Chapter 45: Shocking Conflict
Their boat thrived through the waves of the ocean. Moana happily held up the jewel charms that were once paper, all red, and progressively turned green, and all green charms coming together to create one jewel that stores every single monster they fought and captured. She never knew that the necklace she obtained at Whakamehara would come in handy. She didn't feel like putting it back in the necklace that her grandmother gave her. "You've been looking at that all day, Moana," Maui called as he climbed down the pole.
"I'm just... proud," Moana replied. "I really can't believe we captured every single forbidden creature that Kapu'uila asked us to catch. I think this is going to be a bigger accomplishment than restoring the heart of Te Fiti. Or else many more islands would've been uninhabitable because of the monsters, and some ocean would be dangerous to travel through when the monsters are still roaming around."
Maui chuckled. "I guess you could be proud of that, princess. By the way, I navigated further out the sea and analyzed the map, and it seems that Kapu'uila is over there on that island."
Moana looked where Maui pointed. The island was pretty flat. No mountains. No hills. Several trees, at least in her vision. "The island looks pretty bland. Even after Te Fiti's heart was restored, there are still islands that looks like it does not have any life in it."
"What about Waomoku?" Maui asked.
"Well, that too," Moana said. "But wouldn't it still have some palm trees and oasis leftover after Ladaimonio is in here?" Moana held up the necklace that contained every forbidden creature. "By the way, I'm going to make sure the Kapu'uila pay for them... just thinking about how much these people suffered over time makes me even angrier and more determined to teach him a lesson." Moana cracked her knuckles.
"Well, don't get too aggressive, kid," Maui said. He was sometimes afraid of Moana's aggressiveness and outgoing personality.
"By the way, kid," Maui said. "You need to know one thing."
"What is it?" Moana asked.
"I know that Kapu'uila guy," Maui said. "Well, not personally. But I still know how powerful he is. If you let your guard down, he can easily kill you. He may kill me easily too. Promise me that you won't be reckless like you did when we were facing Te Kā."
"I promise," Moana sheepishly promised as she felt guilty about not listening to him when they should've turned back. Although their problems have been solved, Moana still felt guilty to this day.
"Aw chief, don't be so guilty," Maui felt bad and tried to soothe her as he sat next to her and gently rubbed her back. "You helped me get my hook back, you restored the heart of Te Fiti, you got the chief position, and you helped me restore my fame again. I'm always thankful for that."
Moana smirked. Maui knew that when she smirks like that, she is thanking him. Maui smiled back and puckered up. "Not now, Maui," she said as she placed her hand on his puckered lips. "After the mission, we'll do it."
"Sounds fair," he muffled behind her hand and his covered lips.
"We're here now..." Moana said as she faced the bundle of five tiny islands, tinier than any islands that they have encountered. One was grassy, one was deserted, one was a complete stone, one was icy, and the last one was covered with lava. "Well, we definitely cannot step on two islands," Moana said as she indicated the lava one and icy one.
"The deserted one and the grassy one?" Maui teased. Moana smirked and gently slapped his stomach with her knuckles. She docked on the deserted one and started to walk around with Heihei in her arms and her oar on her back. Maui hopped out of the boat with Pua in his right arm and his fishhook on his left arm. "Now we just have to know how to make Kapu'uila come to us. We'll have to confront him if we have to."
"It's our final battle, so let's make it count," Maui said.
"We'll make it count all right," Moana agreed, but someone else also said it with her. It was a deep voice. "Did you say it with me? Wait, that was not your voice..."
"Kapu'uila..." Maui said just like the time when he first called out Kakamora.
Moana gulped but stayed alert and pulled out her oar as she put Heihei in her left arm. Maui raised his fishhook and looked around. Just then, a streak of lightning struck between Moana and Maui that made them both flinch. When they looked up, a monster that looked like Te Kā and was big like Te Kā surrounded by lightning came down from the sky. It shrieked and sent another streak of lightning, aiming Maui.
They both dodged the streak of lightning as they leaped to the opposite side. Maui quickly transformed into a giant hawk and glided upwards. Kapu'uila was a little faster than Te Kā, but Maui was still faster than him. He sliced his left arm but his right arm struck him, making him fall hard towards the ocean. While he was falling into the ocean, Moana had to block Kapu'uila's lightning strike with her oar as her scream "MAUI!" was lost in the sound of the lightning strike.
Kapu'uila continuously sent the lightning streaks, but he was not able to move as fast because his arm was still chopped off, and it had to take more time for him to grow it out. This allowed Moana to escape every lightning streaks from him. Because the lightning was not as fast, she tried hitting one back by batting the lightning, but as soon as it made contact with her oar, it disappeared with a spark. Meanwhile, Maui came back after transforming into a shark and jumped on the beach with some pain on his back. "He got me there," Maui groaned.
"You all right?" Moana asked.
"Yeah," Maui replied.
While Moana tried helping Maui stand back up, Kapu'uila raised his fist and hammered down. Maui forgot about the pain for a second and escaped the spot with Moana. "That was close," Maui said.
"Too close," Moana agreed.
"Here, let's go on a boat," Maui suggested.
"What? We're gonna fight on the boat?" Moana asked.
"Yes, now let's do this!" Maui said with courage. "Since we have more room on the ocean surface, we would be able to dodge him easily."
"Let's just stay on land where it's safe," Moana disagreed. "Ocean may be too dangerous."
"Trust me, Moana," Maui pleaded.
"Oh, all right," Moana groaned as she rolled her eyes.
"I'll take control of the boat this time," Maui said. "I think I know the strategy."
"Sure," Moana said, although she did not feel well about fighting on the ocean surface. It may have been safer when fighting Te Kā, but against Kapu'uila, that was a different story. They hurried and hopped on the boat. Maui tightened the sail and thrived near Kapu'uila, who still floated way above the surface. Maui then flew over to the Kapu'uila. He smacked Maui out before he was able to strike his face with his fishhook. Kapu'uila had better intuition than any other demigods. Then he hammered down on Moana and the boat. She tried to turn the boat to the other direction, but Kapu'uila struck the boat and smashed them into various-sized pieces of flotsam. Before Kapu'uila decided to strike again, he decided to take time to regrow his arm.
Because Moana was still perplexed by what just happened, she couldn't swim properly, and even if Pua and Heihei were not perplexed since they do not know how to swim, they would drown also. Before they drowned, the Ocean helped Moana, Pua, and Heihei back to the surface. Maui came back the same way he came back after one hit from Kapu'uila. Moana glared at him and said, "I told you we shouldn't go on the ocean surface..." She was angry about the boat. "The boat is now completely ruined... that one belonged to our ancestors..."
"Moana... I'm really sorry..." Maui apologized sincerely.
"And you put Pua and Heihei in danger!" Moana screamed in anger. "They could have died by either drowning or getting hit by Kapu'uila!"
"You did almost the same thing last time!" Maui argued back.
"Oh, we're not gonna get there!" Moana screamed. "That's in the past! And if that happened, then you should've listened to me instead of being so stubborn and taking the boat out just to get it destroyed and have us nearly killed!" Pua sheepishly backed away while they were arguing. Heihei just stood there and faced the one who was screaming at the other.
"You think I'M the stubborn one?!" Maui argued back angrily. "You're more stubborn than I am!"
"I WAS excuse you!" Moana argued back sassily.
"Just because you're the chief, it doesn't mean you're right all the time!" Maui screamed as his anger rose.
"Well, I WAS right this time, wasn't I?!" Moana screamed back.
"You know what? If you're gonna be so stubborn and bossy like that all the time, then why don't you do this all alone?!" Maui angrily yelled at her.
"All right! You want to go alone? You be my guest! I don't care anymore!" Moana stormed off.
Without watching Moana go further, Maui turned and walked off the opposite direction. "Geez. Fine, she's the chief of an island. So what? She's still immature! She doesn't know what she's doing. Even when we went to fight Te Kā, she admitted that she didn't know what she was doing. So she probably doesn't know what she's doing now! I bet she can't even survive without me! Have it her way!"
Moana said to herself angrily as she stomped away, "He thinks he knows everything about the journey! I don't need to listen to him every single time! What gives him the right to order me around? If he never trusted me, why did he follow me in the first place? If he's so smart, he's should do everything himself if he really doesn't need help from the ocean!"
"I'll show him I can do it without him," Moana said as she held her oar tight.
"I'll prove to her I was right all along," Maui said as he held his hook tight.
A while after Moana and Maui were angrily mumbling to themselves, they started to regret what they said to each other. Maui's plan did not work, and Moana had her boat built by her ancestors was completely destroyed, but that didn't mean that they should blame it on each other.
"Maybe I shouldn't have been so provocative," Maui mumbled to himself. "Her boat was wrecked and she became sensitive about it. It's like the time I lost my hook. Man, I should have controlled my temper."
"Why can't I just be less sensitive about everything?" Moana scolded herself. "I'm not the only one who had a hard time on this journey. I need to find Maui and apologize and acknowledge what good deed he has done."
"I should go and apologize," Moana and Maui said at the same time at the different locations.
When they both started to walk back towards where they came from, the thunder roared and lightning clashed against the horizon. They knew Kapu'uila was coming again. Maui held up his fishhook and Moana held up her oar. They both wished that they were standing next to each other so that they could apologize. Kapu'uila cam back with both of his arms and attacked each of them with each of his arms. Maui flew again once more and flew again. Moana spotted the giant hawk and ran towards him while dodging his lightning streaks. Maui once again chopped off one of Kapu'uila's arm and then the deja vu happened: he was hit by his other arm again, but this time, he landed on the land where Moana was near.
Kapu'uila had it. He raised his fist so high and aimed towards Maui, who was too weak to move. "MAUI! NO!" Moana quickly ran to push Maui away, who was still on the ground, holding his arm in pain. Kapu'uila was about to hammer Maui with its full force. Moana quickly pushed him away and tried to block his fist with her oar. The impact of the fist was strong enough to create a forceful, and dynamic wind that was loud enough to make whirring sound like a giant tornado created by the gods, and to push everything away that was around the hand of Kapu'uila, including sand, shells, and Maui. Maui screamed as the wind pushed him away, and the loudness of the voice of his scream was lost in the sound of the sandstorm. While the sandstorm was large enough to cover Moana and Maui, Kapu'uila slowly disappeared as he ascended to the sky.
The wind created a sandstorm that lasted about several minutes. As the storm died off, Maui stood up weakly and slowly, coughed painfully. He also groaned as the pain on his arms was still bothering him. "What happened...?" He looked around, but he was only able to see sand dust floating around. "Sandstorm...?" He was barely able to see through the sand dust. He covered his eyes for a bit so that no more dust would go into his eyes. He squinted to see if the dust was still violently floating around him.
He weakly fanned the dust with his hand to clear his vision. When the dust sank to the ground, he saw something lying down. It was a familiar figure. He squinted his eyes to see more clearly. The figure was wearing a common, familiar Polynesian dress. The dress looked even more familiar the longer he looked at it. Its hair was long, silky, and curly. It just lied down on the ground without any sound, thousands of shattered pieces of oar buried in the sand right next to it. "Moana...?"
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top