The end never came.

Instead, a loud clash of sword against sword rung out across the beach.

Gemma opened her eyes to find her father had deflected the blow. Sirius stood between her and the pirate. The two men glared at one another.

Sirius pushed the man back, intent on finishing this battle fast, so as to rescue his other children. But he was surprised to find that the man met him with equal, if not greater force.

Sirius adapted his style and it was quickly obvious that he was the better fighter. But this was no easy win. His enemy fought back with skill and his magic was quite literally stronger. They sparred for several steps down the beach. Their boots splashed in the surf.

A slight misjudgement left Sirius with a cut on his cheek. He paid the man back with a sword to the stomach. A hard shove sent the pirate stumbling back, but he did not fall. From elsewhere on the battlefield, a young scream pierced the air, but Sirius dared not turn from his opponent now.

He got in close, pushing the man’s sword away with his own, he aimed for the head with his fist. The enemy blocked so Sirius rammed his own head into the man’s jaw. The pirate fell back, unconscious into the surf. Sirius dragged him up and out by the neck of his coat. He dropped his limp but still breathing body onto the beach and turned to face whatever had happened while he had been fighting.

Salem was pulled to his feet and an invisible force tightened at his throat.

Pete stood before him. He held a flickering flame up to Salem’s face. “You best shut your mouth boy, or soon the only song anyone will be singing will be the one your parents sing, at your funeral.”

“I don’t think so.” A breathless woman’s voice made Pete look up. “Let him go.”

Salem had never been quite so happy to see his mother.

Amanda stood there on the sand, breathing hard from having run faster than she ever had before. She had arrived there after Sirius, for she had neither her husband’s long legs nor his powerful strength. She had told him to run ahead, as fast as he could, least they get there too late.

Pete glanced around the beach with a smirk. Things were falling apart, but not for him. Sure, that big oaf, Shiv’s captain, looked to be getting the better of his strongarm, but the man’s daughter lay bleeding to death, now closer to where Pete stood, within easy reach. The other boy was back to losing now that his brother was no help. Even the telekinetic looked to be breaking free. And the two girls behind him, well, the healer was nothing. The infuser was interesting. He knew not what powers she might have saved on her person until she made use of them. Regardless, Pete had taken the time to assess their main powers as each one of them had used them, and he saw in these children no threat. He merely had disappointment in his own crew.

Pete brought his borrowed flame closer to Salem’s face. He hoped the young girl that lay dying on the beach would last a little longer, fire was fun to play with and he could only borrow magic from the living.

The flame blinked out.

Pete frowned. Was she gone already? No, for he could still feel fire magic. He reached for it with his mind, seeking to control it. He looked curiously toward the oaf’s wife. Ah, that was right, he had almost forgotten. She was a firestarter too. He had felt it back the night before in the village, although he had not felt her use her powers until now.

She turned her own palm out and flame appeared there. Small, but well shaped, and intensely hot.

He could feel her power more now, much stronger than the young girl’s. But still, he had been unchallenged for so long, his own abilities were far beyond that of any firestarter. Of this he was sure.

“Let him go,” she repeated with a far more even, threatening tone. A last warning.

He sneered and attempted to summon the flame back. He could feel the young girl still alive. Her mother had stolen his flame, he knew that now, but it was only because he’d been caught off guard. A borrower was not a binder. He could not take away a person's power. He could not make a strongarm weak, but he could fight for control, and for some power types, that was practically the same thing. He would fight this woman. He would kill her, and he would do it with her own fire.

He pointed his toothy smile toward Amanda and between barred teeth he threatened, “I’m gonna make you sing like a rabbit.”

“Try me,” she replied.

Gemma watched from where she lay on the sand, too weak to get back to her feet.

She watched as Pete brought a flame close to her brother’s face. As, with his other hand, he stroked Salem’s cheek with a smile.

She watched as her mother reached out her hand.

A moment later, Salem fell to the sand, not a single mark seared his skin.

Inches away Pete was engulfed in white hot flames.

It happened so fast, there was no time for anyone to scream.

Gemma had always thought that the worst thing about setting someone on fire was the sound. The screams among crackling flames. But she was wrong. Never would she forget the silence with which Pete’s life was extinguished.

The flame was smooth and sleek. It touched nothing that Amanda did not intend it to touch.

Despite his proximity, Salem could feel no heat.

No heat. No sound. And then there was nothing. Nothing left but ash, falling like snow to sand in the place that Pete had stood.

There was a faint smell of bacon mixed with burnt hair. A scent that made all on that beach swear off pig for at least a week.

Then the absence of sound was filled. Swords clanged. Sasha screamed.

Heads turned.

But it was not Sasha who had been injured. She screamed for Bobby. He’d taken a swing to the neck. This time one that had hit. Blood poured down his front. He wobbled.

The pirate swung again.

Bobby dodged. His neck was healing. His artery had been missed, barely. But beneath their feet, the sand was painted red.

The pirate’s arms burst into flame.

The pirate batted briefly at them, but then he ignored them and swung at Bobby. The flames only half worried him, for he was a healer after all.

But then the flames grew hotter and he could feel them biting at his skin faster than he could heal them.

The pirate spun, looking for a culprit. He found Amanda, fireballs in each hand, walking his way.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He readied his sword, unafraid. His gaze searched for Pete, and he found the space where Pete had been. Then he froze.

Realisation crossed his face and his gaze met that of the red-headed woman.

“Run,” she growled at him.

He hesitated. He felt the heat on his skin wax and wane. He felt the power in that flame. He saw what it had done to Pete. He held up his arms, dropped his sword, and took off running like a rabbit, back toward his ship.

Bobby dropped to the sand in exhaustion.

“Bobby!” Seraphina cried. She had finished successfully healing Katrina, and now she raced to make sure Bobby was okay.

Amanda turned to find Sirius dropping a man’s body on the sand. Then her gaze found Gemma, lying on the beach, still awake, but pale as anything.

“I’ll deal with that one,” Sirius remarked with a nod at the pirate Sasha was now struggling to keep contained. “You help Gemma.”

Amanda nodded, already headed toward her eldest daughter.

"Hold still," Amanda commanded as she cauterized Gemma’s wounds.

Gemma glanced down, surprised to see she had been bleeding from several smaller wounds in addition to the main one in her gut. Her front was covered in blood. The burns weren’t best practice but they stopped the blood flow, and Bobby could heal them soon. He was good at healing burns. Or Seraphina, if Bobby was lacking energy. They had no shortage of healers here.

Amanda stood up to look for them. Sensing movement to her right, she spun quickly, to find Sirius, covered in sand and holding a sword to the telekinetic’s throat.

The telekinetic had broken free of Sasha’s ice just as Sirius had come to help. The pirate had thrown them both in different directions.

Sasha had been thrown far but she was young and a skilled gymnast. She bounced and rolled. Then she found her feet and ran to the safety of her nearby siblings who were gathering together.

Sirius, was heavy, harder to throw. It was the case with strongarms, even if Sirius hadn’t been as big as he was. He did not get thrown far and the telekinetic had not paused to check. He had turned his back, and seeing Pete gone, had made for the obvious threat, the red-headed woman with her back turned. Fearing her magic, he’d gone for stealth, and with his sword drawn, had quickly crossed the distance between them.

Sirius had been faster, reaching the man just before he reached Amanda. Now he held a sword to the man’s throat so tight that the man dared not glance down, least he pierce his own skin. Any movement, telekinetic or otherwise, would have his resulted in his throat being slit.

Sirius didn’t give him time to think of other options. He shifted his arm so the sword was off the man’s throat and he tightened, seeking to knock the man unconscious. It was a risky move for Sirius. He didn’t have the same sort of control over his strength that Amanda had over her flames. Squeeze too tight and he risked crushing the man’s windpipe completely. In fear of this, he released too early, and the man fell spluttering to the ground. Sirius winced and hesitantly reached for his sword, unwilling to take a life but afraid to give the man another chance at attack.

Amanda was quick. She crafted flames in the sand that inched closer. “Use your powers on any of us again, you’ll find yourself burnt faster than your buddy Pete, got it?” She left him room to escape, keeping most of the flames between them and him.

He turned to them, eyes wide, gaze flicking from one to the other, perhaps assessing if he could twist off a head before he got set alight. But he, like his other crew mate, glanced in the direction that Pete had been and he made his choice. He chose the safe option. He climbed carefully to his feet, backed away slowly, then turned tail and ran.

“That’ll teach him to watch his back,” Sirius remarked.

Amanda shut her eyes briefly. “And me to watch mine,” she replied, catching his double meaning.

He nodded. His jaw clenched, hating how close disaster had come, not just in that last attack, but throughout this whole night. The kids seemed to have held their own. He did not like to think what might have happened if they had gotten here a little later though. And Amanda, she was magically strong, but she was not used to being in the midst of battle, with swords swinging quite so close. Too close for Sirius’s comfort.

It didn’t take long before the remaining, unconscious strongarm, came to. One look at the group that surrounded him and he was more than happy to stumble back in the direction of his ship like his comrades before him.

Once all the pirates had gone, the group gathered together. Amanda and Sirius checked everyone for injuries, but between Bobby and Seraphina, all was soon fully healed, if not a little tired.

Before anyone could explain or ask what had happened, Sirius looked down the beach. “We’ve got more company.”

From the pirate ship, walked a larger group. And leading the charge was a man with one leg.

Amanda stepped away from the group. “I’ve got this.”

Leaving no room for error, she repeated her feat from their first night here. The night the dragon had attacked the ship. From out of the sand a fiery monster formed. As big as any ship, it lit up the beach. It took a step in the direction of the approaching crew.

They paused in their march.

Amanda stepped further forward. She knew in doing so she made herself a target, the obvious controller of the fire magic, but she did not want to risk the children.

She built it up until it had a life of it’s own and all her energy was in holding it back. She pushed the fire above the crew. They looked up at it with awe and apprehension but they held their ground.

Across the sand, Felix, the peg-legged pirate at the front, stared at Amanda. Amanda stared back at him.

The fire beast took all her energy but she dared not let it waver. If they attacked her, the fire would collapse down. It would eat the enemy crew alive and her children would be safe. If they did not back off soon, then she’d send it down anyway. She could only hold this for so long and there would be no second chances for such a defense. But she had to give them at least some chance. Surely, from either some magic or just from the look of the thing, surely they would figure out that this was not a battle they wanted to fight.

From behind Felix, a man leaned in to whisper something in his ear.

Amanda could feel her energy lapsing. She could feel her body weak from running and the additions of all her magic from earlier, like the spell they’d cast to find the kids. But still she powered the beast. It was taking everything to protect everything. If the pirates did not turn back soon...

Felix spoke some words to the man beside him. There was a reply and then a nod from Felix. Then, much to Amanda’s relief, he gave a command to his crew to turn back. He waited at the front, until all were gone, and then he went with them.

Amanda held her fire beast for as long as she could. And when she was done she didn’t collapse it slowly. She was beyond that. She dropped it down and set the beach alight. The fire dried out the wet sand and sizzled where the waves met the beach. It some places it got so hot that small pockets of glass formed and then cooled into a new shape. As the flames died down, Amanda caught a glimpse of Felix standing on the other side, out of harms way, almost back at his ship, just watching her.

She wondered, if for a moment, letting them go had been a mistake, but then he turned and walked the rest of the way back to his ship. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“I'd say a little over kill but probably worth it,” Sirius remarked as he came up behind her.

Amanda leaned back against him with a soft exhale. “I don't think I could do that again.”

He squeezed her shoulders. “Let’s head back.”

They turned back toward the kids.

“Yeah! Take that!” Salem shouted in the direction of the pirates. Having regained his earlier enthusiasm and not having learnt any lessons about the perils of early celebration, Salem mocked their retreating enemy with a hastily made up rap tune,

“Yeah! You run like rats you hear!

Like scardy rats, being chased by cats,

Cause we gave you such a scare! Yeah!

Like chicken shits, who fled like kids,

When they got beat by kids! Yeah!

Thought you was tough,

But you’re just the scruff,

Like the tip my toe,

Which is where you belong,

Cause you’re nothing but dirt on the ground

And now you’ve found,

You’ve got no skill, no hope, or rope,

And you can not kill us, nope,

Cause we put you down,

Like underground.

Yeah! You fear, cause you should fear,

Fear our wrath, and our swords, and our spears,

And-”

“Seriously?” Gemma remarked, giving Salem a disapproving look.

“Yeah, dude,” Bobby added in a tired voice. “We nearly got deaded. And Seraphina-”

He was cut off as Seraphina threw her arms around him.

“Ah-” Bobby glanced at her and blushed a light shade of pink. Then he hugged her back.

There were shared smiles all around until Amanda interrupted with a commanding, slightly tired question, “What on Earth were you all doing out here?”

It was Salem who answered first. “Seraphina was kidnapped by pirates.”

He pointed at Seraphina, who looked up from Bobby’s arms.

“It’s true. They rescued me.”

Amanda sighed, then rubbed her face. “And none of you thought to come to us first?”

They all looked guiltily at the ground. No one spoke. And no one got the chance, for at that moment, the already blustery wind, suddenly grew even stronger.

It kicked up sand from the beach, forcing them all to shield their eyes.

It blew so hard it nearly knocked them over and they grabbed at one another, just to keep on their feet. It pushed between them, threatening to cut them all off from one another.

Then, as quick as it had come, it settled. Not into a light zephyr as it had been earlier in the evening. It completely stopped. The air became as still as the eye of a storm, for that was what they now appeared to be in.

Up and down the beach, in the water, above the dunes, the wind whispered words they could not hear as it whipped up the land and the dirt and the sand. Only where they stood, was the air still.

While around them swirled dark shadows. Shadows with limbs, and eyes, and teeth.