• Cassandra surveyed the land outside carefull, looking for trolls. Cassandra hated trolls. She swung her baseball bat experamently. It was man-made, from a world and era that was not her own, but that did not matter, it had an even heft to it, and it would do. It had to.
    Cassandra's day had started out bad and gotten worse. She had gotten up late and had found the herd gone. She had walked around for the better part of three hours looking for them. After which, she had given up and sat down.
    She had heard a rustling sound from the bushes and stood, bow in hand, arrow nocked.
    "Show yourself before I put an arrow through your head." She declared loudly.
    "Don't hurt me." A small human child crawled out of the bushes. Cassandra sighed and set her bow down, eying the child carefully.
    Suddenly, the child was lifted through the air into the trees by Brownies. She reached for her bow, it was gone. "D*mn it."
    Brownies were generally harmless but htey were terrible pranksters. Their laughter echoed in the trees.
    She galloped towards it, shaking her fist. "How dare you take a bow from a centaur. That's no petty prank, leaving me unarmed."
    "We're not that petty." A whiny voice remarked from somewhere above her. A silver gold baseball bat dropped infront of her. There was the unmistakable sound of the brownies retreating. She picked up the bat and started to walk.
    She had walked, and walked and walked some more when suddenly she came upon a camp, she walked into the open and looked around. It appeared empty upon first glance. Her second glance revieled trolls, tall, and monstrous looming infront of her. Cassandra turned and galloped, full speed in the opposite direction.
    She was in unfamiliar terrain and soon found herself cornered, her back to a vertical cliff, her front to a narrow ravine, they could come at her down it only one at a time.
    They weighed much more than her, and were physically stronger, she was completely outclassed. With her bow it would have been over quickly, but without it, she was had.
    Cassandra was not a coward, she was a centaur and would not back down. Grimly she put her baseball bat to her shoulder and braced herself for the coming seige.