Whare Potae (The House of Mourning)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Maui looked sort of startled, then shrugged dully and said, "Uh...yeah, you're not exactly what I expected either."

Grandma cackled, then gave Maui a hearty slap on the back and released him, nodding at Moana.

"This one," she leaned in and whispered to Moana, "is going to be a handful. Good for you, girl, and good luck. It's not every woman who can say she's bagged a demigod, you know! Hah!"

Moana flushed, shaking her head emphatically.

"Grandma," she insisted, "I, uh, think you've got it wrong. Maui and I aren't...I mean, we're not exactly...right? Maui? Hey, back me up, here!"

Moana had expected Maui to object to Grandma's obvious and embarrassing mistake right away, but instead he was just watching Moana's face expectantly with an eyebrow raised, like he was just as interested in her answer as Grandma was.

"Uhhhh....aaaaanyway." Moana coughed. "Really great to see you, Grandma, but I think we'd better get going."

"All right then." Grandma shrugged. "Don't be strangers, now...although I suppose it won't be too long before we're neighbors. No rush, of course, don't you worry. I'm not going anywhere." Again, she grinned.

Moana looked at Maui, who opened his mouth to say something, but then apparently changed his mind. Raising his fish hook over his head, he took a deep breath shut his eyes, and muttered, more to himself than to Moana, "well...she said it would still work. At least...I think she did. Here's hoping."

"Wait," began Moana, "what's that supposed to-?"

Maui swung the fish hook, and then, in a flash, he transformed into a shark, catching the hook in his mouth as it fell. Glancing down at his own fins with some concern in his eyes, he swam in a quick circle, swished his tail experimentally, and then nodded, looking relieved.

"Oh," murmured Grandma, no longer smiling. "Look...you're bleeding."

Maui tried hastily to wipe his bleeding right fin off on a nearby bit of coral, but he wasn't fast enough. Moana saw the five little puncture wounds in the fin, and wondered if maybe he'd scratched himself during a transformation, maybe with his own talons, just like he'd raked her back when he'd carried her in hawk form.

"Go on, Moana," encouraged Grandma, giving Moana a friendly shove towards Maui. "Looks like your ride is here."

Maui held out his left fin to Moana, and she took a quick look over it to make sure that it, too, wasn't injured. Then she hung on tight, kicking aggressively with her legs as Maui propelled them both up to the surface and out of Rarohenga.

Hopefully, thought Moana fervently, this will be the very last time.

They broke the surface near the beach of Maui's island, and found the brand-new canoe they had made, re-floated and apparently totally undamaged, waiting for them.

"Huh," said Maui, once he'd climbed into the boat and had returned to his human form. "Looks like the ocean ended up on our side after all. How'd you win it over?"

Moana shrugged.

I told it the truth," she said. "I helped it understand why I wasn't the enemy...how we were really still allies after all. That said, I wouldn't be too grateful for the ocean's help. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the ocean, I'd probably have made it down there a LOT sooner."

A jet of water jumped suddenly out of the sea, smacking Moana directly in the face. She spluttered, shook her curls, and then held up her hands in a gesture of apology.

"Okay, okay! And the ocean was responsible for getting that cloak off the Turehu girl, and coming up with the sand idea to help me sneak past the taniwha, so obviously, it played a huge part in your rescue, let's be fair."