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Moana inhaled deeply. She could feel Motunui's pull like a gentle hand tugging her home. She loved exploring where there was always something on the horizon, a promise of new discovery.
But she also loved coming home.
Things were always the same, yet different. Children sat beneath the thatched roof of the storytelling fale, listening to Moni, the village historian. He told stories of their ancestors, the original voyagers, as well as the newest tale—the one of Moana and Maui, demigod of the Wind and Sea, and their journey to restore the heart of Te Fiti. Farmers worked in the fields, tending to harvests that would feed the village.
Now whenever Moana scanned the ocean beyond the reef, she could see voyagers from her village riding the waves in canoes of their own.
Lifting her eyes, she saw the familiar reef appear, and beyond that, her village. A smile broke across her face when she spotted her father, Chief Tui, racing toward her on his canoe. For a man who had once forbidden her from going past the reef, he now spent quite a lot of time beyond it himself. A moment later, his canoe crested a wave and splashed down near hers.
“Race ‘the chief' to shore?”he asked with a smile.
“Aw, Dad,”Moana replied, teasing.“It's never much of a race.”
Before he could argue, she was off, steering her canoe over the breakers and toward home. Behind her she heard her father's laughter as the air whipped her thick brown hair around her face.
Moments later, her canoe raced up onto the sand. Moana didn't even wait for it to come to a complete stop before she jumped off. As the villagers came down to greet her, she began to unload her canoe, revealing the treasures she had collected on her most recent journey: A heavy basket of strangely shaped fruit. An enormous clam.
“Coming through, coming through!”Moana's friend Loto shouted with her axe-like tool, called an adze, in hand. She pushed past the other villagers and skidded to a halt. Loto was always moving, always inventing, always thinking. When Moana had returned to the village three years before, it had changed everything. People wanted boats and new ways to fish. Loto was happy to use her smarts to help. Now the girl's eyes ping-ponged between Moana and the canoe.
“New canoe. How'd she hold up?”Loto asked.“Lay it on me.”
Moana paused. She knew that Loto would take to heart whatever she said. And try to fix it. Immediately. She eyed Loto's adze.“I mean,”she began,“it takes a bit to rotate the sail, but—”
“Got it!”Loto didn't let her finish. Before Moana could stop her, Loto had jumped onto the canoe and cut down the mast with her adze.
Moana bit back a laugh. At least she knew that Loto would build her something better. Glancing around to make sure no one had been hit by the suddenly falling mast, Moana saw her father pulling his own boat to shore. Hopping off, he made his way over.
“So, how'd it go this time?”he asked.
Something between pride and relief filled Moana. She had been searching for so long, and now . . . She pulled out the piece of pottery and handed it to her father. As he examined it, she filled him in on what had happened.“There was a stack of stones, by a mountain—well, I fell off the mountain—but then . . . This isn't from our village. I don't even know what it's made of, but it's proof.”She stopped and caught her breath. Then she nodded at the carvings.“Dad, there are other people out there. And now we know where. And that island”—she pointed to the island depicted on the pottery—“I think that's where I'm gonna find them. I just have to figure out how to find those stars.”
Chief Tui smiled. He thought maybe Moana should get some rest. He loved her enthusiasm, but she seemed overexcited, and she was still his daughter. He wanted to take care of her. Before he could suggest it, a loud shriek pierced the air.
“MOANA!”
A moment later, a young girl burst onto the beach, bulldozing her way through the gathered villagers.
Moana's face broke into a huge grin.“Little sis!”she said, pulling the girl up into her arms and tightly squeezing her.
“BIG SIS!”three-year-old Simea said back, her smile mirroring Moana's. Then she frowned and pouted her little lips. She grabbed Moana's face and gave her a staredown.“You were gone forever.”
Moana held back a laugh. Simea could be dramatic. Yet coming home to her was one of the things Moana loved most.“It was three days, but I missed you every—”
Simea didn't let her finish.“What did you bring me?”
“Bring you?”Moana repeated.
“You said you'd bring me a present.”
Moana tapped her chin, as if trying to remember.“Huh . . . Well, let me see . . . ”Then, with a triumphant smile, she lifted up the piece of pottery she had found and showed her sister.
Simea was not impressed.“What does it do?”she asked.
Moana didn't answer. It would be pointless to try to explain to Simea what the object meant. She was only three years old, after all.
Moana needed to show her.
Entering the cavern of the ancestors, Moana felt the same rush of excitement she had the first time she ever saw the huge space filled with ancient canoes. Then she had been an untried wayfinder who'd felt the ocean's call but hadn't answered it. Now? Now she was a skilled voyager who had befriended a demigod. Even so, this place would never stop making her heart soar.
Beside her, she felt her little sister's excitement bubbling over. Simea was bouncing on her toes. Her hands covered her eyes, but she couldn't wait a second longer. Simea peeked through her fingers.
Her little jaw dropped as she took in the cavern for the first time.“Whoa,”Simea whispered.
“This is a place of our ancestors, where I learned our people were voyagers . . . ”Moana smiled, watching her sister take it all in. A few years ago, she had worn the same expression herself.“Where Gramma showed me who we are.”Her voice hitched slightly at the mention of her grandmother. She still missed her.
Simea's eyes lit up. She knew this story.“Gramma, she said you grab Maui by the ear and tell him, ‘I am Moana of Motunui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Te Fiti.' ”
Simea's serious expression was so adorable that Moana had to hold back a smile.“Pretty good,”Moana admitted.
“Yeah,”Simea said smugly as she plopped down on the canoe and stared over at the far cavern wall. An image of Te Fiti was carved into the stone.“How long did it take?”she asked.
“Few weeks,”Moana answered, sitting down beside her.
“Weeks?”Simea repeated dramatically.“That's longer than forever!”
Moana chuckled.“I know. But it was important. And if I hadn't gone, I never would've become a wayfinder. Like our ancient chiefs.”She pointed her finger toward more images carved into the walls, depicting more of Motunui's history.
Her eyes moved wistfully over the carvings, landing on one depicting the last great navigator, Tautai Vasa. Despite its age, the carving still seemed to gleam, as if lit from inside with the energy of the skilled voyager. Holding Simea's hand, Moana walked along, viewing the other images, other stories told through the art. There were Te Kā and Te Fiti. Great and fearsome monsters roaming the ocean. Like the tapa that hung in Moni's storytelling fale.
These images and the stories Moana's grandmother had once told had helped inspire her original journey. And she felt in her bones that they were pushing her toward a new one now. Beside her, Simea stared up at the images, awe on her little face.
“Before Maui stole Te Fiti's heart . . . and darkness spread”—Moana couldn't help lowering her voice, adopting the tone Gramma Tala used to take when she told the story of their ancestors—“Tautai Vasa wanted to connect our island to all the people of the entire ocean.”
Simea's eyes went wide.
“And as a wayfinder, it's my job to finish what he started.”Moana held up the piece of pottery she had brought back from her latest voyage.“And this is my first clue how.”Her voice drifted off, the immense weight of what she had said heavy on her shoulders. It would mean everything to her to be the voyager Tautai Vasa had once been.
Simea waited a beat and then scrunched up her nose, breaking the seriousness of the moment.“You should make Maui do it, so you can stay with me!”
“Well, if he ever shows up and you finally get to meet him, you grab him by the ear and tell him that.”Her eyes darted to the image of Maui carved into the wall. She hadn't seen him since her return to Motunui, and she missed him. Not that she would admit it out loud.
Besides, he was probably very busy doing important demigod stuff.
Wherever he was.