"Wake up! Gods, Floa get up!"
Floa snorted as she was shaken awake. Her body felt tired, reluctant to be drawn from the sweet embrace of sleep. Opening her bleary, light-blue eyes she stared up at a familiar face.
"Bran?"
What was Bran doing there? He had moved from their turf almost a year ago. In her drowsy state she failed to register the urgent look on his face.
"Get up!" He grabbed Floa by the arm and hauled her to her feet, finally wresting her from sleep's desperate grasp.
He was kitted out in turf war gear, with an ink tank, an ink gun, and a couple of splat bombs attached to his belt. Belatedly, she realized that the gear was not oversized as it should have been on someone his age, but proportionate to him as it would appear on a fourteen-year old.
"Abri sent me to get you," Bran went on.
Floa frowned. "Abri?" She was another friend of theirs, but what was with the urgency?
"Yeah, Captain thinks we're under attack. We're needed topside."
He let her go and Floa staggered for a second before finding her feat. "Captain? Topside? Bran, you're sounding bonk. What's goin' on?"
"Just grab your gear and hurry up. I'll see you on deck."
He ran out of the room before she had a chance to ask him anything further. He ducked through a rectangular hatchway and vanished from view.
Floa turned and looked at her "gear" sitting on the floor where she'd been sleeping. It was the same set of ink tank, ink gun, and splat bombs that Bran had been kitted with.
She had never actually worn any of these items before and only remembered using a form of splat bomb during a school event, and yet, somehow, she donned the gear as if she'd done it a thousand times, and hurried after Bran.
The corridor was white and completely made of metal. There were no windows so she couldn't see outside but there was a steep staircase up ahead with sunlight streaming down through a hatch at the top. When she reached the ladder and went up through the hatch, she realized why everything seemed so familiar.
Splashed across the nearby wall was the same logo applied to the harbour ferries in inkopolis. Peering around the deck, it looked just like the ferries she had occasionally ridden with her family. The ship's angled white and orange streaks, she'd been told, helped it stand out in fog.
As she stood on deck, she found the weather to be sunny with a pleasant breeze blowing down the length of the ship. She didn't see any sign of land, so they were clearly not in Inkopolis Bay.
She found Bran standing near the deck railing, staring intensely at the sea with his ink gun vaguely pointed at the waves.
"About time you got here," he said tersely. "Enemies coming our way. Should be here any minute."
Floa frowned. Enemies? Were they playing turf war and he was talking about the other team? That seemed like rather strong language. Was he talking about the crab gangs? The kids never got involved in the battles over territory. Maybe he was just playing pretend, but that didn't seem like him either. He'd usually been a fairly chill squid.
"Where's Abri?"
Bran jerked his thumb over his shoulder and upward. Looking where he'd indicated, Floa saw Abri standing on one of the bridge wings. Her bright green mantle seemed placid enough but she looked out over the waves with the same grim expression Bran had. What was going on?
The ship suddenly rocked, groaning metal echoing up through the open hatch. The next thing she knew she was standing a few metres from Bran and likewise scanning the water with her ink gun. But what was she looking for?
"Where is it?" Abri shouted down at them.
"We're looking!" Bran shouted back.
The words were barely out of his mouth when a huge black tendril shot out of the water and slapped the deck, nearly flattening someone underneath it.
Abri screamed. "Shoot it! Kill it!"
Abri's commands jarred everyone from their initial shock. They began shooting at the tentacle with their ink guns, but it was already slipping off the deck and back into the sea. Bran fired a few shots into the water near where the tentacle had vanished, but of course it did nothing except briefly colour the surface of the water blue before it dissipated.
The boat rocked again, this time from an impact on the opposite side. The others ran in that direction but Bran remained where he was, his eyes intense, completely fixated on the water.
Was he looking for the owner of that big black tentacle? Floa wasn't sure his little ink gun would do much against something as big as that. And what kind of monster would have a tentacle that big anyway? Could it be… a kraken? A real kraken? She thought they were only made up stories, used to scare kids who rode on boats. It just couldn't be real, could it?
Panic slowly sank its needle teeth into her soul and she began wondering where her mother was. Floa held onto the railing with one hand as the boat rolled and shook with whatever was happening on the other side of the ship. She peered down at the water, trying to see past the undulating surface to what might lurk below. After a few seconds, she thought she could see a large black shape, and then two, huge, golden eyes with perpendicular slits looked back at her.
"Floa, Floa!"
Floa felt herself being shaken and she jerked, bringing her arms up instinctively to protect herself.
"Floa," the voice said again, gentle this time. "It's alright, it's okay now."
Floa peeked out from behind her arms and saw, not the frightening gaze of a kraken, but the gentle, concerned light-blue eyes of her mother.
"You okay there, squiddo?" Her father asked from the driver's seat.
Floa looked around, reorienting herself. She was in the back seat of her family's car. She vaguely remembered having to get up very early in order to leave the city before morning traffic. She must have fallen asleep on the way, and had that same nightmare that had been repeating itself occasionally over the past couple of months.
They were pulled over on the side of the highway. Her mother had come into the back seat with her and was looking over her. Her mantle displaying calming blue waves.
"You were having a nightmare," her mother said.
Floa rubbed her eyes and then blinked a few times. "Oh…"
Her mother sat down next to her and began gently stroking her head. The warmth of her touch gradually banished her fright. "Do you want me to stay here with you until we get to our new house?"
Floa flashed red through her mantle, indicating no. "I'm fine, Mom."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm fine," she repeated, trying to not sound like she was whining. Whining was something only little kids did, and she was eight years old now, way too big for that.
Her mother gave her a sweet smile then kissed the top of her head before vacating the back seat and returning to the front.
"It's just nerves," her father said as he resumed driving. "Happens to grown-ups too sometimes when they're nervous about something. Moving out of the city to a town you don't know full of people you don't know, to a new school you don't know would make any kid your age nervous."
"I'm nah nervous," Floa insisted, crossing her arms and straightening her back. "Imma' big girl now."
Her father laughed in that way grown-ups always did when they didn't believe something she said. "You sure are. So you should have no trouble making friends."
Floa stuck out her lips in a pout and held the bulbs of her tentacles in her hands, angrily looking at the little white dots standing out against the mustard yellow that covered her entire mantle.
"Everyone'll make fun of my speckles." A lot of kids even at her old school had made fun of them, but at least there she'd had other kids in the same shoal as backup. Now, she'd be alone. She knew nobody.
"They were always just trying to pick a fight," her mother insisted. "There are no gangs in Calamari County. I'm sure if you act nicely and be pleasant, you won't have trouble making friends."
Floa didn't miss the emphasis her mother put on the words 'act nicely' and 'pleasant'. Back at her old school kids often tried to pick fights with her and she'd pick right back. That was just how it worked. Ever since she learned that she'd be moving away, her mother had been trying to drill into her head that wasn't how things worked everywhere else and especially not where she'd be going to school now. The more Floa heard about this school, the less excited she became.
"I'll be an' outsider. They won't wanna' lemmie' in."
"Sure they will. You're different. They'll think you're interesting."
"No, they'll make funna' me 'cause I'm different. That only 'appens in cartoons, Mom."
"Only if you keep that negative attitude, Floa. Oh, look! You can see the town from here."
Her mother pointed ahead and Floa peered through the windscreen to try and see.
The town of Calamari County loomed ahead, a loose collection of buildings surrounded by green hills that separated it from farming plots and wild meadows. She saw a single, large, stone structure in the middle of town, but other than that, didn't see a single building taller than about three stories. Coming from the big city, it was a bit of a shock.
"It's tiny," she mumbled.
"Well, it's only a small town," her mother said, as if it were no big thing, but it was.
They were coming from a city where millions of people lived and any of the main streets were lined with skyscrapers. Here, the trees seemed to loom taller than most of the buildings.
"But it's a very nice place to be. You certainly don't have to worry about dangerous crabs in this part of the country. As far as I know, only inklings live here."
"I'm nah 'fraid of crabs," Floa grumbled. Her parents didn't comment.
That was another reason Floa didn't like leaving: it was like she was running away from the crabs. They'd been getting a lot worse over the last few years, always more of them, and always more aggressive, and they'd pushed a few of the inkling shoals out of their territory, forcing them to merge with other shoals or disperse into the rest of Inkopolis with nowhere to go. That left fewer and fewer people to fight back against the crab gangs and everyone who stayed that much worse off.
They entered the town proper now. Most of the houses were painted bright colours and bigger than most of the houses Floa saw back in Inkopolis. She saw only a couple of small apartment blocks along the main street before they turned onto a side street and pulled into the driveway of a two-story, wooden house with forest-green paint.
"We're home," her mother sang.
Floa stared out the window, open mouthed, and having to mentally check herself to see if she had truly woken up. "It's a mansion!"
Her parents both laughed.
"Not a mansion," her father admitted. "But I think your old dad did pretty good getting this house."
"And a lot of other families had their eyes on it," her mother said with a fake sigh. "I've heard."
Floa waited until her mother opened the door and scampered out of the car, running up to the big tree in front yard. She placed her hand on the trunk, feeling its coarse bark through her fingers then looked up at the canopy where she could see a few birds resting in its branches. She started to wonder if she could climb it.
"Come on, Floa," her mother called. "Don't you want to see the inside of the house? We've got a lot of unpacking to do and we need to get that done before school starts in a couple of days."
Floa's mood instantly soured. She'd briefly forgotten about that. Seeing her friends had always been the only motivation to go to school. Without that, she felt no desire to go at all.
Why did she have to go through school? What use was it in the end?
As she trudged towards the big house that was her family's new home, she wondered if that dream would go away once school started. If so, maybe it would be worth it.
"Marie, are you up yet?" Her mother's muffled voice called through the door. "You are not going to be late for school, young lady, especially not on the first day of the year."
Marie was already sat up in her bed, blinking her eyes to clear away what little sleep she'd managed through a night of anxious tossing and turning. She was not looking forward to school in the least, but even less did she look forward to her mother's lectures.
Her clothing had already been picked out the day before so it was a quick effort to get dressed and trudge off to the kitchen for breakfast. She could smell the eggs and fish strips the moment she left her bedroom.
Her mother stood at the stove, her tentacles tied up at the back as they often were in the mornings.
"About time. You shouldn't need me to wake you up in time for school, Marie, you're not a baby anymore."
Marie tried to distract herself from the stab of guilt she felt by pondering the question of how her mother could tell she was there with her back turned.
She sat down at the table just as her mother poured the eggs and fish strips onto her plate.
"Eat quickly. We don't want to keep them waiting."
Marie didn't want to eat quickly, she wanted to take her time, to figuratively drag her feet to delay her arrival at school as much as possible, but she wasn't about to disobey. Well brought up girls did as they were told. It was something she had no need or desire to be reminded of.
Less than a half hour after she had sat down for breakfast, she was in the porch with her mother watching impatiently as she tied her shoes.
"I expect you to be up on time tomorrow. You're eight years old so you need to start showing more independence. You're a matriarch's grandchild which means more is expected of you than the other kids."
"I know," she said, trying her best not to sound snippy. That never went well with her mother. Besides, she was right.
Shoes tied, Marie donned her backpack, appreciating how light it was now. It was only going to get heavier as the year went on and text books were added to her daily load.
Finally, as ready as she would ever be, the door opened and they went outside.
The morning was a tad crisp for a summer day but the sun's rays did their work to warm her and stave off the chill. They just started down the walk when, across the road, another pair of inklings emerged from the opposite house. Marie and her mother stopped by the roadside and waited.
"Sorry for the wait," her mother said as the other two reached the road.
Marie's aunt Mora smiled and her black mantle turned a reassuring green colour. "We just got out ourselves. Callie's so excited to go back to school I had to give her a second helping."
Callie smiled shamelessly, her own normally black mantle yellow with large blotches of excited orange. How she could be so excited was a mystery to Marie.
"Then we'd better send them off." Marie's mother gave her a gentle push. "Or they'll be late."
Marie adjusted the straps of her backpack and merely flashed green in compliance. Using tuk'yan, (colour language), helped keep her from coming off as brusque. Callie skipped across the street and began walking beside her, waving good-bye to their mothers as they walked towards town.
Once they were out of earshot, Marie asked Callie, "why are you so excited?"
Callie laughed as if Marie had just told her a joke. "What do you mean? Sure School means we have to do work and stuff and class is boring but we have all our friends at school. And this year we're old enough to join the talent show and do the Cavern Run! It's going to be a great year!"
Marie suppressed a groan. Callie's boundless optimism might have been one of her best features but it also made her seem dumber than she really was.
"Callie, you know what's going to happen when we get to school: the same thing as last year."
Callie's smile faltered slightly and her mantle cooled to its natural black. With just a slight stammer she replied, "I don't think it'll be that bad. I'm sure after the summer they'll have forgotten all about us."
"After bullying us all last year? I doubt it. We still look just as different as everyone else as last year."
Callie's mantle turned burgundy and she waved her hand in Marie's direction. "I don't wanna' talk about that, I wanna' talk about the talent show. You're supposed to be my manager, remember?"
Marie straightened her posture and forced a serious expression. "Right, sorry. It's probably too early for you to get scouted but you never know. It'll be a chance to show what you can do."
Callie beamed. "That's better. Yeah, I definitely want to show everyone what I can do. If they see what a good singer I am then I'll become popular, just like the idols on TV."
So that was why Callie was so cheerful; she thought she had found a solution to the bullying problem. It was a ways off and Marie had doubts it would work but at least she was doing something about the problem, unlike her.
Some matriarch's grandchild I am.
Callie gave her a playful nudge. "You know, if you came on stage and sang with me, I bet the same would happen to you."
Marie grimaced and leaned away. The mere thought of being on stage in front of people was almost enough to make her ink.
"Awwww, come on, you'd love it! You can sing just as well as I can."
Marie's face flushed, her mantle turning a bright pink. "Quiet," she hissed, thinking someone might hear, but Callie only grinned.
"Well you do. If don't know why you're so embarrassed, you sing at congregations all the time. Do you know how many people wish they could sing that good?"
"I can't sing good enough," she insisted. "Besides, I have to focus on other things. Being a singer is more your thing."
And being a performer is not the sort of thing a matriarch's granddaughter is supposed to aspire to. Mother would never allow it either, too impractical. And yet she longed for it.
Even if her mother did permit it, she didn't have the guts to perform on stage. And if she messed up, even slightly, she would humiliate herself and her parents and grandmother by extension. She couldn't do that, she couldn't risk failing and disappointing them. It was safer to hide in Callie's shadow. That was why she had become Callie's manager, so that she could at least help her cousin attain a dream she could not.
The school building loomed up ahead. In front of the main gates the usual crowd of parents was assembled, everyone catching up and talking about their summer holidays, not that different from the conversations Marie anticipated the kids having.
As the two of them neared, some of the adults paused their conversations to stare at them with lukewarm gazes. Callie smiled while Marie pretended she didn't notice their eyes on her.
The two of them passed through the school gate and Marie didn't have to look back to know they would be whispering about them. It was always the same, it had been ever since Aunt Mora stopped walking Callie to school, whatever that was about.
Through the entrance and just beyond the office, a crowd of other kids stood in front of a bulletin board covered with sheets of crisp white paper. Their expressions ranged from elation to disappointment. Those papers contained the classroom assignments.
Callie skipped up to the back of the crowd and her eyes narrowed as she peered at the papers.
"We're in Ms. Walken's class. She's good."
"Both of us?"
"Yup! Tandi and Raven are in Mr. Greesun's class though."
That figured. They hadn't all been in the same class since kindergarden. Marie suspected that the school staff kept the four of them separated like this on purpose.
Ms. Walken's room was already full of students, all assembled into different knots talking excitedly together about either their summer or some new trend. And sitting together in the corner were Murl, Admus, and Drang, the banes of her existence.
They were talking excitedly to each other –well, Murl and Admus were; Drang just sat and listened quietly. So far, they hadn't noticed that she and Callie had arrived but that would change soon.
Callie went to the only available table, positioned near the centre of the front row.
Unlike most kids, Marie didn't mind the front row. It made it easier to see the blackboard and get the teacher's attention. Callie casually dropped off her bag next to her chair and hurried to the nearest group, eagerly asking to hear about their summer.
Marie sighed, wondering how anyone could be so carefree and unafraid to insert themselves into any conversation. It was one of Callie's best attributes but it also sometimes made her obnoxious.
Marie sat at her seat and pulled out a book from her school bag. It was a book she'd borrowed from the town library about an ancient Precursor civilization called "Rome", which had grown from a single city to one of the greatest empires in all of history and Marie found herself drawing many parallels to their own country as she read through it.
Marie had become hooked on the exploits of the First Punic War and Second Punic War's struggle between Rome and the mighty Hannibal, the latter seeming like a paradoxical combination of a charismatic prince and a demon warlord.
She opened the book's cover and fell into the world between the pages, carried away from her present day worries to a place almost twenty-thousand years in the past called Cannae.
Right away, things were different. Floa's old school had a yard of broken concrete with yellow grass sticking up through the cracks. The school building itself had been a grey, drab, rectangle with a weather beaten and chipped exterior; this school looked brand new by comparison.
Although a much smaller building, its facade was brightly coloured with a pleasant mix of greens, blues, oranges, and bright yellows. The grounds outside were compacted gravel instead of concrete, with a lot of green grass and trees skirting around the sides and probably the back as well. It all looked so fancy, and that made Floa uncomfortable.
Her mother noticed her tugging at her shirt and smiled. "Oh don't worry Floa, you look just fine. I'll walk with you all the way to the office."
Floa forced her hand down, flushing. "I'm fine, I just don't wanna' 'ang with a bunch'a rich kids."
"They're not rich, Floa, the school is just newer and people look after things here. Just be nice and people will be nice to you back."
Floa scoffed. "Sure Mom, it'll be easy."
Her mother sighed, mantle turning a dark blue. "Floa, I know moving is tough, but you'll adapt, and soon you'll be having so much fun here that you'll soon forget to be worried."
Floa didn't respond.
The school office was, again, different to how it had been at her old school. There, many things had been metal and plywood had covered openings were windows had once been. Here, the windows were intact, letting her see into the office from the waiting room, and the teachers working to get their things ready for their classes.
A few minutes after they'd arrived and her mother had spoken to the secretary, an inkyora with a pale green mantle, which turned a friendlier green as she emerged from the office and met them.
"Hello," she said. "You must be Floa. I'm your new teacher. You can call me Ms. Walken."
Floa flashed green in an obligatory greeting. Ms. Walken seemed friendly enough but it was hard to tell. Grown-ups always seemed to hide their true feelings in front of kids.
"Be good, Floa," her mother warned. "And don't give Ms. Walken trouble."
"Oh, I'm sure she'll get along with everyone just fine," Ms. Walken said. "Come along, Floa, we don't want to keep everyone waiting and we need to find you a seat before morning announcements."
Floa looked back at her mother who smiled and waved as she walked with Ms. Walken out of the office and down the hall.
Even the hallways were brightly coloured, with the same mix of colours as the exterior of the building. All the bright colours were starting to make Floa feel like she had gone back to preschool.
"Don't worry," Ms. Walken was saying, "you're from the big city so everyone will want to talk to you. Like your Mom said, as long as you're nice, you won't have trouble making friends."
Floa sniffed. Her being from the city was just another way she could be singled out and isolated. She could only imagine how many kids were going to come and challenge her. She wasn't worried though. Xapheerell raised its kids tough, tougher, she was sure, than any of these country kids.
The sounds of conversation could be heard all the way down the hall from all the open classrooms. They walked past the first few and eventually arrived at room 3-A. Without pause, Ms. Walken went in and Floa forced herself to follow, making an effort to look as fearless as possible. No sense making her look like an easy target right off the bat.
At her old school, everyone had desks. They'd been worn and carved into by generations of students. This classroom had everyone sitting at tables of two or three people all facing the front of the classroom.
Ms. Walken addressed the class the moment she walked in. "Alright everyone, settle down. I know you're all excited to catch up but we've got plenty of time to do that later. Right now, we have some things to take care of. Today, we have someone new to Calamari County who will be joining our class this year."
She gestured to Floa. "Is there anyone who can spare a seat at their table?"
The words were barely out of Ms. Walken's mouth before a black mantled girl with unusually long tentacles stood up from her chair and waved her arm excitedly.
"Here! We have a space Ms. Walken!"
Ms. Walken laughed. "Alright, alright, Callie, settle down. Floa, you can sit between Callie and Marie there."
Floa suppressed a grimace, trying to maintain a look of indifference. Callie was obviously one of those overly energetic and friendly types. Floa usually didn't get along with those types unless they were older than her, but she didn't want to show reluctance lest she expose weakness.
Setting down her bag she sat between the two girls as directed. The one with the silver mantle had her nose buried in a book and seemed to be ignoring her while Callie looked at her with big…
Floa's hearts slowed, her show of indifference collapsing instantly as she stared back into Callie's cross-shaped pupils, the same strange and unique eyes she had seen in her last odd dream.
The horizontal and vertical slits shifted, sometimes together, other times independently. When she first sat down the vertical slits were wide with the horizontal narrowed. After a second or two, they switched, with the vertical narrowing and the horizontal widening, before they two eventually evened out.
Creepy.
"Hi! I'm Callie. You're from the big city! I bet Calamari County seems pretty boring compared to that, but don't worry, there's still stuff to do here, you just gotta' find it!"
For several seconds, Floa could do little more than stare, wide-eyed and shaken as fear drove icy spikes into her belly. Callie's pupils were much broader than the what she'd seen in her dream, but they were the same ones, she was sure of it. But how? She'd never seen eyes like that before, so how could she have dreamed about them before now?
Callie abruptly stood and lightly grasped Floa's head. "Look, Marie, she's got pretty little speckles all over her mantle!"
"Callie!" Ms. Walken scolded. "I know you're excited about making new friends but you need to settle down. Announcements will be starting any second."
Sure enough, the school bell rang one last time and a voice came over the speakers, beginning said announcements.
Floa forced herself to relax and compose herself as Callie sat back down. Just like at her old school, kids were expected to be quiet during announcements, but Floa ignored them. Her mind working on trying to figure out how her dream had managed to predict the future, but found herself becoming more unsettled the more she thought about it so she decided to distract herself by looking at Marie.
Marie had put her book away and had her head tilted to one side, resting on her hand. She was obviously calmer and more subdued than Callie, which was good, but it turned out she had the same kind of eyes, which only unnerved Floa even more.
The end of announcements prompted the start of orientation, with Ms. Walken handing out papers explaining what to expect for the year along with their class schedule. For once, Floa paid attention; it helped distract her from her thoughts.
By the time orientation was over and they'd all been assigned their cubbyholes, it was time for first recess and Callie eagerly grabbed her by the hand, intent on giving her a tour of the whole playground. Not wanting to be isolated, Floa was compelled to comply.
Callie first showed her the play structures. They were made mostly of wood instead of the plastic play structures from her old school. They were haphazard amalgamations of normally different structures, with sliding poles, metal slides, and climbing bars among just some of the features attached to them seemingly on a whim, though she had to admit, it at least made the playground interesting.
Callie talked excitedly about all the games they usually played on the structures, from "the ground is lava" to "ground tag". She was still going on about them as they walked behind the school.
Floa felt silly for having ever been afraid of Callie. Her odd eyes and black colour aside, she wasn't the least bit intimidating. She was so cheerful, friendly, and excitable that Floa couldn't imagine her in a position of dominance. She could say the same for Marie too.
Marie had barely said a word since Floa had met them. While Callie dragged Floa around, showing her anything and everything, Marie silently followed, never far away, head on a swivel as she furtively looked around.
Floa had seen this behaviour plenty of times at her old school, and they were always people who hadn't managed to get into a crew, leaving them isolated and vulnerable on the brutal battlefield of the playground, something that had to be avoided. Floa had been in a crew almost since kindergarden, a good one that had been lead by a fifth-grader, so few people ever tried to mess with her except rival crews, but even then, she had rarely been alone.
If Callie and Marie didn't have a crew, even by third grade, then they, and by extension she, were vulnerable, easy prey. Despite Callie's kindness, Floa felt she should look around to see if she could get into someone else's crew before she became too associated with them.
Callie had just finished showing her the soccer field behind the school and the baseball diamond when the warning bell rang and they had to get back to class.
Floa's first impressions of Marie had been that she was the kind that preferred to not be seen or heard, lest she draw the attention of a bigger, meaner fish. While that certainly seemed to be true on the playground, in the classroom, Marie eagerly and ably answered many of the questions Ms. Walken put out to the class, and had the math refresher worksheet completed by the time Ms. Walken had finished her explanation, after which, she buried her nose back in the book Floa had first seen her with.
Marie was obviously the bookish, brainy type. Useful in any school crew as someone who could help with everyone else's homework, but not terribly useful otherwise, in her experience.
Lunch came and Callie eagerly showed off her lunchbox and how well put together it was. The actual contents weren't that special but the fish strips were cut to look like little cartoon fish and all pointed the same direction atop the rice compartment, making it appear as though they were all swimming together.
"Does your mom normally do that or is it just 'cause this is your first day back?"
"It's normal. Mom likes making stuff like this. When she makes my burgers or omelette she makes faces on them with ketchup."
Floa glanced at Marie for confirmation and she flashed green, confirming it. She was getting the distinct impression that there was more to Callie that was different from the norm than just her eyes. That would explain a lot about how she wasn't part of any crew, though it didn't seem to enter into her mind as a particular concern from the way Callie went about the class sharing some of her crackers.
Lunch recess came and Callie resumed the tour, showing her the sandboxes, and the spots where the older kids tended to hang out before bringing her to a semi-secluded spot between the main playground and the soccer field. It was little more then a cluster of bushes around a tree, but standing within it, Floa was surprised how isolated it really did feel. She did note that Marie seemed more at ease once they got there.
"Not much to do here but stare at clouds," Callie said as she sat in the shade of the tree. "But it can be a nice place to relax if that's the mood you're in."
Marie took one more anxious look around before she joined Callie on the grass. Not knowing what else to do, Floa followed her example. If the tour was over, maybe she could finally get a word in.
"So, are you girls really nah part of any group?"
She didn't use the word "crew" because that was her school's name for them: groups of students who stuck together during recess and sometimes after school for mutual protection, a microcosm of the gangs or shoals. She had heard that other schools sometimes called them something different.
Callie appeared puzzled by Floa's question. "Um… we're in third grade?"
The slits of Marie's pupils narrowed, then the horizontal ones widened separately before her eyes swivelled back to Callie. Again, creepy.
"I don't think that's what she means. She probably means something like cliques."
"Oh." Callie's mantle flashed purple in dismissal. "Nah, we don't have anything like that here. I heard that's more a thing in middle school."
Marie crossed her arms in a huff. "Unless you count who everyone's parents are friends with. They definitely have cliques."
Despite Marie's displeasure, Floa was actually relieved to find something familiar in this strange town. Quite often, crews would be made up of kids who's parents were friends or at least knew each other well enough to get along. That general rule didn't apply to every member, but the core of most crews would be made up of these.
Marie stiffened, mantle showing bright-orange warning spots and for the first time since Floa had met her, Callie's smile faltered. Trouble was coming.
Floa turned around and saw three boys approaching, ones she recognized from their class. The one in the lead was blue with matching eyes. The one behind him and to his right was yellow and slightly smaller. The one further behind and to the left was maroon and probably the biggest boy she'd seen for their age and was clearly the muscle of the trio.
Floa turned to face them, making a point of not standing as they approached. They didn't immediately look like they wanted to fight and she didn't want to show any sign of fear.
Putting her smile back on, Callie stood up, as did Marie, the latter not even trying to mask her anxiousness, going as far as to partly hide behind Callie. Floa thought that Marie wouldn't have lasted five minutes at her old school, condemned to be bullied by first-graders into doing their homework. It was pathetic.
"Hey guys," Callie greeted the three boys cheerfully. "Here to say hi to Floa? Sorry, I guess we've been hogging her. I'll introduce you. Floa, this is Murl, Admus, and Drang. They've been in the same class as us since first-grade."
"Don't talk like we're friends," Murl grumbled. "Being stuck in the same class as you freaks is a pain. Only reason we're in the same class is because they need us to balance things out and keep you from dragging the whole class down."
Again, Callie's smile faltered, but didn't disappear completely. "That's not a very nice thing to say. It's not a good way to make a good impression on someone new, either."
"I don't care about that. I'm just here to make sure the new freak knows the rules around here."
Floa narrowed her eyes but said nothing. Ordinarily she would have simply stood up and punched the cocky groshgott in the face but she didn't know enough about him and she wasn't confident Callie would back her up either. She knew Marie definitely wouldn't.
Callie's smile finally inverted into a disapproving frown. "Floa isn't a freak, just because she has speckles? They're cute and it makes her special."
"That's just a nice way of saying there's something wrong with her," Admus said mockingly. "I bet your parents call you girls special all the time."
Murl smirked at that quip then pointed at Floa. "Look, her speckles don't change colour with the rest of her mantle. That means she doesn't work right." He lightly kicked at the grass, as if to spray dirt in Floa's direction.
Floa was used to being teased and picked on for her speckles, they always made her stand out among everyone else, but things had changed when she'd gotten older and been invited into a crew and accepted as one of them. After that, anyone who tried to pick on her was considered a weakling, trying to compensate for their own weakness by picking on an apparently easy target.
Those who went after easy targets were not respected at her school, strength and status among crews was the strength of those they defeated, and who they were able to protect. This created an environment where bullies were near the bottom of the social ladder. That certainly applied to these three and Floa wasn't about to get pushed around by their ilk. But before she could knock Murl flat on his back, Callie acted first.
Callie's pupils narrowed into perpendicular slits, giving Floa a feeling of being immersed in ice water as she recalled those exact same eyes from her dream.
Callie stepped forward, putting herself between the three boys and the rest of them. "There's nothing wrong with Floa. You think just because anyone looks different you can call them a freak?"
Murl leaned away from her then took one step back and snarled. "Everyone thinks you're freaks. I know what the grown-ups say about you when you girls aren't around, and what the other kids say too. Why do you think nobody tries to hang out with you?"
"Because your moms are all from well established families," Marie answered, apparently brave enough to show a modicum of defiance with Callie willing to act as a living wall. "The other mothers just don't want to be socially shut out by them. It has nothing to do with you three."
Admus growled at her. "Big talk from someone who hides behind her granny all the time. If it weren't for her I bet you freaks wouldn't even be allowed to come to school."
Just for a moment, the horizontal slits of Marie's eyes became paper thin, the vertical slit narrowing to the thickness of a coin. Then her mantle paled and she looked away, ashamed, leading Floa to wonder who her granny was.
"Leave her alone," Callie insisted, blocking line of sight between Admus and Marie.
Admus sneered. "Try and make me."
By now, Floa had enough. She felt she had their measure and that she could take them on if she had to. She stood up and punched her fist into her palm. "Sure, I'd be 'appy to."
The three boys looked at her, startled at first at her finally getting involved but not intimidated, and Drang moved to block her from the other two.
Murl snorted. "Yeah, right. If you hurt us you'll end up in trouble. Detention for weeks, probably."
Floa just smiled. "Oh I know, so I'd be sure to 'urt you bad enough tah make it worth it. You guys might think you're tough but the kids at my old school would 'ave eaten you three for breakfast and used your beaks as shovels in the sandbox."
Their mantles shifted with wariness, blotches of pale reds moving like clouds across the surface. Floa took a step forward and they leaned away, but their own eyes glimmered with stubbornness, and Floa could tell that their egos wouldn't allow them to back down.
What a pain. Mom's gonna' be mad about me getting detention on my first day.
Suddenly, the sound of the warning bell reverberated across the school grounds, indicating the upcoming end of recess.
"Time to go!" Marie said, and grabbed both Callie and Floa's hands, hauling them back to the school doors with surprising strength. A doormat Marie may have been, but if she wanted to Floa judged she could throw a mean punch.
"Sorry about them," Callie said as they crossed the playground. "They're kind of mean."
"They've been bullying us for over a year," Marie interjected, as if Callie had been downplaying the issue. To Floa she said, "I thought it would be better if you didn't hang around us but I guess they ended up lumping you in with us anyway. I shouldn't be surprised, but I guess you're stuck with us now."
"I don't get 'stuck' with people," Floa insisted. "If I 'ang out with you it's because I wanna'."
And while she had her reservations about Marie, Callie proved she had some pen and she'd stood up for her without fear. Someone like that, she knew, was priceless to have, especially without knowing anyone else around. So, she had at least one person she might be able to count on. In that way, at least, she could call today a success.
"Can you hang out after school?"
Pausing in the middle of packing her school bag, Floa looked at Callie. "Uh… I guess? Where would we be goin'?"
Delighted, Callie excitedly replied, "just a park close by. It's really cool and we hang out there after school all the time so I wanted to show you."
Floa frowned, turning a darker yellow. "Why would you go to a park when the school 'as a playground?"
Callie just grinned. "You'll see."
Floa just shrugged it off. There was no harm in it, she supposed. She wanted to see what was so special about this park.
Outside, just like in the morning, groups of parents socialized in front of the school while they waited for their children. That was another thing that was different about this place. At her old school, that normally didn't happen – in fact, it was practically against the rules since it had often resulted in fights among them.
Instead of going left, the direction from which she and her mother had come from that morning, they turned to the right where the sidewalk abruptly ended and the street turned from asphalt to gravel. On either side, the street was lined with trees, the wind rustling through their leaves. Just like when she'd first arrived, Floa was struck by how much nature there was even in town.
They kept going for about ten minutes until a gravel path intersected the street and they followed it around a series of grassy knolls until a playground emerged and the centrepieces of it drew Floa's eyes immediately.
It was a pair of large, wooden structures that resembled a castle and gatehouse. A short, wooden, drawbridge connected the two over a moat of pea gravel with a horizontal ladder spanning the gap between the two from above, as if to allow the castle denizens to venture between the castle proper and gatehouse if the bridge wasn't there.
The castle proper was two stories tall with a naked flagpole jutting out the side next to the window opening. It was surrounded by a high wall of vertical logs fit tightly together. It looked surprisingly well made.
Callie giggled. "Yeah, pretty neat, huh? Here we have our own castle! Lots of kids like playing here. I usually play the princess that has to get rescued."
Floa looked at her doubtfully. "Really? I didn't know you were so popular."
"She's not," Marie cut in. "Nobody else likes being the princess because you basically just stand there and wait to get rescued, if they actually manage to rescue you at all. Besides, you'd have to cross the bridge and Callie hates heights."
Ah, that explained it. Floa could see how that would be boring. Funny how Marie seemed more inclined to speak up when it was to tease or somehow diminish Callie though.
Apparently unbothered, Callie led them further into the park and down a path of well trodden grass through a line of trees and bushes. Floa was wondering why until she heard the water.
They came out onto a rocky shore next to a river that wound back and forth through the green hills and wooded areas. Floa had never seen a river in person before, though she had seen the ocean plenty of times. This was just… different; there was something serene and calming about it. She was so taken with the scene she didn't notice the person sitting nearby until she heard Marie gasp.
"Priestess!"
Floa whirled to the left and saw an inkyora seated on a large stone, dressed in blue and green robes. Her mantle and eyes were an icy blue colour until the former turned a summery green as she greeted them.
"Hello children," she said. Her voice had a warm, motherly quality to it. Floa hadn't met many priestesses but the few she had met she liked and they been well respected in Xapheerell.
Marie's mantle turned stark white in apology. "Sorry for disturbing you. Do you need us to leave?"
The priestess eyed her, her lips curved into an amused smile. "This park does not belong to me. You are more than welcome. Honestly, I would have expected more children at the park than just the few of you."
"That's usually on weekends," Callie replied, her tone much more casual than Marie's. "Are you a painter?"
"Hm? Oh," the priestess held up a duotang that had been sitting in her lap. "No, this is for something else, but before we go any further, I believe it's proper manners to introduce ourselves. I am Priestess Winterveil of the Temple of Knowledge."
A flash of shame and regret passed through Marie's mantle and she bowed her head apologetically. "I'm very sorry, Priestess. I am Marie Sansea."
"I'm Callie Cuttlefish!"
"Floa Kelpgarden."
"Nice to meet all of you." Winterveil gestured for them all to sit on some of the other stones around her, all of which seemed out of place amidst the much smaller river stones along the ground. Floa guessed these particular ones had been brought there from somewhere else for sitting on.
They all sat on the stones as directed and the priestess spoke. "I'm not an artist, my specialty lies in music. I have come here to listen and discover what I can hear."
Floa frowned and looked around her. "There's wind, birds chirping… are you gonna' make music from that?"
The priestess laughed. "Perhaps I should explain better. I am not here to listen in the literal sense; I'm here to listen for the music of long ago, from before the Mollusc Age, from before any squid walked on land."
She made a sweeping gesture with her arm to the river and the forested area on the other bank. "This place was once a city, full of life and bustling with creative minds. Music was played here by its people, either made themselves or listened to through radios and the like. I've come here in the hope of hearing some of that music then writing it down so we can share it with everyone."
Marie's mantle turned a bright orange before turning a respectful shade of violet. "You're a sehr."
The priestess smiled. "Very astute, little one. Yes, I am, have been since I can remember."
Floa and Callie looked at each other, frowning. Callie asked, "what's a sehr?"
"They're people who can see and hear things from the past," Marie explained. "Stories of Precursor history and some of the music from that era we know because of sehrs."
Callie said, "wait, isn't that what Daddy does?"
"No, he's an archaeologist; it's not the same thing."
"But they are no less important," Winterveil said, folding her hands on her lap. "It's thanks to their hard work that we have advanced so far in such a short time. Electronics, machinery, navigation, flight, all things we can do thanks to their efforts. The Precursors had to learn all of those things on their own. A sehr might have seen a circuit board before anyone discovered an example, but that doesn't mean they would know how to describe it or how it worked."
Floa frowned, still not fully understanding how sehrs worked. "So, is it like a TV in your 'ead or something? How do ya' see an 'ear things?"
The priestess pulsed grey and opened her hands. "It varies from person to person, especially as our gifts tend to be a little different. When I was a child I used to hear music where there was no one around to play, I would see performances in my dreams hearing music I had never heard before, in a languages I have never heard before, with instruments I had never seen. With help and guidance from the Temple of Knowledge I learned to interpret these and share the music I had heard."
Floa's ink sac tightened and twisted as the priestess spoke. It all sounded terribly familiar to the situation with her own strange dreams. But there had been no music there, and there hadn't been any Precursors, just old friends acting strangely. That didn't sound quite like what the priestess was describing, did it?
Floa tried imagining herself as a priestess and found the idea too absurd to entertain further. For that matter, she couldn't imagine anyone from Xapheerell to be cleric material. No, she wasn't getting visions, just weird dreams.
"Shouldn't you children be heading home about now?" Winterveil asked. Floa belatedly realized that while she'd been trapped with her inner thoughts the conversation had gone on. For how long?
Marie looked at her watch and flashed green. "Yes, it is getting late." She bowed, flashing white. "Thank you for your time, Priestess."
"It was no trouble at all. I don't know much about this town so it was nice to learn a bit more about it. I will probably be coming here fairly often over the next year, so I'm sure we'll meet again."
With that, the three of them made their way back up the riverbank and through the park to the street.
"We live this way," Callie said, pointing to the left. "Can you get home on your own from here?"
"Yeah." Floa had memorized the way back with ease. Compared to the maze of alleys and streets she'd had to navigate to get to her old school, it was a cakewalk.
The three separated, with Callie and Marie headed off together and Floa going into a light jog as she recalled her mental map of the route.
All in all, it had been an interesting first day of school and not nearly as bad as she feared, but worse than she would have hoped.
Murl, Admus, and Drang were going to be a problem. Confrontation with them was inevitable. She still had yet to determine if Callie could be counted on in a fight. She clearly tried to avoid physical confrontation, but that didn't mean she was afraid of it. Marie, on the other hand, seemed like a coward, the kind to hide behind their mother if someone so much as yelled in their direction. She'd be a liability. Not the best crew to be in, but that didn't mean it couldn't become the best.
Floa started thinking that if they could knock down those three boys then their position would go up. She didn't know how well they stacked against the rest of the school yet, but she got the impression that they were the big fish in their grade, but as long as it was just the three of them, Floa was confident she could bring them down. She just needed time and a plan.
Soft music drifted across the room. The lights were low with only a few of the lamps on and the shades were drawn over the windows, reducing the ambient light from the outside.
Marie brought her arm up and waved the fan in her hand back and forth a few times before drawing it inwards, parallel to her other arm then sweeping it to the opposite side.
She was doing her best to remain focused on her dance without straining so hard that she became tense. She had to trust in her muscle memory, her mind focused on maintaining her timing with the music.
Years of practice had brought her this far, from the moment she could walk without routinely tripping over her own feet she had been working towards this. Years of practising proper posture, rhythm, form, all coming together in this one performance.
The music faded, and Marie brought her fan in then bowed, and awaited judgment.
She heard clapping coming from the arm chair on her left. "That was great, Marie! You did amazing!"
Marie allowed herself a small smile. Her father's praise was like a warm blanket snuggling her soul. Unfortunately, it wasn't his approval she was waiting for.
"Very good, Marie" her mother said placidly. "You did it flawlessly."
Finally able to stand up straight, Marie flexed some of her muscles and met her mother's gaze. She was surprised to actually see the ghost of a smile on her lips. Even that much was a rare treasure to Marie's sight.
She put the fan away into it's protective case and her mother helped her out of the fancy robes she had been wearing. Marie actually liked wearing the traditional garb, it made her feel like a real lady.
"You must have had a good day at school if you were able to perform that well," her father commented. "Everything went okay then?"
Marie grimaced and wondered how much she should actually share. Today hadn't been as bad as it could have been but it hadn't exactly gone smoothly either. There were a few unanticipated wrinkles, namely Floa.
"I guess," was all she said. She didn't feel there was anything worth elaborating on, though Callie had probably talked up a storm about her day to her own parents.
"Alright Marie," her mother said. "Go and review everything you learned today. Make sure you don't leave anything out. After that, you can play."
I know the routine, Marie thought bitterly as she walked to her room. She didn't dare express it out loud however, and made sure her mantle stayed white in obedience to her mother's order. Talking back to her always ended poorly. Besides, silent obedience was the sort of behaviour expected of a matriarch's granddaughter.
"I think something happened," Natam said after Marie had left.
Silvie carefully folded Marie's robes and glanced at her husband. "But it wasn't as bad as we feared, obviously, or she'd have been in a much worse mood. Maybe things won't be as bad this year."
"Or they'll just be emboldened." Natam shook his head, his mantle expressed frustration and helplessness. "Is there really nothing we can do?"
Silvie flashed red, feeling more than a little of her own frustration bubbling to the surface. "Other than confront their parents, no, and we know that won't end well given how prominent their families are in the community."
"Gods only know why," Natam grumbled. "Spreading gossip, lies, exposing Mora's past and making her shunned by the community. I don't see anything respectable about that."
"Can't appear to be a hero without a villain. Politicians use the same tactic to gain popular support, even some matriarchs." Silvie crossed the room and raised the blinds. Across the street, the lights of Mora's house glowed and she could imagine her doing dishes after dinner or checking in on Callie playing, or waiting anxiously by the phone for her husband to call her.
What's my idiot brother waiting for? Silvie thought. Her brother was working to finish his last qualifications to become a full-fledged archaeologist after working as an apprentice for over a decade. That unfortunately meant he had to spend a lot of time in Inkopolis working long hours, a scenario all too familiar to Silvie and it should have been familiar to him too.
It's not the same, she reminded herself. It's just temporary, and it's what he's been working towards his whole life. It isn't the same as it was with Dad.
"Silvie?"
She let the blinds fall and turned back at the sound of her own husband's concerned voice.
"I'm fine," she said. "Marie will just have to deal with the bullying as best she can on her own. Those three will want to avoid any scandals so I can't see their sons doing anything too bad, not without consequences anyway."
Natam grimaced. "I don't know if Marie's the type that deals with bullies well. I mean, she's not the confrontational type."
"Well she has to learn how to deal with it if she's going to grow up properly. Your mother expects her to be brought up right, and that means we can't coddle her."
Natam frowned. "Maybe but…"
"I'm handling it," she assured him. "You have enough to worry about with that bridge in Arrowhead County."
"I'm still her father."
"Of course you are, and I love that you are trying to take an active role, but like I said, there isn't much we can do right now. We have to wait and see what develops. If you want to do something though, I guess you can talk to your mother while you're out there. She'd be furious if she found out about what Marie was going through without us telling her."
Natam nodded slowly. "I guess I can do that. She was probably hoping the bullying would be done by now though."
"We all were, but clearly it's still going to be a problem. We'll just have to wait and hope the girls are able to deal with it somehow. The last thing we want is for things to escalate."
Author's Notes:
It's here like I promised! A lot of people wondered how Marie had gotten that restraining order placed against her. Here is the story as to how. This prequel story also focuses more on Floa and the role she played in events prior to the start of the series. You may also like some of the world-building in this story. I hope you all enjoy it.