Clouds and Currents - VoK & HW 2021 Event Prompts

   "Well?" Nahia asked as she bounded over to where Bora was waiting for them. "Any luck on the hammers and picks?"
   "Be patient," he replied. "As I said, these work best when forged from a single piece of steel. Given their size, it's going to take some time." He raised an eyebrow. "And you seem to have returned with nothing as well. Your attempts at gathering resources to make decoys were unsuccessful, I presume?"
   Before Nahia could answer, there was a thud to their side, and Bora crouched down into a battle stance... only to find a rather sore and dizzy Tamaya flat on her back on the ground. "Agh... these branches are way too flimsy," she whined. "Hate trees. Hate land."
   Bora was silent for a moment, and then turned his attention back to Nahia. "Do I want to know why you've set her to the task of falling out of trees?"
   Nahia rolled her eyes. "Edgar and her got caught up in talking, trying to get on his good side, and we weren't able to grab anything. I was gonna steal some stuff, but Tamaya wouldn't let me."
   "Is that so?" Bora faced the hero and nodded. "Thank you for having some reason and common sense. It seems to be in short supply these days."
   "Oh, bite me," Nahia said. "Anyway, since we don't have any actual stuff to work with, what we figured we could do instead was put together dummies out of leaves and bark and seaweed and stuff. You know, grab a bunch of leaves, wrap em up in bark and kelp til it's nice and solid, put em all together in the shape of an animal? Like a paper-mâché sculpture, but from plants." She shrugged. "Stupid rocks won't know the difference, right?"
   "It's... better than nothing," he admitted. "But in the meantime, I've got something else you may be interested in." And from a pouch obscured in his mane he pulled two pairs of gleaming metal objects, in the shape of paws with claws unsheathed. Nahia's eyes lit up.
   "Whoa, are those, like, gauntlets? Like, battle claws?" she asked, grabbing a pair. "You get these from the metalsmiths you asked about the hammer and stuff?" Bora nodded. "Oh, hell yeah! Something we can actually use!" She slipped them on her front paws and grabbed the others, tossing them haphazardly over to the newly-on-her-feet-again Tamaya, who barely avoided being hit by them. "Tamaya, try these on! Oh, we could totally fight off those things with these! The small ones, at least."
   "O-Oh. Um... right." With some hesitation, she slipped her paws into the weapons. The metal was cool against her pawpads, and she felt another wave of insecurity. She needed a way to fight, true... but at the same time, she shouldn't be fighting at all. She wasn't a hero.
   But Nahia's enthusiasm seemed to stop her objections. "C'mon, let's go! We can get to actually training to fight, now!" She grinned. "And those small-fry are gonna be the perfect target. Tama! Forget the decoys, we can take care of them later! For now, let's tear some stones into gravel!" And she disappeared into the brush.
   "...I should... probably go make sure she doesn't get herself killed," Tamara said to Bora. "Um, thank you. I'll do my best, sir." Then, she set off after her friend.