Chapter 12: Creature of Mystery

Maui was sore when he woke up. He slowly rubbed the bandages to relieve the pain for a bit. As he stretched, he heard some unpleasant noises. Kling! Klang! Kling! Klang! He looked by his side. Pua was sleeping silently. HeiHei was nowhere to be found. More than of all, Moana wasn't there! Maui, startled, hurried to step outside to see any trace of her. Right when he opened the door, he saw Moana with a metal thing on her hand and smashing it against the other. Kling! Klang! Kling! Klang! Then she examined the other blade, and then started to rub the blade and the flat rock against each other. She examined it again. She nodded, grabbed few vines, stuck the metals on a long, straight branch on each end, and wrapped the vines around the part where the metals and the stick met.

"What are you doing so early?" Maui asked as he walked up to her.

"I just made a spear to protect myself with," Moana said as she proudly held up her hand-made spear.

"I see," Maui said. "But where did you get the metal?"

"It was lying around here," Moana said. "It looks like the scale from that cobra thing we fought yesterday. I have a feeling that when you tried to attack it, some scales fell off of it. Thanks to them, I have this wonderful spear with blades on both sides."

"Wow, I'm impressed," Maui said as he examined the spear. Moana stood up and threw the spear at the tree she aimed for, but then she missed. "Guess you gotta practice your aim."

"That's weird," Moana said as she went to pick her spear. "I had great aim when we were confronting Kakamora."

"I guess you were just lucky," Maui said. "Don't worry. When you're confronting the beasts even you're not ready to throw, you can just use that as a sword in case they get close to you. Meanwhile, you can practice your aim."

"Can you teach me to throw?" Moana asked.

"I'm not sure, I never threw spears," Maui said. "You see, I'm only used to close combat that I just rely on my hook and arms."

"I see," Moana said. "But I think I'm gonna need this since I don't have the kind of strength that you have."

"Knowing how to wield that is also a good strength," Maui said. "By the way, we should get something to eat. I'm getting hungry."

"Well, what can we eat?" Moana asked as she looked around.

"Let's go into the forest and split up and find food and bring it back here," Maui suggested. They both went inside the forest to find some food.

"All right, see you later." They both turned to different directions. But she stopped and said, "Oh, by the way, Maui, in case of an emergency, we should have a short call or signal when either of us need help."

"That sounds like a good idea," Maui agreed. "But what is it gonna be?"

"Hmm," Moana thought for a moment. "Hear this." She whistled four notes. It echoed through the forest. "How does that sound?"

"I like it," Maui said.

"So, when we hear that, it means either of us need help, either the case is small or big, or we need each other just briefly or immediately." Moana concluded.

"All right," Maui said. Then they both turned to different directions again and walked towards there.

As Maui walked around the forest, he found a fat chicken in a distance. Since he wouldn't eat HeiHei after having a long journey with him, so he decided to catch that chicken for breakfast.

Moana made a basket out of fallen leaves, and looked for fresh coconuts, other fruits, and other edible things she can find. While she was picking some berries and putting them into her basket, she heard the whistle echoing throughout the forest. She ran to the place where the whistle noise came from. "Maui?" She asked as she ran with the basket in her hand, trying to not spill any. "Maui?" She asked again with more alertness in her voice. As she looked everywhere to find a trace of him . "Maui?" She started to panic as she couldn't see Maui anywhere around where she was. Then she suddenly screamed as something suddenly wrapped around her waist and something furry tickled the back of her head. She punched the thing that was behind her as she finished screaming. When she saw what wrapped her from behind, she gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Sorry..." she apologized sheepishly as she saw Maui holding his cheek.

"Seriously, Moana," Maui groaned. "You can really punch, like you punched me in Lalotai once when we were getting my fishhook."

"I thought you were a monster," Moana said. "Sorry... but you really shouldn't sneak up to me like that! I was really panicking! I thought something happened to you!"

"You worried about me?" Maui asked.

"Is that even a question?" Moana asked. "Of course I did!"

"Sorry for making you worried," Maui said. "I just wanted to pull a little prank on you for fun... I guess it wasn't."

"Well, I didn't mean to punch you," Moana said. "I should've been careful."

"No, it's my fault," Maui said. "By the way, did you find anything good so far?"

"Well let's see..." Moana looked through the hand-made basket. "I got coconuts, mangoes, and... some berries. What did you get?" Maui help up a live, fat chicken he found earlier. Moana thought for a moment. "I, uh... I think we should eat that when Pua and HeiHei are not around..." Moana suggested.

"I figured you would say that," Maui said. "I was just craving chicken, so... might as well... just..."

"It's fine, Maui," Moana said. "The truth is, I've eaten pork in front of Pua once. Even though I love Pua, and I don't want anyone to eat Pua, I still can't cut off pork of my diet. Same thing goes for HeiHei. I don't want anyone to eat him, but I still like eating chicken." Maui snickered by her confession. "Well, are we set?"

"Umm, I think I should search for a bit more food," Maui said.

"Sounds fair," Moana said. "I'll be waiting at the camp!" She started to find the way out of the forest.

"Wait! You're just gonna leave?" Maui asked.

"Well, I'm done with my part," Moana replied. "See you later!"

"Aw, come on!" Maui called. Moana walked away without turning back. "Oh well, I'll just find more things to eat and the catch up with her." Maui said as he looked for more food to eat.

When Moana arrived at the camp, Pua was making sure that HeiHei didn't walk off by himself. "All right, Pua, I hope you're hungry! I got bunch of berries you can eat." She grabbed a bowl Pua ate from last night, and poured the berries to feed him. Pua dug his face into the bowl and started to much the berries. "All right, HeiHei! I got some grains for you!" HeiHei was poking at the rock. She sprayed the pile of grains next to him. HeiHei looked at it for a second, and kept pecking at the rock. Moana shook her head. Then she heard footsteps from behind. "Is that you Maui?" Moana asked as she turned. As soon as she turned, the a cloth wrapped around her, giving her a complete darkness.

Maui walked back outside the forest with a chicken in his right hand and a cow over his shoulder. "All right, Moana," he said as he arrived at camp. "You're in luck, I caught a whole cow! We are ready to..." he looked around. "Moana?" He looked around. "Little pig?" He looked inside the cottage. "Drumsticks?" he looked all over the camp. "Moana, come out, this is not funny. I'm sorry I pulled a prank on you earlier, but this isn't definitely funny. Come out now." He waited. No response. He slowly walked around to check if Moana is really pulling a prank on him. As he walked around, he accidently stepped on Moana's spear. This is the spear she made... I'm pretty sure she took it with her when she went out to go find some food... oh no! "Moana!!" he cried her name with a voice full of fear. Just then, he felt a difference of the ground level. He looked down. Footprint? He examined the footprint, then there were more in front of him. Looks like some sort of creature captured Moana and left the track behind, Maui thought as he examined the trail of deep footprints. Maui grabbed his fishhook and Moana's spear, and started to run and follow the trail of deep, humongous footprints.

Moana struggled to get out of the cloth. As soon as she popped out from the cloth after long time of struggling of ripping it, she breathed heavily. Where am I? She thought as she looked around. It was completely dark. She couldn't even see her hand even when she put it in front of her face. Then she slowly stood up and carefully took a step forward. This cave so very moist, and so cold, Moana thought as she cautiously stepped on the wet, cold, and rocky ground. This cave must be somewhere near the waterfall or something... but I never saw any waterfalls around this island...

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!" A large roar that was louder than the sound of the waterfall made Moana jump and she aggressively pushed as she covered her ears.

"What was that?" she asked herself. But due to the large roar, she couldn't hear anything, even herself, for the almost thirty seconds. Oh, just my luck, she thought. She needed to get out of the place wherever she was. "Uggh, only if I had the spear right now!" She grunted and stomped her feet, which caused her to slip and fall. As she groaned in pain and rubbed her waist to relieve the pain, she felt something on her foot. Huh, what did I just kick? She groped around to see what she kicked. She finally touched something... it was extremely slippery, squishy, and slimy... she was too freaked out that she couldn't scream. She backed away, more aggressively than the time when she was wrapped in a monster's tongue first time she visited Lalotai. Oh... Maui... where are you?

Hang in there Moana, I'm coming, Maui thought as he ran as he followed the trails of footstep. He stopped as he saw a rocky, dark cave in his eyesight. He also examined the footprints. The creature definitely got in here with Moana. "I hope I'm not too late..." he said to himself as he bravely and cautiously walked inside the cave. It was too dark for him to see. He even felt a drop of water landing on top of his head. I need to see where I'm going... Maui thought. He quietly transformed into firefly and flew in a weird position; he let his butt go forward and flew forward so that he knew where he was going.

While he was flying, he heard something unpleasant. Drip. Drip. Patter. Patter. He looked at the direction where the noise came from. What was that sound? Maui thought as he looked in that direction. Then there was, again. Drip. Drip. Patter. Patter. He got closer. There was some kind of silhouette... human silhouette... It's Moana! Excited, he quickly transformed into a human a walked towards her. As he walked towards Moana, he made even louder sound. DRIP! DRIP! PATTER! PATTER! Then he felt something strike his cheek.

"I think I got something!" Moana screamed as she freaked out by her own punch.

"Moana, you punch me every time," Maui said as he rubbed his cheek.

"Sorry," Moana squeaked. "I really thought you were a monster! You should've gave me some sort of warning!"

"Yea, sorry about that," Maui said.

"But there is a monster in this cave! I even touched it!" Moana shivered. "Uggh... worst texture I've ever felt... see, I even have goosebumps on my arm."

"Moana, I can't see," Maui said.

"Can't you lighten up your fishhook?" Moana asked.

"I knew that," Maui replied. So he lightened up his fishhook. But the first thing he saw was her face... with a huge eye that was almost two times bigger than Moana's face. "Moana," he whispered.

"Hm?" Moana asked.

Maui shushed her. "Let's get outta here," he whispered again. Moana nodded. As they slowly, steadily, and cautiously stepped away from the huge eye that Maui saw, something wet, slippery, and squishy substance wrapped around their waist and pulled them apart.

"Maui!" "Moana!" THey both screamed for their names as they were separated.

Moana now lost her source of light as a wet, slippery, and squishy substance pulled her away from Maui. She grunted boisterously as she tried to combatively free from the substance, but it seemed like there was a suction cup that prevented her from fleeing from it. She breathed heavily after she grunted so hard to escape.

"Moana!" Maui called. "whatever you do, stay calm! Don't try to get out of it!" She thought for a second, and obeyed him and stopped what she was doing and just let herself cling onto the thing that wrapped around her. Then she suddenly felt herself falling down. She screamed as she realized that she was falling. Then something else grabbed her and took her outside of the cave.

"Maui!" Moana exclaimed excitedly.

"Here's your spear," Maui handed her the spear she made.

"Thank you," she said. They both looked towards the cave as they heard the roar coming from inside. A large tentacle thing slowly exposed itself to the light. Then one more tentacle. Then another. And then another. Then all eight tentacles crawled out to catch its prey. Moana looked through the charms. Anything with eight tentacles? There were three creatures with eight tentacles. Then Moana checked if there were another similar part other than the tentacles, but she couldn't see if it only decided to show its tentacles. Maui transformed into a hawk, went around and chopped off every single tentacles. He proudly stood next to Moana as he transformed into a human.

"What can I say except- OW!" The tentacle hit Maui in the head. "What the-"

"Oh..." Moana groaned. The tentacle was growing back piece by piece, suction cup by suction cup. "How are we supposed to catch that thing?" Then Moana had an idea. She took all three charms with tentacle monsters and screamed as she ran and tackled the tentacles. As it slapped her arm, the tentacle turned into red light and got sucked into one of the charm.

"Smart move," Maui complimented.

"Thanks," Moana put away the charm that turned green. "Well, we got three more creatures to capture in this island." 

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