Selene smiled as the centaurs all got really quiet, her red scythe disappearing as quickly as it had formed. “That’s better,” she told them. “Now, listen up, because we’re going to tell you how things work from now on. First of all, no bothering the lone centaur. Her territory is hers, and you will all leave her alone. Second, no traveling in groups of more than three. You lot get stupider the more there are of you, so just spare some of your brain cells and travel in smaller groups, okay?”

“Third,” Anthony’s voice rumbled, shocking me – I wasn’t aware that dragons could speak in full dragon form, but aquatic shifters could, so I probably shouldn’t be surprised that other species could, too.

“No harming others, supernatural or humans, without justification. And by justification I mean mostly self-defense, understood?” When the centaurs started to grumble about this and look like they were ready to protest, Anthony let out a cloud of fire that sparked over their heads, making several of them duck to avoid getting singed.

“I don’t want to hear a single complaint of someone getting bullied by centaurs,” he growled, “and trust me, I will find out if it’s happening.” Probably because he was a police officer, but hey, it sounded scarier if it was a vague statement about how he would mysteriously keep tabs on them. “If I find out you’ve bullied some kids, mugged a businessman, tripped an old lady – I don’t care what it is, but if it’s unnecessary violence, I will not tolerate it.” He opened his mouth a bit, letting fire ignite within but not releasing it, creating a fiery orange glow behind his teeth that was almost terrifying.

Above and behind us, Jett rumbled again, one of his arms reaching over to literally pick up their boat and twist around it like he was contemplating snapping it in half.

A couple of the centaurs were starting to look legitimately scared by now, while some of them were still a mixture of offended and uncertain.

The rough-voiced female, not so much. “Screw you all!” She hissed. “We’re not going to be told what to do by a bunch of two leggers!”

“Wow, where to even begin with that?” Charlotte sounded like she wanted to laugh. “I’m guessing you can’t count because the dragon has four legs, the kraken has eight, the oceanids here could have none when they want, I have four, so, well, that doesn’t even apply to most of us. Really only to the demons, and seriously? You want to fight a pandemonium that has twice your numbers? Demons survive almost anything,” she sounded like she was trying to be patient with a child. “Plus their magic tends to be stronger than ours, so you know what? You want to engage the pandemonium, be my guest – but I’m betting on them.”

The rough-voiced female centaur looked like she wanted to do exactly that, but her friends were becoming less convinced. Two of them were just staring at Jett, looking almost captivated in horror, one mumbling something about swimming back while watching the boat being carelessly rolled around in one of his massive tentacles. Another one, closer to Anthony’s side of the mud pit, was trying to edge further away from him like it really didn’t want the chance to experience dragon fire up close and personal, while the centaur closest to Selene seemed to be trying to shrink down even smaller.

In fact, now that I looked at them, most of them were deflating, almost, realizing they were at an extreme disadvantage being trapped like they were, sorely outnumbered, and their magic was definitely not enough to handle a kraken or dragon. I couldn’t tell if the herd mentality was breaking and they were starting to think separately or if actually most of them were affecting the others with their fear, which would kind of be a useful benefit to us – one time the herd mentality would work in our favor.

But the rough-voiced female centaur seemed to be the only one who disagreed with the general consensus among the others that it was a really bad idea to keep pressing their agenda.

“I’m not bowing to any of you,” she snapped. “I’ll show you what I think of all of you stupid two-leggers!” And then she gathered up a ball of magic with a surprising amount of speed and flung it before anyone could stop her.

Not at Selene, who was closest to her. Not at Anthony, who looked like his scales and teeth were smoking. Not at Jett, playing with their boat and looking like he was just waiting for his chance to smack them. Not even at Charlotte, whom she’d originally come here to deal with.

No. She threw the magic at me. Maybe it was an attempt to fulfill her promise from all those years ago, or maybe she just saw me as the weakest target and most likely to fall. Either way, when she threw that magic, I squeaked instinctively and then threw up a bubble of water around me in the same instant, fear in my mouth but self-preservation apparently winning over pure panic.

The next second was mild chaos. I felt Sidney’s magic settle over mine, an added layer of water bubble as the orb hit, thankfully absorbed by the water without hitting me. Charlotte looked pissed off, but not half as pissed off as – oh. Well…there she went.

Much to the shock and horror of the centaurs, one of Jett’s massive arms reached down, moving faster than anything that size had any business moving, and snatched the rough-voiced centaur up from the mud. A second later she was flying into the air as he tossed her carelessly, and then he snatched her again with an arm from the other side, out towards the sea, and slammed her into the water hard.

I flinched, well aware that the speed at which she’d just hit the water had probably broken a few bones, but it was hard to find fault with Jett, either. He was angry that someone had tried to hurt me and I knew he’d keep his promise about not totally drowning her, so maybe she’d figure out that kraken are actually quite dangerous and she should consider listening to the threats instead of ignoring us?

The remaining centaurs had no more fight left in them after that. Some of them were still staring into the sky like they were trying to figure out if she’d really ever come down – they apparently missed the part where she already had – while the rest of them were looking suitably submissive.

“We’ll abide by your rules,” one of them volunteered awkwardly. “Um, no bothering people, the lone centaur gets her territory, and, uh, all that.”

“I want to hear you all promise,” Anthony rumbled.

The centaurs looked like they weren’t delighted about it, but they all obediently promised to abide by the rules.

“But, um, what about the boat? We can’t swim.” The male centaur asked awkwardly after Anthony seemed satisfied with their promises.

I wondered if that was a centaur thing.

Selene folded her arms across her chest, looking a little smug. “Don’t get any bright ideas after you get back to town,” she told them. “We’ll be keeping an eye on you. If you mess up, we’ll know.” She glanced at Anthony, then back at the centaurs. “Now why don’t you ask the kraken very nicely if he’ll give you the boat back?”

The male centaur who seemed to be unofficially elected spokesperson looked at Jett nervously, but couldn’t seem to keep looking at him and sort of ended up staring at the mud instead. “Um, Mr., err, Miss, um, Lord Kraken, may we please have the boat back? Uh, in one piece, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Jett rumbled a little, making the centaurs look at each other in confusion.

“He’s upset that your other one threatened our friend,” Sidney spoke up, glaring at them. “You apologize to her, promise that none of you will try to harm her again, and then you can have your boat back.”

The centaurs glanced at each other, then dutifully turned towards me. “We’re sorry,” they announced in chorus. "And we promise none of us will hurt you.” Then they glanced at Sidney hopefully.

Jett made a noise that sounded an awful lot like an annoyed sigh, but he dropped the boat back into the water. It might have had a few more dents and scratches than when it arrived, but it was still seaworthy, so the centaurs breathed a sigh of relief and then began the struggle to free themselves from the mud.

None of us moved to help them, and Sidney and I didn’t offer to change our magic to make the mud disappear. Instead we all just waited, watching them until one by one they got free and hurried – without waiting for any of their friends – to get to the boat.

However, once they all got on and started up the boat to make their escape, Jett startled them by blocking them with one gigantic arm. Before they had time to fully panic that he’d changed their mind, another arm appeared and he dropped a half-conscious, very waterlogged centaur onto the boat with them.

“Do take your trash back with you!” Sidney called cheerfully.

They didn’t object but instead immediately disappeared over the horizon as soon as Jett allowed them to.

As the sound of the boat faded, we all looked at each other.

“It really worked?” Britt asked hopefully. “I mean, they seemed legit scared there – not an act?”

“Not an act,” Selene agreed with a smile. “I could smell the fear on them. Nice going, Mr. Kraken.” She gave Jett an approving nod. “I think throwing their friend around was the final straw. They won’t be forgetting that any time soon.”

I was still sitting on the ground and had been during this entire experience, but now suddenly I pulled my knees up to my chest and burst into tears, much to almost everyone’s surprise.

Sidney came darting over and quickly threw his arms around me. “It’s okay, Sage,” he soothed. “I’m sorry we couldn’t completely avoid the violence, but sometimes these things happen. No one was permanently hurt, that counts for something, right?”

Jett morphed back into his human form and I could almost feel his worry as he came over. “I’m sorry,” he added a little awkwardly. “I know you didn’t want that, but I couldn’t just let them get away with trying to hurt you.”

They didn’t understand that it wasn’t that I was bothered about. It was the fact of who that centaur had been.

“I wanna go home,” I sobbed. “Can I go home now?”

Without another word, Sidney picked me up and carried me back into the ocean.

~~~~

“Saaaage.” Silas drew the word out as he bumped his nose into me. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

After the confrontation, I’d holed myself up in my room and refused to come out. I didn’t even run my normal errands to help people. Every time I closed my eyes, I remembered back to elementary school, only this time I saw the centaur’s current face and the look in her eyes when she’d told me she planned to make good her promise.

Unlike the other centaurs, she hadn’t promised not to hurt me. I was deeply afraid she would plan to carry through on that promise, despite everything that had happened. The only safe place for me was in the ocean. I never wanted to go to the surface again, certainly not when something like her was waiting for me to appear.

The nightmares which had slowly faded over time were back, the memories sparked to brand new with the encounter. If I hadn’t gone to the surface, I’d never have brought all these memories back. I couldn’t help but wish that maybe I’d just left things in the hands of more competent people to deal with the centaurs. Then I wouldn’t be back where I was, back to my memories from elementary school, unable to find the courage to even leave my one-room house.

No, that wasn’t true. I didn’t really entirely regret helping. Charlotte was a friend, somehow, and the centaurs were a threat, and I would never ask Sidney and Jett to jeopardize their own lives and then sit back and watch them do it without helping them. I definitely had to go, despite the results. I just hated that going there meant that I was going to have to work through all this again and try to remember who I’d been just a few weeks ago and how to get back to that person.

It had taken me years to get to where I’d been. Almost two decades, actually, to establish a life I’d been happy with, and now – now it felt like that had all been washed away in a single morning. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to pick up the pieces and do it all over again. I just didn’t know if I could do this again. Maybe…maybe it would be simpler to just stay here forever. In my room. Never come out. I could handle that much.

“Silas, can we talk to her?” Sidney’s tentative voice came through the door. “Maybe we’ll have more success.”

Silas sighed, but agreed, swimming out to make room for them in my little house.

Sidney came and sat – as much as an oceanid can in aquatic form – on the structure that served as my bed and reached out to gently stroke the top of my head, playing with my braid with his other hand.

“We’re really sorry about what happened,” he said softly. “We didn’t mean for it to get to that point – we tried not to let it.”

Jett came and sat on the other side of me, tentatively reaching for my hand before pulling back, like he wasn’t sure it was okay for him to do that. “I really didn’t want to scare you.” His deep rumbly voice sounded regretful. “I’m sorry for that.”

I shook my head slightly, burrowing my face further into the pillow. “You didn’t scare me. And I’m not upset that you threw her.”

They exchanged a confused glance, apparently now lost as to where my reaction came from.

“Was the whole thing a little much for you?” Sidney asked hesitantly. “You haven’t even been on the surface much in years, and that…that would be a lot.”

I shook my head again. “No, it’s – the centaur, the one you threw?” I peeked over at Jett. “She was the one who held me back in elementary school and forced me to watch.”

They seemed thunderstruck at that, Sidney’s jaw dropping open a bit.

“It’s been so long, I’d kind of forgotten I could even run into any of the kids from that day,” I admitted. “But she – she was one of the worst. She might not have been actively involved in killing him but she made me watch, and then she – she told me I would be next,” I added very, very softly. I’d never admitted that before, but Jett and Sidney made me feel safe. “That’s what she meant the other day when she talked about fulfilling old promises. She – she wants to kill me. Just for fun.” I swallowed hard. “Why are people like that?”

Sidney went from stroking my hair to wrapping me in a bear hug – or, well, ferocious oceanid hug? – with no movements in between. “We will not let her hurt you,” he told me fiercely.

“I wish I’d known about that,” Jett grumbled. “I probably would have – ” He stopped, eyeing my face uneasily, but I had a pretty good guess at what he meant.

For some reason, Jett’s threat of violence actually bothered me a lot less than most surface dwellers’ threats. Maybe it was just because I knew Jett and knew he wouldn’t hurt me, or even hurt anyone else unless it was called for? Was that hypocritical of me, to not mind as much with him when I so clearly minded with everyone else?