#jadewolf writes

"Oh, now you come back?" the crab had sneered.  It was meant to be threatening, but the intimidation factor was tempered by the dramatic pout Tamatoa was wearing.

And that was about all he was wearing.  All his glittering treasures were gone; his shell bare except for a few bits of flotsam and jetsam--fish bones and mossy rocks and other drab junk.  He was dirty , too.  Maui had never seen the crab so unkempt.  He looked like hell, huddled in the rubble of his lair with his claws crossed petulantly.

"Heeeey," Maui tried, slapping an endearing grin on his face.  "Better late than never.  Right, crabcake?"

Tamatoa shot him a murderous glare.

"You just left me stuck on my back ," he accused.  "I might have died! "

Maui's cheerful front faded and he scowled.  "I seem to remember you trying to eat me first."

Tamatoa sniffed, flicking his antennae with a haughtiness at odds with his bedraggled state.  "That never bothered you before ."

This was getting nowhere.

Maui tried a different tack.  "Look, I just want to talk."

"No," Tamatoa refuted him immediately.  "You want to talk about yourself ."

Maui opened his mouth to object, but the crab wasn't having it.

"Let me guess," Tamatoa continued, crooning with a voice like poisoned honey.  "You went and had another biiiig adventure.  Important demigod stuff ."

"Well, yeah, but--"

Tamatoa cut him off again.  "And you just couldn't wait to brag about it, too."

Maui snorted.  He hadn't only come to brag.  He also needed therapy.

"What?  None of your precious humans would listen anymore?  Tired of your little act already?  Got what they needed and then left you again?"

It was Maui's turn to glare now, but Tamatoa kept pushing.

"So you come running back here?  Tamatoa will listen to you!  Tamatoa will let you trauma dump on him!"

Maui grit his teeth.  "It's not--"

"Then you don't show up for a thousand years without a word.  Not even a note! "

"How would I even--"

"But Nalo tries to kill your little pet and now you want to come talk about your feelings?"

Maui felt like someone had yanked the ground out from under him.  His hook was brandished in front of him, glowing blue, before he even realized he had done it.

"How do you know that?" he demanded, snapping straight to fury.

But the crab was unfazed by his show of anger.  No, Tamatoa smiled .  His eyes narrowed to sly crescents and his lips pulled back from his teeth in a nasty grin.  He'd gotten Maui riled and was enjoying the power that gave him.

"A crab hears things," he said, playing coy even as his every smug feature said otherwise.  "And I heard that Nalo peeled you like a shrimp."

He gave Maui a once over, looking him up and down and taking in the updated state of his tattoos with a sneer.

"Though, I see your tattoos came back anyway."

Maui's initial anger had subsided enough to settle into suspicion.  "And just who told you all this?"

Only now did the crab decide to clam up, offering just a smug smirk in answer.

Maui growled, deep in his throat.

Tamatoa waved him off, cool as a sea cucumber.

"Well, you're here now, minigod ," Tamatoa said, casually dismissive and still ignoring the question.  "So hurry up and get whatever it is off your chest, then get out ."

Maui eyed the crab, but he knew from long experience that he wasn't going to get any answers out of Tamatoa when he was being stubborn like this.

And he really did want to get all this out, too.  That's why he had come all the way down here, after all.

"Fine," he said finally.  " Yes , I was doing demigod stuff .  I was on an important quest ."

Tamatoa rolled his eyes.  "Bo-ring!"

Maui shot him a glare, but continued anyway, "I was trying to reconnect all the humans," he explained.  "It's important! " he stressed, when Tamatoa failed to show proper appreciation for the gravity of his task.

"Blah blah blah," the crab mercilessly mocked.  "Waste of time if you ask me."

"Could you shut up? "

"Nope."

A vein was pulsing in Maui's forehead, but tried to ignore the crab and continue anyway.

"So, there was this sunken island," he tried again through gritted teeth.  "The island of Motu Fetu was a crossroads of sorts, positioned at the confluence of several major ocean currents--"

"Oh, a crossroads island that sank into the sea?  How original .  I wonder how they came up with that? " Tamatoa deadpanned.  "Did you get stuck there, too?"

"No, that was a different island, and--"

"Please.  Spare me the details.  I've heard it all already."

"Will you just let me talk?! "

"Why should I?" the crab snapped back, clicking a claw for emphasis.

Maui wasn't given a chance to answer before Tamatoa continued.

"Here, I'll tell it," the crab oozed.  "Matangi tied your cheeky ass up.  You had to be rescued by humans ."  He grinned, all teeth.  "How did that feel, huh?  The mighty Maui having to be rescued by a bunch of scraggly idiot humans.  Ones even dumber than your pet, even.  What a bring down for the 'Hero of Men'!"

Maui clenched his jaw.  He pointed his hook at the crab.  "Watch it, bottomfeeder," he warned.

"Then you tried to get to that island.  When you failed miserably , your precious little Moana had to step up to do your work for you.  How embarrassing!  Some demigod you are."

He flashed that snide grin again, not letting Maui get a word in edgewise.  "How am I doing so far?  Hitting the mark yet?"

Indignant, Maui tried to defend himself and the humans and everything else.  "You have no idea what--" 

But Tamatoa went for the throat anyway.  "And your incompetence got her killed."

That one hit Maui like a rogue wave.  He found himself struck dumb.

Tamatoa let the silence stretch just long enough.

"What, no witty comeback?" he taunted.  "It took the Ocean and a bunch of dead guys to fix your fuckup.  Turned her into a demigoddess."  He sniffed.  "A waste of good magic, if you ask me."

Then he sneered down at Maui again.

"But it wouldn't be the first time they wasted deification upon some useless piece of carrion."

Temper rising again, Maui's fists clenched.  The vein was pulsing again, too; he could feel it.

"That about cover it, Maui? "  Tamatoa somehow made his name sound worse than any of the insulting nicknames the crab was so fond of coming up with.

"You left out one part," Maui ground out through gritted teeth.

"Oh yeah?  What's that?"

"The part where I kick your crusty ass from here to Vanuatu.  Maybe you'd like to lose another leg?"

Tamatoa scoffed at the threat, flicking his antennae in a way meant to be disdainful.  But just like the crab knew how to push every last one of Maui's buttons, Maui likewise knew when Tamatoa was nervous.  And right now, the crab was shifting his massive weight warily, as if preparing to bolt if Maui attempted to make good on his threat.

Maui let out a heavy sigh, unclenching his fists and letting some of the tension sag out of his stiff frame.

He didn't want to get into another fight.  Once upon a time, he and Tamatoa had been friends.  They used to be able to talk without all this static.  Maui had once confided all his deepest secrets in the crab!

Secrets that the crab had turned against him, not so very long ago, Maui reminded himself.  The crab had just openly aired all Maui's dirty laundry right in front of Moana!

Maui's gaze fell on the cracked stump of Tamatoa's half-missing leg.

Then again, Maui had to admit to himself, he also might have given the crab a few reasons to be so belligerent.

Tamatoa, too observant for his own good, caught the pitying glance and his demeanor immediately went from nervous to blustering anger.  There was a fine line between pity and contempt, where Tamatoa was concerned.  And clearly the crab suspected the latter.

"Oh, so you haven't done enough damage already?" the crab snarled.  "Why don't you just get out of here!  I have better friends than you now!"

That declaration drew Maui up short.  An uneasy feeling settled on him, a prickling of a thought that he very much hoped wasn't true.

"Tamatoa," he began slowly, silently willing Tamatoa to read the concern in his voice and take him seriously.  "Who told you about Moana?"

Once again, the crab fell back upon silent smirking.  There was a slightly wavering edge to it now, though.

"Tell me it wasn't Nalo," Maui said, desperately hoping the crab would say anyone other than the vengeful storm god.  "Please."  It wasn't often he resorted to saying 'please,' either.

The nasty grin on the crab's face held his answer.

"Oh, now you're concerned about me?  I don't buy it.  You found your new friends," Tamatoa sneered, though there was no hiding the bitterness under his words.  "Well, I found some new friends, too."

"Tama--"

"Don't call me that!" the crab snapped back, furiously rejecting Maui's familiarity.

Maui took a deep breath.

"Tama toa ," he tried again, avoiding the old nickname from their friendlier days.  He needed the crab to focus right now.  "You can't trust Nalo.  He's out to destroy the humans and--"

"What do I care about humans? " the crab interrupted.  "Let him!  More treasure for me!"

For once, Maui ignored his inclination to jump to the defense of humans.  

"Damnit, Tamatoa listen to me!  He will kill you!"

For all the petty grievances and bad blood between them, dating back centuries , Maui didn't want to see Tamatoa end up dead.  There was genuine concern in his exasperated plea for the crab to see reason.

"He doesn't like monsters any more than humans," he tried to explain.  "And he doesn't have friends , he's just using you."

Tamatoa barked a laugh.  "Sounds like someone else I know!  Sounds more like you! "

Maui ran a frustrated hand over his face.  All those centuries of bitter animosity, stoked just as much by Maui himself as by Tamatoa, were coming back to bite him now--now, when he desperately needed the crab to just trust him for a minute like he used to.

But they had burned out their trust eons ago.  They both bore the evidence of that loss, Tamatoa on the shattered end of his leg and Maui on his back, with the one tattoo that liked to hide from the world--the one where he had fought his old best friend.

"Please, Tamatoa," he tried one more time.  "I know you're mad at me and I'm sorry you feel that way.  But, can't you put it behind you for half a minute and---"

"No!" the crab shot back with sudden fury, not letting him finish.  There was a seething edge to his voice, somehow even angrier than before, as if something Maui said had set him off further.  "I can't!  Now get lost! "

And with that, the crab lunged at him, both claws snapping.  There was real intent behind the attack, not merely a show of force.  Maui barely dodged in time, jumping clear with only inches to spare.  No sooner had he landed, than Tamatoa launched a second attack that Maui also had to rapidly evade.

Maui didn't know what to do.  His old friend just wasn't listening anymore and he absolutely did not want to get into a fight with him.

With a flash of his hook, Maui took to the air as a hawk.  He hovered out of the crab's considerable reach.

"Ok, ok!  I'm leaving!" he told his old friend.  There wasn't much more he could do at the moment but leave.  "Just… please think about what I said.  Don't trust Nalo."

All Maui got in reply was another snap of massive pincers, closing mere inches from his tail feathers.

Somewhere in all this, Maui had gone wrong.  He wasn't sure how it had all gone sideways or what exactly he had said to anger Tamatoa further, but there was nothing he could say now to fix it.  Resigned, he turned, narrowly avoiding another crushing snap, and made for the surface--and the new friends who waited for him there.

It stood on two legs and had only two arms, which it was using to throw stones into the turbid water.  It was making muffled sniffling noises, too, and it had the gangly, uncoordinated movements of a young animal.

Tamatoa hung back, concealed in the ferns that clustered beneath swaying palms.  Antennae, slender and striped, tilted forward to catch the stranger's scent, driven inland by the wind.

Carried on the breeze, intermingled with the salt of the sea, were the distinct scents of a mammal:  sweat, dusty fur, and skin oils, overlaid upon the faint tang of iron-rich blood.  This one was a young male and, unlike the other mammals that Tamatoa had encountered, only had hair upon the top of its head--a thick, shaggy mass of it.  The rest of its body was hairless, covered in soft skin in a uniform brown color, except for a small collection of stark black markings on its back, right between the shoulder blades.

Tamatoa stared.  He'd never seen any markings quite like them on any animal or monster.  They appeared to depict a larger creature of the same species, with longer hair, throwing a smaller one into the ocean.  Tamatoa had seen any number of interesting markings on other creatures, but never any that depicted a scene like this.

There was another smell, too.  Salty, but in a different way than that of the ocean or sweat, with a hint of something that he had only recently learned indicated distress.  It was all fascinating and Tamatoa wanted to know more.

Curious, he took another step forward, trying to get a better read on the scent.  One dactyl reached out to step over a thick fallen branch as he got closer.

Unfortunately, the little crab was so invested in figuring out the new scent that he failed to check where he was stepping.  His dactyl touched down on the edge of the branch instead of the earth beneath.  The branch rolled beneath his leg, fouling the others, and together they sent him tumbling out of the foliage, clattering all around him.  With a crash of breaking branches, he rolled onto the hot sand.

The stranger's head snapped up, turning to look at the sudden racket.

Exposed and in the open, Tamatoa scrambled to get his legs beneath him.  No sooner did he accomplish that than he realized the stranger was looking right at him.

Tamatoa froze, antennae stiff and eyes wide.

The stranger's face was wet, streaks of salty not-seawater running down from his eyes.

"Go away!" the stranger shouted, but his words were as watery as his eyes.

There was a rock in the stranger's hand, however.  When Tamatoa did not immediately move, the creature flung the stone at him.

Startled out of his shock, Tamatoa tried to duck.  The stranger's aim was true, however, and the rock struck his carapace dead-center.  Thankfully, Tamatoa's shell was tough and the rock bounced off without doing any real damage.

But just because he was so well armored, it didn't mean that he didn't feel pain.

"Hey!" Tamatoa shouted back, peeved enough to ignore any instinctive fear of the stranger.  "That hurt!"

Now it was the stranger's eyes that went wide.

"You can talk?" he asked, reaching up with one hand to hurriedly wipe at his face.

Antennae flicked in annoyance.  "Of course I can!" he told the stranger, matter-of-fact.

"But… you're a crab."

Tamatoa narrowed his eyes.  "And what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, just…"  The stranger shook his head.  "Most crabs don't talk."

"Well, how many crabs do you know?" he fired back.

Caught off guard, the stranger stumbled over his words.  "Well… I… uh…"  

Tamatoa beamed, triumphant.  "That's what I thought," he stated with an air of finality.  Then he peered critically at the stranger, antennae stretching forward to get a better read on the unfamiliar creature.  "And what exactly are you?"

"I'm…"  Here, the stranger hesitated, as if uncertain.

"What, you don't even know what you are??" Tamatoa cut in, frankly astonished.

The stranger glared, fists clenching.  "I know what I am!  I'm a demigod!" he declared fiercely.  "And my name is Maui!"

Tamatoa had no idea what a demigod was, but he nodded along as if he did.  "Right, a demigod.  Of course.  Third one this week."

At Maui-the-demigod's skeptical look and raised eyebrow, Tamatoa hurried on to the important part.  "I'm Tamatoa!" he announced, standing up a little taller.

Of course, he still only stood about waist-high on the young demigod.

"Hey," he continued, before Maui could say another word.  "You want to see something cool?"

Before even waiting for an answer, Tamatoa had a claw around Maui's arm and was practically dragging him away from the beach and into the island's interior.

"C'mon!" he encouraged, tugging on the arm until the demigod finally kept pace on his own.

It wasn't long before they stood before the small entrance to a cavern, overgrown and well hidden behind vines and sprawling ferns.

"Here!  This is the place!" Tamatoa announced, quite proud of himself.

"It's just a cave," Maui said, unimpressed.

Tamatoa's antennae twitched in renewed annoyance.  "I know that.  It's what's inside the cave."  He rolled his eyes with a dramatic sigh.  "Now, follow me."

With that, Tamatoa marched straight into the cavern.  He heard Maui's footfalls as the demigod followed along.

But then there was a gasp from behind him.

Tamatoa turned, perplexed, to see what had startled his new companion.  After all, they hadn't even gotten to the cool stuff yet!

In the faint reflected light of Tamatoa's bioluminescence, Maui was staring at him, slackjawed and eyes wide.

"You're a monster!"

Tamatoa stiffened and his eyes narrowed to glowing slits.

The word 'monster' was not one that implied good things.

"I'm a crab!" he fired back, emphasizing his certainty with an indignant stomp of a foreleg.

"You're glowing," Maui pointed out, as if stating the obvious was now the most fashionable new trend.  "Only monsters glow like that!"

There was a look on Maui's face that Tamatoa couldn't fully read, but it very much resembled revulsion.  Maui was looking at him like he was something fearful and detestable--a creature to be avoided at all costs, or perhaps stamped out.

Tamatoa's eyes swiveled, taking in his own bright markings.  He had always been very proud of his glow, ever since he had first begun to shine in the dark as a young crabling.  But now it suddenly felt as if the intricately patterned markings were a burning brand, marking him as something repulsive and abhorrent.  Something monstrous.  Something unwanted.

He found himself trying to hide his markings, trying to make them disappear.  Yet, they only dimmed a little in the shadows of the cave.  He had not yet learned how to control them with that sort of precision.

"I'm not a monster, I'm a crab," he insisted again, though his voice sounded very small in the hollow darkness.

Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, the apprehensive look on Maui's face vanished.

"It's okay," he announced cheerfully, flipping his hair back over his shoulder.  "We can be friends anyway."

Tamatoa's antennae perked up, 

"Even if you are a crab monster."

Tamatoa's face began to fall again.

"A crab!" Maui corrected hastily, stumbling over his words.  "Who might be a monster, but not a monster monster.  You know?"

The young demigod flashed a broad smile.

"Really, it's fine," Maui said finally, giving Tamatoa an expectant look.  "Friends?"

Tamatoa still felt just a little exposed; still felt the lingering urge to hide his shell away; to hide what he was away.  It lessened with Maui's acceptance, tepid though it may be, but didn't fully go away.

But Tamatoa smiled back, hopeful.  He liked the sound of that.  He'd never had a friend before.

"Friends," he agreed.

---

By evening, they had thoroughly explored the caves.  Maui had been suitably impressed by the sparkling green crystals embedded throughout the old lava tube, bits of olivine that Tamatoa hoped to someday be able to pry out of the basalt.

On the way back, they had taken up singing, trying to outdo each other with complicated melodies and improvised lyrical prowess.  Maui wasn't half bad at it, Tamatoa decided.  For a beginner, anyway.

Sunset found them back on the beach, throwing rocks into the waves and seeing who could throw the farthest.  Maui was winning that competition handily, perhaps due to actually having hands.

As Maui reeled back to throw another one, Tamatoa again got a glimpse of the markings on the young demigod's back.  They were just so unusual, it was hard not to stare.  Even his own intricate bioluminescent markings--which were glowing to life again with nightfall--weren't so precise as to depict a scene.  This time, he had to ask.

"What kind of markings are those?" he piped up, reaching forward with a single antennae to tap between Maui's shoulder blades.

Maui stiffened, his shoulders going hunched and muscles tightening.  His fist tightened around the rock he was clutching, then he launched it with unexpected vehemence.  It sailed beyond the breakers, disappearing somewhere over the distant horizon.

When Maui whirled around, his face was angry.  But when he saw Tamatoa's wide, innocent eyes, he faltered.  The anger faded and he took a deep breath.

"It's…" he began, hesitant.  "It's not markings, not like an animal.  It's a tattoo," he said at last.

"A tattoo," Tamatoa repeated, mulling over this unfamiliar word.

"That's right," Maui confirmed, clearly hoping Tamatoa would leave it at that.

"But it's a scene," Tamatoa pressed.  "Like a story.  What's it mean?"

Maui looked away, desperately looking for another rock.  "Nothing," he insisted, still avoiding eye contact.

Tamatoa was a perceptive crab, exceptionally good at spotting weaknesses.  It was the sort of instinct that made for an effective predator and would serve him well as he grew.  And right now, that intuition was seeing right through Maui's dismissal.

"Is it why you were so upset earlier?"

Maui's shoulders hunched further.  He flopped heavily to sit just above the waterline.

Tamatoa took that as a confirmation.  He stepped closer, settling beside Maui on the wet sand.

"You can tell me," he assured Maui.  "I'm your friend, remember?"

Maui turned to face him, a bit uncertain, but also a bit hopeful.  Tamatoa wondered if this was the first time Maui had a friend, too.

"You can't tell anyone," the demigod warned him.

Tamatoa looked around them at the empty beach, stretching on for miles without a single intelligent soul.  "Who would I even tell?"

Maui gave him a stern look.  "You gotta promise!"

"Ok, I promise!"  After all, it was an easy promise to make when you didn't even know anybody else to tell a secret to.

Maui took a breath, held it for a long time, then let it out with a whoosh.  Mammals were so weird about breathing.

Then Maui spoke.

"I wasn't born a demigod.  I was born human.  The gods made me a demigod after…"

He hesitated, took another noisy breath.

"My parents, they…" Maui looked at his feet, then off at the ocean waves, then at the sky--anywhere but Tamatoa's face.  There was water collecting in the corner of his eyes again, sending that salty smell to mingle with the sea air once more.  "They didn't want me.  They… threw me in the sea."

Tamatoa's glowing eyes widened and he grinned wide.  "Oh!" he blurted.  "So did mine!"

Maui's gaze leapt back to him, narrowed in an angry glare.  "What?"  His fists clenched.  "Are you making fun of me?"

Tamatoa barely noticed the defensive stance, too excited to realize his offense.  "No!" he insisted.  "That's cool!  You're like me!"

Now the demigod just looked confused, though his fists were still gripped tightly.  "What are you talking about?"

"Crabs are born in the sea," he explained with great enthusiasm, grin still a league wide.  "My parents sent us into the sea to find our new lives!"

Maui still looked utterly baffled by all this.  Tamatoa could see that Maui wasn't getting it yet.  He didn't understand.  He couldn't see the connection.

So, Tamatoa slowed down and explained it very carefully.  His kind started as eggs, carried and protected by their parents until ready to hatch.  Then they were released into the sea to hatch, where they began their lives as aquatic larvae, drifting on the currents to new islands.  When they reached that new island, they came ashore and changed into land-based crabs and began their new life in a new shape.

When he had finished his explanation, he beamed.  "See!  You and I are alike!"

"But… they didn't… that's not…" Maui sputtered, apparently not fully sold on the idea yet.  "That's not how humans do things!"

"But you're a demigod, not a human anymore," Tamatoa pointed out.  "You changed like I did!"

"But my family didn't want me!" Maui insisted again, though he offered no reason why his family might have felt that way.  "They abandoned me!"

Tamatoa flicked his antennae, dismissive of his protests.  "Then maybe I can be your family," he declared.

And at that, Maui was struck speechless.  He stared at Tamatoa with his mouth agape.

But Tamatoa was stubbornly certain.  "You like going on adventures, I like going on adventures.  You like treasure, I like treasure.  You like to sing, I actually can sing.  You were reborn from the sea, I was reborn from the sea.  We're alike!"

Maui still looked unsure.

"Aren't you lonely?" Tamatoa asked.

Tamatoa certainly was.  He had come ashore on this little island and hadn't left since.  He'd explored every inch of it and hadn't found a single other creature that he could talk to.  Until today.

He searched Maui's face, waiting for an answer.

"I guess, a little," the demigod admitted.

While perhaps blind to his own influence rubbing off on his companion, Maui had noticed that the crab was getting steadily more ornery and stubborn as he grew.  The days of him being a cute little crabling wearing a pearly seashell for protection were past.  He was nearly waist-high to Maui now.  (When had he gotten so big, anyway?  Maui had apparently lost track of the time.)  Moreover, the crab had developed an attitude to match his growing size.

Ever since their encounter with the shark-god, Tamatoa had been even more noticeably moody and irascible.  Some of that had been tempered by teaching the crab how to sail, but not all.  Which often resulted in the pouting Maui was dealing with now.

Tamatoa opened his mouth to speak.  Something snappish and snarky was undoubtedly about to bubble forth.  Maui’s crabby friend had quite the sharp tongue and wasn’t terribly shy about using it.

As always, Maui diverted the crab with what he thought was consummate skill.   “Hey, check the water, would ya?  See how far to the next island.”

Stalked eyes narrowed.  Maui arched a single eyebrow in return.

“You know,” Maui drawled, looking casually out ahead at the open sea before them.  “The villagers at the last one said there was some sort of legendary treasure at the next archipelago.  And the faster we get there...” He let the unspoken promise of untold riches hang unsaid in the air.

As if on cue, Tamatoa perked up.  “What kind of legendary treasure?”

Oh, right.  The crab always wanted the details.  But Maui had limited imagination for coming up with wild mo’o tales about lost treasure.  “Uhh,” he faltered, fishing for words.  “Something about... a… shiny.. uh…”

That was really all it took, though.  At the word ‘shiny,’ the young crab bounded eagerly to the bow of the canoe and dipped his antennae into the water.  His eyes scrunched closer, a sign he was deep in thought.

“About a day’s sail!” he announced after a moment.  He flung a claw out to the horizon.  “That way!”  Then he beamed up at Maui with obvious pride.

Maui grinned.  “Awlright, little buddy!  Good work.  Now, let’s get going!”

And, in truth, it was pretty impressive that the crab could read the water so easily.  Maui never fully understood how Tamatoa did it, but he could sense something in the water that never failed to point them in the right direction of a nearby island.  The crab said he could smell the taste in the water, but that made no sense at all to Maui.

He thought little of it, however, and merely turned the canoe as the crab had directed and let the warm wind fill the sails.  Their next adventure awaited!

---

Right on schedule, the low-slung shape of an island appeared on the horizon.  Tamatoa saw it first, perched eagerly on the canoe’s prow with his antennae whipped back in the wind.

“There it is!” he announced, excitement bubbling up and the previous day’s sulkiness seemingly forgotten.

As the island came into view, the familiar outline of peaked fale roofs appeared along the shore.  The tall masts of canoes, their sails neatly folded, dotted the small cove which the village was clustered around.  Even at a distance, one could see mortals bustling about along the beach.

Maui grinned and angled the canoe straight towards the settlement.

There came an immediate, disapproving groan from the bow.  “Can’t we go explore first?” Tamatoa groused.  “We just left a village.  Just yesterday.  And I want to look for treasure!”

Well, perhaps the sulkiness wasn’t entirely forgotten.

Maui laughed and blew a curly lock of hair out of his eyes.  “Nah, humans first,” he declared.  “Besides, they’ve already seen us.  Now we have to go there so they can welcome us!”

The crab huffed.  “Welcome you, you mean,” he muttered under his breath.

But Maui wasn’t listening.  The humans had indeed spotted them and were busily rushing to their own canoes to row out and greet the strangers.  Maui’s focus was entirely upon them now.  He ran a hand through his hair, getting it settled just right over his shoulders, and put on his most charming smile in preparation.  It was showtime.

---

Flanked by an escort of small canoes, all bedecked in red and gold flowers and filled with cheering humans, they came ashore right in front of the village.  To the sound of beating log drums, the wooden hull scraped to a stop on the wet sand and Maui leapt from it onto the beach.  Hook slung carelessly over his shoulder, he flashed a smile at the gathered throngs.

“Yes, it’s me!  Maui!  Demigod of the wind and-”

But the assembled mortals were not looking at him.  Every eye in the crowd was fixed upon the young crab monster clambering out of the canoe.

Tamatoa was only half out of the boat.  He had a leg tangled in the sennit lines trailing from the sail and was muttering something unfit for polite company as he attempted to disengage himself without snapping the rope and also without falling on his face.  In this he only had moderate success.  When he finally threw off the loop that was clinging to his leg, he tumbled off the canoe and landed in an ungainly heap.  Spitting out sand, Tamatoa let fly with a blistering oath that Maui would vehemently deny that the crab had learned from him.

It was only then, covered in dirt and legs askew, that Tamatoa discovered that his embarrassing misstep had witnesses – many of them.  He froze, antennae stiff and eyes round, and took in the many humans staring at him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Maui quickly interjected, stepping in front of his crab companion and addressing the mortals.  Not every island was used to seeing a small monster in their midst and, more than once, the initial reaction to Tamatoa had not been particularly favorable.  “He’s with me,” he assured the humans.  “I brought him here.”

A hushed murmur rippled through the crowd and Maui felt an involuntary cringe building under his skin, waiting for the tide to turn against them and the crushing blow of human disapproval to land.

But nothing of the sort happened.

Instead, the cheer went back up, the drums resumed, and the welcome procession continued unabated.  The crowd parted, opening a path for them to proceed, and a chiefly representative beckoned them to follow.  Another mortal ran ahead, likely to inform the rest of the village of their arrival.

Relief flooded in and Maui let his easy smile return.  It seemed these humans would not censure him for bringing a monster to their shores.  Maui would not face any disapproval from the humans today.

And so he went with them, striding into the village with a long, swinging gait.  Tamatoa followed behind him, sharp eyes swivelling this way and that as they entered the settlement.

Maui was already chatting gaily with the humans, launching into tales of places he had visited before arriving on their island.

“--and then there was the swamp witch before that.  And--huh?”

He felt a tug at his lavalava.  Tamatoa was looking up at him, claw gripping the frayed edge of Maui’s tapa cloth skirt.

“Did you see those carvings?”

“Er, what?  Carvings?”  Of course, the crab was always interested in treasure before humans.  But Maui hadn’t even noticed whatever it was.  He was fully prepared to shrug it off and return to his conversation.

Tamatoa frowned, tapping his pincers together in a telltale sign of frustration.  “Those!” he said with an insistent stab of a claw towards a group of wooden figures.

His friend’s sharp tone was an effective prod.  Maui looked.

There were wooden tikis lining the pathway to the village, much like many other villages they had visited in this part of the Ocean.  But whereas normal tiki figures were crafted into human-like figures, these were decidedly different.  Maui blinked once, then again, as he realized what they were.

They were crabs.

Maui blinked again, staring blankly with a slack jaw at the carved figures.

“Uhhh...”

They were highly stylistic, with faces far more expressive than normal, mortal crabs.  But there was no disputing what they were.  The massive pincers and stalked eyes were a dead giveaway.  But… why?  Tiki were meant to honor ancestors or as guardians of sacred places.  That’s why they were always human shaped.  What on earth could these be for?

“They’re crabs,” Tamatoa whispered, stating the obvious.  Even in such a quiet utterance, Maui could make out an undeniable hint of glee in Tamatoa’s voice.  “What are they for?”

Once again, all Maui could manage was a very confused:  “Uhh.”

There were other things, too, that the crab was eagerly pointing out.  Crabs were painted onto hanging tapa cloth and even emblazoned a few of the canoe sails in the harbor.

Maui was mystified.  Tamatoa was over the moon.

“What does it all mean, Maui?  This is so cool.”

No, it was so bizarre.  Maui couldn’t make any sense of it, had never seen anything like it in all his travels.  He tried to get his tongue working to ask his guide, but by then they had arrived outside the fale tele, largest of all the village structures, and the chief’s representative was waving them forward.

The tapa-cloth curtains of the entryway—also conspicuously adorned with stylized crabs!—were pulled aside and they were led inside.

---

The village elders were already assembled, seated in a circle on the woven mat floor.  A space had been left open, a position of high honor.  It was to this place that Maui and Tamatoa were directed to be seated.

Maui, attempting to get his hands around the situation again, opened his mouth to speak.  “So, as I was--”

The chiefess didn’t give him the chance to finish.  “Welcome, honored guest,” her strong, clear voice cut through Maui’s like the prow of a ship.  “Please, tell us your name.”

Maui raised an eyebrow.  Had they not been paying attention when he came ashore?  “Well, as I said before, I am Mau--”

“Not you.  We already heard yours.  Twice,” the chiefess interrupted, so near to a scolding rebuke that Maui stopped cold, stunned.  Then she gestured with a flowing motion of her hand to Tamatoa, who was sitting beside Maui with his many legs tucked neatly under himself.  “What is his name?”

Tamatoa’s antennae leapt up in surprise.  It wasn’t often that mortals called the crab an ‘honored guest.’  More commonly the humans were suspicious at best or openly hostile at worst.  This change of pace had clearly caught him off guard.  But he recovered quickly and grinned, eyes sparkling with delight at the unexpected attention.  He was up on his feet in an instant, sweeping a claw out in a move that Maui knew the crab had lifted straight from his own repertoire.  “I am Tamatoa,” he declared.  “Crab of… uh…”

Despite his own surprise, Maui couldn’t help but smirk as the young crab struggled, trying to come up with a title for himself to match Maui’s lofty ones.

The mortal chiefess, however, was unfazed by the stumble.  She smiled a kindly smile.

“Welcome, Tamatoa,” she told the crab.  “I am Ali’i Mesina.  We are honored by your presence.”

The crab preened, standing a little straighter and doing his best to look big and impressive.

Maui, however, was dumbstruck.  He’d never seen humans take to the crab like this before.  Usually, Maui had to do some serious fast talking to persuade villagers that the small monster was harmless.  It was a harder sell on islands where other monsters had terrorized the populace, but even humans who had never seen a monster before were typically wary of Tamatoa now that he was nearly half their height.  Things had been much easier when the crab was pocket-sized.

But Mesina was not through speaking.  “You and your companion-”  Only now did the ali’i turn back to address Maui, though something about being referred to as just a companion stung the demigod.  “-must be weary from your journey.  Tomorrow, once you have rested, we shall feast to celebrate your arrival.  But for now...”

The chiefess waved to her retainers, who promptly brought forth several small, woven baskets of food.  One was piled high with coconut and breadfruit, another contained fresh fish, and yet another held pork.  They were placed before both Maui and Tamatoa.

“Please, eat,” Mesina urged.  “I shall have a fale prepared for you in the meantime.”

Never one to pass up a free meal, Tamatoa needed no further encouragement.  He helped himself, cheerfully shoving pork and coconut into his mouth with all his usual lack of grace.

The mortals didn’t seem to find insult in the crab’s table manners, or lack thereof, however.  A few hurried off, carrying orders from the ali’i, but the rest remained behind, calmly speaking amongst themselves.

Maui was still caught wrong-footed.  This was not how things usually went upon arrival to a mortal village.  He desperately needed to get back into familiar waters.  To that end, he cleared his throat.

All eyes turned to him, except Tamatoa, who was still stuffing his face.

“So, ah.. you have heard of me, right?  Maui, demigod?” he ventured.  “Lifted up the sky, slowed down the sun-” He picked a coconut out of the basket and spun it on a fingertip.  “-created coconuts?”

The mortals glanced at each other questioningly; a few murmured in hushed tones amongst themselves.

Finally, the chiefess spoke.  “Yes, we have heard of you, Maui.  Your deeds are legend.”

Whew.  Now they were getting somewhere.  Maui took heart and grinned.

“We never expected that you would come to us in the company of a crab like Tamatoa.  You are also our honored guest.”

Maui’s grin faltered.  This was not how the script went.  He didn’t understand any of it and, worse, it made him feel things he wasn’t entirely comfortable naming.  Things like jealousy and resentment.

“Hey, are you gonna eat that coconut or just play with it?” Tamatoa asked, his words mumbled around a mouthful of food and blithely innocent of Maui’s budding rancor.

“Huh?”  Maui shook the intrusive feelings off.  “Oh, right.”  He handed the coconut to Tamatoa automatically and without thought.

The crab accepted it gladly and took a bite right out of the hard shell, crunching loudly through it as if it was nothing.

But Maui’s thoughts were elsewhere, trying to make sense of this whole strange scenario and having little success.

---

“Did you hear that?” Tamatoa bubbled as they walked together to the fale assigned to them.  “They called me an honored guest!”  He was ecstatic, his spirits undampened by the evening rain that was dumping buckets on them.  “An honored guest, Maui!  Honored!”

Maui made a non-committal sound, but Tamatoa was undeterred.  The crab was practically prancing, flitting around Maui like a glowing butterfly as they went through the darkened village.

“And tomorrow there’s going to be a feast!” he rambled on.  “And maybe then they’ll tell us where the treasures are!”

Maui gave the crab a sideways glance.  “I thought you didn’t like humans,” he remarked, unable to hide his sour tone.

Tamatoa paused in his chatter and pursed his lips, thoughtful.  “Well, none have ever called me an honored guest before.  So maybe I like these.”

Maui snorted.

But the crab wasn’t paying attention, far too wrapped up in his excitement to notice Maui’s sullen mood.  And Maui was indeed becoming quite sullen, stewing in his own thoughts.

Why were these humans so… so unimpressed with him?  Occasionally they stumbled across a village that had never heard of him, but once Maui had a chance to show his stuff, they came around quickly.  But these humans did know about him, yet they were so blasé.  The snub sent little barbs into his heart, tugging at old wounds.  The skin of his upper back prickled under the shameful tattoo that he could never forget was emblazoned upon his shoulders.  Was he not good enough?  Why was he never good enough?

Maui said little, even as they arrived at their accomodations and settled in for the night.  He barely heard Tamatoa, still prattling on, wildly speculating about what foods there would be at the feast and what treasures the humans might possess.  Maui wished the crab would just shut up, but there was not much that could silence the crab once he got going.

Eventually, though, the crab talked himself out and fell asleep.  In the silent fale, Maui was left alone with his despairing thoughts.

---

There was indeed a feast prepared the next day, complete with all the expected trappings of a celebration for high-ranking visitors – music and dancing and food aplenty.  Maui and Tamatoa were once again seated in a place of honor, though it did not escape Maui’s notice that it was Tamatoa who was placed in the ranking position.  Maui tried to conceal his scowl.

The crab was oblivious to Maui’s attitude.  He was tapping his legs to the beat of the log drums and watching the dancers with great interest, as if absorbing every intricacy of their graceful movements.  The only thing that diverted his rapt attention was the arrival of food, which quickly took precedence as bowls of meat and fruit and vegetables were placed before him.  This was the third course they had presented to the voracious little monster.  By now they had already discerned his favorites and were providing extra helpings of his preferred fare.  Tamatoa couldn’t have been more thrilled.  He crammed the latest indulgent round in with no sign of slowing down.  At this rate, he’d eat everything in the village.  Maui frowned.

“You don’t have to eat everything, you know,” he admonished the crab.  “Leave something for the mortals.”

Tamatoa had the decency to look at least somewhat chagrined.  He paused, mid-bite, and looked up.

“Nonsense,” Ali’i Mesina cut in.  “We have plenty and we are honored to share.”  She waved Tamatoa on. “Take all you like.”

Tamatoa grinned a lumpy smile around his mouthful and flashed Maui a triumphant look.  See? his look said, without him having to say a word.

Then he went back to eating.

Mesina’s keen eyes fell upon Maui; her gaze was penetrating for a human and Maui nearly squirmed under it.  He felt exposed, as if the chiefess could see right through him.

But she merely smiled.  “You know, crabs are sacred to our village,” she explained to him, speaking with great patience.  “Our people believe their spirits guard and protect us.  Even the smallest that inhabit our shores possess much mana.”

Well, that explained all the crab art everywhere.  It was still bizarre, though.  Maui had encountered mortals who had elevated many animal spirits—sharks, whales, manta rays, honu—but he’d never seen any that put such an emphasis on crabs.

The ali’i continued.  “Never before in our family’s memory have we seen such a crab as this.  He must have great mana to have grown so large.  He-”

“He’s not a normal crab.  He’s a monster, from Lalotai,” Maui interrupted, so blunt and harsh that he found himself questioning his own motives.  Was he trying to get the humans to dislike the crab?

But the chiefess was unperturbed.  “Then he is rare and special indeed.  We thank you for bringing him to us, so we can honor him in our way.  Clearly, the stories of your greatness, Maui, were not exaggerated.”

Maui’s brow unfurrowed.  That was more like it!

“Well, hey,” he piped up brightly and his trademark smile fell back into place, “you’re welcome!”

It was an odd thing for them to thank him for, but they obviously did appreciate him and that was a good start, as far as Maui was concerned.

Tamatoa, having finished his latest bowl of food, spoke up, eyes on the chiefess.  “Hey, so is there any treasure on this island?”

It was rude and brazen and Maui was about to reprimand him for it, but the chiefess did not give him the chance.

“What sort of treasure do you desire, Tamatoa?”

Maui blinked at her indulgence of the crab’s whims, then groaned.  Whoo boy, here comes the shopping list.

Tamatoa’s eyes gleamed.  “I like shiny things, especially pearls and abalone and gold seashells and anything that glitters, really, and--”

This went on for an overly long time, all while Mesina listened with infinite patience and Maui tried not to tear his own hair out.  But when the crab had exhausted his wishlist, the ali’i smiled again.  She motioned an attendant over and spoke to him briefly before sending him on his way.

To Tamatoa, she nodded.  “I’ll see what we can do.”

Maui’s jaw nearly fell to the ground.

---

When they returned to their guest fale after the celebration, Maui nearly tripped over his own feet in shock.

Piled high around the entryway to the fale was an unbelievable array of shiny junk.

They had hit almost every category on the crab’s list.  There were pearls of varying colors, many white and gold, but also some rare ones of black and iridescent green.  Heaps of pearly shells and polished stones were scattered liberally around.  More shocking still were the intricate carvings of paua shell and even one of greenstone, some of which appeared to be quite old – cherished family relics, no doubt.

Tamatoa’s eyes were bugging out so much that Maui half expected them to fall right off his eyestalks.

“Whoa…” the crab breathed out in awe.

Maui had to nip this right in the bud.  “Uh-uh, no way.  You can’t keep all this.”

The crab whirled on him, jaw hanging open in disbelief but eyes stubborn.  “What do you mean?  They gave this to me!  It’s mine.”

Maui shook his head, curly locks swinging.  “No,” he countered, doing his best to sound resolute.  “This is too much.  Look at this stuff, Tama!  These are family heirlooms!  You can’t take them away from these people.”

Tamatoa squared his legs, facing Maui with all the recalcitrance of an oversized, ornery crab.  “They gave them to me.  Nobody forced them,” he emphasized.

Maui put his foot down.  “No, Tamatoa.  This is ridiculous.”

Tamatoa stomped his own leg in the dirt, matching Maui’s mulishness with his own.  “They’re gifts.  I’m keeping them.”

Maui’s eyes fell on the carved greenstone again – a stylized human figure with deep, carefully formed eyes.  It was quite obviously ancient, its flat surfaces worn smooth by generations of reverent human hands.  Someone’s family had cherished that carving for decades, maybe centuries.  It belonged with the humans.  Maui’s face set.

“Absolutely not,” he grit out through a clenched jaw.

Tamatoa’s eyes narrowed, but his lip curled upward.  “Let’s ask Ali’i Mesina,” he drawled, laying out his showstopper line.

Maui threw his hands up, letting out a frustrated growl.  After their talk earlier, he already knew what the chiefess would say.

“That’s it, we’re leaving.  Let’s go,” he announced, jerking a thumb back towards the beach.

But Tamatoa was having none of it.  He glared up at Maui.  “No.  It was you who wanted to come here, so now we’re here.  And I’m not ready to leave yet.”

It was too much.  Between the humans largely ignoring him and now with this obscene gift to Tamatoa and the crab’s sudden insistence on staying, Maui reached the point where he’d had more than enough of this.

“Fine.  I’m going to sleep on the boat,” he declared, then took up his hook, turned on his heel, and stomped off to the cove.

---

Tamatoa watched him go, alarmed at Maui’s sudden departure.  But the worry dissipated soon enough.  He knew Maui wouldn’t leave the island without him.  Argument or not, Maui would never leave him behind.

With those concerns rightly dismissed, Tamatoa turned back to the treasure pile and his eyes lit up.  The humans had sure delivered.  He eagerly delved into it, sifting through the collection to find the best, prettiest pieces.

But despite the shine of his wonderful, glittering hoard, there was a small dark cloud hovering overhead.  Why did Maui have to be such a stick in the mud sometimes?  For once, some humans were being nice to Tamatoa and he wanted to enjoy it.  Why couldn’t Maui be happy for him?  It’s not like this had ever happened before.  Humans fawned over Maui all the time, it was neverending.  The demigod basked in their admiration at every inhabited island they visited.  Just once, couldn’t Tamatoa enjoy a little of their attention?

Tamatoa flicked his antennae, waving those frustrations away.  He had an immense pile of shinies to attend to.  Maui’s temper tantrum was Maui’s problem.

He got back to work.

Bit by bit, he brought the treasures inside the fale.  Too excited to sleep, he spent the evening arranging the treasures around himself, finding the perfect spot to display each one so he could admire them from all the best angles.

When Tamatoa finally did fall asleep, it was in the center of this magnificent array – surrounded by glittering gifts and smiling contentedly.

---

The sun was sparkling on his new treasures in the morning when Tamatoa awoke alone in the fale.  Maui had not come back.  The demigod really must have slept on the canoe.

He was about to start off to the beach to find Maui, but just as he stepped up to the entryway, the hanging tapa parted to reveal one of the chiefess’ attendants.  Tamatoa took an instinctive step back, a strain of wariness rising up in the presence of a human without Maui around.  More than once, such encounters had gone poorly.

But this human was all friendly smiles and beckoning hands.  “Good morning, Tamatoa,” she greeted him.  “The people await your arrival at today’s feast.”

Antennae perked and caution was abandoned.  “Another feast?” he echoed, almost giddy.

“Yes, of course!  You’re our special guest.”

No further persuasion was necessary, Maui’s snit was forgotten, and Tamatoa was out the door in seconds.  He followed along, clicking his claws merrily, to where yet another celebration was already underway.

Cheers heralded his arrival and Tamatoa could not help his wide grin.  These cheers were for him, not for Maui or anybody else.  Just him!  And it was awesome.

He settled comfortably into his now-regular spot near Ali’i Mesina, holding his head a little higher.  The chiefess leaned towards him and smiled.  “Did you find the gifts acceptable, Tamatoa?” she inquired.

Tamatoa blinked, then bobbed his antennae in a vigorous agreement.  “Oh yes, they’re wonderful!”

The human looked pleased.  “Was it enough?  Or would you like more?” she asked further.

Eyes wide, Tamatoa looked at her with a touch of awe.  “There’s more?” he gasped, hardly believing what his antennae were hearing.

Mesina laughed and nodded.  “Of course, we can provide as much as you like.  Whatever makes you happy, all you need do is ask.”

Tamatoa was fairly certain his mouth was hanging open.  It was like a dream come true!  All the treasures he could want?  Feasts and food and music in his honor?  Cheering throngs?  Wow, no wonder Maui liked this all so much.

“I’d love more shinies!” he found himself exclaiming, patently incapable of turning down the offer of more.

Maui wouldn’t like it, Tamatoa knew.  But Maui wasn’t here.  The demigod was off sulking at the canoe because these humans liked Tamatoa better than him.

So Tamatoa did not hold back in indulging his every whim, letting these humans bring him bowl after bowl of food and ever more shiny trinkets.  He’d finally gotten a taste of the attention and fame and adoration that Maui regularly received and Tamatoa liked it.  They sang songs in his honor, dancing elaborately choreographed dances that mimed the movements of crabs (as best a group of fleshy biped mammals could, anyway).

Villagers came forward in turn, presenting him with more gifts as the day wore on.  Others draped elaborate flower garlands across his shell and around his neck.  Still others brought him tasty delicacies, bright-yolked bird eggs and crunchy reef shrimp.  All of the humans treated him with utmost respect and reverence.

Tamatoa could get used to this.