Author's Note: I'm sure you guys have seen the news today about Carrie Fisher. I'm usually the first person to admit that I'm unaffected by celebrity deaths, the deaths of people I genuinely didn't know, but I'm feeling weird about this one. I was a Star Wars nerd starting at age five, and my father and I used to spend a lot of time together with our Star Wars tapes (yes, cassette tapes were still a thing back then), and our Star Wars movies.

I'm an eleven-year survivor of traumatic brain injury, and so Carrie Fisher has been an icon of mine as I've grown up, too. She was a survivor, she was a fighter, she was an advocate, she was a believer, she was all the things that I sometimes struggled to be, that I had to be, that I had to pretend to be, that I wanted to be. She was a hero.

I think I am going to miss her. I think a lot of people are going to miss her.

Anyway, all of that to say, obviously, the Star Wars fandom is grieving right now, and if you're grieving, I hear you. I'm going to write a chapter, now, and I apologize in advance for any typos. It'll be a happy chapter. That'll be fun, right?

Chapter Sixteen

Moana woke up the next morning to find Maui gone.

"He's finished off the boat and taken it down to the water already," her mother informed her. "I have to admit, I was impressed! He had us wrap that new canoe of yours in a bunch of ropes and fishing nets, and then he flew the whole thing down to the sea, carrying it in his claws!"

"Apparently," agreed her Dad, "it's true what they say about the demigod's inhuman strength."

"He's going to have sore shoulders for it, though," Mom observed, shaking her head. "I just hope it doesn't drag him into the sea and drown him. That canoe looked so heavy."

"What?" Moana was suddenly very awake. Rushing outside, she was just in time to see Maui, in hawk form, returning from his trip to the ocean. He looked a little bedraggled, but decidedly not drowned.

"Maui!" She waved him over, and he landed in front of the house, stretching out his wings and shaking them, almost as though they were sore, like Mom expected his human shoulders might have been. "Look at you, impressing the ladies again. How are you feeling?"

Maui dropped the fishhook he'd been carrying in his beak, let out a cry, and transformed himself back into a human again.

"Oh, I'm fine." He grinned. "Who'd I impress?"

"My Mom," Moana told him, "and she's not easy to impress, either…. trust me on that."

"Hah, I don't doubt it." He glanced back over at the house, looking pleased with himself. "Well, hey, it's always nice to be appreciated. You ready to get climbing? We don't want to waste the daylight. Probably shouldn't do too much climbing at night, assuming you want to make it down to the sea in one piece."

Moana was frowning at the pile of rope and fishing nets that were still tangled around Maui's legs.

"It'll take more than a day to climb down all that way," she reminded him. "We don't have that much time."

"We don't have any other options," retorted Maui. "The sooner we get started, the sooner we get…wait, what are you looking at? Stop looking at me like that. Why do I have a bad feeling about this, all of a sudden?"

Moana picked up a piece of rope and turned it thoughtfully over in her hands.

"You made a sort of basket out of these for the boat, right?" She tied and untied a quick, experimental knot.

"Sorta," said Maui. "More like a harness, honestly, and my back is killing me."

"So…" Moana looked innocently up at him. "If you could make a harness for the canoe, then maybe-!"

"NO." Maui cut her off before she she'd gotten halfway through the sentence. "No way, not a chance, not gonna happen. We've already been through this. I am not flying you anywhere."

"Aw, come on!" Moana held up the rope imploringly. "It's not that long a trip, okay? I'm just asking you to fly me down to the canoe, so that we can sail the rest of the way to Te Fiti. I won't be nearly as heavy as that boat was, and if we make a good harness, then there's no way I'll fall off, right? It'll be fine."

Maui stood his ground. "No can do. You're not going to die on this trip. Think how 'impressed' your Mom would be if I came back without you, huh?"

"If I fall off the mountain while I'm climbing down," Moana reminded him, "I'll fall just as far and I'll end up just as dead as I would if you dropped me from that height. It's actually less of a risk this way."

"Uh." That one seemed to have Maui temporarily stumped. "Look, Moana, it's not that I don't want to help, it's just-!"

Moana suddenly thought that she understood.

"What are you more afraid of," she asked, "my falling to my death, or you being the one who dropped me?"

"Ugh." Maui winced. "Why can't it be both?"

"Maui, listen," she told him, giving him an encouraging little pat on the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be just fine. You can do this. I trust you."

"You're…you're only making it worse," mumbled Maui. "Ugh… Okay, go on, make the harness-thing. We're gonna test it a few times before we head for the sea, though, got it? We're doing laps around the village with you in that thing, and if that makes my shoulders hurt even more, I hope you at least have the decency to feel guilty about it."

"Yes!" Moana was delighted. "Oh, I will absolutely feel guilty!"

"Yeaaah…you sure look it," sighed Maui sarcastically. "On second thought, maybe I'd better tie the harness myself."

"Hey!" Moana snatched the rope away from him and glared. "You don't need to do anything. I'm great at knots, remember?"

They continued to argue while Moana tried a few different things with the available ropes and nets, but eventually she came up with something that even Maui couldn't completely discount. It was a harness that fastened around her waist and both of her legs, and which would tie her securely to Maui's back in flight. It wasn't comfortable, and it wasn't dignified, but it was definitely secure. Maui couldn't find fault with it, which didn't make him look any happier.

Mom and Dad didn't look particularly thrilled about it either, but they did their best at least not to look like they were about to panic at any moment, which Moana deeply appreciated. Dad even helped Moana tie herself to Maui's back, once he'd turned himself back into a hawk. Maui glared at her over his shoulder with his large, menacing black hawk eyes, but Moana pretended not to notice.

"Okay," she said when she was all strapped in, taking a deep breath and trying to calm the combination of excited and terrified nerves that were now fluttering around frantically in her chest. "We're all set to go. Don't worry, everyone; I'll be back before you know it! Ready, Maui?"

Maui made a doubtful face at her, which she recognized even on his hawk features. He gave a sharp cry, looked her directly in the eye as if to say, "it's now or never," and Moana hunkered down on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and folding her fingers into his feathers. As soon as he felt that she was still and stable, he leapt into the air.

For a moment, all Moana could feel was terror and the rush of wind, and it was only after holding her breath for what felt like forever that she realized they weren't going that fast at all. Maui was only a few feet off the ground, and he was circling the village square while Moana's family and friends looked on, some with alarm and others with genuine astonishment. Moana silently thanked the gods that she wasn't prone to motion sickness.

Maui tried to look at her on his back, made an inquisitive little "cree" noise at her, and cocked his head to the left.

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine!" Moana tried to grin. "No problem at all! Piece of cake."

Maui's eyes glinted mischievously for a second, and then, before Moana could worry about what that meant, he suddenly sped up.

"EEK!" Moana clung to him as he raced around the square with all the speed and ferociousness of a fully-grown hawk in flight. She could hear the air sweeping by her, could barely see the sights and sounds all flowing together into one long stream of color and light and exhilaration and slight nausea.

She wasn't sure how long the trip lasted, but suddenly, it was over. Maui landed lightly on the ground, spread his wings for balance, then looked over at her again and made another, "cree" at her, this time sounding rather pleased with himself.

Moana, her hair all in her face and her mind whirling, had to lie still for a moment before she could find the words.

"That," she breathed finally, "that…that was AMAZING. I…I have never, EVER felt like that before. It was just so fast, and so…so fast, and the WIND! I could HEAR the wind! That was incredible! Can we do it again? Please? One more time? I promise I won't hold on so hard this time. I've got the hang of it now, really! Please, Maui? Pretty please?"

Maui blinked, then shook his hawk-head and gave her what she was sure was a tolerant smile.

Then, in a rush of wings and wind, he leapt off the ground, dashed forward, and dove towards the sea, with Moana screaming happily as her life turned into the greatest, most terrifyingly amazing thrill ride in the world.

Author's End Note: Short chapter tonight, as I think this is a good place to leave off for the moment. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to following up with some more adventures tomorrow.