Whare Potae (The House of Mourning)

Chapter Eight

Author's Note: I sat down this morning and wrote this entire chapter from Moana's point of view.

Then, an hour or so ago, I read it over, wasn't satisfied, and then rewrote the whole thing from Maui's point of view instead. I think I like this version better.

This does make the perspective switch between the two characters just a little asymmetrical, but I'll sort it out with Chapter Nine.

Fair warning: My computer died last night (her name was Gertrude II, and she will be sorely missed) and so I am currently writing on an ancient HP that I borrowed from a friend for the rest of the week. The keyboard is terrible and sticky, and typing is incredibly hard. Thank you in advance for your patience with any egregious typographical errors.

Chapter Eight

After a nice, long, invigorating swim for their lives, Maui and Moana wound up lying on their faces on the beach of the island where he'd been trapped for years before returning the Heart of Te Fiti. Maui found that he was surprisingly happy to see the place again. Any kind of dry land, he reasoned, was a sight for sore eyes after weeks of imprisonment under the sea, and besides, this time he had his fish hook, and Moana apparently had her canoe. He was free at last, endlessly relieved, and desperate to get all the water out of his clogged ears.

Moana, on the other hand, was frantic.

"Oh no," she was muttering to herself. "No, no, no! What have I done? No, forget about that; what am I going to do now? I...I gotta go."

Before Maui had a chance to react, Moana was already rapidly pushing her canoe back towards the edge of the beach.

"Moana," began Maui, "hey, take a deep breath. Why are you freaking out?"

"I have to get back to Motunui," gasped Moana. "I...I disobeyed a goddess, and not just any goddess, either; the goddess of the dead. You know, the one who has the power to give and take life at will? That all-powerful, immortal goddess? Yeah, she is NOT gonna be happy with me, and what's worse, what's worse is that I just had to go and announce the name of my island! I was all like "My name is Moana of Motunui," because ...I don't know, I guess I got nervous, maybe? Anyway, now she knows who my people are and where they live, and I have to get back to the island before she does, so that I can at least warn them!"

Leaping into her canoe, she dipped her paddle into the water, took a quick, desperate glance out over the sea, and then turned back to Maui, looking annoyed.
"Hey," she asked, "are you coming? Because I have to leave, now."

"Look, it's fine," insisted Maui. "Nothing bad's going to happen...you've got nothing to worry about, kinda."

Moana just stared at him for a moment, her mouth slightly open. "Nothing to worry about? Have you even been paying attention? I just-!"

"I'm serious." Shaking his head, Maui made his way down the beach and rested a hand on her canoe, keeping her on shore. "Hine-nui-te-po isn't going after you, or after anybody else on Motunui. She can't. Why do you think she bothers sending her Turehu out to do all her errands on shore? Because she can't do them herself, that's why. She can't leave Rarohenga, not anymore. She hasn't left the realm of the dead in over two thousand years, so there's nothing she can do to you as long as you keep out of her reach, okay? Calm down. You haven't put your people in any danger."

Moana frowned.

"But," she asked, "why can't Hine-nui-te-po leave Rarohenga? I thought you said-!"

"She can't leave," Maui explained, "because, back in the old days, when I first, uh, decided to stop seeing her, she got really, really angry. She made a solemn vow to the gods and to the sea that she'd never again set foot in the mortal world, probably because I broke her heart and she was looking for something self-destructive to do to get back at me, or something like that. I can't promise to understand what was going on in her head, but ever since then she hasn't been able to leave her kingdom, so it's fine."