The Heart of Te Fiti

Maui's Past

"We're alive!" Ari gasps, quickly rising and pulling me up. He laughs, hugging me and twirling me around as I squeal in alarm. "We're alive!"

He sets me down as I laugh, my gaze shifting behind him. My eyes widen as a yelp escapes me, Ari turning in confusion and shouting in alarm as he recoils back.

Maui stood with a regretful expression... But with a shark head.

"Listen," Maui sighs heavily, his flippers waving awkwardly at his sides. "I, uh, appreciate what you two did down there."

"Mm-hmm," Ari hums, awkwardly looking around as I continue to stare at Maui with wide eyes while nodding.

"Took guts."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."

"I'm sorry," Maui raises a brow, looking between us. "I'm trying to be sincere for once and it feels like you're distracted."

"No! No. No way," Ari waves off, resting his cheek in his palm.

Maui glances at me as I force a quick smile, looking at him oddly no doubt.

"Really? Because she's looking at me like I have a--" Maui looks down, gasping when he sees his flipper.

He slaps around his face, sighing heavily as he touches his nose.

"Shark head."

"Uh..." I trail off, Ari letting out a laugh.

"What? Do you have a shark head?" He feigns surprise, "cause I didn't--"

"Look, the point is," Maui interrupts, looking down and kicking a rock around. "For a couple of children who had no business being down there..."

Ari leans back as Maui stands in front of us, me doing the same.

"You both did me a solid. But you also almost died." He grunts in annoyance, turning and walking away with slumped shoulders. "And I couldn't even beat that dumb crab. So chances of beating Te Ka?"

Maui plops down in the sand, "bupkis. We're never making it to Te Fiti. This mission is cursed."

"No!" I disagree in a encouraging voice, Ari nodding.

"Yeah, it's not cursed."

Maui turns and looks at us with a deadpan expression. "Shark head."

"Still not cursed," I reply, grabbing his hook while straining lightly.

I hand it to him, making him shapeshift into multiple animals once again. He becomes a large version of Hei Hei, normal Hei Hei approaching.

He clucks, the sound turning into a groan of aggravation as he becomes human once again.

"There we go," Maui nods with a smirk, my gaze noticing something off.

"Maui?"

He looks at me before toppling over, face planting in the sand with a shark bottom as legs.

"Cursed," Maui grumbles, Ari and I looking at one another with uncertainty.

...

"What can I say except, we're dead soon?" 

Maui sings in a monotone, laying on his back and staring at the stars as Ari steers the ship.

"Oh, come on," I try to encourage, making him blankly look over at me. "Try again."

Maui sighs, slowly raising his hand to his hook resting besides him. "Giant hawk."

He taps it, shapeshifting into many animals, none a hawk, before switching into his human self.