Ariana (Moana)

The Story of Te Fiti's Heart

When the world began, there was only the ocean. It was made of endless waves, with nothing to break their flow—until a beautiful island emerged: the mother island, Te Fiti.

Her heart had the power to create life, and she shared it with the world. The sea and sky filled with birds and fish and plants, and more islands were born—homes for this new life. People, too, come into the world, and everything was in harmony.

But in time, some began to covet Te Fiti's heart, for they thought if they possessed it, the power of creation would be theirs. One day, the most brazen of them all—Luke, a demigod of the wind and sea, a trickster—decided he would find a way to take it. He possessed a magical fishhook that gave him great powers: he could shift his shape into any creature and pull islands up from the depths of the ocean.

Voyaging across the wide sea, Luke traveled to the island of Te Fiti. He used his magical fishhook to take the form of a hawk and swooped down to land in the trees. Once there, he transformed again, this time into a lizard, and scuttled through the emerald-green canopy until he reached the mountain that held the heart of Te Fiti.

The mountain proved impossible to his lizard shape, yet Luke would not give up. Clever Luke chose another form, turning into a beetle. As such, he was able to squeeze through a tiny crack in the rocks and found himself in the sacred space where the heart of Te Fiti glowed.

Shifting into his human shape, Luke crept closer to the bright spiral on Te Fiti's heart. He wielded his fishhook, prying loose the stone at the center and robbing Te Fiti of her heart.

Yet as soon as the stone was removed, the ground began to shake and Luke had to flee, taking form after form—beetle, lizard, and hawk—to avoid the crashing boulders as the mountains tumbled down on him.

He raced across the island, finding that all the trees, flowers, and plants were dying around him.

Without her heart, Te Fiti began to crumble, giving birth to a terrible darkness.

Luke flew off a cliff with a mighty leap, using his hawk shape to reach his boat. He pulled the sail taut, but as he tried to escape the destruction, he was confronted by another who sought the heart: Te Kā, a demon of earth and fire.

Te Kā was a terrifying being, dripping lava, billowing ash, surrounded by rings of flashing lightning. Luke grabbed hold of his fishhook and launched into the air to battle Te Kā, but Te Kā struck him from the sky.

Luke was never seen again. And the darkness continued to spread across the ocean, killing life until the heart of Te Fiti could be restored.