There Are Many Paths To Tread

Chapter Soundtrack:

Galadriel's voice- Lord of the Rings

Summary:

A young woman who had had to deal with much disappointment and heartbreak in her life finds herself in an accident at sea and is cast on a seemingly deserted island.

Until she is confronted by a man that completely baffles her with his words and actions!

He couldn't really be a demigod now, could he? There was no such thing as real Gods!

Or was she the one mistaken? 

Disclaimer:

The movie 'Moana' is Copyrighted by Walt Disney Animation Studios (released by Walt Disney Pictures), directed by Ron Clements and John Musker; co-directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams.

There are some elements to this chapter which I took from' Lord of the Rings (the movie) which are copyrighted by the director Peter Jackson and the book Author J.R.R. Tolkien.

I only claim Copyright to the characters and some of the elements of the story I created myself.

Viewpoint Signs:

***BOV*** (beginning  of vision)

***EV*** (end of vision)

...

Chapter 1 Prologue  

'' The world is changed. I feel it in the water.''

The fair being of the North stopped and crouched on the edge of a pond with yellow and white water lilies. She fondly ran her palm over the cool water.

'' I feel it in the earth.''

She stood up and walked further into the clutch of trees that people of this land called the 'Hiisi'.

A sacred place where humans gathered for prayers, healing, and burials.

A sacred part of the woods isolated from regular village life. A place where no hoe was used to dig into the earth. No place where cattle were brought to graze. No place where humans came to cut down trees. It was a place where humans came to decorate the tree branches with leather strings and bring tribute to the gods. A place where offerings of food, coins, and jewellery were laid.

'' I smell it in the air.''

But now the 'Hiisi' sung with loneliness.

The trees, the plants were all mourning the loss of a human company that had become sparse of late.

'' Much that once was is lost. And none now live to remember it,'' she spoke out loud to the sad hums of the living wonders of nature.''

She stroked the leaves of a low hanging branch as they sang out their feelings of loneliness.

A fiercer wind suddenly blew by ruffling plants, tree branches, and their leaves. Ti-leaves were buffeted by the winds coming far, far away from where the oceans were warm; from the other side of the world.

The wind swirling around the deity even held a slight whiff of saltiness from the seas.

'' Te Fiti, my friend through all these long years, and Mother Island and Life-Giver. It has been too long since your heart was stolen.'' the deity murmured as she reached out to grab one of the whispering Ti-leaves into her palm.'

The deity turned to look in the direction where she knew the ocean was several miles away.

''But now it has begun. The other gods have finally chosen a second 'champion' to sail across the sea and restore you to life,'' she said softly and closed her eyes and concentrated on the tingling, lingering spark that only came when the object had come in contact with a living being.

The small splash of blood on the leaf gave off a stronger spark of feeling, and what it revealed was enough to have the fair goddess utter a gasp and grip the leaf tighter.

*** BOV***

The day had begun so well for the young woman wanting to sail all the way from the New Zealand coast of Wanaka, to the coast of Helsinki in Finland.

She'd been braving the choppy waters and small storms for months to reach her destination, but so far her days had gone by without any major incidents.

But on the day she was sailing the waters between Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom a ghastly storm suddenly rolled in.

The waters became treacherous, the waves like mountains and the wind was howling like a 'starving pack of wolves going for the kill'.

The woman's hands were drawing blood from her having to use extra force to keep the boat on course.

But then the stuff of nightmares, the worst-case scenario happened.

The flashes of lightning and the sounds of thunder were beginning to happen in one place. The currents of the water turning spiral in their motion.

The woman quickly crouched to feel the currents in the water and paled.

The circling motion of the water was forming a perfect, monstrous maelstrom that looked to be fifty meters wide.

And it was forming right there in her path!

Terrified the young woman tried to save herself and the boat from a deathly catastrophe but the pull of the maelstrom was holding her in a grip of certain death.

'' OH NO! NO!' she screamed in wide-eyed in panic as the boat began to enter the needle-of the maelstrom.

The strength and the howling winds weren't at her side and she was drawn deeper and deeper into the eye of the forming vortex.

''NO, THIS IS IT FOR ME! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? WHERE DID THE STORM COME FROM? IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE CLEAR SKIES! '' she shrieked into the howling winds.

Her fearful, long drawn out yell continued wordlessly as the boat seemed to be hanging upon the interior surface of a perfect, wide funnel leading to the depths of the abyss.

The rapidly circling water stayed the boat on an almost even keel, the deck laying in a plane parallel with that of the water.

But this latter sloped at an angle of more than forty-five degrees so that it seemed to be lying upon its beam-ends.

The woman's voice echoed around the area unheard by others as the wind howled and the thunder and lightning lashed a symphony in the skies above.

But if there had been anyone around to hear, they would have heard her scream that what was happening wasn't natural. That whatever had brought up this storm had to have done it with magic.

Seconds ticked by, but eventually, the boat and its passenger were sucked into the abyss of water, never to be found by the Coast Guards. Never to be seen by her relatives waiting to bid her welcome at the city of Helsinki.

Or the family waiting for her return, back in Wanaka.

...

The skies had turned clear once more, the sun was up and the air filled with the sound of singing Frigatebirds in the warm, windy currents.

The young woman, sprawled on the sands of the island, uttered a quiet moan of discomfort as the sounds shook her awake from her unconscious state.

Groaning quietly, she slowly raised herself up from the sand and looked around at the beach.

There was barely anything on the island from what she could see. Just bare rock and sand all around; no signs of trees, plants, grass or animals anywhere.

And when she turned her attention back to the boat she saw something that made her heart sink down to her knees.

The hull of the boat was in tatters, the bottom of it had a gaping gash to almost the entire length of the hull.

'' Hemmetin hemmetti! How could that storm have come out of nowhere? There were clear skies above that day. This shouldn't have happened! And how am I even alive after being almost stuck at the edge of the world?'' she cursed out in Finnish,  shaking slightly in emotional distress as she scrambled to her knees.  

STOMP, SCUFFLE, STOMP, SCUFFLE

The woman jumped violently at the sound of heavy footsteps coming her way. Warily, she looked down to see a pair of large feet halting only a few feet from where she sat.

Slowly, she then raised her head up, a palm still raised to her forehead.

'' W-who a-are you?'' the woman asked with nervousness making her voice waver as she looked up at the very muscular man with long curly hair, brown eyes, strong chin and tattooed body.

And she meant tattooed, for almost every inch of him was covered in those things!

'' HAH! It really sounded like you didn't realize who I am, which is impossible as everyone knows who I am. I am the saviour of humankind, the defeater of Monsters, the demigod of the Wind and Sea. I am Maui!'' the figure informed, proudly puffing his chest up.

The woman could only gape at the man in disbelief, her expression clearly showing that she hadn't expected to have come face to face with someone claiming to be a Polynesian deity.

'' Maui? That Maui who is supposed to be the deity in Polynesian countries? The person I've never even seen in the flesh?'' the young woman exclaimed incredulously, frowning.

She then shook her head and laughed long and hard, almost hysterically. But considering her 'brush with death' with the maelstrom it was an appropriate reaction.

'' My name is Maija Haeata Morgan. But I'm not about to stand here and listen to you brag about something that you haven't truthfully accomplished. There is no such thing as real deities,'' she finally said to the man's stumped form with a haughty air to her voice.

She didn't agree with such jokes when her life was pushed into such disarray. Her boat was in shambles and now this buffoon was trying to convince her that he was a god.

And then the person she'd deemed a 'total buffoon' gave her the surprise of her life when he easily lifted the boat with one arm, gave her a smug expression and then proceeded to carry it towards the water even as the owner stayed rooted to the spot with wide-eyed wonder and shock at the unexpected display of inhuman strength.

Maija gaped like a fish on dry land as the man, no a deity, carried the boat towards the shoreline and set it down in the gently swaying water.

'' What?! Wait just one moment!'' Maija shrieked out, scrambling to her feet and stomping in the direction of the water-line with an outraged expression on her face.

It didn't matter that the boat was busted, the guy was still stealing it from right under her nose.

Maui threw the woman a jaunty wave and a smirk before jumping onto the deck of the boat.

Blub, blub, blub, blurpsss...

It was the young woman's turn to smirk in amusement as she watched her boat fill up with water before sinking into the waters.

''Served him right!'' she thought as she watched the bubbles rising to the surface.

Until finally the deity himself popped into view with a huge scowl on his face and proceeded to swim back to shore. He then stomped away from the water, holding on to the boat's mooring line.

Maija watched with relief as Maui towed the boat back onto the sands. Thanks to the locked up floor pantry and cupboards, all her belongings were still on that boat.

She would have vowed the loss of them.

Maui stomped his way past her without a word of explanation for his actions.

'' Hey wait! WAIT!'' Maija exclaimed as she followed the deity across the beach and towards a gaping cave opening.

Maui just quickened his steps until he was almost running and the woman was hard-pressed to keep up with his strides.

'' Hey, come on now, let's talk for a minute,'' Maija said in exasperation but before she could follow the deity into the cave a massive boulder was smoothly slid into place to block her path.

Maija uttered a grunt as she attempted to push the boulder aside, but the damn thing wouldn't budge even a bit.

Cursing out loud, Maija slapped the hard surface and immediately winced at the pain that cut across the abused limb.

She glared darkly at the boulder before she whirled around and stomped back towards her wrecked boat.

***EV***

'' Second 'champion', indeed. To think its 'her' descendant from far, far in the future that the gods of the warmer lands chose to accompany the young Islander.''

The deity paused for a moment to smell the scents surrounding the 'Hiisi'. It calmed her down from the still lingering shock of what she'd sensed from having touched the Ti-leaves.

'' This young woman has gone through so much already and it's only about to get tougher. Maui, demigod of the Wind and Sea, condemned to a millennia of solitude, I hope you will accept the Maija's presence and not leave her to adjust to a changed life on her lonesome,'' the deity thought, feeling sympathetic to the both of them despite knowing that Maui was the cause of her dear friend's unfortunate fate.

'' And that you, Maui, will own up to your rash actions, and do whatever is in your power to put things to right once more,'' she sighed out loud.

End of Chapter 1 Prologue

...

Author Notes:

Yeah, according to physics the hole in the centre of a whirlpool is not the result of water moving downward, but of water moving outward. But for the sake of the story lets have magic bring forth a monstrous downward going spiralling maelstrom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool

As for this unnamed deity, just continue reading and you shall find out who she is in the future chapters. :)

P.S Constructive criticism is always welcomed by me, the author. :)