Chapter 22: Work Time

Moana and Maui courageously marched to chief's home. "Let us talk to the chief and see why the man was arrested to working," Moana said as she continued to courageously march. 

"Such irony," Maui said. "Pararaiha means paradise, and some of the factors of this island is pretty corrupt."

"I guess no places can be perfect," Moana said. "But we should settle this peacefully."

"That's reasonable," Maui said. "I'll use my hook if I have to."

"Go ahead," Moana replied. "Although I think it's better just to talk it out."

"That's because you got your spear broken in Reigna," Maui teased.

"At least I don't need a weapon," Moana roasted Maui. Maui frowned.

Mini Maui snickered and took out a chalkboard, giving Moana another point. While Maui's part was totally empty, Moana's side was full of tally marks, probably counting until thirty. Pua squealed softly at Mini Maui. Mini Maui winked back and went back to its position.

"Is that the island's chief's house over there?" Moana asked as she pointed at the building she was talking about. It looked like a fancy palace made of bricks and stones, it took up about six acres of land, and the wall was standing tall and proud. "Wow, it's a complete different house from what we have in Motunui."

"But it's completely different from other houses in downtown where the festival is held in," Maui said.

"Yes, that is true," Moana said. "Anyways, let's go in." Moana knocked on the gate. The gate opened immediately after Moana's third knock.

"Please come in," one of the gate guard said.

"Your highness! It's chief Moana of Motunui and Demigod Maui!" the second gate guard announced. Just by hearing the name, every servants and maid in the 'palace' all lined up at the edge of the silver brick road that led to chief's room.

"Whoa," Maui said.

"They really do know us a lot," Moana said. "Wow, I'm impressed."

 Moana and Maui walked along the silver brick road, which took five minutes just to get to the chief's room. "Chief Moana and Demigod Maui have entered the room, madame," one of the servant said. The chief was sitting on a large, elegant throne made of wood with some gold and silver designs. The chief looked very... exotic. She had sparkly blue eyes, golden hair, rosy lips, white skin, wearing bright-colored silk cloth, and holding a long, curvy cane.

"Even the chief looks very culturally different..." Moana said.

"You must be Moana and Maui," the chief said. "My name is Hakatau. Please have a seat." She had them lead to the bench across her. Moana and Maui walked towards the bench and sat down. Maui looked uneasy as he recognized who she was. "Now, what brings you here?"

"We, uh, we've been shocked by three men arresting an old man working in the crops field," Moana said. "I was wondering why they were arresting a man, just because he was working and not having fun."

"It is the law here," the Hakatau replied. "I provide food, clothes, musical instruments, masks, pots, and everything for this village. I want people to have fun. No work is necessary. Working while I let people play, I consider that as an insult."

"But, chief Hakatau," Moana said. "These people still need to need to work and have fun consistently. They can't have fun all day."

"Working makes people stressed," chief Hakatau replied as the smile on her face disappeared. "I'm sure you don't make people work all day, chief Moana."

"Of course I don't," Moana said. "I let people work and have fun at given times."

"So ridiculous, I let people party all day and are still not satisfied," Hakatau said. "Don't people know this is a best place to live in the world? Where you get to party all day without working at all. They do not have to go through stress of any sort. In addition, there's no need to develop skills of any sort if I provide every resources for them."

"No, YOU'RE ridiculous," Moana said as she rose. 

"Kid! What are you doing?!" Maui whispered. He knew who Hakatau was. He didn't want Moana to make Hakatau upset.

"You're ridiculous that you are not letting these people realize what they are capable of!" Moana said. "Do you know what true happiness is? It's being able to work up to full potential and being rewarded with what they have achieved. Because eventually in the end, they know they are worthy of something. But making them work all day without rewards, or rewarding them all the time without letting them work won't make them feel worthy of something. You may not know, but people have a will to learn about their passion! Especially that old man you just arrested, and everyone else who are locked in the dungeon, I'm pretty sure they had a dream of learning something useful so that they can feel proud of what they learned and what they acquired, but you decided to locked them and their dreams in the dark dungeon where you sent them. This is the land of paradise? I don't think so."

Hakatau was expressionless. "...Maui, your lover got some guts," Hakatau said.

"Wha- how did you..." Moana said. She never told her that they were in a relationship.

"Maybe I forget to tell my precious visitors that I'm an enchantress," Hakatau said.

"All right, Hakatau," Maui said. "We understand your point, this kid didn't know anything about your point of view, but I hope you understand hers, bye~" Maui was about to get out of her room as he held Moana's arm and gently dragged her with him.

"I won't let you go," Hakatau said as she slammed her cane down, creating a vigorous wind that started to surround Moana and Maui. The wind started to transform into powerful illusion that made it look like Moana and Maui were in different dimension.

"Maui... who is she?" Moana asked.

"Hakatau is a powerful enchantress," Maui said. "No one knows where she came from but she came one day bringing miracle to people. She is like a most generous enchantress people would ever meet, but those who disobeyed her disappeared forever, no one knows where they went to."

"So, did I make a mistake?" Moana asked.

"Well Moana, I think you were brave proving your point," Maui said. "I was persuaded."

"Let's see how you guys survive my stage four illusion," Hakatau said, hiding herself.

"Oh dear, the most powerful," Maui said.

Moana kept quiet, calmly thinking about how to escape her illusion. Stream of lights sparkled around Moana and Maui, surrounding them so that they have no room to escape. The light started to form into a dark human silhouettes with light shining in a chest part, and it looked like it was walking around them. The dark human looking silhouettes were giggling, which sounded like they were trying to taunt Moana and Maui. Some silhouettes were even chanting famous chant from Maori tribe generations ago that was chanted when the tribe had a successful hunt.

This started to make Moana really angry, but she remained calm and tried to think of a way to escape. Just then, Moana saw Hakatau appearing in the dimension created by her illusion, who had a sly smirk across her face. "You should give up. Only beautiful people can escape my trap. You're not even beautiful at all."

"Did I ask you if I'm beautiful or not?" Moana sternly replied.

"You got to admit, I'm much more beautiful than you are," Hakatau taunted.

"But your personality is uglier than everyone else," Moana angrily fought back.

Whoa, Maui thought. I didn't know she can be that aggressive.

Hakatau chuckled, not because she thought it was funny, but she was pissed off. She pointed the cane at Moana. Maui knew what she was up to. He quickly transformed into a hawk, grabbed Moana, and quickly avoided the attack.

"Looks like I gotta get you first before I get your girlfriend," Hakatau said.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore," Maui said. "Forgive me, Moana." He dropped Moana and transformed back into human form. He used his fishhook to attack Hakatau. They started an intense sword fight, Maui with his hook, Hakatau with her cane.

"You should be afraid of demigoddess of beauty," Hakatau replied. "If this is how you want to get this down, let's." She kept shooting the streams of light at Maui, which he avoided with jumps, cartwheels, and other acrobatic tricks. "Impressive..."

"That's right," Maui said as he struck her cane with full force, causing her to fly away, making her bump against an invisible wall, which broke down the illusion. 

"Uggh..." Hakatau groaned in pain. Her golden hair covered her face, blocking her vision as she tried to reach for her cane. Moana snatched it just in time to slam it against the floor multiple times to break it. "NO! DON'T!" Hakatau begged, but it was too late. The cane was broken in half, and the energy flew out of the cane. Hakatau was now very furious. "You shall PAY FOR THIS!" Aura surrounded Hakatau.

"Moana! Stay back! I knew this was gonna happen!" Maui warned.

"What's gonna happen?" Moana asked. As soon as she asked, Hakatau's aura turned into sphere and aimed it at Moana and Maui. 

Before she was able to shoot it at Moana and Maui, a light surrounded the three of them, and her aura disappeared. One god and one goddess appeared in front of them. "Rangi! Papa!" Maui said as he bowed. Rangi is Father sky, and Papa is Mother earth. Then he taunted at Hakatau, "Heh, you're in trouble."

"What?!" Hakatau said. Then Rangi and Papa started to cast a spell upon Hakatau. "No, no, no! No! NO! I'M SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I WON'T DO IT ANYMORE! PLEASE! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hakatau shrieked as she felt her power being drained out. "No..." she collapsed with despair.

Rangi and Papa then turned to Maui. "Wait! I didn't do anything wrong! I promise! I guarantee it!" Maui panicked.

They smiled and used the aura to transform into an energy so that they can completely heal Moana and Maui. "Wow, my stomach feels much better now!" Moana said. "And, that image doesn't matter that much in my head." Moana happened to have the image of giant eel being sliced in half. Her trauma was also gone. "Thank you, Rangi and Papa!"

"Your kind gesture is deeply appreciated," Maui said. They smiled warmly and waved as they disappeared. Moana and Maui waved back.

After the disappeared, Maui held Hakatau up. "Tell us where you locked all the prisoners," Maui demanded. Hakatau didn't say, instead she showed the way. "Lead us there. If you tell us wrong place, something ugly is gonna happen to you," Maui demanded again. Hakatau did show the correct way. Moana and Maui quickly unlocked the cages and led people out of the dungeon. 

After that, Moana and Maui made Hakatau apologize and feel shame in the middle of the villagers. Hakatau did not apologize... she didn't get a chance to. Villagers criticized, insulted, and provoked her. "Oh my gosh, look at what you did to the prisoners!" "Serves you right for intimidating us!" "Let us work and party in peace!" "Don't even think about becoming our chief again!" "Yeah just get out of our island!"

"They must've been pretending to have fun," Maui said.

"It seems so," Moana replied. 

"I let you guys have fun and now this is how you treat me?!" Hakatau yelled angrily.

"You should at least let us learn and use some skills! You're killing our self esteem!" one villager said.

"Do you think we liked being isolated from relationship with other islands?!" the other villager added.

"Just let us have a normal life like everyone else!" the other villager said.

"You ungrateful children!" Hakatau screamed.

"Haven't you learned your lessons yet?!" Moana scolded. Hakatau groaned after Moana made Maui tie her to a tree. "Do you people need me for anything else?" Moana asked. "Like do you need me to teach you any skills?"

"Can you stay here for few days or so?" one villager asked.

"Should we?" Moana asked Maui. Maui shrugged. "Sure, we'll stay." Everyone cheered.

For few days, Moana and Maui taught the villagers how to farm, raise crops and berries, pick coconuts, hunt and fish, and sail. In just five days, village was now stable with stable farms and good amount of food. 

"We shall leave now, bye!" Moana bid farewell to the villagers.

"Thank you!" "Bye!" "Please come back any time!" Villagers bid farewell back.

Moana and Maui started to continue to sail back to their route. Maui quietly hummed as he tightened the sail. Moana felt the water and studied the sun with an expressionless face. Maui stopped humming as he noticed Moana not smiling at all. Of course, she can't smile all the time, but sorrow and guilt also seemed to be drenched on her face. "All right, kid, what's the problem?" Maui asked as he climbed down the pole.

"I wonder if I'm actually a good chief or a corrupt one," Moana said. "I'm doing the best I can, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm really doing a great job as a chief."

"Kid, I think you're the best one ever," Maui said. "No other chief would risk their life to save their dying island. Many would cower and let them slowly die with him or her. And I think you proved that you're a good leader with how you taught the villagers how to do everything in order to survive by themselves without any sorcery."

Moana nodded her head without smiling. She let out a deep sigh through her nose, sat down against the pole with her body facing the opposite direction of where the boat is heading, and crouched.

How should I make her feel better? Maui thought. Mini Maui caught his attention and turned itself into a sharkhead. "Hey, Moana," Maui called. Moana turned to look to see Maui, transformed into a sharkhead. "Sharkhead~" Maui said in a singsong voice like the way he said to Te Kā.

"Heh," Moana slightly snickered. Maui opened his arms so that Moana can hug him. Moana walked over to Maui and accepted his hug. "Thanks, Maui."

"You're welcome, kid," Maui replied sweetly as he continued to warmly embraced her. "I don't want you to be upset."

A/N: Like what description said, almost none of the Polynesian mythology in this fanfiction is true. Don't correct me in any way. They're just there to enhance the story. But I did make sure that Rangi is Father sky, and Papa is Mother earth. 

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