Voyagers.
They were voyagers.
Moana stares longingly at one of the many canoes for a little longer than she probably should have. Dust and bits of sand cover its sails, but a little wipe and clean would make it look newly built. It made the canoe she'd ridden earlier (and consequently broke, but she blames that on the ocean), look flimsy and awfully makeshift.
And then the visions. Those were new.Definitelynew. Hot and blinding, like something was searing memories that didn't belong to her into her mind.
The taste of the sea in her mouth, the smell of it, the call of seagulls, waves crashing and exclamations or cheers from times long passed.
An aching, an urge. Forced to be suppressed for the safety of the rest of the village. Feelings that both felt like hers and not.
Ancestors.
By the time she's come down from the high of the discovery of what could only be described as the most significant piece of history that Gramma Tala has given her, she takes her along the shores slowly, further than they usually go.
"Why'd we stop?" The excitement is still there, barely hidden beneath her curiosity. Because why would they stop? How could they deal with the ache, the urge, theneed.The very one she's felt everytime she gazes at the do you not miss something that was so very obviously your calling?
She knew that if she'd ever gone voyaging beyond their island, she wouldn't give it up for anything else in the world.
"Maui," Grandma tells her, expression twisting in a way Moana's never seen. She makes the name sound like a curse. And for the sacrifices their people had to make, maybe it was. "When he stole from the mother island, darkness fell.Te Kaawoke. Monsters lurked and boats stopped coming back."
(She would hold onto this information week's later for it to rear its ugly head in a heated argument.)
She remembers some of the worn tapa's she'd seen Moni going over holding illustrations of Te Ka; how Maui had been struck down, his fish-hook swallowed into the ocean to be lost seemingly forever.
They go along the edges of the land, Gramma Tala going over the consequences that Maui's actions had caused from island to island. And then when she shows Moana the darkened tendrils grasping at the sides of their island — theirhome...
Scaring away their fish, poisoning their harvests, and slowly but surely infecting the rest of their island. She could only wonder what else it'd do if it reached her people.
Briefly, Moana wonders why Gramma Tala hadn't shown dad — he was the Chief, didn't he have to know? But then she actually thinks about it. Dad...no onewas equipped for this.
"One day," Gramma Tala says slowly, opening the shell of her pendant and dropping a peculiar shiny rock into the palm of her hand. "Someone will journey beyond our reef,findMaui, deliver him across the Great Ocean, to restore theheart of Te Fiti."
Moana doesn't quite realize she's holding it until Gramma Tala looks at her palm she's holding a little tightly. Hard, like it's just another rock she'd find somewhere around the island and give to Hei Hei to peck.
But there's a pulse — and rocks don't have pulses.
The heart of Te Fiti.
She carries it like it's precious; because itis.The heart of the mother island resting in the palm of her hand. It was exhilarating, if utterly nerve-wrecking.
Gramma Tala takes her by the shoulder gently, "You've bonded with the Ocean, the sea itself," she tells her, as if that's some major secret between the both of them. "Not just for idle playfulness, though, Moana."
(Times where the Ocean would carry her from the sand to its shallow depths to zoom her around while it encompassed her body from the waist down came to mind.)
(Huh. Now that she thinks about it, hadn't it been like her playmate since she was a baby?)
(She doesn't know how to feel about the fact that she's been able to bond more with the Ocean than any other human being.)
"Itchoseyou."
Her words hold more gravity than Moana had been expecting. Because really, she never thought about her bond with the Ocean being something as major as achosen onekind of thing.
But... no, maybe itwasodd that she'd be given gifts from the sea. A colourful seashell, a shiny pearl that felt heavier than it looked, a trinket that definitely might've been man-made, and one large whale tooth that barely fit in her hand.
—
(He's inspecting one of the trinkets she'd taken with her on her canoe as a good luck charm—she was still surprised it hadn't gotten lost when her boat had capsized first time around.)
("Hey," he starts absently, voice softer than it usually was as he looked the whale tooth over carefully. "Where'd you get this?"
("The Ocean gave it to me ages ago, why?")
(He rolled his eyes with a scoff of disbelief, baring his teeth at the surface of the Ocean as if to insult it.)
("Typical," he grunted, holding up the whale tooth and then pointing at his necklace. "This was part of my—")
—
The Ocean hummed then, as it usually did whenever it came out to greet them. Its entrance is admittedly more dramatic than it usually is, the form it takes being the same crest of a wave as it looms over them both from the water.
It does a small twirl, the water bobbing up and down like it's... introducing itself officially to her now. Somehow, it seems formal in a way. At least, until it douses her with water before doing the equivalent of ruffling her hair with the crest of its water.
She tries to swat at it with a sharp intake of breath at the sudden coldness that hits her before it hums once more and— was itlaughing?It ducks back into the rest of the sea before she can so much as reach out and strangle it.
Yes, strangle it. It was the thought that mattered, and all that.
Gramma Tala's laughing light-heartedly before she uses her cane to point towards the night sky. It doesn't last long since she needs it to support herself. Moana tries not to pay too much attention to that.
"Our ancestors believe Maui lies there—" Moana looks above the ocean, spotting the line of constellations that made the image of Maui's fish-hook, same as she'd seen from the drawings on the tapa sheets. "—at the bottom of his hook. Follow it, and you'll find him."
The stars, almost as if they were aware, sparkle more than they usually do and look like they're practicallyalive.Moana doesn't know if she should Feel comforted or terrified.
She settles on half-half.
"I—" she chokes slightly, looking as lost as she felt. It felt beyond her; everything about this. Chosen? Her? "I can't even sail past the reef, Grandma."
The way her voice cracks makes her wince as she huffs out a breath, smiling shakily at it all.
Moana looks out at the ocean, wanting to glare at it as if it was its fault (which she tells herself that it definitely is) but not being able to with everything else she has to consider.
Te Fiti's heart pulses steadily in her hands, a warmth permeating into her skin. It's an odd feeling that she doesn't know how to react to.
Gramma Tala reaches for her free hand and squeezes it in hers, a comforting touch that mitigates the jittery feeling Moana's had for a while now.
"If the Ocean's chosen you," Gramma Tala states, "then that's exactly what you'll do."
Gramma Tala's confidence is nearly infectious — not enough to completely diminish the maelstrom in her heart, but enough to steer her in the right direction.
Behind her, the Ocean nudges her with a jet of water impatiently. When she turns, the crest of its wave seems to point in the direction where their village was.
It's not like screams, but it's loud, like someone's yelling. A few people, actually. Angry yelling.
—
(When she heads back to the village, Moana doesn't notice the way Gramma Tala staggers and clutches at the tapa covering her chest, nor the way she struggles before sitting down on the edge of a rock.)
(She's already gone.)