Moana

Chapter Eighteen

Moana was all alone.

She had just sent Aukai's body adrift at sea before it sank into a watery tomb. Maui left, caring more about his hook than the world.

"Why did you bring me here?" Moana asked the sea as it looked down at her. She lost so much. She couldn't go on.

"I'm not the right person," she continued as she held the heart up. "You have to choose someone else. Choose someone else. Please."

Bending down, the ocean picked up the heart and let it sink to the bottom.

Tears fell down Moana's face as she sank to her knees to sob. Maui was right. She believed the ocean told her she was special and she wasn't. That belief cost Aukai his life. It was all her fault.

She never should've left Motunui.

Just then, a giant manta ray, glowing with blue light, swam up to the boat, circling it. Moana stopped crying as she followed the creature with her eyes. As she checked under the boat, the manta vanished.

"You're a long ways past the reef," a familiar voice said.

Looking up, Moana saw her grandmother sitting at the boat's bow. A kind smile was on her face, a ghostly blue light surrounded her body.

"Gramma?" Moana asked.

"Guess I chose the right tattoo," Tala said. It was really her.

"Gramma!" Moana cried as she fell into Tala's arms, tears falling from her eyes.

"I tried, Gramma," Moana sobbed. "I... I couldn't do it. Aukai..."

"It's not your fault," Tala said as she wiped her granddaughter's tears. "I never should have put so much on your shoulders. And I never should've made Aukai make that promise with his life.

"If you are ready to go home... I will be with you."

Choking back sobs, Moana made her way to the back of the boat. Picking up her oar, she was ready to go home.

So why did she stop herself from beginning the journey?

"Why do you hesitate?" Tala asked.

"I don't know," Moana answered. Smiling, Tala began to sing, causing Moana to turn to face her.

"I know a girl from an island

"She stands apart from the crowd

"She loves the sea and her people

"She makes her whole family proud

"Sometimes the world seems against you

"The journey may leave a scar

"But scars can heal and reveal just

"Where you are

"The people you love will change you

"The things you have learned will guide you

"And nothing on Earth can silence

"The quiet voice still inside you

"And when that voice starts to whisper

"Moana, you've come so far

"Moana, listen

"Do you know who you are?"

"Who am I?" Moana asked as she began singing.

"I am a girl who loves my island

"And the girl who loves the sea

"It calls me

"I am the daughter of the village chief

"We are descended from voyagers

"Who found their way across the world

"They call me!"

As she continued to sing, Moana felt herself smiling as ghostly boats holding her ancestors sailed past. The chief even acknowledged her as he continued his journey.

"I've delivered us to where we are

"I have journeyed farther

"I am everything I've learned and more

"Still it calls me

"And the call isn't out there at all

"It's inside me

"It's like the tide

"Always falling and rising

"I will carry you here in my heart

"You remind me

"That come what may

"I know the way

"I am Moana!"

After a final farewell with her grandmother, Moana dove into the sea, swimming towards the faint green light of Te Fiti's heart.

Bursting through the ocean's surface, Moana held the heart over her head in victory, but Tala and her ancestors had all vanished, leaving Moana alone in the night.

Looking at the heart, she knew what she had to do. She began repairing the boat, ready to finish her mission.

Once she was done, Moana looked at Aukai's cutlass, leaning against the mast. Determined, she tied the sword to her waist with a spare rope. He would be with her when she returned the heart.

As she did all this, Moana's mission echoed in her mind.

'I am Moana of Motunui. Aboard my boat, I will sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Fiti.'