Moana

Chapter Thirteen

Just then, the face's mouth opened, revealing a long tunnel down right to the base of the mountain, a glowing portal awaited at the bottom.

"Don't worry... it's a lot farther down than it looks," Maui said helpfully. He then shouted, "Cheeeehoooo!" as he jumped down the tunnel, curling himself tight into a ball.

Moana and Aukai just watched in shock. That was a death sentence.

"I am still falling!" Maui shouted before splashing into the portal.

"See you down there," Aukai said to Moana, giving her a wink. Jumping up, Aukai snapped his legs together and his arms at his sides as he fell.

"You can do this," Moana said to herself after Aukai splashed through the portal. "Go!"

She jumped in and the stone face closed.

——

After falling into the water, Moana saw incredible things.

Lights swirled around her as she pulled herself forward into a drive, swimming down the tunnel of light. Ahead of her, she saw Aukai, still in his stick dive, and Maui, who was still curled up like a cannonball.

Maui then burst through the water in the sky, free-falling into the realm of monsters, which heavily resembled a jungle. Grabbing a vine, he flipped into the air before landing on the blue sand.

"And he sticks the landing," Maui said to himself before turning to Mini-Maui, who had pulled up the scoreboard. "Huh?"

Mini-Maui just gave Moana and Aukai another point.

"What?" Maui asked. "Dum-dum, they're not even here. No mortal would ever jump into the realm of..."

Mini-Maui pointed up.

Following his tattoo's thumb, Maui came face-to-butt with both Aukai and Moana. Their bodies bounced off of his and down into the canyon.

Maui and Mini-Maui both glanced over the edge to see.

"Well, they're dead," Maui confirmed. "Okay, let's get my hook."

——

When Moana woke up, she found herself and Aukai hanging upside down.

Looking up, she saw they were caught in a monster's spongy tongue. And it was pulling them into its mouth.

"What's going on?" Aukai groaned as he woke up.

"Aukai!" Moana said. Noticing his arms were pinned by the tongue, she reached for his cutlass. It felt awkward in her hand, but she swung the sharp end across the tongue, slicing it off just before they were pulled into the monster's mouth.

The two landed with a thud before scrambling out of the dismembered tongue.

"Ew! Ew, ew, ew, ew," Moana said as she and Aukai, who sheathed his sword, began running for cover. Monster bats swooped overhead.

"Other way, other way!" Aukai shouted, drawing his blade. They took cover by some rocks as the bats flew over them.

Moana and Aukai held each other close until the bats all flew away. After realizing they were in each other's arms, they pulled away to inspect their surroundings.

The ocean was somehow over their heads and strange, glowing plants surrounded them. Creatures growled as they minded their own business.

One creature, which was like a four-armed sloth with a glowing mask, kept towards them before getting blasted up into the sea by a geyser.

"Uh, Moana?" Aukai asked. Moana followed his gaze. Right behind them was a giant clam shell with the inside glowing gold.

Peeking inside, they saw a giant pile of treasure. Shiny gold all heaped together into the center of the cave. On top of the treasure pile was a curved piece of bone. A handle of bone wrapped around the bottom. Etched into the white surface were strange designs.

"Is that..." Aukai began to ask.

"Maui's fish hook," Moana confirmed.

"Yeah," a voice said before Moana punched the owner.

She gasped as she saw it was Maui.

"Sorry," Moana apologized as a glaring Maui picked her up by the head and Aukai by his jacket. "I thought you were a monster."

"But check it out," Aukai added. "We found your hook. And, you were right, this Tamatoa character really likes treasure..."

"Stay," Maui said as he dropped the teens, they tried to argue, but he just spoke. "Listen. For a thousand years, I've only been thinking of keeping this hair silky, getting my hook, and being awesome again."

He began tying his hair in a bun as he continued.

"And it's not getting screwed up by a couple of mortals who have no business inside of a monster cave, except..."

Maui stopped. Lying on the ground were shiny shells. He had an idea.

"Except... maybe as bait."

"Huh?" Moana asked.

"I don't like this," Aukai admitted.