Heihei pecked around but kept missing the bits of food.
Moana made it all the way to the top of the funnel cliff. When she reached the opening, she thrust her body out, feet first. From the cliff, she spotted Maui in the ocean below and sprinted ahead. Then she yelled like a warrior and fearlessly jumped off the rocky overhang toward him. But Moana fell short and belly-flopped into the water.
“I could watch that all day,” Maui said. “Okay, enjoy the island. Maui out!” Maui trimmed the sail, or moved the sails so they got the most wind, and took off, leaving Moana in his wake.
Moana swam after him but was not getting any closer to the boat. “No!” she yelled. “Stop! HEY! You have to put back the heart—stop! Maui! MAUI!”
Just then, the ocean sucked Moana underwater and dragged her toward Maui at turbo speed. It carried her all the way to the boat, lifted her up, and dumped her on board. She stood there dripping wet as she and Maui stared at each other, shocked.
“Did not see that coming,” said Maui.
Moana boldly faced Maui and started her speech. “I am Moana of Motunui. This is my canoe, and you will journey to Te Fiti—”
Moana screeched as Maui picked her up and tossed her overboard. Mini Maui popped back up, mad at him. “Get over it,” Maui said to the tattoo figure. “We’ve gotta move.”
But before Maui could start sailing—floomp!—the ocean tossed Moana back onto the front of the boat.
“And she’s back,” said Maui.
“I am Moana of Motunuiiii—”
Maui dug the oar into the water, putting on the brakes, which caused Moana to fall off again. In a flash, the ocean put her right back onto the boat.
“It was Moana, right?” said Maui, wearing a deadpan expression.
“Yes, and you will restore the heart—” she said, holding the heart out to Maui. He grabbed it and threw it a mile out to sea.
Whack! The ocean threw it right back, knocking Maui in the head. He looked at Moana. “Okay, I’m out,” he said, diving over the side.
But just as he hit the water, the sea threw him back onto the boat. “OH, COME ON!” he shouted. The ocean splashed him in the face.
“What is your problem?” said Moana. “Are…you afraid of it?” She held the heart closer to Maui, and he backed up.
“No,” Maui said, chuckling nervously. “No, I’m not afraid.”
Mini Maui disagreed, nodding and nervously biting his fingernails to show Moana the truth: Maui was definitely afraid of the heart.
Maui scowled at the tattoo. “Stay out of it, or I will put you on my butt,” he said. Then he turned to Moana. “Stop it. That’s not a heart; it’s a curse. Second I took it, I got blasted outta the sky and lost my hook. Get it away.”
“Get this away?” Moana said, taunting him, inching the heart closer and closer. She was thoroughly enjoying seeing him squirm. “I am a demigod; I will smite you,” said Maui, dodging her. “You wanna get smote? Smoten? Agh! Listen to me—that thing doesn’t create life; it’s a homing beacon of death. You don’t put it away, bad things will come for it!”
“Come for this? The heart? You mean THIS HEART RIGHT HERE?”
Maui was getting worried and stammered as she waved it around his face. “Hey—will ya—cut it—” Fed up, he faced Moana and firmly said, “You’re gonna get us killed.”
“No, I’m gonna get us to Te Fiti so you can put it back. Thank you,” said Moana. Then, deepening her voice to mimic Maui, she said, “You’re welcome.”
Thunk! A huge spear soared through the air and sank into the side of their boat, barely missing Heihei. The clueless rooster started pecking at it. Moana and Maui looked around to see where the spear had come from. Through the fog, they could barely make out a large silhouette….Whatever it was, it was getting closer.
“Kakamora,” sighed Maui.
“Kaka—what?” asked Moana.
“Kakamora. Murdering little pirates. Wonder what they’re here for,” he said sarcastically, giving Moana an irritated look.
As the Kakamora approached, Moana saw a strange-looking, island-sized vessel. A little warrior in coconut armor stood on top of it, and then two more warriors ran up to join him. They knocked on their shells with their knuckles, communicating with each other in snappy little beats.
“They’re…kinda…cute?” said Moana, confused.
The coconut warriors used their fingers to paint red angry faces on their shells, and big bass drums sounded as their chief beat out a thunderous rhythm. The chief aimed a battle-ax at the heart of Te Fiti in Moana’s hand, and the Kakamora immediately started loading dozens of spears into their catapults.
“What do we do?” Moana asked, looking to the ocean. “Do something! Help us!”
“Good luck,” said Maui. “The ocean doesn’t help you; you help yourself!”
Maui rushed to the back of the boat. “Tighten the yard! Bind the stays!” he yelled. Moana stood, confused, and Maui looked at her incredulously. “You can’t sail?”
“I…uh…I am self-taught,” said Moana. “Can’t you shape-shift or something?”
“You see my hook? Hello?” said Maui. “No hook, no powers!”
The Kakamora took aim and shot their spears through the air, sinking them into the side of the boat. The spears had ropes tethered to them, and the giant vessel started to reel them in!
The chief knocked on his shell, drumming out another order, and the Kakamora’s vessel separated into three!
“Their boat is TURNING INTO MORE BOATS!” said Moana, panicking.
Suddenly, dozens of Kakamora warriors jumped onto the ropes and zip-lined toward them. One by one, Maui pulled the spears out before the coconut bandits could make it across. Meanwhile, Moana struggled, trying with all her might to pull out one of the spears.
Finally, she yanked it from the mast of the ship and smiled smugly at Maui. “Yup, I just did that,” she bragged.
Bonk! A Kakamora landed on her head. There was a spear high up on the mast that neither of them had seen! In a flash, the Kakamora army descended on them, knocking Moana to the deck. The heart of Te Fiti fell from her necklace. Moana scrambled for it as it rolled across the hull, but Heihei got to it first and gobbled it up with one peck!
“Heihei!” Moana shouted. The Kakamora grabbed Heihei and raced back up the mast. Moana tried to reach them, but the Kakamora held the rope and cut it, swinging back to their main vessel. “They took the heart!” Moana yelled.
Maui looked at the Kakamora holding Heihei. “That is a chicken.”
“The heart’s in the—” Moana started, but realized there was no time to explain. “We have to get him back!” she urged.
Two more Kakamora vessels were coming their way. Maui jumped to the other side of the boat, causing it to flip up and sail back toward the main vessel. “Chee-hoo!” he yelled.
Moana watched in awe, amazed and impressed by Maui’s bold move. She spotted the Kakamora holding Heihei, boarding the main vessel. Moana pointed them out to Maui, but Maui veered to the side. She realized he was not trying to get to Heihei—he was trying to escape!
“What are you doing?” shouted Moana. “The heart!”
“Forget it, you’ll never get it back!” said Maui. “Besides, you got a better one.” He grinned, holding up the oar he had autographed with a heart and a fishook. Moana grabbed the oar right out of Maui’s hands and jumped onto the main vessel as they passed.
“Hey—what am I gonna steer with?” Maui shouted, annoyed. “THEY’RE JUST GONNA KILL YA!” he added, calling after her.
Moana leapt up to a higher level of the vessel and came face to face with a wall of Kakamora. A devious smile crept across her face. “Coconuts…” she said, formulating a plan as she moved.
Whack! She used her oar to bat them aside as she raced across the vessel, knocking down each one in her path. On the other side of the boat, Moana spotted a warrior presenting his chief with Heihei. After whacking more coconuts out of her way, she whizzed by the
chief, snatched Heihei, and kept on running.
The Kakamora ran after her, shooting blow darts. One accidentally hit their chief and knocked him unconscious. The guilty warrior shuffled his feet sheepishly as his partner gave him a scolding shove with his elbow.
Gripping her oar in one hand and Heihei in the other, Moana sprinted toward a rope. She put Heihei in her mouth and leapt onto the rope, swinging all the way to the other side of the boat. As more Kakamora warriors approached, she grabbed one of their roped spears and threw it at her boat, sticking it into its side. Then she jumped up and wrapped her oar over the rope. Holding on, she used it to zip-line across, launching herself into the air toward Maui and the canoe.
Moana landed on top of Maui and triumphantly held up Heihei, who puked up the heart. “Got it!” she said proudly, catching the heart in her hand. She looked around and noticed that they were surrounded by Kakamora boats. “Oh.”
Maui grabbed the oar and pulled the sail. The Kakamora continued to shoot blow darts at them, but Maui expertly sailed and maneuvered the boat through a small gap. Maui and Moana escaped just in time, the Kakamora boats colliding with each other as they tried to cut off their exit!
“Woo-hoo!” cheered Moana, watching the Kakamora boats sink. “Come on…let me hear it….” Moana waited, expecting to hear big compliments from Maui.
“Congratulations on not being dead,” Maui said. “You surprised me, Curly,” he added warmly. Then he quickly changed his tune. “But I’m still not taking that thing back.”
Moana stared at Maui, unwilling to take no for an answer.
“You wanna get to Te Fiti, you gotta go through a whole ocean of bad—not to mention Te Kā,” said Maui. “Lava monster? Ever defeat a lava monster?” He showed her his tattoo of Te Kā.
“No,” said Moana casually. “Have you?”
Mini Maui winced and gave Moana a check mark on a little tattoo scorecard. Maui looked at Moana, unamused. “I’m not going on a suicide mission with some…mortal. You can’t restore the heart without me…and me says no. I’m getting my hook.”
Maui sat down, and Moana looked at him and all of his tattoos, recognizing that the best way to manipulate the demigod was by playing to his giant ego. “You’d be a hero,” she said, sitting down next to him as he rifled through her supplies and pulled out a banana. “That’s what you’re all about, right?”
“Little girl,” said Maui, peeling the banana, “I am a hero.” He took a big bite.
“Maybe you were….But now—now you’re just the guy who stole the heart of Te Fiti…the guy who cursed the world. You’re no one’s hero.” Moana grabbed the half-eaten banana from Maui and finished it.
Maui scoffed. “No one?” He looked out at the ocean, and it drew up a wave and moved back and forth, as if shaking its head.
Moana held up the heart. “But put the heart back? Save the world? You’d be everyone’s hero.” Moana whispered in his ear, mimicking the cheer of a crowd, “MAUI, MAUI, MAUI!” As she chanted, Mini Maui and a crowd of tattoos jumped up and down, pretending to be great fans.
Maui got lost in the idea for a moment and then swatted her away like a gnat. “We’d never make it past Te Kā. Not without my hook,” he said, dismissing the idea.
“Then we get it,” said Moana. “We get your hook, take out Te Kā, restore the heart.” She extended her hand. “Unless you don’t wanna be Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, hero to…all.”
Maui considered it and looked at Mini Maui, who was jumping up and down with excitement. Maui placed a finger on him and scooted him onto his back again. “We get my hook first,” he said.
Moana nodded. “Then save the world. Deal?” She extended her hand to shake on it.
“Deal.” He took Moana’s hand and swiftly chucked her overboard. The ocean lifted her right back onto the boat.
Maui shrugged. “Worth a shot.”
Maui put a hand up to the night sky, positioning the stars in the curve of his hand and between his fingers to create a guide. Reading it like a map, he measured the distance between the stars and the horizon. He put his other hand in the ocean to feel the direction of the current. Moana watched, fascinated, as he figured out which way to go.
“We go east, to the lair of Tamatoa,” said Maui. “If anyone has my hook, it’s that beady-eyed bottom-feeder.”
With one mighty pull, Maui filled the sail with air and the boat jerked, forcing Moana to hang on tightly. Maui swung the sail around and then quickly tied a knot.
Intrigued, Moana watched his every move, eager to learn. “Teach me to sail,” she said, inches away from his face.
“Wayfind, princess. What I do is called wayfinding, and it’s not just sails and knots; it’s seeing where you’re going in your mind…knowing where you are by knowing where you’ve been….”
“Okay, first, not a princess. I am the daughter of the chief—”
“Same difference.”
“No—”
“If girls want to wear your dress, you’re a princess—you are not a wayfinder. You will never be a wayfinder. You will never be a wayfinder,” Maui said as if he were stating three separate facts.
Maui picked up Moana and placed her in the cargo hold with Heihei. Then the ocean spit out one of the Kakamora’s poisonous darts and sank it right into Maui’s butt.
“Really?” Maui said to the ocean. “Blow dart in my butt cheek?”
Maui crumpled to the deck in a heap. Everything but his head was paralyzed. Moana smiled.
“You are a bad person,” said Maui, with his face smooshed against the floor of the boat.
“If you can talk, you can teach,” said Moana. “Wayfinding, lesson one…Hit it.”
Maui grunted in protest.
“Untie the halyard,” said Maui. Moana chose a rope and began to untie it. “Not the halyard,” said Maui bluntly. She tried another rope, and Maui said, “Nope.” Each rope she tried was the wrong one.
Moments later, Moana stretched her arm up and raised her hand to the sky as she tried to read the stars. She moved her hand back and forth, trying to get it right. “You’re measuring stars, not giving the sky a high five,” Maui said with disgust.
Moana put her hand in the water. “If the current’s warm, you’re going the right way,” said Maui.
“It’s cold….Wait, it’s getting warmer!”
Maui cackled.
“Ew, disgusting! What is wrong with you?” said Moana, whipping her hand out of the water.
Moana continued into the night, trying her best to follow Maui’s instructions.
The next morning, Moana saw that they were approaching a beautiful green island. “We’re here? Maui? See? Told you I could do it!” she said excitedly.
Maui snored. He was fast asleep. Moana looked at the island and realized it was Motunui. “Motunui…but…I’m home?” she said, confused.
Then, right before her eyes, the lush island turned black, and everything started to shrivel and die. She could see Tui and Sina standing on the island as it deteriorated. They looked terrified and were calling to her for help, but she couldn’t get to them.
Moana jerked awake and caught her breath. She looked around, thankful that the whole vision had just been a bad dream.
“Enjoy your beauty rest?” asked Maui sarcastically. The blow dart’s effects had finally worn off and he was up and about again. “A real wayfinder never sleeps, so they actually get where they need to go.”
A large seabird squawked as it flew overhead, catching Moana’s and Maui’s attention. They watched as it flapped toward a huge, towering, rock-spired island that stretched into the blue sky.
“Muscle up, buttercup,” said Maui. “We’re here.” The boat reached the rocky shore at the base of the spire, and Maui tied it up.
“You sure this guy’s gonna have your hook?” Moana asked.
“Tamatoa? He’ll have it. He’s a scavenger. Collects stuff, thinks it makes him look cool.”
Maui sprinkled a pile of seeds i
n front of Heihei, still hoping to fatten him up. Heihei pecked away, missing each and every one. Maui placed him in front of a seed and pushed his head down, starting him up like a little toy. Heihei bobbed up and down, pecking at the seed.
“And he lives up there?” asked Moana, staring up at the mile-high spire.
Maui chuckled. “What? Oh no, that’s just the entrance. To Lalotai.”
“Lalotai? Realm of monsters?” Moana asked nervously. “We’re going to the realm of monsters?”
“We? No. Me. You’re going to stay here…with the other chicken. Bagock!” Maui held up a hand to Mini Maui, expecting a high five. “Gimme some,” he said. But the tattoo didn’t respond. “Nothing?” Giving up, Maui jumped onto the cliff wall and began to climb, talking to Mini Maui along the way. “How do you not get it? I called her a chicken; there’s a chicken on the boat. I know she’s human, but—never mind, I’m not explaining it to you.” Maui eyed Mini Maui and added, “’Cause then it’s not funny!”
Moana watched, annoyed, as Maui scaled the spire. She was not about to let him tell her where to stay or what to do. Moana held her necklace close for courage as she prepared to follow Maui to Lalotai.
Maui made scaling the vertical cliff look simple as he climbed higher and higher. Before long, two hands appeared next to him, straining to keep pace. Maui rolled his eyes when he saw Moana but wasn’t surprised that she had followed him. Moana breathed heavily as she jumped to catch rock after rock, pulling herself up the spire.
“So, ‘daughter of the chief,’” said Maui as he climbed, “thought you stayed in the village kissing babies. I’m just trying to understand why your people decided to send—um—you.”
“My people didn’t send me,” said Moana, reaching toward another rock. “The ocean did.”
“Right. The ocean. Makes sense: you’re what…eight? Can’t sail. Obvious choice.”
Moana was aware of Maui’s sarcasm.“It chose me for a reason,” she said.
Moana Junior Novel Page 4