#like that woman that dressed up as maui from moana and did her little dance?

[lyxchen]

Me: I don't get why so many people are into muscular men, like it's not attractive at all

Also me, when I see a video of a strong muscular woman: ohhhhh, it's because I'm a lesbian

[bunk12bear]

I learned it from the pizza man chapter 4: The Continued Adventures of Olive Bro

Okay, this is the third time I've tried to post this. I tried twice last night but Tumblr crashed both times  _______________________________________________________________

Lance was freaking out, Keith was going to pick him up in less than an hour and he still didn't know what he was going to wear on this freaking date. He rifled frantically through his closet rejecting shirt after shirt, too casual, too casual, not casual enough, why the hell did he even still own this shirt, too casual, not casual - oh, god why was this so hard?

Ten minutes later he'd managed to pair his options down to two. Option one: a dark blue button-up with the sleeves cuffed at the elbows, nice jeans and dark brown leather loafers. Option two: a dark blue Star Wars t-shirt with a blue suit jacket and pants and blue Converse high tops.

Hunk. He needed Hunk to make the final decision. He knocked on the door to Hunk's room, both outfit options folded carefully over his arms. Hunk emerged from his room and seemed to know instantly what Lance needed.

“Hunk, my buddy,  my man, my absolute favorite person in the world”

Hunk interrupted,“Lance, you don't have to butter me up to get me to choose an outfit for your date tonight. You're my best friend, of course I'm  gonna do that for you. Just show me what you got.”

Lance laid the two options down on  Hunk’s bed and stepped back to let his friend take a look and consider both outfits.

“I'd go with the button up, the last time you wore that shirt the girl in the apartment next door wouldn't stop staring at you. I also overheard her saying something about how it apparently did things to your shoulders.”

“Thanks bro!” Lance yelled while  running to his bedroom to change and throw on a last-minute face mask.

========================================================================

Keith was practically pacing a hole in the floor of the living room, much to Shiro's annoyance.

“Are you absolutely sure about this outfit?”

“Yes Keith, you look great and I would know, I picked it out.

“Do you think I should get him flowers, or would that be weird?”

“Do you think he'd like flowers?”

“Yes."

“Then buy him flowers, or do I have to pick those out too?”

“Shiro, I'm being serious.”

“Keith, relax. He clearly likes you. I mean, he did ask you to ask him out.”

“What if it's a prank?”

“It's not a prank.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“He wouldn't be keeping it up for so long if this is a prank.”

“Yes but do you know that.”

“KEITH!”

“Fine, fine, fine, whatever.” Keith took a deep breath. “'m okay, I'm fine.”

“Listen, Keith, if it somehow is a prank, witch it absolutely isn't by the way, then he's a jerk and not worth your time are your sadness, okay?” “You sound like one of those stupid inspirational text posts mom and her friends post on Facebook.”

Shiro laughed. “Hey at least you're not freaking out anymore.”

“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk. I should go now if I want to get him flowers.”

“Okay, text me when you're heading home.”

“I will”

“If you're taking your motorcycle remember a helmet!”

“Yes mom,” Keith huffed rolling his eyes

“Hey, this is a direct order from Mom. If she finds out I let you ride on that thing without a helmet she'd kill me. Slowly and painfully”

“Okay, okay I'll bring the helmet!”

“And bring the spare one for Lance.”

“Okay,” Keith replied impatiently

“I'm just worried about you. As your big brother I kind of have to be, it comes with the job”

“Goodbye Shiro."

Keith parked his bike in front of a little flower shop and walked up to the checkout counter. There was an old woman behind the register. She looked sweet, plump, vaguely grandmotherly, and was wearing a straw Hat and floral shirt. Exactly the kind of person you'd expect  to run a little flower shop. “How can I help you, dear?” “I need to buy flowers for a date.”

“Aw, who's the lucky lady.”

“Um, it's not.. it's not a lady. He's not a lady”

“Oh my mistake, terribly sorry did you have something   in mind?”

“Um, not really This is actually a first date but we've been kind of talking for a while. so  I know that his favorite color is blue, I think he mentioned licking Hydrangeas. I don't know that much about flowers”

The lady laughed. “Well then it's very good that I have a bouquet of blue Hydrangeas on hand.”

“I'll take those then.”

After the flowers were wrapped and paid for the lady smiled at him. “Good luck on your date dear.”

“Thank you.” And with that Keith's set off to Lance's house. ======================================================================== The doorbell rang and Lance shot up from the couch to answer the door.

Wow. Just wow. If Lance thought Keith was gorgeous in that ridiculous uniform he wasn't prepared for the way he looked dressed up for a date.

He was wearing a dark red button up, a leather jacket, tight fitting black jeans and black boots. “Hi Oh these, these are these are for you,” he he stuttered holding up  a bouquet of blue Hydrangeas. “I love Hydrangeas, My mom has them in her garden. Oh and they're blue, blue is my favorite color! You remembered.”

“I'm glad you like them.”

“Let me go get a vase for these. Come in and sit down on the couch while I go find one.”

When Lance finally found a vase for the bouquet - it was tucked away on one of the highest shelves, he literally needed a stool to reach it he placed it on the counter for a minute to take a look .Keith had gotten him Blue Hydrangeas. He'd actually remembered Lance talking  his favorite flowers and color. Could this guy possibly be any more amazing?. He smiled to himself before checking the time on the stove clock. 'Oh shit if we don't leave now we're going to be late!

========================================================================

Lance walked away and Keith sat down  on the couch only to be greeted by a tiny girl with short brown hair and a tall dark-skinned dude who looked like he could be a linebacker, Lance's roommates, Keith presumed. It was good to finally put faces to names and voices.

The girl-Pidge, if he remembered correctly leaned closer narrowing her eyes menacingly. “Listen here, dude. Lance may be an idiot but he's our idiot and he's one of my best friends. You know the deal, if you hurt him we will destroy you.Got it?”

The big guy Hunk presumably,  nodded along, “Seriously, I usually hate violence but you don't mess with my friends.”

“Oh, okay.”

“And if you think I'm scary, he has four older siblings and like a whole bunch of cousins. You don't even want to know what they'd do after I’m done with you”

“I'm not going to hurt him, I swear!”

“I'm going to take you on your word. For now.”

“Um, th- thank you I guess.”

At that point, Lance walked back in from the kitchen with the Hydrangeas now in a vase and placed them on the side table by the couch.

“Hey so we gotta leave now if we're going to make the five o’clock movie,” Lance said and reached for Keith's hand. Together they began to walk towards the door. Keith took one last look back only to see Pidge Shot him an “I'm watching you” gesture”.

========================================================================

They arrived at the movie theater on Keith's motorcycle. Yes, Keith had a motorcycle and Just when he thought Keith couldn't get any hotter. Lance had already bought the tickets so all they needed to do was present the printed out receipt to the bored looking teenage girl at the ticket booth.

She sighed and rolled her eyes but didn’t even bother to look up at them. “What movie do you want to see?”

“Moana please, we already bought our tickets, here's a receipt. They told me to give it to you so you could print out the physical tickets.”

“Okay fine whatever, just give me the receipt and…” she stopped halfway through her sentence as she finally actually looked up at Lance. She perked up instantly and immediately went to print out the ticket while looking up at Lance every couple of seconds. She grabbed the tickets and handed them to him obviously attempting to touch Lance and giggled. “Enjoy the movie, Sir, I hear it's super good,” she said dreamily while wrapping a lock of hair around her finger.

“Um...Thank you?" Lance might have been flattered by her flirting if it weren't for the fact that, one, she couldn't have been older than sixteen and two, it was incredibly obvious he was on a date.

Once she was out of your shot Keith began to laugh. “Okay what was that about?”

“Seriously, it’s soobvious I am on a date with you,’ Lance said, indicating their intertwined hands. “Let's go in before anyone else decides to hit on you.”

“Besides you, of course.” Lance winked at him.

“Oh, obviously.”

======================================================================== The movie was, as predicted, incredible. The animation was gorgeous the music was great and Keith was genuinely surprised at how much he liked Dwayne The Rock Johnson as Maui.

Lance definitely seemed to agree as he emerged from the movie theater dancing and singing an odd fragmented mix of whatever he could remember from “How Far I'll Go” and “You're Welcome”. Some people, including his teenage self, might have found it annoying but honestly, it was quite cute. Besides, any excuse to watch Lance was a good one, especially now with him all dressed up. The shirt hugged his shoulders just right and showed off his arms and his pants made his legs look a mile long.

They walked along towards the restaurant, Lance stopping his impromptu concert so they could chat about the movie.

“Can you believe Auliʻi Cravalho is only 16? Imagine being able to sing and act like that at 16!  I did theater in high school and I can think of  like four different girls who would legitimately have killed a man to get a voice like that at her age.”

Judging by his few interactions with the theater kids in high school Keith wasn't sure if that was much of an exaggeration.

“Yeah she was great. I was mostly surprised by The Rock, who knew he was so talented?”

“Actually I did know that, this girl who did hairspray with me in high school was obsessed with him, obsessed I tell you. Oh, and speaking of theater kids, did you see the SNL episode with Lin-manuel Miranda? God, he was brilliant! I swear Crucible Cast Party was taken from hidden cameras for my high school theater days.”

“Oh yeah, I saw that it was funny. I never really did any theater so I'm not sure if I got all of the jokes but it was still funny.”

They continued chatting, with Lance looking down occasionally to check the directions on his phone. The walk to the restaurant wasn't that long, 10 minutes at most - a fact that Keith was thankful for because he didn’t want to be out in the cold for longer than necessary. Three years of going to college up north and he still wasn't used to the winters.

When they got to the restaurant Lance talked to the hostess in rapid-fire Spanish, apparently, she was more comfortable with it than English. He didn't understand most of it. He hadn't bothered to take a foreign language class in high school. His father had taught him enough Korean before he died for Keith to opt out of it.

The lady seated them at an intimate table toward the back and handed them their menus.

“What do you think you're going to get?” Keith asked.

“Hunk says fajitas are incredible, I'm going to get them with chicken. He also recommends the tamales, will you share an appetizer of them with me?”

“Yeah sure, sounds great. I've never l had tamales before but they sound good. I think I'm going to get the Pollo con mole poblano.”

“Oh, good choice mole poblano is delicious.”

The waiter came by to take their order and dropped off a little round pan full of tortilla crisps. Keith hesitantly tasted one. It was warm and surprisingly flavorful, nothing like the store-bought ones. Lance grabbed one too and took a bite, his eyes lighting up. “Hunk was right, these are incredible! Maybe I should go back and ask for the recipe for him, turn up the Lancey Lance charm.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Keith.

“Really?” “I'm joking! And hey, it worked on you, didn't it?”

“That and you being incredibly handsome.”

Lance's cheeks darkened at the compliment.“Seriously though, if they wouldn't give it to Hunk they're not going to tell anyone. I swear, that boy is an angel from heaven! Always has been and I've known him since we were kids.”

“He seems like it. Your second roommate on the other hand... What's her deal?” “Pidge, she's a gremlin but we love her. She's actually two years younger than me but she's some kind of genius who went to college at like 16. We actually met at orientation. I mentioned my sexuality to some sorority sister and she made a face and told me that she didn't have time for” Lance's voice dropped to a whisper “sissy f-a-g-s.” His voice went back to normal. “Pidge came over and said: “And he doesn't have the time for dumb homophobic bitches but here we are!” Then I bought her a burger and we've been friends ever since.”

“I already met your roommates, any other friends I should know about?

“Yes! Hunk’s girlfriend Shay. She's also an angel, ooh and she's demisexual - not really relevant or anything but fun fact. Then there's Allura, she's bi like me. I used to have a huge crush on her. We actually went on a couple of dates but she was getting over a bad breakup and I was really homesick and it just didn't really work out. Don't worry though, that was a long time ago. Then there's her girlfriend Romelle who's a trans lesbian and the nicest person you'll ever meet, aside from hunk and Shay of course. They live in this really nice house because Allura is this fancy British heiress.”

“An heiress?” “Yeah, but she's like really cool and hard-working. She's getting a business degree so she can take over her father's company - well, technically her uncle's company. Her dad died a few years ago and her uncle was like his advisor or something so he took over the company in her stay until she was old enough and also took care of her. He has a weird name. Karen or Kran, something like that”

“Anyone else?”

“That's my immediate circle of friends. I mean Pidge's brother Matt visits sometimes but he graduated already so he's off doing some smart people thing, I don't know.”

“They sound great” “They are. They're also like super queer. I mean I've already told you about the others and Pidge is Aro Ace”

“And Hunk?” “ Hunk is our token straight person!”

Keith shrugged. “Every group needs one.”

“Exactly, how about you? Let's talk about your friends!”

“To be honest with you I don't actually have a lot of friends.”

“Oh well, I'm sure my friends will have no issue adopting you into the group.” “That sounds nice.” Keith hesitated for a second before continuing. “Can I can I be honest with you for a second?”

“Yeah, shoot.”

“You have to promise you're not going to think of me differently after you hear,  after what I have to say.”

“What could you possibly say that would make me think of you differently?. You don't have some like crazy stalker ex or something, right?”

“No, no. it's just... You know I'm adopted right?”

“Yeah, I already said that doesn’t make a difference.”

“The thing is, I haven't told you the full story. I wasn't adopted as a baby like most people. My dad died when I was nine and I don't know what happened to my mother. I spent a few years in foster care and I was 14 when the Shirrogaines adopted me."

Lance was quiet for a bit. “Wow, that's- wow.”

“I can leave now and pay if you're uncomfortable.”

“No, no, I'm not uncomfortable! It's just, you've been through so much. Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“Thank you for reacting so positively.”

“Wait, did other people react negatively?” Lance tried to keep his voice down but failed. Why in the world would people react badly to that?

“Yeah, a lot of people don't know how to react. Some people just cut me out of their lives altogether, it's one of the reasons I don't have a lot of friends.”

“Well, forget about those people, they're jerks and not worth your time. You are handsome, smart, funny, kind and you drive a badass motorcycle. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.” “Thank you, that's actually really nice to hear.”

Lance grabbed Keith's hand “I can't pretend I understand what you've been through but I know what it's like to be judged for things out of your control. I'm an immigrant actually, we moved to the United States from Cuba when I was five, my oldest brother was going to go to college in the states and I don't remember exactly why but we relocated with him. When I went to kindergarten I didn't speak English very well because I'd only just learned it and Hunk was the only kid who bothered to talk to me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay that kindness.”

“Something tells me you already have.”

There was a loaded feeling in the air between them Keith found himself leaning in for a kiss. Before their lips made contact, however, they heard someone clear their throat.

The pair jumped apart and looked towards the sound. It was the waitress, she arrived with their food.

They ate their food while continuing to chat, Keith regaled Lance with the continued adventures of olive bro and Lance offered to feed him a bite of his meal which was far cuter than Keith would ever admit. Keith found out that Lance's full name was actually Leandro but he had chosen the nickname Lance after reading about the Middle Ages because his classmates were having trouble pronouncing his full name. Keith responded with a story about one foster kid from a group home who told him to go back to China after hearing him speak Korean and how he'd been utterly schooled by one of the older foster girls. They were so wrapped up in the conversation that they didn't notice the waitress coming over after they were done eating to clear the table, she gave a long-suffering sigh, muttered something about something about young love then walked off to fetch the bill.

Lance had paid for the movie so Keith paid for dinner and they left the restaurant hand in hand. Keith was about to get on his motorcycle and but Lance stopped him. “I had a really nice time tonight, do you think we could go on a second date after the winter break?”

“Yeah, yeah that sounds great!”

“Just so you know, there are no waitresses here to interrupt us.”

“You're being rather a cliche.”

“Shut up and kiss me mullet.”

“I don't have a-”

He didn't finish the sentence because Lance's lips were suddenly on his.

He lost track of time as they stood there kissing, he couldn't say there were fireworks or angels singing but god it was a really nice kiss. After a while, they finally pulled apart pressing their foreheads together.

Lance spoke first: “Wow.”

“I haven't been kissed like that in ages,” Keith confessed.

“Oh, who's cliche now, hmm?"

“Shut up,” Keith said and then laughed leaning in for another kiss. This kiss was shorter than the first, Lance pulling back prematurely with a shiver.

“We should probably go, I'm getting really cold.”

Keith had been too wrapped up in the kiss to notice but he was freezing too.

“Of course, I'll drive you home now.”

When they arrived back at Lance's apartment he couldn't help but notice two figures silhouetted in the window. Apparently, Lance was in for a long night.

Lance handed him the spare helmet and Keith grabbed his arm lightly pulling him in for a quick kiss.

“See you after the break.”

“Yeah, can I text you while I'm away?” “Yeah sure”

“Hey, just you wait our next date is going to be amazing, I have an entire break to plan it after all!”

“I'm looking forward to it.”

“Good,” he giggled.

Lance leaned over for one last kiss, then walked into his apartment

Keith watch him go with a smile.

Nope, definitely not a prank.

_______________________________________________________________

I actually have a beta reader now thank you to Calliopestories for making my writing a lot more polished. http://calliopestories.tumblr.com/ and yes I did make that entire section about Lance's friends and their sexualties just so I could make that token straight friend joke.

[tornrose24]

Only a voice part 10 (a Moana fan fic AU loosely inspired by the Little Mermaid)

In which Moana acts a little ooc, suspense is amplified, Tamatoa is having WAY too much fun, and there are quite a few nods to both the Disney and original version of the Little Mermaid if you look closely. Also the sun REALLY hates Maui.

So I have a bit of tragic news to share regarding the last chapter. On the very same night of the day I uploaded it, my cat of ten years and my family’s own animal side kick passed away. My long time readers may have picked up on how much I love cats and our family’s cat (who we rescued from an animal shelter) was special–she had her quirks and she had some flaws, but we loved her regardless. It was a quick death, but it was really depressing and it was hard for all of us to accept that she died on us without warning. If I knew, I would have given her more attention that day, like I could have sat with her and petted her for half an hour. I would have held back from working on chapter 9 that day if I knew what was going to happen. I’m not a huge believer in any particular religion, but I would love to think that she is somewhere happily taking a nap and is doing backflips in the air when someone throws toy mice at her for her to catch. Please do me a favor and, if you have a pet or your own animal side kick, give them some sort of affection or love right after reading this chapter. Pet them, treat them, forgive them for something they may have done like puking on the carpet or ruin your couch... just please show them the love and adoration they deserve. Ok... onto the other part of the A/N. So as I have said many times I have had to do research and one of the fun, yet difficult parts of the research is on that of the Taualuga. I have looked at websites and there is a video documentary on the dance and what it means to different Polynesian cultures to those who have danced it (its on YouTube). From what I gather, it is a dance of grace as well as a way for the dancer to connect to their people, culture and family. It is also a spiritual dance and your feelings must be genuine. I would imagine Moana would have her own version of the Taualuga in her culture and I tried to gather those ideas for what that dance would mean to her. Of course I also imagine that if someone were to possess or hypnotize the dancer, or interfere in a way that would ruin that tradition, I doubt they would be able to get away with it without some sort of consequence. I wanted to be sure I could still respect the Polynesian cultures and traditions in writing this chapter out, while using a familiar story as a basis, in addition to making sure that what does happen would be believable in the world Moana lives in. Personally, I do imagine her wearing the ceremonial dress from ‘Where you are’ as her Taualuga attire since it was inspired by that dance and it seemed fitting for her to dance in. Usually the dancers are meant to wear an oil on their skin to create a sheen to add to their appeal, but I chose not to for Moana as it didn’t feel right. I should add that my research states that the role of a Chief’s daughter involves specializing in hospitality and being part of important meetings, in addition to performing the Taualuga. Anyway, if I ever get something wrong or I did something that doesn’t come across as intentional in regards to the traditions, please let me know. (PS I recently saw a box set for a doll version of Moana and Maui together (oar and hook included).  It was odd but it was really adorable at the same time to me.)

Chapter 10: The final day

And so the long awaited day came and the village was not only prepared for the visit, but they eagerly awaited the arrival of their guests. Minor things did go unnoticed, such as the fact that one rooster had escaped the enclosure or that a pig had hidden himself to avoid being put into a similar enclosure. Otherwise it was a good day with a perfect blue sky, only a few clouds, and calm waters. It was some point just before midday that the boats finally arrived upon Motonui’s shores and many of the villagers gathered there in eager excitement to meet the new faces or even reconnect with some of them. The passengers from the boats were also relieved to see the new faces and to have the freedom to have more space to walk around as well as get a moment of privacy or two after being on the boats with everyone for so long. After exchanges of greetings had been shared, Tui examined the siblings of the leading family. Hoani hadn’t aged too much since he had last seen him, but the confidence was still there. Arataki, the middle child, now sported a tattoo of a shark upon her arm and she seemed to have obtained a deep scar upon the left side her face. Kahurangi, the youngest sibling and the one whom Tui was hoping Moana could see, had grown up quite a bit and was as tall as his brother, but he was more modest in appearance unlike either of his siblings. “I trust you would need some time to rest or walk around for a bit.” Tui began to the siblings. He wore the headdress that marked his status as the village Chief, as did Hoani, whose own headdress was slightly more extravagant with additional adornments. “It would be nice.” Arataki grinned. “There wasn’t much excitement out on the sea except for the fishing. Even then we didn’t get much.” “I look forward to meeting the rest of your family.” Hoani smiled. “I don’t think I’ve met them, nor your daughter who you spoke so much about.”
Tui tried to hide his feelings with a wide smile. There was a non-spoken agreement between him and his wife to not speak of what happened the day before. “She should be coming any moment.” He turned to his wife, who also wore her own headdress which was less extravagant than her husband’s. “We meant to present a gift to your family, but we misplaced it.” Hoani apologized, which made his sister snort for some odd reason. “We misplaced it.” He repeated as he shot a glare at his sister. “It was too over the top for such an occasion, but we do have other gifts such as carvings, combs, and precious stones we found on our travels.” Kahurangi quickly threw in. In truth, he was aware of the reason behind the visit and he had little desire to meet the girl his brother wanted him to see as a possible future wife. He didn’t want to win the girl over before he even met her, even if he was only a little curious about what she would be like. Even Arataki was not excited about the reason behind the visit, but she came anyway for the need to make sure her older brother wouldn’t do anything foolish and anger someone of higher power like he did the last time. “Those sound lovely.” Sina smiled. “Until then, why not enjoy Motonui?” “Is that her?” Arataki asked as she looked off to one side but then she raised her eyebrow at the sight of the young woman who walked alongside her grandmother. Tui and Sina turned around to face their daughter, who still wore the strange set of garments from last night. “This is Moana.” Tui tried to hold his smile as he wondered why on earth Moana was wearing such a garment and why on earth it had so many pearls and precious stones sewn upon it, in addition to the string of pearls around her head. His wife told him about it, but it was still an odd thing for his daughter to wear, even if it looked a lot fancier than the outfits she did own. Even the villagers and the visitors were interested in the girl’s strange appearance and how the garments were designed in such a way. “Hello.” Moana nodded her head in a sharp manner and gave the siblings a strange smile that didn’t seem to meet her eyes. Arataki noticed that although the girl would grow up to become very beautiful, she couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by her as if she wasn’t acting natural. Even the girl’s movements seemed rather stiff, despite the air of grace that she carried herself with. This wasn’t exactly the adventurous girl Arataki had heard about as the girl’s father introduced her to her siblings as well as herself. “Perhaps you could show Kahurangi around?” Hoani suggested to Moana, making his intentions a little too clear the younger brother’s liking. “My sister is one of our fiercest warriors, but he is more tied to matters around the village back home, such as the crops.”
“I can do that.” Moana said in a tone that made it hard to tell if she wanted to or not as she gave Hoani an odd look that Arataki didn’t like. The warrior could sense that the girl probably knew why they were here and wasn’t thrilled about it, but she was getting a bad feeling in her guts that told her that her brother might need someone trustworthy by his side. “Perhaps you should take Awhina with you, little brother.” Arataki quickly added as she turned to her personal guard who was confused by the sudden command. “I’m sure she needs time away from me.” “That would be alright.” Kahurangi was surprised by this, but he agreed to it. “What are you doing?” Awhina whispered to Arataki when she approached the woman, who turned around to put a hand on her shoulder and leaned in, while their Chief shot his sister an annoyed look. “Keep an eye on the girl.” She whispered and made sure no one saw or heard her before pulling away. Awhina nodded before approaching Kahurangi and the two followed Moana, who lead them back to the village. At the same time, Arataki picked up on the troubled look on the grandmother’s face as she watched her granddaughter go off before turning back to the others. “That is a peculiar dress.” Hoani noted as he turned to Tui and his family. “Where on earth did she get that? I would think that she was a goddess of the sea if I did not know any better.”
“We don’t know.” Sina admitted. “She said it was a gift given to her by someone on this island.” Tala came in as she recalled how Moana barely said a word to her that morning and seemed lost in thought. Meanwhile Tui thought back to the object from yesterday as a thought struck him.
“May I ask you something?” Tui began. “You said you have seen precious stones, correct? I have something similar that was found and its been bothering me.” “I will take a look.” Hoani agreed and with that everyone either headed their way back to the village or they went to make sure that the boats would not escape back out onto the sea. Arataki sighed as Hoani quickly joined his sister. “You will not tell them why we don’t have the necklace!” He hissed as quietly as he could. “Oh yeah, I can’t say that my brother failed to repay the demi-god who helped us out because he thought the fame would be good enough for him.” Arataki hissed back. “Honestly, what was going through your mind?” “And you suppose you could have given him the supplies we needed after that attack?” “If I wasn’t out at sea protecting us from the monsters that didn’t reach us, then yes I would. You are lucky we didn’t get cursed for that offense.” Arataki rolled her eyes as she tried to scan the village ahead of her. She thought she saw a rooster running around and pecking at some rocks like they were grains but she made no comment on it. Honestly, why wasn’t she the one who had been born first?

Maui would have been bored out of his mind if he wasn’t in a state of constant fear that Hoani would find out about him at some point and come into the fale he was currently trapped in. He should have considered himself lucky that there was an agreement between him and the guards to at least let him leave once in awhile to take care of certain body matters and he didn’t try to escape, which helped with earning their trust. Still he hated being in this state of either being in a panic for the inevitable or just waiting for the sun outside to go down and just end this charade once and for all. He couldn’t break free from the ropes, which would have been possible if he had his full strength. He had hidden his necklace behind some of his stuff and he knew that one of the animal teeth attached to it was strong enough to gradually cut the ropes, but he couldn’t do that if it was out of reach. His eyes drifted downward to his arms. He remembered how horrified he had been to see the scars instead of the tattoos and he took that as a sign that the gods knew what had happened and punished him. Yet he had started to notice that some of the scarring was starting to fade away to the point that they weren’t as horrific looking as they used to be. In fact some of them had faded to the point that those parts of his skin was becoming smooth again. He wondered if this either due to the amount of time he had spent as a human or if it had to do with his friendship with Moana. If it was the latter, then it made sense–it explained why his back didn’t hurt when she touched him the day before. Of course by the time the sun would set he would most likely get back his tattoos and he had a feeling it was not going to be pain-free. There were times were he wondered what could have been–what would have happened if his mother kept him and he lived his life as a mortal. What kind of things would he have done and would he have had as much tattoos as he did as an immortal? Would he have turned out the same way or would he have had a different attitude on life? Now that he thought about it, he would have been dead long before Motonui came into existence. He would never have gotten to meet so many unique individuals, including Moana herself. He let out a sigh of regret and rested his head against the pillar. He should not have taken Moana out to the ocean–he should have seen that her father would have caught them. Now he wasn’t sure if what he had done was either because he wanted her to be happy or because he had a moment of selfishness and got desperate. He realized that he had to owe her an apology when the sun finally went down. He ruined her life and needed to try to make amends but a selfish part of him didn’t want to face her for too many reasons to count. But what could be worse–the destruction of one girl’s family or her feeling that she was just being used as a way for him to get what he wanted? Gods, he had way too much time to think on these things while he was trapped in the fale overnight. Meanwhile, the girl in question was leading Kahurangi and Awhina around the village but she didn’t speak much about it. In fact she didn’t seem to acknowledge anyone who said hello to her and especially not the young children who seemed to be happy when they saw her and waved. “Your sister wanted me to keep an eye on her.” Awhina whispered to Kahurangi. “I think something about Moana bothered her.”
“I understand.” Kahurangi whispered back before smirking. “I’ll make sure you both get some alone time tonight as repayment.” “Oh you rascal!” Awhina teased as she playfully swatted the young man on the shoulder. “What will I ever do with you?” “I’m sorry, but you aren’t supposed to be anywhere near this fale.” Awhina and Kahurangi turned around to see that Moana stopped in front of a certain fale, which was guarded by a villager with a spear in his hand that he held out in front of him. “Please, I don’t want you to get into trouble.” The villager pleaded. Moana’s eyes suddenly turned dark as her hands tightened into fists. “I’m very well aware of that.” Her voice sounded like she was trying to suppress her rage with all her might. “But I’ve already been in more trouble than you can imagine. So don’t you dare remind me to never come by here when I pass by.” “I will have to shift positions soon, so I’m not going to be here all day.” The guard was nervous as he bore witness to Moana’s rising anger. “I mean, I can tell the next person so that you–”
“Well why didn’t you think of telling my father that?!” Moana suddenly snapped out in fury, which made everyone flinch. “Its not my problem what sort of agreement you all have behind my back! Just quit reminding me about it and go do your job like my father wants you to! I hope the reward you all get is worth it!” Both Awhina and Kahurangi stared in shock at the young woman. Was this really the future Chief or was there something going on that neither of them were aware about? Even Awhina placed a cautious hand on the young man’s shoulder as she began to wonder if Arataki’s suspicion was correct. She watched as the teenage girl panted heavily as she stared the guard down and the poor man was obviously in shock as well as hurt by the response, yet she feared it wasn’t in her place to come to his aid if there was a reason behind the girl’s attitude. Awhina was not the only one who was confused by what was going on. Inside the fale, the captive inside heard everything and he was shocked at the outburst from the girl. Maui hadn’t been around Moana for too long, but that reaction was not normal for her. She had been annoyed with him and had moments of anger, but had she ever sounded that nasty to someone before, besides that one time with her dad yesterday? Plus she was a lot better at trying to hide her anger and frustrations around her people (he had been an exception for certain reasons, of course), but something was clearly wrong, especially for a day like today. Moana let out an annoyed sigh. “Whatever, enjoy yourself later.” she waved her hand dismissively and walked away as the other two kept a slight distance away from her. No one needs to remind me! Moana internally snarled as her head began to pound. You don’t have to rub it in my face that my father can do whatever he likes or that he can punish me for so much as getting anywhere near the fale! He deserves what is coming to him! A punch to the face wasn’t enough to– Moana stopped for a moment. Why did her friend bother to stop her father in the first place and hit him in the face if he knew it would get him in trouble? For one second, the anger she was trapped in went down a little and in its place was confusion. Why would someone go through that risk for her sake? The thought was causing a strange pain inside her chest. Before she had a chance to think on it, her anger returned and she shook her head. It didn’t matter right now as she needed to try to keep her anger contained before it became too much of a concern to the others. She had to wear the mask for as long as possible until her moment would come to pass. She could still feel the knife between her top and her skin, reminding her that her freedom would soon be at hand. Give them the person they want to see until its time. She reminded herself. “I’m sorry.” Moana quickly turned around to face Awhina and Kahurangi with a wide smile. “I’ve been under stress. You know that goes.”

Elsewhere, Tui showed Hoani and Arataki the golden brown object outside his fale. “It has a stone like quality, but I do not know what it is.” He told them. “I thought perhaps you could let me know.” “I’ve seen all sorts of stones and I have heard of some that can only be found deep underwater or on lands that would take months to reach, but I’ve never seen anything like this.” Hoani admitted as he took the object and looked it over. “You know its funny, but it reminds me of something.” Arataki looked at the object. “I heard that few can ever find stones or objects that shine like this. You would have to be very lucky if you do and perhaps only the gods themselves have them, but some monsters tend to be attracted to these.”
“What kind of monsters?” Tui asked. “I could have sworn I saw a creature that wore some of these on his back, but I was in a rush to get back to our island and I couldn’t make out what he was.” Arataki explained. “I knew it was a monster because he tilted slightly and I could see that it was a shell underneath what we thought was a small mountain of treasures. He was too big to go after, so I just said ‘nope, I’m out’ and got us out of there.” Why did this sound faintly familiar to Tui? He couldn’t put his finger on it. He wanted to ask his mother since she was an expert on monster lore, but she had other matters to attend to so he would have to save it for later. “If you think it was from a monster, just put it back where you found it.” Arataki advised. “I wouldn’t keep it if it were me.” “Thank you.” Tui sighed in relief as he wrapped the object up. As he did, he felt a sensation as if he was being watched and looked up for a second. “Something wrong?” Hoani asked. Tui shook his head. “Its nothing.” Unknown to Tui, a figure in a garment of dark browns and greens had been watching some distance away and he was giving him a dark glare.

Time gradually passed until eventually it was time for the festivities to begin. Normally these would be reserved for when the sun would set, but Tui and Hoani agreed that the visitors would need time to rest before morning came so that they would have light to guide them back home the next day. Everyone–villagers and visitors–stood or sat around the large area between the community fale and Chief Tui’s fale. They all shared in the food and the drinks that were passed out as they talked amongst themselves and got to learn each other a bit more. Moana herself helped pass the drinks out along with a few women, but she merely nodded in acknowledgement whenever she was thanked. “How was she?” Hoani whispered to Kahurangi when he sat by him. “Can you see yourself courting her?” Kahurangi looked at Talia, who was helping out with serving, and he politely returned her beaming smile that she sent to him with one of his own before responding to his brother. “She’s not talkative.” The younger brother whispered back with a frown. “But I think something is going on and she’s not in the best of behaviors right now.”
“But do you think you can court her?”
“You know I have my eyes on another back home.” Kahurangi angrily whispered back. “I don’t approve of the match.” Hoani replied with a glare. “I know you can do better than  someone who just sits around all day.” Kahurangi just scowled at his brother and looked away as Tui finally got up to face everyone. “Thank you for coming to Motonui!” He addressed the visitors with a smile. “I am glad to see that all of you have had a chance to enjoy yourselves after being out on the sea for so long! It must have been quite the adventure!” Elsewhere near her mother and grandmother, Moana felt her head pounding as her anger began to rise out of jealousy towards the visitors. How dare her father say such things out loud as if he were mocking her! “We ourselves do not venture out so often, so we appreciate that you had came here!” Tui continued. “Until then, please enjoy what entertainment we can offer to you!”
The musicians and the singers gathered in one spot and prepared themselves as the young children of Motonui came forth to start the entertainment with their dancing. Some audience members were in awe at the sight of the children in their outfits while many a pleased parent smiled to the little dancers. “Promise me that you will at least give him a chance tonight.” Tui whispered to Moana as he passed by her. He didn’t see the violent flinch she made or how her forced smile twisted as the anger flashed in her eyes, but Sina noticed it and she frowned. She thought about what she warned her husband and prayed that Moana was not going to do something like try to sneak away with the visitors the next day. Moana looked like she could explode even when trying to wear a forced smile. Sina was unaware that Moana’s anger was being carefully built up for a specific moment, or that the reason behind it was within her village.

Maui could hear the music in the distance outside the fale, but he could also tell that the light in the fale was changing and the final sunset was coming a lot faster than he anticipated. Perhaps the sun was aware of what was going on and was out to get revenge on him by speeding up the day. He would not be surprised if that was the case. Before he could think of what kind of insult he could give to the sun, he heard the guard (who had switched out with the last one) say “Oh! Thank you!” in delight. He barely cared about what was going on outside and ignored it. “Say, aren’t you one of the visitors?” She asked the other person after a few moments. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around–” There was a pause “Around–” She sounded like she was lost in thought as her words slowed down. Seconds later there was a strange thumping sound as if she had collapsed onto the ground. She probably couldn’t hold whatever she was given. Maui thought as he shut his eyes and listened to the strange uneven steps from outside the fale. They went around the building and stopped behind him for a moment until Maui passed it off as someone trying to get away from the guard before they were caught. He opened his eyes in confusion when he heard one of the tapas behind him open up. He tried to turn his head to see who it was, but he couldn’t because of how tight his binds were. If he did, he would have seen a strange man in very familiar looking adornments and who only had one leg. The man outside tossed the green and brown outer garment way to reveal the true splendor underneath before he turned his attention to the captive. Tamatoa smirked as he saw the state of his former friend. He walked towards Maui and stopped slightly behind the beam Maui was tied to where he placed his hand upon it for support. He tapped his fingers against it as he deliberately built up the anticipation for this long awaited moment. “I guess humans can’t handle a little sleep inducing ingredient in their drink.” He finally said in a nonchalant tone while Maui froze in shock and let out what should have been a sharp gasp. He knew that voice; he would recognize it anywhere. How the heck was he hearing it so close to him and why wasn’t it sounding as if it came from a large crab monster?! “Missed me, mon ami?” Tamatoa grinned down at Maui. “Let me guess.” Tamatoa tapped his fingers against the beam again. “You are thinking ‘Why is he here? How did he get here?’ Or maybe ‘why does he sound so close to me?’” “Here’s the thing, Maui.” Tamatoa began Maui as he tried to get a better look at him “That concoction you took was meant for someone of my size and I added a few things in specifically for you. In my case, it would last a day, but if I wanted to keep up the masquerade I would need only a small amount of what you took.”
Maui paused for a second as he realized what was going on; did Tamatoa seriously turn himself into a human? Why? That seemed odd for someone as vain as him. “Now you are probably wondering how I found you, right?” Tamatoa reached down and grabbed a handful of Maui’s hair before pulling as hard as he could to the point that Maui let out a voiceless yell and he scrunched his face up in pain. Tamatoa look out the necklace with the shell that contained Maui’s voice and dangled it out so that he could see it, but could not reach it in time if he tried to grab it. “You know, its funny you actually tried to speak without your voice for the past three weeks.” Maui himself stared in surprise at the object that was glowing purple for some odd reason. “Because every time you did, I heard every word of it.” Tamatoa explained. “Every time you cursed me out or had a fit, your voice was still in use even miles away from its owner. The very moment you said ‘Motonui’ I knew exactly where to find you. Granted it took a long time because the ocean was so insistent on keeping me away and it gave me a hassle when I tried getting onto the island a few days ago. The Chief picked up on it, but it won’t do him much good later on. You see, I found his precious daughter and I put a little charm on her to take care of him.” Maui felt his heart stop as the blood drained from his body when he heard Tamatoa mention Moana. “See, I used this– the same shell that contains your voice–to hypnotize her and now she can barely feel any emotion except raw anger towards her daddy. So the moment she finally stops dancing at their event, she’s going to lash out and kill him if she doesn’t go after anyone else. Or herself if she’s that desperate for freedom.” Maui’s horror increased as Tamatoa continued. “See, I would have tricked her into thinking that the other family stole something of mine, but she was getting too clever for her own good and saw more than she needed to.” Tamatoa then let out a sigh as he realized what Maui would probably think next. “And before you ask Maui, no I didn’t do anything horrible to her last night besides the hypnotizing.” He paused. “Ok, maybe I choked her a little, but even I know where to draw the line.” ‘Why would you do that to her?!’ Maui tried to yell. ‘What good does that do for you?!’ Then he realized something. If Tamatoa knew as much as he did now, then he already knew how close Moana was to Maui, which meant that he was deliberately sabotaging his chance of turning into a human for good. Which also meant that Maui put Moana in danger whether he meant to or not. “You know, I thought you were just aiming really high, but I can see why you like her.” Tamatoa continued. “Reckless, adventurous... pretty quick to pick up on the fact that I had a hand in that little ‘accident’ on the boat, but not really quick or strong enough to get away from me when she caught on.” Maui swore that his heart stopped again when he realized what Tamatoa was trying to imply. In fact it suddenly made way too much sense for Maui to take. Tamatoa–who was too large and too shiny to be able to hide or blend in up on the surface, yet somehow found a way around this–had been there that whole time and Maui never picked up on it. And now Moana was trapped in their feud and was going to be forced into a horrible situation because of his stupidity. “Did you honestly think I was helping you because I forgave you for what happened?!” Tamatoa furiously snapped at Maui as he pulled at Maui’s hair to give him more pain. “I never forgot what happened! You just had to tear my leg off, didn’t you?! Despite what you might think, not all your actions are exactly as heroic as you’d like to believe! You can’t just tell me to not speak the harsh truths when you’ve have done a few unheroic things yourself! Friends don’t chop off each other’s limbs!” Deep down, Tamatoa did feel betrayed over what had happened and he would have never attempted to have been friends with Maui if he had seen that coming. “So seeing you suffer is giving me immense satisfaction!” He yanked at Maui’s hair as hard as he could and the former demi-god let out another voiceless yell. “Being unable to save anyone when you know what’s going to happen is horrible, isn’t it?!” He hissed in Maui’s ear before he calmed down. “Ah, isn’t it a shame?” Tamatoa sighed as he looked at the necklace in his hand as Maui winced from the pain. “Without your voice, you can’t prove that girl’s innocence in time, can you? Who knows what kind of punishment they have for murder?” “I mean I suppose you can try if you can face them after the sun sets. That is if you still feel like you are a hero to those people.” Tamatoa said as he moved the necklace away and let go of Maui before getting back up. “You’ll get your voice back when that happens, and then you can explain why you weren’t there to stop the princess.” He then  mockingly patted Maui on the head and let out a dark chuckle before he mockingly sang. “So what can I say except ‘you’re welcome’?” Tamatoa let out another laugh as he walked away while Maui struggled to see what Tamatoa looked like as a human so he could find him and punch him in the face when he had the chance. “See you after sunset, mon ami!” Tamatoa almost sang in a mock cheerful tone and waved at Maui before he left the fale. Maui tried to break free from his binds and pulled his hands away from each other as hard as he could, but the ropes were too strong. Normally he would give the humans his approval, but now he was too angry and desperate to care. He pulled as hard as he could and tried to pull away from the beam but the binds wouldn’t budge and he was stuck. In a desperate attempt to do anything to get out, Maui moved his wrists to his mouth and tried to use his teeth to bite down and tear at the ropes. He didn’t care how long it took, he had to get free and help Moana before it was too late. Around this time, the children concluded their performance and when they received their applause, they left and allowed a group of girls to come forth and sing before they would perform their own dance. “Come on.” Sina patted Moana’s arm as Tala got up and headed towards the family’s fale. “Its time to get ready.” She reminded her daughter. There would still be some time before Moana concluded the festivities with her dance, but she needed to get dressed ahead of time. Moana finally got up and joined her mother without any sign of nervousness for what was to come. Moments later in Maui’s fale, the voiceless man tried to desperately tear at the binds with the sharpest of his teeth but it wasn’t enough. He would need to be a shark to attempt such a thing and that exact tooth of that beast was on the necklace that was in his fale but it was too far from his reach. At that moment one of the tapas for the entrance moved in front of him and he felt his heart stop when he thought he would get caught. Instead it was a familiar looking bird that seemed to have wandered off again without being aware of it. Maui could not believe his luck but he almost wanted to laugh in relief when he saw Heihei–the bird wasn’t bright, but he had a beak that might work just as well as a shark tooth. He lowered his wrists down as far as he could and spread his legs aside before waving his wrists a little to get the bird’s attention. By some insane miracle, Heihei bought it as he clucked in interest at the new thing to peck at. He trotted up to Maui’s wrists and the demi-god made sure that Heihei could reach the ropes to peck at them. He beamed with joy when the bird then proceeded to peck at the ropes and even if Heihei hit his hands, he was just glad that luck was on his side. His smile then grew small as he realized something–how long would it take for Heihei to break at least one of the ropes and would the bird retain his attention long enough to help him out? Heihei would be dumb enough to keep pecking at the ropes, right?

At this point the festivities were halfway done and the sun was getting closer and closer to the ocean out on the horizon. All the entrances to the Chief’s fale had been closed to allow privacy for the last dancer to get dressed. Both Sina and Tala assisted Moana in preparations for the taualuga that she was to perform by helping her put on the ceremonial dress. The vibrant reds in the attire suited the girl, along with the armbands upon her arms and wrists, in addition to the anklets. The shells, flowers, pearls, and other additional elements and details that were part of the attire made her look more like a daughter of a royal family than she ever had been. Normally Moana would have also worn a special coconut oil upon her skin to give her a slight sheen, but for some reason it just didn’t seem to be a good idea this time around, so the girl’s exposed skin remained the way it was. “Here.” Sina helped twist Moana’s hair up before she went to carefully take a beautiful and well crafted headdress and placed it securely on the girl’s head so that it would not fall off. She stepped back and admired her daughter’s appearance–it never ceased to amaze Sina how beautiful Moana was becoming with each passing year. “You are going to be spectacular.” Sina tried to encourage Moana. “I know you will.” “Thank you.” Moana gave Sina another stiff smile and her words seemed hallow and almost forced. Sina was a little upset by this, but she could only smile and leave the fale to rejoin her husband. She was convinced that Moana was still unhappy but she wished the girl could try to be a little more excited about her big moment. Maybe deep down Moana was just a little nervous. Tala had observed the interaction before she turned to Moana. “So,” She began. “You insist on going through with this. Do you really feel that you can perform this dance with all your heart?”
Moana gave a sharp nod, yet Tala was not entirely convinced. Like the others, she believed that Moana was trying to hide her anger, but something about Moana’s behavior did not seem normal, even for her. She already heard a rumor about Moana having an outburst and that she had been unkind to the guard outside the fale that she wasn’t supposed to be around. Tala felt her hand go to the necklace around her neck and grew thoughtful. “I know that anything I say cannot remedy the pain you feel before you begin, but I want you to know that we are always here for you.” She undid the clasp behind her necklace and took it off. Just like when she had thought about the sacrifice her friend had made, the action stuck confusion into Moana’s enchanted mind. What was her grandmother doing? Moana watched as Tala moved her arms around her own neck and connected the two ends together so that she now wore her grandmother’s necklace. The necklace reached the neckline of Moana’s attire and while the pearls of the necklace matched those of the dress, the near iridescent blue of the shell contrasted against the reds, yet it still looked as if it could belong to the girl’s overall appearance. “The shell of this necklace is a family heirloom passed down from as far back as Matai Vasta’s days as our leader.” Tala explained to Moana, who was starting to feel that strange pain in her chest again. “It serves as an embodiment to our connection to both land and sea as well as connecting our generations together. It was worn as both a symbol of pride and as a way to never forget who we really are.” Something buzzed in Moana’s head and in her heart. An emotion that had been suppressed by the spell was struggling to come forth and when she felt the tears in her eyes, she couldn’t remember what it was. She looked at the shell at the end of the necklace and she tried to remember what it was that she was feeling and she let out a deep sigh as a tear escaped her eyes. Whatever this feeling was supposed to be, it was hurting her physically and internally. Tala smiled as she reached out to stroke Moana’s face. “Whatever happens, whatever path you choose, know that you will always be my granddaughter. Do not let anyone change who you are.” She gently wiped the tear off her granddaughter’s cheek. “So long as you wear this, may you remember who you descended from and remember that we will always love you.” The emotion in Moana was struggling to force its way out and break the spell to bring back her real self. She took a deep breath and went to hug her grandmother while a part of her was still able to break free with the power of that unknown emotion (or was it a feeling?). The part of her that knew she was under a spell tried to reach out, but it was extremely difficult to the point that she could only get out a few words. “W... when I stop dancing.” Moana struggled to whisper in Tala’s ear. “I... I won’t be–” The spell finally won over, forced the emotion out of Moana, and reverted her back to her enchanted state of mind. The girl’s hold on her grandmother stiffened for a moment before she let go and moved away. “Thank you.” Moana gave Tala that strange smile as her eyes had a strange look in them. “I promise to make you proud.”
Tala gave Moana a frown and wondered what Moana was trying to tell her. “What did you try to say to me?” “I didn’t say anything.” Moana shrugged. “I think I need some time to myself.” Tala was even more confused at Moana’s behavior, yet she went to get her cane and moved a tapa aside to walk out of the fale. Still she pondered over Moana’s words and if it somehow tied into the girl’s behavior today. When Moana was alone, she looked at the necklace and held it with care. She had no idea what just happened to her and what the necklace did, but she didn’t like the emotion it gave her. She didn’t like the pain that came with it or the feelings of doubt it caused in her, but she had no idea what they were. So long as she could finally release her anger, she might never have to feel that confusion or those doubts ever again. She heard one of the tapas move and briefly allowed sunlight in before it shut and she heard the sound of uneven steps coming towards her. “Ah, that looks good.” She turned around to face the stranger who had cursed her in the first place and she let go of the shell. He admired her extravagant attire but his eyes were drawn to the headdress in an almost hungry like manner. “The royal family really go all out, don’t they? I really admire the craftsmanship.” The stranger went over to examine Moana’s headdress and she made no attempt to get away. The stranger took a moment or two to look her over before his eyes landed on the beautiful shell and pearls in the necklace that Moana had been given. “Oh, what is this little beauty?” He grinned and reached out towards it. Not even a second later, Tamatoa found Moana grabbing onto his hand with a great amount of strength and her nails dug into his skin as deep as they could. When he looked into her eyes, he could see an all too familiar look– ‘touch my stuff and you’ll regret it.’ Moana herself knew that she could not let this man take the necklace away or even get his hands on it. Even when under the spell, she knew that she didn’t want him to take it because it was something given to her by someone she held no anger towards. It was something that deep down she recognized was important. Tamatoa withdrew his hand and she let go of him. “Ah, right. I get mad when others go after my stuff too.” He admitted. “I respect that.” He turned around to find the piece of gold that the Chief had found and he went over to grab it. “In fact, I make them regret it.” He picked up the golden piece that was one of the ‘scales’ he wore on his legs in his true form before tucking it away in his belongings. He had little time to clean and polish it now so instead he went over to the dress and pearls he had given Moana and saw that the dagger was barely poking out under the top. “And that means you need to take care of my stuff since its on loan.” He added with slight annoyance as he took the dagger, which was still in its sheath. Really, the dress was meant to be a way to rub his possession over the girl in Maui’s face, but he soon realized that maybe her father would get on edge and try to seek him out if he made the connection between the dress and the scale. It was another reason why he needed to hide himself from the others for a little longer. “And remember that this dagger is a one way ticket off this island for good.” Tamatoa reminded Moana as he played with it in his hands for a bit as he approached Moana. “So you have to treat it with care.” He held the dagger out to Moana and the girl shot him a blank look and a frown before she reached out and accepted it.
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter how you use it.” Tamatoa said as the girl held it in both hands and looked at it. “You can even make it look like an attempted killing without getting your hands dirty, so long as they get the picture.” He walked around Moana and placed his hands on her shoulders as he glanced around her headdress to look down at her. Moana was feeling that strange painful sensation again as she saw the dagger and she trembled as she tried to suppress it. A strong part of her wanted to use it, and yet something deep within was begging her not to and it was getting on her nerves. She didn’t need this feeling when she would dance for the others. Tamatoa grinned down at the girl. “In the end, it’s your call so long as you give into it. I can help you out by strengthening your resolve on the sidelines but it has to be you and you alone. Remember that in the end none of them care about how you feel, no matter what they say. All that matters is what you want.” “Every time I get this weird feeling, my chest hurts.” Moana finally admitted to him as she stared at the dagger. “I don’t want to feel that way when I dance, I have to look happy for them when I do. It has to be genuine.”
Tamatoa grew thoughtful for a moment. “Then.... how about I help you direct the pain somewhere else? Like say... your hands or your feet?” “I need to be able to dance.” Moana hissed. “Then I can’t help you. Otherwise I’ll have to make it so that you can’t feel any emotion and they’ll pick up on the fact that something is wrong, right?” Moana let out a sigh of annoyance as she made her choice. “I need to be able to use my hands more than my feet.” Tamatoa grinned as he took the necklace out. “Whatever you say, mon princesse.” Moments later outside the fale, Pua was trying his hardest to stay nearby while keeping away from the humans (he was forced to leave the village for a bit when he almost got caught by one of the villagers). He could sense that strange mana somewhere close by, but where was it? “What a lovely ruby jewel you’ll make, my dear you’ll look divine.” Pua paused as he heard a man singing in the fale.“Things are working out according to my ultimate design.” He peered inside under one of the loose tapas to see Moana and in front of her was a man who had a strange necklace in his hand that he waved in time to the song. When Pua looked closely, he could see that Moana’s eyes had turned purple. “Soon you’ll have your precious freedom and then sweet revenge will be mine!” The man belted out and Moana let out a sharp gasp and gritted her teeth in pain as she knelt to the floor while squeezing the handle of the dagger as tightly as she could. “Break a leg, babe!” Tamatoa laughed as he spun the necklace in his hand. As Moana hissed through her teeth to fight off the feeling of stepping on a really sharp blade, Tamatoa walked away. Seconds later, the purple in Moana’s eyes faded away and she slipped the dagger–sheath and all–in the back of her top where it would stay in place. Tamatoa almost wanted to keep laughing as he walked out of the fale, while at the same time Pua hurried to follow him and came to a stop when the stranger went outside. Immediately the pig felt the contained mana radiating off this man and he knew without a doubt this was where that strange feeling from last night had came from. He trotted quietly as he could towards the man as he let out a chuckle. “This is almost too easy.” He then took out the necklace with a purple shell and strange golden flecks while the shell itself gave off an unnatural glow. “So long as the spell is intact and the girl stays angry, Maui will never get this open.” He smirked before his voice lowered. “And so long as Maui can’t open it, he won’t get his voice back in time to help her.” Pua had to stop himself from letting out a squeal and instead he was forced to take a path that wasn’t in the man’s view as he realized what was going on. This person was why Moana was acting strange and if that necklace contained Maui’s voice then that meant the man was actually– Pua hurried as quickly as his feet could carry him. He needed to get to Maui and fast before something bad would happen.

As Maui suspected earlier, Heihei’s beak was not enough. The bird made some progress, but it just wasn’t enough for him to be the hero of the day. A loud squeal made Maui raise his head up and this time it was Pua who came in. The pig squealed his head off and kept hopping up and down in a frantic dance, but Maui had no idea what was going on. The pig’s freak out was enough to startle Heihei, who quickly backed away from Maui’s writs and tried walking over his leg. Just as Maui was about to let Pua know that he was trying to escape, he felt an odd sensation on his chest that he had never felt in almost three weeks; it was like something was moving upon his skin. He looked down and was more than surprised to see a familiar tattoo he thought he had lost forever. Pua stopped squealing when he saw Mini Maui and the tattoo quickly waved at the creature; he shoved some of the markings on Maui’s chest away before he did a very quick pantomime to try to let Pua know what was going on. He made a tattoo version of Tamatoa appear and Pua watched as the crab shrank and changed into an almost exact replica of the man he saw with Moana. He then took the necklace out and Pua watched in horror as the man waved it in front of a tattoo version of Moana who appeared beside him. She then took a knife out and turned around to face her father but she rushed over to Tui and plunged the knife deep into his chest with a crazed look in her eyes before the Chief collapsed to his death. Pua frantically nodded to show that he not only understood, but that he saw what had happened. When all the characters vanished, Mini Maui reappeared and held up a tattoo version of Maui’s necklace. He pointed to the sharp teeth that were attached to it before pointing at something behind Pua. The pig turned around and sure enough there was Maui’s necklace hidden away in the fale and barely within view. As Pua went to get the necklace, Mini Maui had to look up in order to see his host looking down at him with disbelief. ‘YOU WERE HERE THE WHOLE TIME AND DIDN’T TELL ME?!’ Maui mouthed what he wanted to yell at the tattoo. ‘WHAT THE HECK?!’ The tattoo shot him an annoyed look as Pua dragged the necklace to Maui, who quickly recovered and tried to grab at the shark tooth before he realized that the ends were too flat to use on the rope. Instead there was a tooth with a section that was broken off but it had a sharp fragment that was left behind that he could use instead. He pointed at it and held his wrists to Pua to show that he needed help. The pig knew what he had to do and grabbed the tooth in his mouth before proceeding to try to cut the rope while Maui tried to pull his wrists away from each other to add pressure to the rope and make the job easier for Pua. As Pua did his work, Maui looked down at Mini Maui who gave him a friendly wave before he gave him a mischievous grin and pulled something out for Maui to see. Not only was the tattoo still around, but it had seen enough to keep track of Moana and Maui’s interactions to keep score of their wins against each other. Even though both of them had a zero for some reason, Moana had way more tally marks than Maui did, which made him flinch in shock (and out of wounded pride). ‘Oh come on!’ He snapped at the tattoo before he remembered what Tamatoa said and was forced to just mouth the next words. ‘Look I’m sorry, ok?’ The tattoo just held up his hand in peace before pointing to the figure that represented Moana to remind him that right now he was focused on her as much as Maui was. Maui sighed in relief as he looked up to try to guess how much sunlight there was left. He could tell that he wouldn’t have a lot of time left, but what made him worried was when the music from outside ended. Moana’s time to dance was going to happen really soon and if he couldn’t find Tamatoa and get the necklace in time, then he would have to go out and stop Moana himself in front of everyone.

After the musicians concluded their piece, the villagers and guests gave their applause before Tui stood up and waited before they finished and could give him their attention. “Before we conclude this event with our final performance, I would like to once again thank you for visiting Motonui.” Tui began. “We have lived in a time of peace for many years without having to know war or famine and I hope that your time here has been a chance to acquire a similar peace.” “It definitely has.” A visitor agreed as a few others murmured in reply. “It is my pride and honor to present the conclusion of this small ceremony to you with the one who shall succeed in my place and who has taken on much of the preparations for this day.” Tui gestured to his fale and all eyes turned to see two villagers move two tapas aside so that his daughter could step out and reveal herself in all her glory. Many were impressed at the sight, while others smiled with pride; Moana truly was a vision to behold. As Moana felt those eyes upon her, she could feel an internal struggle within herself. I have to think of something that makes me happy for this dance to work. I need to think of the ocean. Act like the daughter he wants you to be and smile through the pain. Think of your people. They don’t care what you want. Why should you care? Moana forced a smile and proceeded to walk towards the community fale with all the grace that was expected of the daughter of a Chief, but each step gave her the feeling like she was stepping on a blade or a sharp piece of coral. Had her feet actually been cut, she doubted she would have been able to dance. What if that’s what he wants? A small voice tried to cry out in her head, but she ignored it as she had been advised. Once this dance was over, the pain would eventually end and she would be free. Moana ignored everyone’s gaze as the part of her that was still rational tried to remember the steps and the advice that was given to her. She had to be graceful, she had to be like the water, her ancestors were on her side– This shot a larger burst of pain into her feet and she had to take a deep breath. When Moana came to a stop, a few singers and musicians gathered behind the girl in a half circle as her family smiled at her. This goes against our beliefs... no I have to do this... they will always make me do this... Moana simply smiled as her father nodded to the performers. She heard the music play before she raised her hands to the sky to begin the dance. She had to make it look like she would bestow love and gratitude to her people as her arms lowered and gestured out to her people. All watched in awe as the girl moved her arms and hands with an air of grace as if they were the waves of the ocean itself. Slow and steady and gentle they moved to express the love of her village and her heritage and when she moved her feet, they were slow and steady and never too fast. When the singers began to sing, it seemed to heighten the girl’s power. In truth, Moana was trying to not let the pain she felt be too obvious. Every time she was able to use her hands and arms instead, it was a blessing. The part of her that was trying to fight the spell was trying to remind her why this dance was important–she could not be selfish. She had to think of her people and she had to think of the ocean which was the one thing that could give her any joy. Even if those strange feelings from earlier came and forced the pain into her feet, she had to keep dancing as some sort of spiritual calling was trying to fight against the spell. If anyone was closer to the young dancer, they would have seen what was going through her mind within her eyes and they would have known that this dance was not a complete reflection of who she was. Move like the waves... move like the birds. Moana tried to chant to herself as her hands glided through the air and bobbed up and down. Moments passed her by and she tried to make them count with each gesture and each step, no matter how uncomfortable it was. Think of the ocean. She tried to tell herself. Tala felt a strange instinct to look away from her granddaughter, as if a hand had tapped her on her shoulder. When she did, she didn’t see anything strange at first until she saw a man resting against one of the beams that held the community fale up some distance away from the others. He was dressed rather strangely in unusual adornments and garments and he was holding a strange looking necklace with a purple shell in his hand.  Tala looked carefully and noticed that he was also missing a leg, which explained why he was resting against the fale. The man looked at Tala and his blue eyes were locked with hers for a moment before giving her a smug look that screamed extreme vanity before he looked back to watch Moana. Something about him made Tala feel extremely uneasy and she turned to Sina to ask “Was there a man with one leg that came with the visitors?” Sina looked when Tala nodded at the man and she frowned. When the stranger moved his head to look at her, Sina turned to her husband and asked “Did you recall seeing a man with one leg who came with the visitors? I don’t.”
“What does he look like?” Tui asked without looking away. “He wears adornments identical to the object you found.”
Tui felt his heart stop for a moment. He wanted to see this man for himself, but he didn’t want to take a risk and ruin the festivities. “Keep an eye on him.” He advised his wife.

At this point, Pua had finished cutting the last of the ropes around Maui’s wrists and his hands came free from their binds. The demi-god gave the pig a smile of thanks before grabbing the tooth and made to cut the ropes around his body. If he got the right one, he wouldn’t need to cut the rest but he had to hurry because he recognized the song and knew that Moana was dancing now. Also the little light he did have from outside was gradually vanishing and he had a strong feeling that Tamatoa already planned on taking away his reputation as a hero to all if that was the reason why he was here in the first place. Why else would he go to the extent of trying to ruin the lives of the villagers and especially the Chief’s daughter though a completely unnecessary scheme?

Moana still continued to dance and tried to hide her discomfort as best as she could. When she saw the faces of the onlookers, she could not see any suspicion in their eyes and she had to force her anger down when she saw her father smiling at her. This dance was slow, but it would end and in the meantime she had to carry herself with that air of grace. Each move gave her power that she was supposed to give back to her people. They don’t deserve it. They didn’t come to stop your father or protest hard enough on your behalf. Another voice within Moana reminded her and another round of pain shot into her feet. She didn’t know why, but as time went on, she swore she could hear voices around her. “Be brave child, don’t give in.” “Matai Vasta is there anything we can do to stop this?” “We cannot do much in the land of the living except give advice and guide our descendants.” “We have to interfere though. He won’t reach her in time if we don’t do something.” “The insecure beast has caused too much damage! He has committed a crime against our culture and against my granddaughter!” “Alerting your wife to him was a nice advantage but I’m afraid that will not be enough.” “We have to aide the other one in order to help her.” She could not see the phantom speakers but they sounded vaguely familiar to her in her cursed mind. They sounded so close and yet no one was near her enough to say such things. She must be dreaming the voices in her head and yet they sounded so real. Maybe the pain and the need to suppress her internal conflicts was starting to effect her. “You must keep dancing little Moana! Help will soon come!” “Do not stop dancing or else the monster’s plan will happen before help can be ready. Stay strong and whatever you do, don’t stop dancing!” “We are with you when you dance, and we are with you still, my dear child.” “Do not give in to the spell! We know who you really are!” “Who you are, who you are.” The voices sang together. Despite the voices surrounding her, Moana continued to dance. What should have been minutes was feeling like an eternity but the dance would eventually end.

Maui furiously cut at the rope as much as he could. Just when it seemed it it was going to be a hopeless case, the rope finally snapped in half as did all the other parts around him. Startled by this fast escape, Maui looked up in confusion to see three ethereal figures surrounded in blue light. Each of them held a knife and they all looked like from an era long gone, but Maui recognized the mightiest of them all. Matai Vasta–Moana’s ancestor���was standing before him and he looked just as strong and as young as he had been in the prime of his life. “Tamatoa is by the community fale near my descendants.” Matai Vasta informed Maui with a grave look on his face. “You will recognize him almost immediately.” “Go!” One of the men beside Matai Vasta urged Maui. The demi-god quickly threw his necklace back on and snatched up Heihei (who was still in the fale) and he shot out of the fale with Pua right beside him without saying thank you to the spirits, but there was no need and Moana’s ancestors were aware that the situation was too urgent to call for appreciation. Maui ran as fast as he could to the community fale, but he didn’t bother to check on the position of the sun as it was getting closer and closer to the ocean. At this point the sky had taken on the colors that were ideal for a beautiful sunset and one would say that you could easily position another sun between the sun and the ocean to know how much time Maui had left before his time as a mortal was up. And unfortunately for Maui, that sun was very determined to aid Tamatoa and get its revenge upon the demi-god as it inched closer and closer to the ocean that had tried to help Maui. Not realizing that her ancestors had come to her aid, Moana’s dancing came to a slow point as she was nearing the end. Their pleas and encouragement did nothing but create more pain in her, but what little there was left of her real self was listening and refused to stop. Maui finally got close enough to the area between the community fale and Moana’s fale and he looked around until he finally saw who he was looking for. Even in human form, Tamatoa was too easily recognizable as he had been stupid enough to wear his some of his trinkets and he glamorized himself to the point that it could have been no other creature in disguise but him. He was even swinging the necklace in his hand for good measure, as if he was trying to give himself away–he was making Heihei look like a genius in comparison to himself. If Maui was in another mood, he would have cracked a joke about Tamatoa’s human disguise, but he was trying to figure out how to get the necklace away from the crab without becoming a distraction. He looked down at Heihei in his arm and realized he only had one chance to make this work. He quickly hurried to a specific spot, with Pua carefully following behind and trusting that Maui had some sort of plan. Moments later, the music came to an end and Moana ceased her dancing with a final smile. The voices in her head vanished and all went silent around her. The moment everyone stood up to clap and cheer for the girl was the moment Maui took his chance. As Tamatoa waited to see if Moana would go ahead and attack someone, he heard someone running towards him and he turned around in time to see Maui fling Heihei right into his face. “What the–?!” Tamatoa only had enough time to yell out before Heihei let out a cry and scratched the face of the monster in disguise with his talons before completely crashing into his face. As the clueless bird feel to the ground and was blissfully unaware of his part in saving Moana, Pua ran ahead of Maui with an angry, yet determined squeal and bit the other man right in the ankle as deep as his teeth could do so. This attack also took Tamatoa by surprise as he yet out a pained yell and shook his ankle to knock the pig free, but it was cut short when Maui used the side of his body to crash into Tamatoa with as much force as he could into the beam. Unable to properly support or stop himself in time, Tamatoa fell over and his head crashed into the post while the necklace went flying out of his hand. The crab had been knocked unconscious when his head hit the beam and he fell into an ungraceful heap at the base of the beam, while Maui gave him a hard kick in the ribs for good measure. ‘You’re lucky I’m not going to declare crab season early ‘mon ami.’’ Maui scowled as he mouthed the words to Tamatoa. Relieved to finally save Moana and let her know that her friend was the one who saved her all those years ago, Pua triumphantly grabbed the shell of the necklace in his mouth and hurried over to Maui, who gave the pig the happiest smile of relief imaginable as he held his hand out for it. As Moana took in the applause, her eyes turned to her family–specifically her father. This is what you wanted, right? Moana felt her hands tighten up as they went behind her back. You wanted me to act happy and then expect me to go ahead and try to throw myself at someone so that I can have a future I didn’t ask for?! Are you smiling while planning to ask them to punish someone else in my place?! Maui was getting excited as he took the necklace from Pua. Finally he was going to get his voice back and end this once and for all! He reached for the top part of the shell and made to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. In a panic, Maui tried prying it open with much force as he could. How could he come so close to getting his voice back, only for the stupid shell to not open up?! Maui then realized that the shell was glowing with a purple light–even without Tamatoa using it, Moana was still under his control. Moana slowly began to approach her father as her hand reached for the dagger hidden in her top. The memories of all that her father had done yesterday and what he almost had done was building up and allowing the anger to grow to the point that she couldn’t contain it anymore. You are not taking away our heritage. Moana pulled the dagger out. “Go ahead and kill your daddy, mon princesse.” The voice of the stranger encouraged her. AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CONTROL ME ANYMORE! The clapping ceased and all happiness and excitement turned to outright shock as the girl pulled a dagger out of its sheath and let out an inhuman yell as she charged at her father. No one expected the action and most were frozen at the spot while some parents tried to hide their children’s eyes from the sight as they quickly realized what might happen, while a few others tried to stand in front of Tui or Hoani and his family to keep Moana out of the way. The enraged girl didn’t even stop. As if she had become a crazed warrior, she used the dagger to attack those who blocked her and the audience watched as one man grabbed his arm and yelled out as blood sprayed out from the deep cut Moana had created while she darted around him. The next person who tried to get in the way was forced to dodge before Moana could cut her in her rib cage and she made her way towards her father. Maui could hear everything as he tried to break open the shell and slammed it against one of the beams of the fale for a good measure, but it wouldn’t open do matter what he did. He realized that he would have to try to shatter the shell completely with his voice inside if he wanted to save Moana or her father. But by then it was almost seconds too late as Moana finally approached her father after injuring one more soul who was willing to keep the girl away from Tui by ducking under her arms and cutting into one of her legs. Tui was both confused and horrified at what was happening to his daughter; he couldn’t understand it at first and didn’t try to budge from his spot. This violent creature before him and who was lashing out at her people was in no way the stubborn, yet compassionate daughter he loved so dearly. It was only when Moana made to raise her dagger at him with an inhuman look of pure hatred in her eyes as her teeth were tightly clenched in determination that he realized what Moana’s intentions were. By the time he realized why his daughter would even think of killing him, Moana finally made her move and the dagger began to descend upon her father as she let out an enraged scream.

You know you CAN use raw chicken as bait for crabs. XD Something I forgot to add: Matai Vasta is NOT an OC, but an actual character who is the Chief in the ‘We know the way’ song in the film. You have to do a bit of looking up to find his name. I meant to make this and the next chapter into one big chapter, but I decided against it (you will know why when it’s done). Unfortunately that means I have to hold off from posting some drawings for a little longer (And I DID draw the waterfall scene... sorry for the wait). Welp, there was my take on the ‘ambush the wedding’ scene from the LM film for those who wanted to see Tamatoa get his punishment. It was a balance between what was believable and what could still be an homage. I debated on using Moana’s ancestors or not and if their involvement would be respectful, but I went ahead when I realized that not only could they show up at any moment in the original film, but I felt like disrupting something important as the Taualuga would invoke some sort of divine punishment. I could be wrong, but I don’t think you would want to ruin something as precious to a culture as their dance. In the meantime, I used the more humorous part with those who were living. I cannot tell you how much this chapter was revised in my head but things like Maui throwing Heihei at Tamatoa and Pua biting him ALWAYS stayed the same. The tooth that was used for the escape IS on Maui’s necklace–I was unable to use the shark tooth when I saw how smooth it actually was, but there is a tooth that is missing a big piece of it, and I figured what was left could be used to cut away at a piece of rope. Look carefully at pictures of Maui and you might see it on the farthest left side. I’m personally annoyed and maybe a little disturbed at myself that I let Tamatoa get THIS evil when I originally just wanted him to be antagonistic. Thanks a lot me *sarcasm to myself* There was a lot I wanted to originally do with him in this chapter, but it didn’t work out, including his original plan (I considered that in the beginning). I understand HIS point of view, and I don’t know how far he would go to get back at Maui but he WAS willing to beat him up and eat him. Also, shout out to Subaku no Jess over at fan fiction.net for giving me the idea for Tamatoa to use ‘You’re Welcome’ against Maui, even if it wasn’t a full on song. She also made a picture on her deviantart account of both her Tamatoa (in disguise) and my Tamatoa (it’s titled ‘OAV- human Tama’) and you should go ahead and support her by checking it out. Well see you next time. I hope to post the next chapter before or around the time the blu-ray/dvd comes out over here because there is a moment or two that I really want to FINALLY write out in the next chapter. As the writer munched on a cookie she was given to earlier, A/N Moana stared at Story Moana and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “So are you supposed to be my evil edgy counterpart or something?” A/N Moana asked as Story Moana was wearing the dress Tamatoa gave her and was playing with the dagger in her hands. “Oh gods, I don’t think I want to see an evil version of Maui.” She cringed as she quietly muttered this to herself. “I can only imagine how large his ego would be.” “Hah!” Story Moana laughed as she tossed the dagger into the air and caught it. “At least one of us isn’t trying to hold back from being selfish!” A/N Moana shot Story Moana a dirty look before taking a card out. “Here’s a gift card to Hot Topic, go nuts.” She shoved it in the other girl’s hand and quickly patted her on the shoulder before she waved and walked away. “THEY SELL YOUR MERCH AT THAT STORE, YOU IDIOT!” Story Moana yelled back as she pointed the dagger at A/N Moana. “I KNOW!” A/N Moana yelled back.

[3431jessica]

Thank you

Snippet: 

His eyes blurred behind the blanket of tears, studying the dying heroine that had changed his life. Behind his lids, the nostalgic memory of their thrilling adventure flooded through his mind. This was Moana, his first and true best friend, the girl that had filled his days with simple happiness, coloring his adventure with her ecstatic smile and unrestrained boldness, the woman that had taught him to be loved and to love in return.

I wanted to thank @cartoonjessie for encouraging me to write the night before. and tagging @pixarchan since this is the continuity of the snippet I post days before. Thank you!

Note: Moana owned by Disney

It was another beautiful day in the Pacific islands, the sun was out, and the fresh sea breeze was deliciously revitalizing. For thousands of years, Maui would sluggishly wake up, forcing the padlock over his heavy-lidded eyes to unlock, and plodded outside his cave to welcome another mundane, meaningless day in his endless existence.

But that was soon to change after Moana, the sixteen-year-old cooky dooks girl, redeeming him from his past debt and returned him back as a hero. To be honest, Maui didn’t know what the girl saw in him. She could’ve cut all connection after they successfully restored the heart of Te Fiti.

End of story.

But no, she argued, that despite his treachery, he had embezzled the heart of Te Fiti not to satisfy his own selfish deeds - he had planned to give it as a gift for mankind, which ironically had caused otherwise - but Moana kept saying it’s the intention that counts.

Maui stretched himself and enthusiastically marched outside,”Today, is a new day. Let’s help some troubled mortals out there!” He balled his fist with feverish energy.”It’s Maui time!”

“Aaaah, someone is playing hero again….” He heard someone drawled, “Good to know that you are using your punishment as a time for self-reflection and personal growth.” Then he saw a shadow creeping closer from behind the rocks. Maui shirked out of naked surprise, just like the first time when they met.

“What can I do for you, princess?” Feeling affronted, the demigod crossed his arm in front of chest and pout like a little child.

“I would like to offer you another chance to be a hero. Interested?” The girl smirked with feigned sweetness.”It’s a proposition very hard to resist isn’t it?” She said with hushed voice, ending her sentence with an impish smile.

“What do you expect? I am an arrogant, manipulative demigod who had a unquenchable thirst for praise from his supplicant.” He scoffed and replied her satirically.

Moana smiled, so wide it reached up to her eyes.”I knew that. Anyway…” Her countenance turned serious.“My men saw the sighting of pirate not very far from Motonui, I believe we should have a look before they came too close.”

The demigod debonairly meddled with his fish hook before announcing,”Get ready to feel the curl and bod!”

Moana followed his sentiment and grabbed her oar, brandishing it as though it was a weapon.

“You can’t bat off pirates with an oar!” Certainly, Moana took offense on Maui’s blatant criticism.

“I bet I can.” She scoffed stubbornly.”I could kill you with this if I want to.” An overbearing tone entered her voice.  

“No, you can’t,” Maui replied her with a deriding snarl.

“Can.”

“Can’t.”

“Can.”

“Can’t.”

“Ugh!”

But despite their adversarial nature every time they interact, Maui admitted, there was no better friend than this crazy little girl. Bold yet fragile, clever and unyielding, there was not one word that could encapsulate all that was Moana Waialiki. She was the wave that rippled through his ocean and the wind that set his sail. He amplified her strengths and compensated her weaknesses, and in turn, she does the same for him. She completed him, they were a team.

“Hey don’t just staring, you big Polynesian goon! If we wanted to kick some pirates butts, we must get going now!” She yelled at it warningly.

Maui groaned, “Thanks for ruining the moment, Curly!” He mumbled with his back facing her.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing!”

The next time Maui returned, he was greeted with a strange sight. There was a horde of athletic looking young men wrapped in formal attire in front of Moana’s house.

Is Motonui holding some sort of beauty pageant or something? He wondered, looking down at Mini Maui as if asking his opinion. His little mini self just shrugged dubiously. No wonder I wasn’t invited. None of these men had a chance if I were here. He scowled wistfully before finding Moana right in the middle of the commotion.

“Which men you think I should court?” The girl whispered discreetly into Maui’s ear, not wanting any of the bachelors knew who she was taking her fancy.

It felt like yesterday when he insulted her over her general sailing ineptitude. The girl didn’t even have a word for 'horizon,' let alone finding her way in the vast ocean. But Moana wasn’t exactly the same girl Maui met a few years back. Ok, she was still as fierce, unyielding, and had a serious issue recognizing hazard that could decimate her mortal existence. But apart from that, everything else looked different.

When she leaped to hug him, he could feel her toned body held a different curve, and the pressure of her growing bosom stirred something unknown within him. Maui quickly put her down before it asserted the male side of him. Also, he began to notice the subtle gait of her hip when she walked, and the hint of effeminate twirling of her figure as she danced. She moved with unconscious grace as she flicked her hair, very unlike the childish girl that constantly got her face practically slapped by her wet hair when she turned around.

“Maui, are you listening?” Her sharp, accusing voice snapped him from his mindless drivel. Maui briefly scanned the contestant, a few were handsome, many were muscular, and all were very keen to steal the heart of the renowned Polynesian heroine.

“Hard choice,” Maui muttered under his breath.”If you didn’t throw me into the mixture, I said that guy on the right is the best-looking one.”

Moana groaned into her palms at his mediocre answer. “I knew you gonna say that.” Apparently, vanity was ingrained in the demigod’s blood like salt in the water.

Maui turned to see Moana’s parents behind them who seemed engrossed reading the list that verbally expounded the merit of each man. Most of them were Chief’s son, some were illustrious warriors, great hunter, and all showing excellent psychic and intellectual capability. Although political marriage was designed to solidify friendship ties and broaden diplomatic horizon, Moana’s happiness still the top priority on Tui and Sina’s agenda.

After hours methodically shortlisting the right men, they had come down to a few that Moana may want to get to know personally before making her decision. But of course, Moana won’t stop giving surprise to everyone. Among all the shortlisted gentlemen, she had chosen Akoni, the most docile and placid looking compared to the rest. Dared Maui even think the guy was slightly malnourished.

“Why not that one?” The hulking demigod gestured towards the gentleman on his right that body weaved with intricate tapestry from his face to his toe.”Tattoos are badges for bravery, so I bet he must be -”

“He looks scary,” Moana commented with a hushed voice.”Besides, I don’t need a fearless man as a husband.”

“What about the one to his left?” Maui gazed pointedly to the hulking giant that about a foot taller than him.”I bet he need not climb a coconut tree to get the fruit.”

“He is very bossy, I spoke to him just now.” She shook her head.

Maui’s face contorted into a sinister frown and Moana immediately took this as a flippant remark,”Hey, I am not bossy, okay?!”

Maui huffed filled with a slight frustration.“Ok, how about the charming bachelor that sitting down right there with a bunch of girls?” The demigod wasn’t giving up yet,”Just look at him. Admit it - he is devilishly handsome.” He grinned with his usual winning smile.”Juuuust imagine him cradling you in bed.” Maui ribbed,”Ahhh… how romantic.” He made a mock dreamy sigh, causing Moana to roll her eyes. Incredulous and unimpressed.

“I am looking for a husband, Maui. Not a cover boy. Besides, he is a master of sweet talking, self-absorbed, possibly a fraud genius and narcissistic a little bit like…-”

“Like what?”

“Nevermind, forget it.”

Of course Maui couldn’t miss attending his best friend wedding, after all, Moana was his favorite mortal. The village was adorned with flowers, bedecked with all assortment of swags and decoration made of leaves. The Sumptuous food sprawled on the mat was staring back at him invitingly. Usually, this kind of thing would grab his attention, but no, not today.

“Come in!” He heard Moana’s voice responding to his request to gain access. Maui’s eyes immediately landed on the maiden dressed impeccably in her wedding dress, her shoulder was covered in red feather cape, and a flamboyant matching headdress sat on her head. Her tan skin glowed like oiled bronze, contrasting nicely with her vibrant outfit. He wasn’t even aware he was gaping with unfeigned amazement.

“Is there something weird on my face?” Her slender fingers hastily performing a facial autopsy which Maui thought was rather comical. “You looked like you just saw a ghost!” She added.

The demigod immediately snapped from his undisguised admiration and composed himself. “Did I look smitten when I saw a ghost?” He teased, waggling his eyebrows up and down animatedly. If her favorite oar was there, he was positive Moana already beat the sense out of him for teasing her.

“No, honestly, you looked stunning. In fact, incredibly stunning Akoni may not recognize you.” He added, sounding more serious this time. Joke aside, the unmistakable note of awe in his voice made her grinned like a mindless lunatic, but of course, Moana didn’t let that show.

Suddenly Maui felt like a tramp in his comical skirt of scavenged leaves. He immediately absconded to find something that would fit his size, thankfully, Moana’s Dad had benevolently offered his skirt and feather cape.

“Thank you,” He said sincerely to retired Chief.

“Anytime,” He replied him with a broad smile,”I owe you too… without you, Motonui won’t be a peaceful place as it is now, and Moana won’t be the wise, resourceful Chief that she is.”

Really? Maui ventured inside his mind. Completely unconvinced. Not if he knew I nearly abandoned his daughter facing Te Ka alone. What a coward. He went on with his self-deprecating rant.

“I knew you have a rough time with Moana, but so do I. For the longest time, I’ve misunderstood her. But that’s what we are, the mistake we made would guide us.” Tui continued, sounding untypically gentle and emotional as he went.“You may think you’ve only restored the heart of Te Fiti together...but you actually restored her courage and her calling to the sea.” A spark of pride raised in his chest, but Maui was wise enough not to break into his usual self-loving attitude.

“Your welcome,” Maui said, full and sincere. And honestly, she had restored my heart too…

Maui’s visit became more distantly spaced after her wedding. Moana could only conjecture that he was busy catching up with his demigod business - saving the entire civilization from peril, showing off his kickass awesomeness while gathering idolizing followers wherever he went. But, after waiting patiently for a year, finally, the wait was over.

“Maui! You are back!” She exclaimed with feverish anticipation. But soon, it was Maui’s turn to be completely awestruck.

“Who am I kidding! Look at this!” The demigod knelt down to have a closer look on the latest mortal addition to the Waialiki’s clan. “I guess I had to stop calling you ‘kid’. Because a ‘kid’ who had another kid just sound ludicrous.” He bounced his astonished gaze between Moana and the dribbling creature in her arms.

”Well, hellooo... handsome.” The demigod said in his usual smooth drawl.“Seemed like I may have a mortal contender after all.” Maui fondled the cheek of the baby with the tip of his finger, but the tiny mortal ended up sucking it to his heart's delight. Moana smiled watching the rare scene unfolded in front of her, while behind her Akoni placed a large bowl of fruit for Maui before nodded understandingly at his wife and absconded from the scene.

“You looked happy with him,” Maui remarked after seeing a quiet but loving exchanged between Moana and her husband. Even though there are times he felt like Akoni’s presence threatening his friendship with Moana, he admitted the guy was very considerate and perceptive, which in turned reminded Maui of his personal boundary.

“I am,” She said pensively.

Perhaps Moana was an excellent judge of character because apart from being a wise leader, Akoni was proven to be a great husband and a wonderful father. A sudden twinge of envy assailed him, which Maui tried to school into something deceptively neutral. He didn’t want to ruin the fabulous mood of their first reunion after months of separation. Thankfully he didn’t have to hold his mask that long because the little boy in Moana’s arms waving at him for attention.

“Who is his name?” It was the most natural question and the first that popped into his mind.

“Maui.“ The girl grinned and the baby in her lap gave a confirming squealed at the word.

“What?!” Maui thought his ears betrayed him or perhaps Moana dared to humor him further after noticing a glint of jealousy in his eyes.

“We named him: Maui, like his badass uncle.” The hulking warrior could only see the boy leaped in joy responding to his name and only then he was convinced.

“You think I will forget to include you in my family, don’t you? Akoni suggested this and I figured it was a great idea.” Moana teased him. Suddenly Maui felt a pang of guilt for even allowing himself feeling a little jealous over Akoni.

“So what do you say? Cool name, huh?” Initially, Moana expected her immortal friend would pound and flex his pectoral muscle in pride, or perhaps drift in relentless gloat over his past accolades while flashing his overconfident, narcissistic smile. But that never happened, instead the demigod looked unmistakably petulant.

“You’ll be a great mom, won’t you, Curly?” He said, focusing his eyes on the little creature resting in Moana’s arms.”Promise me, you’ll teach this dude to be awesome!” He masqueraded his emotion behind his words. But of course, after befriending the master of trickery for years, Moana could see right through him.

“Maui, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

He felt powerful choking emotion whirled in his chest as a response to her question. Many times in the past, he always had sugar coated the sad chronicle of his younger day with fanciful jokes during their small talk or filled her with the exhilarating story of his adventure in their idle conversation - This was his classic defense mechanism.

“Actually, I know this seemed irrelevant and perhaps long overdue. But, I kinda wish my parents never abandoned me.” It was the most ego-hurting admittance he could ever make by a demigod with imposing personality such as his, but he didn’t regret it sharing his burdening past, not with Moana.

The girl invited him to sit, and with her caring voice, she implored him to share his tale. At first, he hesitated, knowing his life wasn’t a story of a mighty hero coming out of fabled legend who had selflessly dedicated his life saving the humankind. Quite contrary, his life was a perfect portrayal of abandonment, full of selfishness and scattered with permanent blemishes of insecurity that he carried for centuries to come.

Then he began the story, narrating the castaway demigod who tried to prove himself worthy of love, praise and worthy of keeping. Okay, he earned a little satisfaction from collecting those cool looking embroidery on his skin or from doing his heroic deeds. Every time someone told him ‘thank you’ - it made him feel respected and appreciated, but the contentment was so short lived compared to eternity.

It seemed like Maui unable to stop himself once he set off on this road of confession. Moana listened to him patiently. She began to understand the correlation between Maui’s tattoos and the bitter truth of his life. His triumph and victories were part of his facade, placed in a prominent place around his body, it what he would like other people to see. While his painful defeat had been tucked and hidden under the pile of his hair, concealed from others and… perhaps the part of him that he tried best to ignore. This had given his eagerness to please and his desperation for validation a true and logical context.

“The gods felt sorry when they saw me thrown away, unwanted. So they raised me, gave me power and immortality, before returning me back among the mortals.” He said, ending the climatic tale of his life.

“Oh..” Was her only response, for lacking a better word to expound her sympathy. Moana thought how lucky she was to have parents who loved and adored her, despite occasional rift, they had accepted her for who she was.

The demigod chuckled sinisterly. “I always wonder why the gods even bothered to send me back in the middle of the mortals, isn’t that obvious from the start that human didn’t want me? They were the one who cast me away in the first place!” Even Maui was surprised with the unforgiving tone laced in his voice. His grunge and hatred towards his past didn’t seem to dwindle nor recede despite the thousand years.

“I think the gods wanted you to learn who you are. You have spent time with them, to learn and appreciate the immortal side of you, and then they send you here so you can be in touch with your humanity, to know who you are even without your superpower and your fish hook.” She said casually, trying not at all sounded like patronizing him. “And by learning who you are, you’ll learn to understand me, your mortal friend.”

Maui thought that was the most ingenious, heartfelt and sweetest explanation he ever heard. He tried to ignore the strange stinging sensation on his eyes as her words sank into the bottom of his heart, perhaps he was more human that he ever thought he was.

Moana, thank you.

For the longest time, Maui only remembered seeing Moana wearing that silly looking dress that made her looked like she dressed as a coconut, not only that, she even walked like one. Maui wondered whether it would be faster for her to roll and tumble instead.

“One...two...three…” He counted and then pointed his stubby finger at her bulging belly.”And that’s the fourth...? Really? In less than two years?” First, the ageless creature was gawking openly, a gesture that Moana understood and well predicted. But then a beaming smile covered his face and wonder filled his eyes.

“Twins, the midwife predicted. So, five.” She said, grinning and drumming the digits of her finger on her tummy.”I guess we have to increase your pay as our babysitter.”  

Meanwhile her husband, Akoni, just grinned sheepishly with one child on his shoulder, and the other two tangled like a monkey on each arm.

“Nice work Akoni,” Maui leered with his husky, sexy voice, causing the man to cringed with goosebumps all over him. ”At this rate, you would need a new island to inhabit. But first, you need to grow more arms than octopus if you carry on doing such a good job in bed.”

Their eldest son, Maui, ran over the demigod, immediately latched himself on his leg like a barnacle. Big Maui laughed and plucked the giggling toddler neatly and placed him on his shoulder.”You gotta grow up to be an awesome guy like me, don’t ya?”

At first, Maui thought Moana’s kids would annoy him to no end. Although he enjoyed the company of mortal kind, he indulged the serenity and peacefulness of being alone. Moana’s kids adored him - not with the usual hero-worshipping way - they used him as a climbing post and the perfect place to hide themselves from their parents after they commit their mischievous crime. The kids enjoyed chasing Mini Maui and Mini Moana all around his body and showered the demigod with slobbery kisses and dirt printed hugs.

“Seem like you just got yourself a bunch of fans.”He heard Moana stated one day. Looking at all of her children leaped into Maui’s ample arms with exuberant delight.

”It’s hard when you born attractive.” He grinned, hubristic and arrogant as always, cradling the group of rambunctious, swarming kids with his massive arms with very little or no effort.

Maui thought he would go insane at their constant chatter and nonsensical coos, but he found himself totally enjoyed the unabashed, sincere love the children had for him. Soon enough, his existence weaved into the fabric of their family, embroidered into the unforgettable memories in their hearts. He was famously known as ‘Big Uncle Fish-Hook,’ their fun-loving uncle who could lasso the sun, hook an island and sail the breeze…. and Maui wouldn’t have it any different.

“Curly, thank you.” He said rather unexpectedly while laying around on the sand, feeling the kids' unbridled enthusiasm as they climbed around him.

“For what?”

“For giving me a family I never had.”

It was a few months after that when Maui came for a visit. He suspected Moana was busy governing her office as the Chieftess and juggled her role as a mother. It surprised him when the village was uncharacteristically quiet when he arrived. People were running about their business, but there was no singing, no dancing, no usual cheerful banter that Maui had associated so much with people of Motonui. In fact, no one bothered to shower him with flower garlands and no children running to welcome him. That’s a bit of a bummer.

Then he found Moana, still leading various meetings with village elders and instructing a few fishermen to be more careful in the sea, just in case the monsoon wind became too overbearing to control.

“Moana!” He smiled broadly before girded her into his generous embrace. The girl requited his sentiment and hugging him gratefully in return.

But his smile faded as he took in her appearance. Despite still wearing a smile, Moana looked haggard, her hair piled up to a tangly mess, black circle around her eyes and the crust of tears that went with it suggested that she had been crying.

The hulking warrior didn’t dare to ask her, in fact, he didn’t have the courage just in case she had a mental breakdown in front of him. He chose to sneakily interrogate one of the villagers instead. And then the news stroke him like lightning when the guy explained the reason for the island’s mournful state. A group of voyager had gone missing in the sea around a month ago, and Akoni had boarded the boat leading the expedition.

”We suspected their boat never made it through the storm.” The words hurled him like a physical tsunami. Only then he mustered his courage to bring the topic to her.

“I am sorry to hear what had happened.” Maui tried to say it carefully, lacing his words with unfeigned sympathy.”I mean, this kinda… a big deal for you, right?” The truth of his words sting, but Moana refuses to let it show.

The girl just heaved an aggrieved sigh. “I had done with my grieving.” She said with voice drowned in melancholy, “Besides, I still have you.” She added, playing with her oar that had his stupid little heart carving on its blade.

“Woah, I am honored, but still. He is your husband.” Maui inwardly rebuked himself for his insensitivity. He was supposed to inject some positivity among bleak situation and done the exact opposite.

“My parents chose him for a husband, but I chose you as my friend.” She said nonchalantly, trying to stave off his voice of pity. But, after looking into his pained expression, it was clear to her that she wasn’t the only one fighting the immeasurable anguish.

A few days after Akoni’s funeral ceremony was the hardest. Moana tried to look composed and placid in front of her grieving children, alas their little eyes were annoyingly observant sometimes. She made sure her cheeks were dried as bone after laying some garlands over Akoni’s grave, but her children keep on asking ‘what’s wrong’ and ‘you look sad, Mommy’ all the time.

Maui saw her, run from outside her house into the woods - despite his usual inclination to be concerned outwardly, the demigod decided not to stop her and just followed her instead.

Moana seemed to relieve to finally be alone, not realizing her shapeshifter friend was right beside her. In solitude, she finally took her emotions out on the walls of trees, sobbing relentlessly into her palms, questioning gods for taking her the pillar of her household in time she needed him the most. It pained Maui’s heart to see Moana broken like this, for the first time in many years, he wept together with her.

After Akoni’s death, Maui visited Motonui more often than he usually had in the past. In fact, he built himself a hut next to Moana’s for the sake of convenience so he could decide to stay as long as he wanted. In his eyes, everything had returned back to normal - or that what he liked to believe.

Despite her responsibility as the Chief and a single mother, Moana still managed to find time to join Maui on his exciting expedition, slaying more giant crabs, running away from menacing pirates and taming a horde of ferocious monsters. It was rare, but still sweet nonetheless.

It was when, during one of their adventurous voyage, Moana injured her back and had to stay in bed for weeks, Maui came to realize their happy days were numbered. Soon enough, she ordained Maui, her eldest son, as the Chief.

When a big volcanic eruption occurred in neighboring island, Maui reluctantly asked her to join him. It was more like a formality that an invitation, just so that Moana didn’t feel he had forgotten about her existence.

“I think you better stay.” He said gingerly, watching Moana’s eyes flickered in naked excitement over his offer.

“Why, you think I can’t handle a volcano? We fought lava monster, remember?” She replied him while unceremoniously packing their rudimentary supply for the travel.

“No, it’s not that.” He tried to word his sentence carefully, ”I...uh-, Besides, I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Don’t underestimate this Gramma. Besides, I am the village crazy lady. It’s my job.” He honestly wanted to give a hearty laugh at her attempt to joke, and it possibly better that way to hide his fear surfacing in his eyes. Alas, Moana had seen it as if it was written all over his face.

“You afraid… I might die?” Moana placed her hand on his broad shoulder, wordlessly thanking him for his concern. She saw his face switched from every extreme of emotion, before pulling a resigned sigh,”That’s right, I am not ready to... -”

“I know.” She clipped his answer,”As long as you and I are together, whatever happens, it will be okay…”

Maui didn’t argue after that, he obediently took her. Thankfully they restored the village and Moana were still in one piece despite Maui’s skepticism over the limit of her physical capability.

“Thank you,” She said, before giving him a chaste kiss on his cheek. Maui’s heart leaped unwillingly to his throat.

“W-what for?” He stammered, while his fingers absently inspecting the spot that still tingling with warm sensation from the touch of her lips.

“For taking me on my last adventure with you.”

One day, both of them climbed up to Motonui hill where all the Chiefs had laid their stone. Maui trekked with ease, doing a silly dance, singing and blabbering nonsense related to their adventure along the way, while Moana patiently listening to him, occasionally throwing slanderous remark on his stupidity that often caused havoc on their well-devised plan. But then she went silence.

For a moment, Maui wondered how quiet she was, only to notice his friend was spluttering and heaving from the exertion of climbing the waist of the jutting rocks, and they were not even halfway yet. Then he realized how different she was - her silvery hair cascading down like magical waterfalls, the subtle creases on her face had deepened, and her posture couldn’t hold straight any longer. But despite all that, Maui still saw the same courage, carefree and indomitable spirit as she was the time they first met.

Maui ended up carrying her on his shoulder like a log, his lips still warbling his musical number ‘You’re Welcome’. It was then he could feel her frail finger tracing the tapestry on his skin.

This was when the atmosphere of melancholy enveloped his heart.

“I miss our adventure,” She broke off, causing Maui to stop his mindless humming. He deposited her gently on the ground before taking a seat next to her,”Yeah, I miss that too…” He muttered.

He knew he had to face the inevitable someday, but he didn’t want to show it. However, Moana seemed to be able to decipher the faintest degree of despondency in his expression.

“You are a big softie aren’t you, shark head?” She threw a fake punch at him, which felt like a feather touching him.

Maui pretended to wince,”Ouch, Lady. Please, I beg you not to hurt me...” Both of them laughed.

For a couple of minutes, the two creatures sat in comfortable silence, counting the glittering speck swept across the sky and watching their silvery sheen danced on the top of the gently moving sea.

“When I die, I wanted you to carry me to the sea.” The words rolled effortlessly and unemotionally from the tip of her lips, but Maui knew she meant every word.

The truth stung him like a thousand needles, perhaps even Moana could hear his heart cracked because the next thing she did was to rub the callous knuckles on his hands affectionately,”...so we could always be together, and I could carry you through your adventure.”

“Our adventure.” He revised, completely offhanded.  

Without warning, the hulking warrior threw his arms and caught her in a crushing hug. “Moana…” His voice was thick with sorrow and gratitude.“Thank you.”

But that fearful day eventually came like a specter emerged from the darkness. Maui was lazing around his island after returning from a long voyage across the ocean, only to find Moana’s canoe moored by its beach.

A gentleman Maui had grown familiar with during his childhood greeted him with a bitter smile.”Demigod Maui, my mother is dying. She wanted you to come over. We don’t have much time.”

Maui felt his heart thundering with blinding panic as he whizzed across the sky. He flapped his wings expeditiously as his body thrummed with exceeding apprehension. He’d rather be dead from lack of oxygen than to find out he wasn’t on time to catch her.

“Moana?”

Her eyes creaked open heavily, revealing it’s dying brown hue. Maui’s heart tightened, and his heart sank to the floor witnessing death was knocking on her door.

“Maui… you made it.” Her almost frozen lips smiled, feeling his callous digits tracing her feature, running through her hair and his big, granite hard arms entwining her faltering figure in his tender embrace - for his size and strength, Maui was infinitely gentle.

Maui looked at her dying figure. Her sun-kissed skin that was withering with time, covered with markings almost as much as he had, weaving tale of her lifetime strength, courage, and bravery.

His eyes blurred behind the blanket of tears, studying the dying heroine that had changed his life. Behind his lids, the nostalgic memory of their thrilling adventure flooded through his mind. This was Moana, his first and true best friend, the girl that had filled his days with simple happiness, coloring his adventure with her ecstatic smile and unrestrained boldness, the woman that had taught him to be loved and to love in return.

“I am never ready for you to leave,” He said, uncaringly beginning to break in unmanly sobs.

“I am glad you feel that way… about me… about us.” Her weak voice ebbing, while her quivering finger clasp weakly against his, letting the warmth from his fingertips penetrated and consoled her straining soul.”Maui, don’t mourn long… for me. You have a lot to be thankful for.” She toiled to retain the weak smile while her mind selected a few last words she wanted to say.

"Do you know, where there is great pain…. there is even greater love.” Her voice turned into a soft, faint whisper between her clipping breath. He just sat there mutely, mesmerized with the wisdom she carried despite her short existence.”And love is what I have for you.”

He looked so genuinely anguished that it tugged painfully at Moana's delicate heartstrings. She hated the idea that she had been the cause of all those insufferable feelings. In grievous silence, she stared into his arresting eyes that tried to assimilate her words into his aching heart.

“Moana, thank you.” Tears fell from his unwilling eyes as he held one of her hands. Maui didn’t want to accept this, but her vital sign beginning to fade.

A small satisfied, blissful smile graced her muted lips, acknowledging him back with wordless gratitude. And pulling her last laboring breath from her writhing body, her eyes lulled peacefully to a close. The fire had left that beautiful dark brown eyes, it was closed forever. Moana of Motunui had died in the comfortable cradle of her best friend’s arms.

It’s indeed hard to say goodbye to someone you knew you couldn’t live without. Most of the time, the ageless creature lamented in silence. The world was never a kind place for mortals, but even less so for a demigod who had surrendered his heart to one.

He planted her oar in front of his cave, as the memorial of the spot where they first met. With the permission from her family, Maui took the boat they used as their crusader on their exhilarating journey through the ocean as mementos for their undying friendship.

For months, Maui couldn’t overcome her death, even not allowing people to mention it. The phrase tinged with so many negative feeling and heartbreaking connotation. He wasn’t sure he would be able to navigate out his grieving stage, pushing the past behind him, and recognizing he still had Moana and the fragment of her sweetness tattooed on his heart, physically and figuratively. Even Mini Moana and Mini Maui couldn’t comfort the agonizing pain, quite the opposite, every time he saw Mini Moana gave Mini Maui a comforting hug, something stirred inside him. Perhaps it was some sort of envy, but Maui quickly reined that selfish emotion.

“Why did you leave me?” He questioned her time and time again, wishing he could articulate his grief or begging god's’ mercy to resurrect her back from the realm of the dead. She never did.

Not until one day.

He was about to leave for a voyage across the ocean, back to Motonui, to aid the new Chief after a strong wind destroyed numerous huts and haphazardly pulled some rocks from the mountains into the village.

As the demigod trailed through the village, offering his powerful hand and employing his colossal strength for the repair, a girl emerged from among the throng of people.

She perhaps in her late teen years, wearing lava-lava skirt and locket pendant with Te Fiti heart engraved on it. The similarity was uncanny, Maui almost forgot to blink.

“My Gramma told me once, the journey may leave a scar, but scars can heal and reveal just who you are.” The girl said while her eyes marveled at the amazing artwork on his skin, right above his heart, where Mini Moana was.

“You must be demigod Maui!” She smiled resplendently,”I am Moana’s granddaughter. My Gramma told me a great deal about you.”

The similarity seemed to run deeper than skin deep, because after knowing her a few weeks later, Moana’s bravery too, must run in her veins - both the physical veins of blood and life, and also the veins of memory, of storytelling, of courage Maui may never fully comprehended.

Suddenly all his loss of a friend, a faithful confidant, a traveling partner seemed to be less bleak than it really was and reality seemed far more manageable.

With a joyful heart and eyes filled with happy tears, Maui readied himself to retreat to his island. It was when the ocean glowed in an eerie pearlescent glow, and its tendril transformed into the maiden he was dying to see.

“Missing me, shark head?”

She was there, on the shore of Motonui. Moana was wearing the maroon bandeau top and lavalava skirt, folding her arms across her chest and tugging that unmistakably meaningful smile. She looked as good as the day they first met. Better even.

He thought he must be getting delusional from missing her too much, because, for months and months, Moana had taken a mythic position in his memory. Maui felt his body suddenly became traitorous, completely paralyzed from the shock and joy.

“Are you gonna stare like an inept fool all day, demigod?” She teased. Yes, this was Moana alright. Feisty and mischievous.

“Ack, You… you came, ugh-, to meet me?” His question sounded stupid. First, because there was no one else out there in the soulless sea, and secondly because she had promised him many time that she would never leave him alone.

At first, her sudden appearance disquieted him, for no apparent reason. Perhaps because he had struggled so much to accept her absence, and now she was back, not only that, she was immortal.

When she was alive, she said to him always, ‘As long as you and I are together, whatever happens, it will be okay…’ And she was right. It would.

“I told you I will be back, didn’t I?” She approached him, pulling him close into a hongi, melding their foreheads and the bridges of their noses together.

For once, the mighty hero of all men and women, the shapeshifter, the immortal demigod, forsook his masculine image and forgetting his usual arrogance. He let his tears fall freely as Moana leaped into his waiting arms, indulging in the sensation of touching her skin, devouring the scent of the sea in her wavy raven hair, never again to be separated by death.

He reached her hands, embedding her little finger in his giant palms, just to make sure these were real. He was glad he could feel her.

“What do you think you will call me? A demi-ghost? I mean, I am dead, but you still can hug me.”

A broad smile was his word. Maui stood up and pulled her into a passion infused hug. She laughed as her tiny frame was encased protectively in his arms. Rapturous hilarity painted all across his face as he felt her tiny frame curled safely within his reach.

“Moana, thank you!” His lips planted a chaste kiss on her forehead.

She answered him with a contented smile, enjoying being the passive recipient of his unconditional love -  the love that formed an unbreakable friendship between two very different creatures.

“Your welcome, Maui.”

[junker-town]

I went to Disney on Ice and witnessed the evolution of the Disney Princess

I also maybe cried.

BROOKLYN — A tiny princess is wailing inside a giant plastic teacup. Her mother leans against it with one arm akimbo, mirroring the handle, and beams into the camera. The photographer waves a rattle behind the lens in a futile attempt to coax a smile out of the miserable toddler.

Zoom out, and you’ll see a sea of miniature royals, all pale pinks, blues, and yellows. Disney On Ice’s Dare to Dream show is about to start, and Barclay’s Center is packed for 11 a.m. on a Thursday. The entire pre- and elementary-school age population of New York seems to have skipped school to “celebrate what’s possible as five Disney heroines spark the courage inside us all.” Disney tells us we’re here “to find our inner hero.”

My seat is next to a woman named Tyra Brooks and her daughter Sanaa. It’s Sanaa’s third birthday, so Brooks and her husband, who live in Brooklyn, took the day off work to be here. Sanaa is obsessed with Moana, the lead character from the movie by the same name. On my other side sit Stacy Cruz, 27, and her little brother Wyatt, 9, who’s been begging to go to the show since he saw ads for it on TV. Cruz monitored tickets until she found these, which, at $15, she could afford. Wyatt skipped school in Manhattan, and Cruz took the day off from her two jobs nannying and working in retail. In front of me, Natalie Nunez from Queens and her daughters Melinda and Evelyn, who are four and nine, cheer as the lights dim.

Our master of ceremonies is a relentlessly positive woman on skates in a purple figure-skating dress and a blazer. She seems adamant that nothing has ever gone wrong that can't be made right. Happily Ever After is a destination, and this woman is on a mission to make sure we all end up there.

She announces Minnie and Mickey, and the place erupts. These kids scream for the two famous mice the way teens would react to Harry Styles, or whoever the Cool Teen Celebrity Du Jour is. Melinda, the four-year-old ballerina in front of me, grips the armrests of her seat, sways her torso back and forth, and shakes her head so violently that I think there’s a chance she’ll launch herself out of her chair.

Minnie and Mickey leave, and the Beauty and the Beast segment of the show begins. Gaston, the blow-hard who always made me uncomfortable as a child, shows up. He declares himself a handsome hero. None of these kids give a shit about him, but they go nuts when Belle glides out onto the ice holding a book.

You know the rest of the story; at the end, Gaston falls off the set in dramatic fashion, the Beast takes off his Beast costume under a cloud of dry ice and turns into a handsome man, and Belle finds true love. She closes her books and glides around with her prince to a love song that sounds like a Belinda Carlisle B-side and definitely wasn’t in the original movie.

The kids get a real kick out of the lifts and spins that these skaters are doing. Most of the performers were professional figure skaters; some Disney On Ice dancers have been Olympians. The actual athleticism on display here is impressive, beautiful.

Charlotte Wilder with a shakily-held iPhone

Cinderella’s story begins. She does her thing, and eventually the clock strikes 12. She skates away, thanks to the arbitrary curfew her asshole Fairy Godmother set. Our friendly MC — who’s been hovering at the edge of the rink while interjecting life lessons throughout the show — skates around to see if the glass slipper fits any little girls in the front row. It doesn’t. It also doesn’t fit the Ugly Stepsisters.

Did you know that in the Grimms’ Brother’s version, the Stepsisters cut off their heels so the shoe would fit? My mom used to read me the original fairy tales, peeling back the layer of frosting with which Disney coats these mostly-terrible stories. I loved them. They terrified me, but I was fascinated by the vivid descriptions, like the ones of the sisters’ mutilated feet bleeding all over the glass shoe. I couldn’t believe women would hurt themselves like that to be beautiful or loved. Or both.

Cinderella gets her prince. They dance around to another song that sounds a little bit like off-brand Tina Turner.

“No matter how mean, mean, mean everyone was, she was able to rise above bullying and bickering to be kind and hopeful,” says our MC. “She found her happily ever after, plus a cute new pair of shoes.”

“That’s bullshit!” I want to yell to the children around me. “Don’t just roll over when someone’s a dick! Stand up for yourselves! Buy your own shoes!” But I stay quiet.

We move on to Rapunzel from Tangled, a movie that came out after my childhood and which I haven’t seen. Rapunzel is still pretty damsel-in-distress-y, but she does whack a dude on the head with a frying pan in the first scene, which the kids (and I) get a total kick out of. There's also a horse comprised of two people — one for the front legs and one for the back legs. I’m not sure how they can see anything.

“There's a horse with two people and it's working?” Cruz marvels beside me. “Pretty cool.”

Rapunzel is sassier than Belle and Cinderella, but the story still ends with her skating off into the sunset with a prince.

It’s intermission. I leave my seat and pass a guy hawking lemonade and sno-cones instead of the usual beers Barclay’s sells. The floor is sticky with various forms of spilled sugar. I wait in line behind tens of princesses to use the bathroom, then go buy some cotton candy. The man asks if I want one with or without a crown. I say with, but it’s too small to fit my head, so I go back to my seat and give it to Melinda. It falls over her eyes and she giggles. Her mom takes it and puts it on.

Someone starts a chant — Elsa! Elsa! Elsa! — as the lights go down, and, indeed, here comes Elsa from Frozen. I haven’t seen this movie either (I should babysit more, or, like, have a child if I want to stay up to date), but I think the gist is that Elsa’s pissed at her sister for wanting to marry someone she’s only known for one day. In retaliation, Elsa turns all of Norway or wherever into a hellish winterscape using her magical powers. Then disappears and her sister has to find her.

It’s finally time for “Let It Go”, the hit song from Frozen which I somehow know all the words to. The crowd of children is singing along almost louder than Elsa is through her mic. Melinda and even little three-year-old Sanaa beside me know all the words.

Let it go, let it go That perfect girl is gone Here I stand!

Frozen’s abridged version ends and the MC spews a message about how truly loving someone means sacrificing everything you have for them, which, I mean, let’s all relax here, okay? Then Moana skates onto the stage and the screaming is more intense than it’s been for the whole show. I haven’t seen Moana either, but Google tells me it’s about a Polynesian girl whose grandmother has tasked her with saving her island and finding herself. The kids sing along to every word and dance in their seats. They — okay, I — take particular delight in a massive, sprawling crab with a sparkly shell whose costume seems impossible to skate in.

Charlotte Wilder

Sorry this picture is so shitty, but it was the best I could do

We meet a dude named Maui, who is not Moana’s love interest. I don’t think she has one, as far as I can tell. She’s just a determined girl who’s scared of the responsibility placed on her but willing to rise to the challenge. She overcomes her self-doubt as she sails around the ice rink on her motorized boat. Kids are screaming, “I AM MOANA!” as she sings, “I am Moana!” There are fireworks inside Barclays when she finally saves her island.

But hold on. I have to take you back to the first part of the show for a second, when Belle comes out and floats around the outer edge of the rink. She flips through the pages of her book, ignoring Gaston (and his puffed out chest) as he tells her he’s going to marry her. She begins to sing: “I want so much more than they have plaaaanned.”

Children are cheering, reaching toward the stage, and I, a full-grown woman, break down into sobs. I’m crying because these shows are money-grabs designed to make you feel. They are operations that strike at the core of your being with surgical precision: Turn the lights down here, crescendo up to a chorus and strike a soaring note there, insert a key change, spin some spotlights, make the heroines reach toward the sky with longing. Each element must’ve been focus-grouped and tested within a billion-dollar inch of its life to tug at specific ventricles of your heart. I am powerless against Disney’s execution of this emotional warfare.

But I’m also crying because I’m looking at all these little girls around me — earnest, excited, hopeful — and I want them to have more than anyone has planned for them. I want them to glide off into the bright lights with a prince the way Belle does, if that’s what they truly desire. But I also want them to throw an encyclopedia at the Beast’s head and start their own bookstore, if that’s what they’d prefer. I want all the Gastons of the world — because I know they’ll meet more than a few of them — to be taken down before they encounter them. I want this world to be more fair than it currently is.

And it must be said that Disney is, in its own way, changing.

Whether it’s because feminism sells these days, or because it’s what Disney thinks is The Right Message, the company seems to be Leaning In. The 30 minute cliff-notes of stories, and the order in which Disney On Ice chose to present them — from oldest to most recent— made Dare to Dream feel like a trip through the brand’s feminist awakening. We started with women whose only rewards are finding men, then moved on to a woman whose primary complication is her relationship with her sister, and ended with a girl who literally saves her entire people with the help of her badass grandmother.

“She persevered and never lost sight of herself,” says the cheerful MC of Moana, after praising Cinderella’s ability to land a man and new footwear an hour earlier. “That's what inner strength is all about. Be yourself!”

The princesses come out to take a bow. The kids give all of them, especially Moana, big cheers, but save the biggest for Mickey and Minnie. Then the skaters disappear. Melinda is clapping. Sanaa grins. So do their mothers. They’re in the Happily Ever After for a moment. But then the lights come up.