There was little worry for himself, but there was alot of worry for the Selani. He really hoped that they could stay out of the way of the Trolls. They had no idea what they'd be up against, and that was going to get some of them killed. Tarrin no longer had any real fear of Trolls, not since he'd faced the one at the trading outpost at the border of the desert. They had chased him and hounded him a long time ago, back in Sulasia, but that had been a younger, more inexperienced Were-cat, facing huge numbers. Now he was older, wiser, stronger, and he'd found that a Troll wasn't as formidable as it had once seemed. He was on par with a Troll in strength and size, but he was faster than them, and that was all the advantage he needed. Even a smaller Were-cat was more than a match for a Troll, but it gave him great comfort to know that they'd be the ones afraid of him, and not the other way around.

All the thoughts of Trolls seemed to draw them to him. Around midafternoon, they pulled up when Denai spotted a small group of them at the edge of the hazy heat distortion that limited distance vision in the desert. There had been four of them, and they were moving in the same direction as Tarrin was. Tarrin had to resist the urge to chase them down and kill them. Trolls were still dangerous, and four agianst one were not good odds, considering he had to keep an eye on Denai. He'd rather catch a Troll alone and kill it, let Denai get first-hand experience with their size and strength and speed before allowing her to fight them on her own.

"They're not moving very fast," Denai said. "We'll catch up to them quickly."

"There are four of them, Denai," Tarrin grunted. "That's bad odds right now."

"You don't have to protect me," Denai flared, as if she could see right to the matter. "I'm an adult. I can fight one of these Trolls. And since there are only four of them, I say we kill them so they don't pose a threat to my brothers and sisters here."

"She's got a point," Sarraya said to him. "There are only four. We can kill at least two of them before they realize they're under attack, and then you can show Denai how to kill a Troll with the survivors."

Tarrin couldn't argue with her logic, and his hatred of Trolls, of all Goblinoids, was screaming for the blood. "Alright, but no glory seeking, Denai. This is a flat ambush, plain and simple. I want to kill them before they can become a threat."

"The Selani know how to ambush," she said with a grin. "There's no dishonor in a good surprise attack. The dishonor is the victim's, for not paying attention."

And so, they picked up the pace and set themselves in a roundabout course that would take them around the Trolls and allow them to get in front of them without being seen. The Trolls were moving at a very sluggish pace, probably because of the heat, and it only took them about half an hour to circle around the Trolls and set up in a nice spot where two large boulders were pushed against each other, providing the perfect cover. The heat had also made them less observant, for they came right over the rise and down the little hill without bothering to check for danger or keep watch on their surroundings. When they apporached, Tarrin got a nose full of their stench, and he also smelled blood all over them. Troll blood. As they came closer, he saw that all four of them had arrows broken off in them, or had dirty bandages wrapped around arms or legs. They'd been attacked by archers, and that intrigued Tarrin. The Selani disdained missle weapons other than what could be thrown, they didn't use bows. Who was out here in the desert shooting arrows into Trolls?

"They're wounded," Tarrin whispered in a very low tone. "This should go quickly, but don't get overconfident."

"I'll be careful," Denai whispered back.

They waited for them to reach their position, then simply came over the boulder and attacked. And it was very effective. The Trolls were totally taken by surprise, and their weakened condition made their reaction that much more sluggish. Tarrin didn't even bother with a weapon, coming over the boulder with claws extended and murder all over his face, slashing the throat out of the nearest Troll before his feet even hit the ground. Denai came after him with an undulating cry, her sword seeking out Troll flesh and biting into the belly of the fellow beside the one Tarrin had just killed. Sarraya distracted the other two with a blinding flash of light generated by her Druidic magic, and that set them off balance enough for Tarrin to engage them as Denai stabbed her Troll right in the groin, making it squeal in a voice too high pitched for its great size.

With his inhuman power, Tarrin slammed his shoulder into the nearest of the pair, bowling it off its feet, but his companion raised a very large, ugly-looking battle axe and took a swing at Tarrin's head. The Were-cat swatted the weapon aside almost contemptuously, then his paw closed around the wrist of the hand holding the axe and drove claws right into the bones. The Troll cried out, which turned into a whoomph when Tarrin's padded foot slammed into its belly and folding it over his foot. Tarrin grabbed the back of its head, getting a paw full of greasy, stringy green hair, then yanked it down as his other paw picked up the dropped axe. He held it up and pulled the Troll forward, getting it off balance, then planted the axe in the back of its neck. The Troll's thick bones prevented a decapitation, but the blow was still invariably fatal.

Tarrin glanced back to see that Denai had killed off her opponent, and that left only one. The Troll he had bulled to the ground looked at him with terrified eyes, scrambling to its feet and grasping a crude club. This one was relatively uninjured, and that was the reason that Tarrin had chosen to make it the last one. Tarrin stalked in on it slowly, carefully, letting it realize that it had to fight in order to survive. When that revelation dawned in its small, piggish eyes, a snarl of fury twisted its ugly features and it raised its club to attack.

Tarrin toyed with the Troll for a long time, letting it attack him, letting Denai see how fast a Troll could move when it wanted to do so. And the Troll was indeed fast, but nowhere near as fast or as nimble as its Were-cat foe. Tarrin simply snaked around its club, or blocked it by hitting the wrist or arm wielding it, or swatted it aside with his paws. The Troll got more and more desperate when it realized that it was fighting a foe much better at fighting than itself, and its attacks became more frenzied, faster, and more and more powerful. Tarrin still avoided the club with an eerie ease, as if he were dodging blows from a small child in a game. He kept doing that until he felt that Denai had seen enough, then he turned on his opponent with a suddenness that completely took the Troll by surprise. With one blow, he knocked the Troll's club wide, raking the inside of its arm with his long, deadly claws, sending blood and skin and bits of torn flesh flying in an arc as his claws slashed through tissue and muscle. The Troll howled in pain, but that turned into a faint gurgle as two of Tarrin's claws punctured its throat with surgical precision, driving them into the windpipe and the jugular. The Troll grabbed its neck with both hands as it sank to its knees, its lifeblood pouring out of its neck with shocking speed, even as that blood flowed into its windpipe and began drowning it in its own blood. But it bled to death long before it died of drowning, slumping to the side and then falling limply to the ground.

"And that," Tarrin told her, wiping a spatter of that horrid-smelling blood from his face, "is how you kill a Troll."

Denai laughed. "It certainly did put up a fight."

"Trolls aren't cowards," Sarraya told her. "But they're stupid. That balances out."

"I noticed. They don't even try to defend themselves, do they?"