When I woke up, my surroundings were not the border between white sandy beach and a tropical forest in the beaming sunlight. It was dim with huge structures of mutated coral, crusty barnacles, wasted shells, and various equally as large carnivorous plants. At least, I think they're plants. Sitting up slowly, I felt like my head was splitting in two. My head swam when I sat up but didn't have the time to come to terms with it since I was tackled from behind. Whatever the creature was, it didn't live long after. I had had grabbed whatever flesh I could touch and started to claw with sharpened nails until it died. Back covered in blood, tense and on alert, I glared at anything that moved in my direction.

I stalked about my new place of residence for an unknown amount of time hiding or fending for myself against all manner of creatures, large and extra-large. I couldn't tell if it was morning, noon, or just before evening. I did know when night fell because that was when everything started to glow. I scowled at the haunting beauty around me. I wasn't in the mood to appreciate it right now. I was mad, at my situation and at Vegie Woman. Well actually, I can't be really be mad at her since I had pleaded for her to help him, but draining me to feed him was not what I had in mind for help! I don't even know what she took from me to feed him with anyhow. And, I was worried about the little guy the Vegie Woman had under her care.

Maui

I paused in my trek between a gigantic spiral shell and a drop off. What or who was that voice? Does it know where this Maui is? Could it tell me what's going on?

This infant's name shall be Maui.

I blanked. Oh, I see. He wasn't a grown person, but the infant I 'happened' to find. That doesn't lessen my worry for the little guy at all. I still care about what is going to happen to him. I trudged around a humongous shell to see an entrance of sorts, and just before peeking in; I was snapped at by a coconut crab as tall as I was with a much smaller sized crab on its back clicking it claws at me in malicious enjoyment. I backed away quickly to scurry on over to another, well any, hidey hole I could find.

After finally finding an unoccupied crevice in the coral and rock wall, exhaustion finally set in. I peeked back at the crack of an open entrance. I figured that it was too small for something else to slip in to kill me, seeing as everything else is so big. Anger burned behind my eyelids at having to worry about this. I hissed at the hole to my new home and surprisingly, some goop shot from under my tongue and covered the entrance in a foggy white membrane. I rolled my eyes. What else can I do that I don't know about?! I poked at the stuff to see if it would pop, but it didn't. It held on firm enough to actually be a porous rock wall kind of material. Backing up, I glared through the glaze in my eyes at my new home. I collapsed and curled onto my side and fell asleep, wanting this terrible day to just end already.

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Time flew by without my noticing, but the reason I know how I could tell that time was passing was by, the Gods small radio talks. I would hear them every once and a while about updates on how Maui was doing, growing up with them. I had wondered if I could communicate back, but it seemed to be a one way kind of deal. I am miffed about that. Why couldn't I talk to them or see Maui? Don't I have a right to that at least? I want to know how he is doing by his own accounts. Does he even know about me? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

That was a depressing thought. I mean, I might have gotten a attached to him in the small amount of time I was with him. I want to know if he is happy or sad or lonely. I want to know him and be there for him, like an older sister or an aunt or something like that.

Well, anyhow, during my time down here, I had carved my tiny cave deeper, wider, and taller than it was with my teeth. I didn't have any tools; my claws didn't work; and the rocks/coral didn't taste very good, but it worked. Now, I have shelves, storage, a ledge covered with the most spongey substance I could find for a bed large enough for my real form, and a sink hole with occasional rushing waters connected to the geysers that are everywhere around this place, Lalotai. For the Realm of Monsters, it wasn't so bad once you stake claim on an area and show dominance. Even that large coconut crab I encountered doesn't mess with me anymore; I was starting to get settled in quite nicely.

That was when I noticed my tattoos. The one on my upper left chest showed me rescuing infant Maui: I was surfacing from under the water while cradling him below the rock his mother was vanishing from above. The one on my upper back depicted my banishment to Lalotai: me falling below the waves towards the familiar rock and coral reaching for the Vegie Woman holding infant Maui. Below that tattoo is my domination over my territory: I was standing firmly and fiercely in front my cave with various defeated creatures around me and the enterance. I don't know who was giving me these tattoos, and I didn't know how to feel about them.

It wasn't until after what I perceive to be a few weeks after discovering them did I find out how I felt about them. I hated and admired them. I had gotten a new tattoo under my chin and on my neck after being hunted by a few of the Gods for my lower jaw and my hair. The tattoo on under my chin depicted me lost, battered, bruised, and my jaw ripped off my maw. The one on my neck showed how my jaw bone was crafted into a fish hook, Manaiakalani and my hair shorn to braid into its rope bind and line.

It happened when I had been casted into a maze of coral and rock under the water's strange brilliancy as soon as I had passed the membrane to my home. It was one moment to be in the dim, gloomy last-one-standing arena of death to a bright, warm, and beautiful landscape of sea and sand. I was confused and a bit hopeful. Where they going to let me see Maui? If I was, what was I going to talk to him about? I was so hopeful and excited to see Maui. I mean, I don't want to be seen as obsessive or fanatic to him. Just that I care for him.

It wasn't until I beheld the large glowing figures with weapons did I realize that I was really brought there for sport and amusement. My hopes were crushed. Hours upon days, I was trapped to evade and attempt escapes from the figures wanting my pain, tears, and screams. I was merely a fish, a monster in their eyes. Exhausted and weak from no food or rest, I was caught, looted, and dumped back in my original imprisonment. I had laid there, bitter, humiliated, and seething in rage and hatred.

The only consolation I had was that the Gods who disrespected and abused me couldn't use their new tool. They weren't able to use it as they finished the point and design. The hook grew heavier and heavier in their grasp to a point of being unable to be lifted and almost hollow like when cast, just to float upon the surface of their ponds and lakes, never to catch any fish. The rope bind and line they used my hair for went from soft and graspable to scratchy and harmful to them, blistering their hands as they tried to use it.

It wasn't until the next century passed that they gave up, and I had finally regrown my hair and jaw bone again. I could finally eat properly once more! I heard later that they gave Maui my Manaiakalani under the form of a gift instead of telling him what it did to them. I cackled at the astonished whispers when Maui could wield Manaiakalani with ease and with no harmful side effects, but I smiled gently as I felt a new connection with Maui as he wielded his prized new weapon. I want to help him to stay safe and protected, so I guess all the torture didn't go to waste.

It was also the day I howled in fury when they just dumped him into the sea with a boat and to 'go broaden your horizons' or 'seek your origins' or-or some crazed joke of wisdom they had made him believe. They were just kicking him out of their realm when he started to understand who and what they really are. Those Gods and Goddesses made my blood boil. It was like they were abandoning him too as soon as he understood that between himself and them that they are different. Just when I was about to drop my bitterness and hate for them, they went and did that to him.

I mulled about the idea of Maui being abandoned again, even when he didn't know it at both times. Eventually, he is going to figure out that he won't be returning to the realm of the gods at any time. I didn't like it. No, I hated that thought! With that in mind, I headed for the nearest geyser. With some good timing, I hopped into the spout of water for a one way ticket to the mortal realm. I braced myself to pass the barrier, but instead, I went SPLAT! The gossip whispers disappear. I fell in my enlarged form, stunned. Snapping out of it when I broke through the first branch, I swung from the coral and rocks, avoiding any species that try to eat me as I shrank. I plopped down in front of my cave. I was in a daze at the reality of it all.

I couldn't get out.