Disclaimer:

The movie, 'Moana', is copyrighted by Walt Disney Animation Studio. It was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker and the co-directors were Don Hall and Chris William. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2017.

I only claim copyright to the characters, and some of the elements of the story, that are of my own creation.

Chapter Soundtrack:

(*1) Gone too Soon- Daughtry

Summary:

A young woman, seemingly ordinary, is deserted on an island that is void of life but is then confronted by a man who 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? Could she trust in his friendship after all the heartbreak and disappointment in her life?

...

Chapter 6

' And you will just listen and watch as I go through the basics,'' he deadpanned to me and gestured for me to take a seat at the nose of the canoe.

Smiling brightly, I gave the guy a friendly shove with my shoulder as I limped passed him to do his bidding.

...

It was much later that day when I found myself being the one navigating our way across the vast ocean...

Moana was sleeping nearby, curled close to where I'd propped up my bandaged, still very aching leg as I continued navigating, by measuring the stars with the palm of my hand.

It was something I'd learned to do during the many months of my reclusive time on the small island.

I adjusted the main rope and moved the sails to better catch the wind blowing past us, and Moana shifted at the little noise it had caused.

Maui made a slight twitch by my left, but otherwise, he made no motion that would concern me as to whether I'd made the wrong call.

He was on watch, to make sure we were staying on course to Tamatoa's lair in Lalotai, but he wasn't there to question my 'job' unless there was a real need for him to interfere.

I yawned, rubbing a hand across my eyes before focusing on the task at hand. It was mercifully, and enjoyable silent, except for the sound of the wind blowing at our sail and the ocean lapping against the sides and stern of the canoe boat.

I couldn't help the serene sigh that escaped my lips. The silence was was like those treasured moments of peace on the small and mostly uninhabited island, when Maui and I had spent the evenings watching and measuring the stars in the horizon sky.

We had always sat on my wrecked boat that Maui had 'so graciously' hauled out of the ocean floor after it had sunk in his attempt to sail it (much to my relief as it had held food provisions and clothing).

It had been our way to imagine being on the ocean and using the rudder on the boat to copy the movements of using a paddle in the water.

Though unable to actually be in the ocean, the time I'd spent learning from the demigod had been truly enlightening.

And now I was finally back on the ocean again. I was able to see and hear the wind pushing at our sail. I could hear the water touching the sides of the canoe, and it brought a smile to my lips despite the whole reason we were all on this course of direction.

'' I can see you're enjoying the feeling of being able to sail again,'' Maui's voice spoke of suddenly, drawing me away from my serene state of mind.

'' You know I never used to navigate in such rudimentary ways before meeting you, for I used to have those things we call a compass and a map. We didn't use the stars or the water currents to find our way,'' I said softly.

I paused for a moment to feel the wind touching my skin, ruffle my hair and the sail.

'' But I must say, the old ways teach you more than simply following someone else's discoveries and mapping. Back where I used to live I taught those who wanted the skills they so wish to accomplish, but its Moana who seems to be the most driven I've seen in a long time,'' I admitted quietly.

I glanced down at Moana who was curled up on the deck very close to the edge of the steering end of the boat deck where my leg was propped.

I had to wonder whether she felt soothed by having the presence of an older female on the boat with her. But why, though? I was just an ordinary human woman, unlike Maui who was a demigod.

But, maybe, that was just it! I gave her a sense of normalcy that had been shattered with having to convince a reluctant demigod to go on a mission to return the Te Fiti's heart to its rightful owner and save the world at the same time.

Seeing a stray strand of curly hair falling over her face, I smiled ruefully and reached over to tuck it behind her ear.

Moana sighed softly in her sleep but didn't awaken.

I was about to lift my hand from her hair when, all of a sudden, the image of her blurred and right before my eyes, there was a sleeping boy wrapped up in a blanket.

A small boy with thick, shoulder-length curly, light brown hair and skin that was of a lighter colour than my more brownish skin colour.

(*1)

https://youtu.be/wKBhAG2SNKE

I gasped in startlement, shaking my head violently to clear my vision before looking down again.

Instead of the young boy, I was looking down at Moana, again, but the sudden appearance of the boy had left a mark on my heart.

A mark that reminded me of what could have been if the teenager on the boat had indeed been my little son. Would he have been as eager to acquire the skills to sail, like Moana and I? Or would he have been like his father who had loved music and had wanted to become famous through it?

Therefore it came to be, that while my thoughts were so scrambled by the sudden and unexpected appearance of the young boy, I failed to watch what I spoke to Maui.

'' I wish I'd have been given the change to show my son all those islands I found beautiful,'' I muttered under my breath, but then immediately grimaced when Maui inhaled sharply.

I glanced over at him cautiously and saw his face twisted into an extremely shocked expression.

'' You have a son?'' he asked almost immediately.

I looked away, biting my lip as I contemplated whether I should admit anything to the guy. But then I felt his hand on my shoulder, his touch firm but not painful, and I knew he wouldn't let the matter go like I hoped.

'' Maija, do you have a son?'' Maui asked me insistently.

I sighed, my heart twisting painfully at memories I'd shoved into the background in my effort to turn into a better person following tragic events. But now I had to revisit those painful memories.

'' I... had a son born, but he came much too early and lasted but a few days before he was taken from me. His sire had abandoned the pair of us long before 'baby Roto' had been large enough to show in my womb,'' I admitted with pain in my voice.

I paused, staring at the dark horizon with tears in the corner of my eyes.

'' Maui, please understand that this is all very painful for me to discuss and I really do not want to delve into it more deeply. Please don't ask me to discuss it further,'' I added after a moment of silence.

There was a merciful silence between us for a long while, with just the natural sounds around us creating noise.

I peeked at Maui, watching as he silently went over what I'd just revealed to him. His eyes suddenly gazed at me with sadness, compassion and even a bit of pity.

I turned my eyes away quickly and sucked in a breath. The sadness and compassion I could handle but the pity always vexed me!

During those days in therapy, I'd come to a realization that I'd not been the perfect girlfriend in the relationship, and that I'd been just as much a reason for our break-up than my estranged husband.

But Lachlan's abrupt leaving and his callous actions before it had still been unforgivable to my soul and I couldn't understand why he had needed to go to such lengths to show me what he'd thought of me.

His callous actions and the words in the letter he had left me feeling so down I'd very nearly drowned myself until something had pulled me out of that frame of mind.

But then the tiny, dying baby boy in my arms had made me ricochet right back down to my lowest point of depression that took me a long time to rise above.

The five months of healing therapy during pregnancy had been all for nought! It had taken me sixteen months to return to normalcy!

But thankfully my family had not given up on me. My mother and my father had stood by me in my darkest of moments and had been so very relieved when I'd begun to take over my family's sailing instructor role from my father (who had needed to step in to fill the job).

I sighed sadly and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.

The thought of little Roto still brought the pain like no other and I doubted the pain would ever fully disappear. But at least that emotional agony was slowly fading and didn't become an all-consuming feeling.

But it was the guilt of my own actions leading up to Lachlan abandoning me that still remained a gaping wound. It had left me pondering about how I was treating my family; to question whether I had been doing enough to support them or had I been too dedicated to my work.

And in the end, I'd been left with the determined decision to support my parents more diligently.

And then what happened?! 

I'd went on a sailing expedition towards my mother's homes country and was sucked into that humongous maelstrom which ship-wrecked me on Maui's island!

I probably would never see my parents again, and they would never know what exactly had happened to me! It was a blow to my moral consciousness to have left my parents in such a loop of not knowing what had happened to their only child.

'' I'm so sorry, mom. I'm so sorry dad.''' I thought as I hid my face in my hand for a moment before dropping the hand to my side.

'' So, what's with the crab tattoo on the back of your neck?'' Maui suddenly asked me.

I snapped my head in his direction with an incredulous expression plastered on my face. That question had come completely out of the blue.

'' Argh! Will you just give it a rest, Maui?!'' I exploded, which woke up the sleeping teenager who sat up in a flash, her expression shocked and confused when the demigod dissolved into hysterical laughter.

'' You guys... are... are ridiculous,'' Moana yawned out with bleary eyes.

Now it was my turn to dissolve into titters of amusement as Moana gave the pair of us an exasperated glance before scooting closer to me and laying down again, her other hand resting lightly against my knee.

She fell asleep almost immediately, I chuckled under my breath, again.

I didn't grudge her for needing sleep. She'd looked so exhausted and I'd been asleep for a whole afternoon and night after getting shot by the Kakamora harpoon.

Poor Moana must not have had much sleep between the time I'd been wounded and the moment I'd woken up.

I glanced down at my bandaged leg.

Had Moana been the one in charge of making sure the bleeding was stopped? Had she cleaned the wound and wrapped up the deep wound after I'd passed out?

'' Looks like Moana wasn't the only one to have forgotten to thank the other for the help. Guess we're even on that aspect,'' I thought as I gently fingered the rough fibre of the bandage.

What I was aware of, was that Maui had taken over the steering earlier that evening as Moana had taken over the job in changing my bandages.

I remembered spending several moments holding back the flinches of pain when the teenager had slathered more of the healing salve into the cut before redressing it with clean bandages and a thicker piece of fabric made out of coconut tree-fibre. It was like a brace for my leg; made to ease the pain when the injured person moved the leg.

But even while in pain, I'd found myself being extremely surprised when I hadn't detected any signs of infection. And what more, the wound seemed to have been almost entirely scabbed over with only minimal trickles of blood in a few areas of the welt.

Whatever had been used to make the healing salve it seemed to be working as well as it was because my body had not known such natural medicine before; unlike Moana's people who had likely been on the receiving end of it since childhood.

Even Moana had been surprised by how fast the wound seemed to have responded to the medicine she had packed up in her storage compartment.

'' She really is rather adorable for a child of what, eight?! But what I don't understand is why her village saddled her for such a dangerous quest and with such meagre wayfinding skills,'' Maui commented, drawing me out of my thoughts.

'' You heard her reasonings, Maui, none of her people had gone beyond the reef for generations and she was very likely the only one properly driven to actually do it. And she is fourteen; admittedly viewed as a teenager where I come from, but by her people's reckonings she is an adult old enough to be married and for carrying out her destiny as a future chief of her village,'' I answered.

I paused for a moment to stare at the ocean horizon for a moment before looking down at Moana curled up form.

'' Though I must admit that though she is likely very capable and responsible adult in her people's eyes, I'm reminded of how much younger than me she truly is and how she hides her fears and uncertainty behind the rigid mask of a village chief's daughter expected to lead her people one day,'' I muttered out.

'' And how old are you? During those months we spent on my island together I never had the presence of mind to ask you,'' Maui asked me as he, too, glanced at the teenager who suddenly muttered something in her sleep before going silent.

I almost wanted to give a quip that a man should never ask a woman her age but then again it would have been rather inappropriate after the very serious talk we'd just had about Moana's age.

'' Where I come from people are considered to be adults at between eighteen and twenty- one year, and I'm twenty-nine years old if I've calculated my time on your island correctly,'' I admitted with a small sigh.

Maui jerked violently in his seat and locked his brown eyes with mine in flabbergasted shock.

'' And how long do the people in your world, or time, live?'' he asked me.

'' Between sixty and a hundred and twenty years, though there are people who do die out unexpectedly way before their time. And only a handful of people actually reach the ripe old age of eighty with their minds still firmly running clear. Even with the advanced medicines being in use 'life is still life' and us humans have short life spans.''

'' Maija, people here are lucky if they reach the ripe old age of forty- five. Though that could have changed during my time in exile for a thousand years. You look so young despite being almost thirty,'' Maui muttered out quietly.

I uttered a slight laugh to hide my shocked reaction before giving a quip.

'' Well, that quite explains why Moana is vetoed to become her peoples chief at a young age. I'll just have to toughen up and do my best to hang to life to a ripe old age of fifty.''

The rueful smirk left my lips as Maui's expression certainly didn't morph to amusement. Instead, he did something I didn't expect, which was to reach out and pull me into a one-armed hug. His chin rested on my shoulder for a moment, his long curly hair tickling my skin before he pulled away.

His deep brown eyes stared into my own hazel-brown eyes with a serious, imploring look.

'' I'm more than aware just how fleeting a mortal's life is, Maija. Don't joke about it, okay?!''

''Sorry,'' I said in a hushed tone of voice as the demigod gently pried my fingers away from the slightly slackened grip on the rope, and oar.

The boat's movement was slowed.

'' Go rest, I need you both on high alert by the time we reach the entrance to Lalotai early afternoon tomorrow if the winds are up all night and morning,'' Maui said before I could splutter a protest of any kind.

Seeing the reasoning behind the idea of further sleep, I nodded silently and reached out to initiate a hug to Maui who immediately returned it with one arm.

This wasn't the first ever time we'd been so comfortable in hugging as friends, but it was the first time after meeting Moana on the island.

Finally, I broke away from the embrace and crawled up to the boat-deck after relocating Moana's hand from my leg. I lay down beside the teenager so that our backs were barely touching each other and closed my eyes, but blinked them open upon feeling Moana shift and wrap her arms  around me from behind.

My heart melted at the way she could so easily do this to someone who was almost a complete stranger to her.

I smiled to myself as Maui chuckled lightly under his breath.

'' Now that is adorable,'' he said quietly.

'' Haha, adorable you say?!'' I grouse out, feeling a little awkward to have someone else's child clinging on to me so trustfully.

But after a moment the awkwardness melted away.

Perhaps Moana was still accustomed to sleeping in the same Talan as her parents despite being viewed as an adult in her people's eyes. It very much looked like the parents of Motunui had very close relationships with their children.

I sighed again as I closed my eyes and allowed sleep to overcome me with the rocking motion of the canoe-boat.

End of Chapter 6

...

Author's Notes:

Links:

Since the 19th century, New Zealand has been dominated by New Zealanders of European descent, mainly of Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as German, Dutch, Scandinavian and South Slavic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_New_Zealanders#History

Appendices:

Roto ( can mean many things, but in this case, the meaning is 'lake' in the Maori dictionary)

http://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=Roto

Lachlan's origin is Scottish and comes from the Gaelic word laochail (war-like), which is from the root laoch (war, strife). Alternatively, it may be from the Irish Lochlainn (Lakeland, Fiordland).