Te Kakau (Orion's Belt)

Te Kakao (Orion's Belt)

Author's Note: This story is the direct sequel to a Moana fic I wrote called Whare Potae. If you haven't read that story yet, this one may not make a lot of sense, so I strongly encourage you to please go and look up that story before you read this one.

I am writing this chapter from the road to New York City, which is rather bumpy, thus making it difficult to type. I'd like to do a little work, though, so I'll give it a try.

Oh, and I have a rather presumptuous request for you all, please; several of you have left me comments or sent me messages indicating that you've been inspired to draw Moana fanart after reading my story. I can't begin to tell you how deeply that touches me. If you have drawn a piece of fanart based around this story, I would be so honored if you would message me and show me your work. I would love to display it or link it on my website for the world to see (with proper credit and a link to your page, of course) if you'd be willing to share. I have one that I'm saving up to show you in the next chapter, but I can't post it from the road. Stay tuned!

I took a look at my inbox before I headed out today, and I can see that I have several messages from you that I haven't answered yet. I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long. If you've been waiting for a reply, thank you so much for your patience, and I look forward to being in touch with you very soon, probably on Monday, when I'm back from New York.

Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the story.

Te Kakau

Orion's Belt

By Mercy Slaughter

Prologue

Three weeks after her twenty-first birthday, Moana sailed her favorite canoe back to Motunui, and moored it on the beach just as the sun was beginning to rise again on the horizon. She was bedraggled, exhausted, hungry, and disappointed, and she dragged herself up the beach and crawled into her bed without stopping to speak to anyone.

She'd spent the last several days traveling in a circuit around the local islands, but to no avail. It was the second trip of the kind that she'd taken in the past several weeks, but no matter where she looked or what new tactics she tried, she couldn't find Maui or even figure out where he'd gone. He hadn't been on the island where he'd left his mark years before, and he hadn't been laying low in any of the nearby villages. Moana had eventually been forced to accept that, when he'd decided that a little romantic disappointment was a good enough reason never to come back to Motunui, he must have found or made a boat of his own, somewhere, and had probably set sail for foreign lands.

At this point, she didn't even know where to begin looking.

If I'd left right away, she reminded herself angrily, if I'd gone after him as soon as he'd left, maybe I could have headed him off. Now, I'll probably never find him...unless he decides to come home.

After almost a month, she didn't have much faith in the idea that he was going to just get over his annoyance and come back, the way she'd thought he would at first. She'd misjudged him, and now it was probably too late.

Moana sighed, then shivered, gritted her teeth, and rolled over on her mat. It was strangely cold and unusually quiet in the house, and her parents hadn't been waiting for her when she got home, as she'd been sure they would. No matter how she begged them to remember that she was an adult, now, and fully capable of handling herself on a sea voyage, they were nevertheless always sitting up and watching for her when she came home, relieved that she hadn't been drowned, or eaten by a sea monster, or both.

This time, though, there wasn't a sign of them. Now that she thought about it, Moana had a bad feeling about that.

They don't really get much time to spend together these days, she thought, realizing guiltily that, whenever she went off adventuring or in search of gods and monsters, her parents had to run the village in her stead. Maybe they're having a date night. That'd be nice.