"And some of us are grown up enough to know that picking on people smaller than ourselves is wrong," Lea said. "But that fact obviously hasn't managed to get through your thick skulls yet."

"So here's the deal," he said. "You're all gonna politely let my friend go and walk away. Then you're gonna go find yourselves a new hobby that doesn't involve making other people's lives miserable. You do that, and you don't bother her again? I'll forget this ever happened, and we can all go on with our lives."

"Or you can take what I like to call 'the Stupid Option'," he said. "You can think 'hey, there's four of us and only one of him', or 'hey, he's a skinny-looking stick man', and you're gonna think you can take me in a fight. And then you're going to try and do just that, either by magic or the old fashioned way. But lemme tell you, I've fought and killed scarier things than you before breakfast. You try that? One way or another, you'll lose."

"So which option is it going to be?" he said. "Smart, or stupid?" He didn't mind getting into a bit of trouble for the sake of a friend. Besides, it took more than one person to get in a fight, so he wouldn't be the only one in trouble if they did decide to be idiots, and chances are they knew it.