• 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.
    Then, the earth shook, first a quick tremble, then gathering speed, the ground rose up in a wave, and fell. The canyon walls started to expand, there was a crash from somewhere above her, Cassandra looked up, just in time to see a large rock speeding quickly towards her. She galloped farther back into the canyon as the Earth stopped shaking.
    She looked behind her to see that there was absolutely no way she would leave the canyon the way she had come in, the rock had been the first of many and they were lodged firmly in place.
    While Cassandra could not leave that way, she knew that a troll, possesing more strength then she, might well be able to get through. She walked carefully through the canyon, not knowing what lay ahead, but knowing, to clearly, what lay behind.
    She forced herself calm, ignoring that her family was gone, her bow, to gone, and she was quite likely to die. She knew concentrating on such things would get her killed, and she wasn’t going down without a fight. Not her, she was a centaur, it was written in who she was so solidly that the sky would fall and the waters burn before it changed. Besides archery, centaurs were, of course, known for their stubborness.
    She came to a branch in the canyon, three smaller fissures extended in front of her, she wondered briefly which one to choose. She could not afford to meet a dead end, and have to come back, that would take to much time, nor could she afford to stand and think about it. Cassandra spun her baseball bat on the ground, it pointed to the right. She picked it up, and trotted down the right crack.
    “Well, It may not matter at all, given that there might not be an exit to any of these.” She said quietly to herself.
    “Oh, there’s an exit…” A small whiney voice said.
    “Who’s there?” She asked sharply.
    “I might be you’re mind, maybe you’re going crazy after all.” Cassandra snorted derisively.
    “Right, and I’m the queen of pixies.” A gasp. “I’m not the queen of pixies, nor am I crazy.”
    “But…”
    “But what?”
    “But you are the queen of pixies.”
    “I am not the queen of pixies, I am a centaur. Therefor I cannot be the queen of pixies. Do you understand?” She didn’t give him time to answer. “Yes, good.”
    “But…”
    “No.” She held up a hand signaling silence. There was a scuffling sound from behind her, it wasn’t quite within site. “You mentioned an exit?”
    “Oh, right, this way.” A little creature hopped into sight, literally coming from within the wall.
    “What are you?”
    “I’m an Earth Pixie.” It said, still hopping down the canyon. Cassandra hurried after it.
    “Do you have a name?”
    “You may call me…Plink.”
    “Thank you for helping me Plink.”
    “It is nothing my lady.” The creature stepped into the wall.
    “Lady!”
    “It’s alright, the wall is illusion.”
    “Wait here, I’ll be back in a moment.” She galloped twenty feet ahead, then turned and went back to where the pixie had gone in. “Okay, that should confuse the scent.” She put a hand to the wall, and sure enough it passed through. She closed her eyes and stepped foreward.
    When she opened them she was in a brightly lit cavern, lined with crystals. The light seemed to be coming, literally from within them. “You’ll understand if I have a slight problem with enclosed spaces.” As a centaur, she had a greater chance of getting stuck.
    The creature hopped up a path that twisted through the crystals, some of which were larger then her. “Where are we going?”
    “The surface!” She followed the little creature along the twisted path, taking care not to lose her footing. “We had a queen, and she was transformed. Want to here about it?”
    “Yes please.” Cassandra could not resist a good story, and information was a wonderful thing to have.
    “Well, our queen was transformed by a witch when we refused to serve her. She was transformed, first to an infant, then to a centaur, remembering nothing of her family or her past.”
    “I suppose a great deal of energy would be required to transform a creature so small as a pixie to a centaur.” She said carefully, avoiding the hint she knew the creature was trying to drop.
    “We’re not all this small. Indeed, my lady was as tall as any human.”
    “If you find her could you turn her back?”
    “It could be done, the one to break it is her love.” Cassandra said nothing to that. It was said that their queen had been transformed, but it wasn’t her. The pixie to, said nothing.
    When they reached the surface, it was almost moonrise. Cassandra found her eyes fluttering, she was so tired. “Thank you Plink, if theirs anything I can do for you, let me know alright.”
    “Lady?” Plink asked as she turned to walk away. “Do you know where you are going?”
    “Not really.”
    “If you’ll do me a favor, I’ll help you find your herd.”
    “What kind of favor?” Cassandra asked, always wary.
    “Would you just go see the queen’s love? I know it’s a great deal to ask, and much-”
    “It’s not much trouble, you just want me to prove I’m not the queen of pixies right?” Plink nodded. “It doesn’t seem unreasonable that you would want to check before I leave, I can’t imagine you’re kind see centaur’s often.”
    “No we don’t.”
    “Besides, I am in your debt, you saved my life.”
    “Thank you…”
    “Cassandra, my name is Cassandra.”
    “Would you rest here tonight Cassandra, so as to be awake enough when looking for your family?”
    “Yes, thank you.”
    “Do you need-” He broke off. “I know nothing about how centaur’s sleep.”
    “I’ll be fine, sleeping isn’t a problem so long as there is someone to make sure I’m not attacked, I can sleep standing up.”
    “Alright, I’ll have a friend keep watch.” They moved back into the cavern, out of the weather. Cassandra found a place where she could put her back to a crystal, then leaned back, resting her human foresection on her horse’s back.
    “Wake up.” A hyper, and hopping Pixie said loudly. “Breakfast!” Cassandra sat up groggily.
    “Now that you mention it, breakfast is a darn good idea.” Plinx produced a large basket full of apples. Cassandra took one and bit into it. “Why don’t you get on my back and you can pass me apples while I travel. You can tell me the way.” The pixie climbed on.
    “Just for the record, I have never ridden anything in my life.”
    “I’m a centaur, you won’t fall off.”
    “If you say it then I must believe it.” With Plinx giving directions the soon came to a dark grove of trees.
    “You’re not going to tell me we’re going in there.”
    “Actually…”
    “Figures, the one foreboding place we pass and we just have to go there.” She trotted into the grove.
    “Who enters!” A booming voice demanded.
    “What business is it of yours? You big jerk.”
    “You dare.”
    “Darn right.”
    “Cassandra, please be quiet.”
    “Why?” Plinx sighed.
    “Damian, it’s Plinx and a centaur, Cassandra here.”
    “Why have you brought a centaur here?”
    “Because I’m an optomist.”
    “You brought the first centaur you’ve seen in years.”
    “um….”
    “Can we get this overwith? I want to go home, I want to go find my family.”
    “Damian, please come out of that tree.”
    “Fine.” A tall dark humanoid being stepped out from within the darkest tree in the grove. He was beautiful, Cassandra noticed, but not happy. He looked, depressed. He walked toward Cassandra, and she took a step back.
    “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” She snorted, but stayed put. Slowly, gently, he kissed her. Then, she could see light surrounding her as she morphed, into something strangely familiar.
    Her hair, once dark black, turned redish brown, and her ears, once curved as a humans, pointed sharply. Her skin, once dark, was pale as ice. But most of all, she was no longer a centaur, she was humanoid, completely.
    Yet the physical change was not what Cassandra noticed most, but the memories flooding into her mind. She had been Cassandra, she would be Cassandra, but she was not just Cassandra. She had been Karina, was Karina, but not just Karina. Two lifetimes, merged in her memories, she remembered being Cassandra, but also being Karina, queen of pixies.
    “What the-” Both Damian and Plinx knelt. “Get up! Both of you.”
    “Yes my lady.”
    “Stop it with the my lady nonsense, it’s so annoying.” Damian cut off her yelling with a kiss as he pulled her into his arms. And Cassandra who was Karina let herself be pulled into the embrace of her long time love.