mouth before she'd even realized she was shouting aloud. "He wanted to steal it for you, for me, for all of us! Don't you understand? It was supposed to be a gift…the gift of living forever, of never having to deal with the death of a loved one, ever again! He wanted something wonderful…for all of us. That's all. How can you blame him for a selfless act like that?"
For a moment, it was silent again in the council chamber.
"All he wanted was the fame and fortune," muttered the old fisherman, shaking his head. "Can't trust a demigod; can't trust him at all. How could he even think to understand us? I know the stories, I know the truth!"
The grandmother nodded, and then everyone was whispering and snarling things about what they'd heard from the old legends, things about horrible crimes Maui had committed or had supposedly committed in the days thousands of years ago, when the world had first begun. Moana heard echoes all around her of the tales her grandmother had told, and she wondered, not for the first time, how much of it was true, and how much was invented. How cruel and merciless had Maui really been? After all, over thousands of years, didn't stories get embellished over and over again?
"More giant crabs every time," she muttered to herself, shaking her head and remembering how her own mother kept changing the story of her adventure to Te Fiti.
"Moana." Moana's Dad gave her a stern look, and Moana took a deep breath.
"Everything's going to be fine," she assured the council, trying to speak with confidence that she suddenly no longer felt. "I promise you, I won't allow our people to be lost to the sea. Please, just give me a few days to come up with a plan for how I am going to appease Hine-nui-te-po. In the meantime, we have our crops, we have our homes, we have each other. We're in no present danger, and we have Maui to thank for that. Leave it to me, and I'll get everything back to normal in no time. I promise."
No one looked entirely convinced, but Moana couldn't blame them. She subsided, taking a seat against the wall as the council continued to discuss Maui's crimes and the village's inevitable doom amongst themselves.
Even Moana's father looked extremely worried, and Moana's heart sank as she watched the look on his face. Not a single one of them had the confidence in her that she needed them to have, and worse, they were all dead-set against Maui.
Okay, she reasoned with herself, so they've got a point. He did kind of…break a goddess's heart, almost destroy the village and possibly the world, and turn our island into an isolated mountain that we can't get down from. I get it, he's had some bad moments, but…but without him, we'd all be lost to the ocean. I'd be…well, I'd never even have made it this far. I'd be a crab snack, or a bit of sand at the bottom of the sea, or…or just really, really lonely. Of all the people I've ever met, Maui understands how it feels to be a fish out of water, to need more, to want things you can't have, to never be satisfied. He's so human, at times, it's easy to forget that he's not one of us…and that maybe he never will be. I guess…I guess maybe he can't be. Maybe everyone's right. Maybe he doesn't belong here.
She remembered what he'd said to her out on the boat, that unexpected moment of vulnerability that had made her chest hurt. He'd told her then that even after the heroic trip to Te Fiti and back, the people of Motunui would never accept him. Moana hadn't wanted to believe him.
"Maui was right," she mumbled, sighing inwardly. "For us humans, no matter what, it's never enough."
Author's End Note: Hah! It's not even midnight and I've finished my first draft. I bet I'll get this out with time to spare.
A question for all of you, if you don't mind; are there other places you go to read fanfiction? I'm familiar with FFnet and Ao3, but other than those two, I've been out of the loop for so long that I wouldn't know where to go. Please, if you have a favorite fanfiction site other than the ones I've mentioned, I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know. Thank you so much!