Clouds and Currents - VoK & HW 2021 Event Prompts

   Tamaya couldn't quite tell if Edgar had been pleased with her and Nahia's... shinies. She got the feeling he was hoping for something more... but then again, when didn't she feel like everyone around her was hoping for more from her?
   Despite the dream she'd had last night (It was merely a dream, wasn't it?), she felt no more mentally sharp or secure. In her mind, she scoffed and smacked herself. Of course she didn't. It wasn't real, none of that was real. It wasn't as if she woke up clutching another lion's skull in her paws this morning, after all. And even if she did, what then? Would it miraculously grant her the wisdom to overcome the odds, the stability of mind to have any sort of confidence in herself when it came to this damned hero business?
   She wasn't a hero. She would never be a hero, not really. She wasn't strong or smart enough for that. She was just... normal. Ooh, she'd raised in both the sea and the sky! Big deal. They could have chosen anyone for that. For all she knew, they may well have chosen others for it already, and she was simply unaware of it! It wasn't as though she had anything special about her. She was just a normal lion. A plain one, even. What, was she special because she was blue? As if she was the only blue lion in existence... the very one next to her was living proof that that was a load of garbage. Didn't even have any powers. Why rely on her when she was training beneath a literal god?
   She would never be as good as he was. Even without his powers, he was already a better candidate for battle. Sturdy frame, big and powerful paws, and those fangs... not to mention how much older and more experienced he was. And with his powers? Tamaya didn't even begin to stack up in comparison. And even Nahia, without powers herself, was still surely a better choice, simply by virtue of having lived among the gods for so long - Why, she probably had the blood of the gods flowing in her veins, if her stories about living in their realm her whole life were true.
   What did they even see in her, anyway? When she was just a child? If even that... she remembered being tossed between the kingdoms all her life, after all. Might have been merely an infant... Might not have even been born yet. Some system they put together, deciding to rest their fate on the shoulders of a baby. As if this were some great, epic fantasy. The chosen one. As if that would ever work in real life,.
   She would never be able to do this. She would fail, and she would die, and everyone else would die, and if somehow there were any survivors, those who didn't die would always remember her for the failure that she was.
   "Hey! Are you even paying attention at all?" Tamaya was snapped out of her musings as she nearly fell over Nahia, who had jumped in front of her.
   "Ah! Sorry," she said. "I was... caught up in my thoughts."
   The other lioness rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I can see that. Ran right into me!" She laughed and bumped her shoulder against Tamaya's. "C'mon, you're obviously in a funk. So let's get you out of it, huh? Why don't we go hang out by the water, and you can tell me about these kingdoms or something! Never been to an underwater city, or one up in the clouds, or anything like those. So, you gotta tell me what they're like!"
   Tamaya chuckled. "Alright, alright. You lead the way, then. Find us a good spot. Somewhere where we can see the chains from, that'll be a good reference point."
   "Sounds good!" Nahia declared, and she turned to set off again. "Follow me!"
   The not-hero followed shortly after... but far enough behind that Nahia wouldn't notice her sigh.
   Hopefully, at least, they would understand where they went wrong, and make an effort to never make such a mistake again. She wouldn't wish for this fate to fall on another like herself ever again.