Clouds and Currents - VoK & HW 2021 Event Prompts

   And indeed, when Tamaya awoke from her daydream as she continued her search, something had changed. Namely, her. Her appearance was shifting rapidly, changing her into something new... or, perhaps, something old, something she simply couldn't recall, so long ago it was, so young she had been. A magic being shed like molting feathers, revealing the truth it had hidden for so long.
   She gazed at herself in a nearby puddle, still swirling with a whirlpool from the titan's magic as the kingdoms and the god and her best friend stood and swam and flew to fight against it. In spite of the distortion, she could see herself... and see that she didn't recognize the lion gazing back at her.
   Perfect. Lorena wouldn't know what hit her.
   Now then, to find her... Where to begin? The runes to the east, perhaps...? Yes, those seemed like a fair shot. Not to mention...
   She stretched her newly revealed wings and flapped them a few times. No hollow bones, not quite enough lift. But... She closed her eyes and focused. No, they were big enough. They would get her off the ground. They would work. She flapped them again, harder this time.
   And, somehow, they did.
   It took some time, adjusting to this whole flying thing. She nearly slammed into a few of the trees that remained standing in defiance of the titan's magic as she adjusted to the sensation. But she was flying, just as she believed she could. And it gave her the perfect view of the valley. Up above, the sky city hovered, its chain still anchored to the land; out in the ocean, beyond the spot lit up by flashes of fireworks now and then (Nahia had surprisingly good aim, hitting it square in the jaw like that), the kingdom of the ocean hid beneath the waves. And further out in the land, in a clearing to the east... she saw them. The runes the others had spotted, arranged in a circle and glowing softly between the branches. And...
   She dove quickly beneath the treeline again. Even if Lorena wouldn't recognize her like this, it was still better not to be spotted. And, besides, in spite of the partial feathering, these wings weren't those of an owl's. She would likely hear her approach from the air, unless she were to fold them up and drop into a freefall... and that would more likely than not end with her getting hurt just as much as the siphoning sorceress. Better to sneak up on foot, then.
   She folded her wings close to her body and slunk from tree trunk to tree trunk, squishing behind them as best she could as she approached - Changed or not, it was better to not be seen at all, if it could be helped. And she was lucky in that regard, the sorceress too preoccupied with her own work to notice that she'd been found until Tamaya was already on top of her.
   Something nice about being a lion was that Lorena, this cat, was so much smaller than her. And so it was easy to knock her to the ground, the shock of the impact sending her wand flying from her paws and pinning one of them beneath her back. The witch yelped and struggled as Tamaya pressed a paw to her windpipe, snarling. Her squirming quickly ceased as cool metal pressed down on the skin of Lorena's neck beneath her fur, sharp steel claws threatening to tear open her throat at any moment. She gazed, wide-eyed and terrified, at the hero standing over her.
   "So," Tamaya said. "How did this whole thing work out for you, huh?"
   "Who-" Lorena started, then stopped. The light in this lion's eyes... It was different from before, and yet.
   "You're lucky I don't slit your throat where you lay, or gouge your eyes out, for what you did to me," Tamaya growled.
   In her mind, Lorena cursed. Of course, the hero... "I- I'm sorry, listen," she said, trying to reach for her fallen wand without alerting her attacker, "I was just doing what was asked of me, the same as you-"
   Tamaya pinned her free arm down. No, that wouldn't be happening. "Don't you dare try to act like we're the same," she spat. "You took everything from me with this stupid little game of yours."
   "I-It wasn't a ga-" She silenced herself as she felt Tamaya press down just a bit harder on her neck. Oh, there would be no talking her way out of this one, would there?
   "No. You don't get to explain yourself now," the lioness growled. "You listen to me, and you listen good. You're gonna shut your damn mouth unless you want the last thing you experience with it to be the taste of your own blood." Lorena remained silent. "That's what I thought." Tamaya's tail lashed. "I spent my entire life being told to accomplish an impossible task because of you. I spent my entire life hating myself because of the expectations that you put on me with your magic shenanigans."
   "I-I'm sorry, that wasn't my int-" She was cut off my a stinging sensation in the limb the lion had pinned under her paw. She was bleeding. Ever so slightly, but she was bleeding.
   "I said shut up." Tamaya glared. "You would sacrifice the life of another, of countless others, for what? Some goddamn quest to unite the kingdoms of sea and sky and land? And you're continuing this, even after they created the technology to do so on their own? Are you stupid?" She bared her fangs at the cat. "The chains were created and have linked the kingdoms together on their own, with no thanks to you. The people from long ago who were relying on the titan's magic to do the same thing, bringing the kingdoms together, but by force, are long, long dead. And you have the audacity to keep siphoning off its energy to preserve yourself and their misguided goals?" She spat a curse at the sorceress. "You're absolutely pathetic."
   Lorena made the wise decision to not say anything in response this time.
   "And, to top it all off, you don't even care, do you? Still trying to reach for your wand, apologizing just to save your own skin. You couldn't just leave well enough alone, couldn't just learn from your mistakes before and drop it. And look at where that's gotten you. Pinned to the ground like a misbehaving cub." The pressure on Lorena's throat grew stronger as Tamaya flared her wings and huffed. "You don't care about the fact that you'd be killing the titan to make yourself stronger, you don't care about the people who would be killed in its rampage, and you don't care about the hero whose life would be stolen from them in the name of undoing the damage you've caused.
   "Do you have any idea what my life has been like? Oh, woe is you, you were banished from your home. How terrible, the consequences of your actions!" She swayed dramatically, still pressing down into Lorena's fur and flesh, and rolled her eyes. "Meanwhile, I never had a home. Ever since I was a cub, and they decided this was my responsibility, I was tossed between sea and sky like a frisbee. I never got to have a childhood because of you. I never got to be a kid, never got to know my parents or siblings, if I had them. I was never a person. I was a hero. That was all I ever was. I was a sacrifice made to combat something that was never my fault or my problem to begin with." She put her face close to Lorena's, close enough that she could have bitten into her muzzle if she so pleased. "Tell me, Lorena. Were you only a child when you first started using the titan's magic to commit acts of war?" When Lorena didn't respond, as she'd been told before, she pressed down harder into her arm, cutting deeper into the wounds. "Speak."
   "...No," the cat admitted, barely a whisper, before silencing herself again.
   "That's what I thought," Tamaya said. "You had a choice. You chose to do this in the first place. You weren't a kitten, reliant on others to keep you alive. You were perfectly capable of managing for yourself if need be. You could have refused. But you didn't. And you still won't. Even now, you're continuing this ridiculous, meaningless charade, at the expense of everyone around you, because the one thing you will refuse is to learn or grow or change." She adjusted her grip on Lorena's neck and flapped her wings, and for just a moment, the ancient cat felt like she was being lifted off the ground. "You don't get to act like we're the same. You were given a choice in your life, and you made the wrong one. I was never given a choice at all."
   Then Lorena was being pressed back into the soil again, just like before.
   But there was one difference now. Her other arm was free. It would be risky, and even if successful, wouldn't be easy, but...
   Before the hero could react, she struck Tamaya in the elbow with her free paw, the shock lifting the lion's claws from her neck just enough that she could squirm out from underneath her in the instant she'd managed to make for herself. It wasn't much time, but it was time enough for Lorena. And in that brief moment between her escape and Tamaya's retaliation, she dove for her wand.