[en!fic] Moana – Moana – PG | Where she comes from

[malurette]

Title: Where she comes from
Author: malurette
Fandom: Moana
Characters: Moana & Tala
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Disney's

Author’s note: ESL author with no beta-reader – if you spot any mistakes please do correct me?

Prompt: «Explorer» for ladiesbingo
Word count: 580

***
Gramma Tala believed in her, advised her, and Moana honours her memory. The Ocean might have chosen her for carrying the heart of Te Fiti, but the Ocean is… the Ocean. A goddess. Gramma Tala was her beloved grandmother. Gramma Tala was the only one on their island who understood her in her youth and before she set out on that quest that made her the most important person in her life. (She doesn’t include the possibility that her journeys will put her on the path of… someone else. Beside Te Fiti. Who might become more important later. It could. But it’s for later.)
She carries her in her heart in all her travels, across the sea--her own heart , not Te Fiti’s. She missed her physical presence, her warm hugs, but she still has her memories. Her blessing. Her smile upon her.

Moana learns about the sea, that sky, the wind, the stars—there’s what Maui taught her and what she discovered in the cave then on her own. She learns about the fish, the sea life.

Time and again a Manta ray swims along or under her canoe. Moana trusts herself to sail to the horizon and back again but it’s nice to have a reminder of Gramma Tala by her side.

She learns about islands different from hers. She recognizes their shapes, what they have to offer, which--not many but still a few--are to be avoided.

She comes back to her parents, she’ll visit Te Fiti once in awhile even though the goddess’s asleep again—it’s good to know that she’s at peace. And it’s good to be able to find her way, no matter what, where she is in the vast ocean, where a storm might take her, back home and to Te Fiti. To be free to leave whenever she wants for whatever unknown destination, and to have a safe harbour to come back to.

And it’s all thanks to Gramma. Sure, her parents do love her, have always loved her, and wanted the best for her—but there was a time when the best they wished for her was not what she wanted herself, while Tala always believed in her, in her freedom, in her choices, and encouraged her to follow her own way.
When the Ocean first chose Moana, little toddler Moana, barely older than a babe but already both adventurous and generous, to take her heart back to Te Fiti but Moana was way too young for that, Tala was here, Tala got the heart and kept it safe—not out of greed though it did protect her all these years as a side effect—until the day she could entrust it back to Moana. Te Fiti’s heart, and her own too.
She didn’t burden her with it either, call in destiny or whatever. Gramma Tala always respected her freedom and her own will and asked if she was up to it and reminded her that she could give up and go home if it was too big, too heavy, too painful for her, and the Ocean would go look for someone else, no shame in it.
But she did take it, of course, then she did the rest of the work—Moana doesn’t brush her own importance off. She’s grateful for all the support her gramma gave her, and glad she did have the heart to do it. That thanks to her everything turned out alright for everyone.
And now she can and she will carry this knowledge everywhere, farther and further!