[H3][right][b]O L A   A L - F A R E S[/b][/right][/h3][hr]

She has no stranger to rain - it fell in Swaotan every year - the big difference here was the amount of rain that fell all the damn time. Back home there had been, at best, a months worth of downpour that had to be carefully channeled into the massive underground cisterns and then doled out over the summer months. Here, it never stopped. Ever.

[i]There was a time I thought I would give anything to have more than a months rain and now I am starting to feel as though I will be glad to never see water again...[/i] She frowned as she pulled her foot from yet another muddy puddle, the ever present suction trying to rip her boot off. [i]Still, mildly better than the insect swarms on the coast.[/i]

She had been put ashore the better part of a month ago with a band of adventurers on the coastline of Torvelt by arguably the least trustworthy ships captain she had ever met. The little band she had set off with was a motley collection of Knights Errant who had heard there was a dragon in the mountains of Torvelt and each one had been chomping at the bit to slay the poor creature and so make their name in the world.

Turned out there was no dragon, but the mountains of Torvelt were no stranger to other creatures equally savage and foul. Four of the would be heroes had been eaten by a pair of giants, two more had drowned in the swamps when their armour dragged them under, the last, a handsome lad, realized far to late that he was fatally allergic to Elder Wort, a plant so common in Torvelt it was a wonder he had made it as far as he did. 

Ola could have potentially saved the last one but she had been busy trying to fend off a Bog Troll at about the same time. The creature only gave up after she hacked off all its limbs and left it writhing on the ground. No doubt it had recovered and consumed the corpse of the fallen knight.

"Speaking of Trolls..." She muttered, halting and sniffing the air. [i]Yep, either trolls or a lot of corpses. Either way, not a good time to wandering about with my head in the clouds.[/i]

She slipped quickly into the woods on the verge of the road. She had just come down from the mountains after taking the last two weeks to cross them. [i]I didn't even know there could be mud in the mountains! It's supposed to be stone, nice and hard, easy to walk on, but nooooooo! I hate this place.[/i]

No sooner had she reached the cover of the trees than she heard a commotion ahead. Her ears perked up at the very human shouts and with subtle grace she began to slip through the trees until she could see a small cluster of folk on the roadway. And what a group!

Her eyes were drawn at once to the hulking mass of a Minotaur, before moving on to take in the more extreme humanoids among the group. [i]What an odd bunch.[/i] She stayed in the trees, scanning the ground around them. She couldn't see the trolls, but she could sure hear them now, and the stench was growing stronger. 

[i]To help, or not to help... That is the question.[/i] Then she gave her head a shake and a small smile split her features. [i]To hell with it, no good story comes from standing around![/i]

She burst from the trees and cursed as her boots sank at once into the mud up to her calves. "Ahoy! Friend coming in!" She shouted loudly, making sure that none of the group could mistake her for troll. 

By the time she managed to reach them, the first of the trolls were already appearing at the edge of the tree-line.