While David West walked home from OmegaCon, a gaming and general fan convention, he stumbled on a strange woman in an alley. This woman almost single handedly defeated a street gang and then informed him that she came from another world, one where magic works. Impulsively, he led her to his apartment to clean up and learn more about her.

  As soon as he closed and locked the door to his apartment, David turned to her and said: “I bet you don’t have a pce to stay here, do you?”

  “I have three days’ worth of provisions and a pouch full of silver,” was the reply.

  “You pnned to search our entire world in three days?” he asked, incredulously.

  “No, I expected to find enough traces of Elgarin’s power here, if this is indeed the world he fled to, in three days to return home and bring back a full squad, or to join a squad if his tracks turned up elsewhere,” she replied.

  “What kind of traces are we talking about?” David asked.

  “Unusual sounds or lights in an area, strange creatures reported, buildings appearing out of nowhere or changing their appearance. If I can locate a few things like this, then the tracking devices I carry will do the rest.”

  “Hmm. I can probably set up an internet search to locate areas to check,” David mused, “though only after I wash up and get out of these bloody clothes.”

  “It is a shame you do not have automatic cleaning wards,” she replied

  “Feel free to look around the apartment - just don’t go in those two rooms,” he added, pointing out one room without a door and another with a closed door, “as they belong to my roommate. He’s out visiting family so will not be back for at least three more days, but he hates having his stuff messed with.”

  “Some of my Battle Sisters are the same way,” Sandra replied, smiling.

  David took a quick shower while she wandered around the pce. She gnced at a few of his books but her transtion stone only worked on spoken nguages so they were nothing but strange marks on paper to her. She found a bowl of fruit in a room that she guessed, from the sink, was a kitchen and took out the only one that looked familiar.

  When David came back out, she was holding up a half-eaten apple. “What is this? It looks like a korg pod but smells and tastes like pure sugar.”

  “It’s an apple. A type of fruit,” David replied.

  “It is fantastic. Do you have more?” she asked, eagerly.

  David walked over to his refrigerator and opened it. She gasped. “It is like an ice chest in a closet, but without the ice! And you said you have no magic here!”

  “No, this is science, technology. I don’t really understand it myself, as my skills are more in telling machines what to do, not making them. My roommate, Malcolm, understands how to make and repair these things. I guess, to me, it’s also magic. I have one apple left. I can take you where to buy some more in the morning.”

  Then he gnced over at her and thought aloud: “though you might draw some unwanted attention if we go around with you dressed like that.”

  “Is there something wrong with the way I look?” She asked, surprised.

  “Not exactly 'wrong;' heck four days ago, when OmegaCon was opening, nobody would have given you a second look, and there are parts of the city where I’d stand out far more than you would, but for the most part, you’ll get a lot of attention, and some of it would be from authorities who wouldn’t understand your situation. We may have to disguise you or something,” and then a thought came to him: “is there a reason why you keep your hair like that?”

  “Each braid reflects a mission I have undertaken. Ones that stand to the side are successfully completed. Ones that hang down were failures; you may notice none of mine hang down?” She added with a note of pride, then continued: “And this one, that goes straight up is my current mission, it is unresolved, obviously.”

  “Ah, so I guess cutting them is out of the question then,” he replied.

  “Oh no, this is more a threat dispy for my enemies than a record for myself, though down braids may only be cut with the permission of the Temple Magistrates. All missions are also recorded in my Book of Deeds back at the temple library.”

  “Oh, so we could change your hair? The war paint too?” he wondered aloud.

  “Until I am ready to attack Elgarin I do not need it. In fact, I will have to remove it to report back to my superiors,” she informed him.

  “Really? Hmm. Wonder if Carol is up,” he mused, and took out his phone.

  “What is that device?” the warrior woman asked as he did so.

  “It is called a ‘smart phone’ - it allows, well, I guess communication and entertainment spells, for ck of a better description, to work,” he replied, then sent a text.

  The reply was almost instant: “Was about to get into bed, and not alone. Make it fast.”

  He typed back “have friend with hair and fashion emergency. Could you help her?”

  “Her? Good on you! Bring her to shop tomorrow and I’ll see if I can help. Also will want deets. Will be there a bit before nine.”

  “Great, thanks. See you then.” he typed, then turned to his guest and said: “Well that’s mostly settled then. We may need to do something about your clothes too. Do you know your … umm… measurements?”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment as if trying to understand the question. “Do you mean the size and shape of my body? My armor holds that until someone else wears it, so you could use it to get the numbers, I think.”

  “Oh, can you sleep in it?”

  “The armor? Yes, but it is better to take it off. I could do that now…” she said, and began to do so, but he interrupted.

  “Wait a moment, okay? Just a few seconds.”

  He went into his room, and shortly emerged with a nightshirt and a pair of swimming trunks. “The room where I cleaned up is a bathroom,” he began to expin, but she cut him off.

  “We have running water, so I know what that is,” she replied. “Our Temple is very advanced.”

  “Good. You can go in there, take off the armor and put these on to sleep in. You can have my bed, and I’ll sleep out here on the couch. I’ll see what I can do to get measurements from the armor and then we can get some sleep before we have to figure out next steps in the morning.”

  She accepted the offered items and went into the other room. A few minutes ter she emerged. “The silver lever makes it flush! That is nice - we have to add water from a bucket!” She was wearing the nightshirt and trunks he had given her. David had to make a conscious effort to not notice how nice her legs were; long, slim, perfectly toned. She was a guest in his home, and a person needing assistance. Anything more would be taking advantage of her, he thought. She handed him the armor. “This is drafty but nice,” she said, “But I am not sure how to keep the pants on.”

  “What?" David asked, wondering why it felt that his heart skipped a beat as she said that. "Oh, there’s a drawstring, you just pull it.”

  “Can you show me?” She asked.

  He pantomimed where it should be on himself, then said “wait, I have another pair. Just a second.”

  He did not notice as a glimmer of disappointment fshed in her brown eyes, nor did he realize she had followed him into the bedroom until he turned around with a second pair he had just removed from a drawer and bumped into her. They were the same height, and his eyes met hers as his shoulder brushed against one of her breasts. He felt like a line of fire had been drawn across that shoulder and mistook the look in her eyes for surprise. She had an odd musky smell that was unusual but not unpleasant, underscored by something that made him think of pine tar.

  He stepped back, not completely sure why he was suddenly tongue-tied and blushing. He showed where the drawstrings were, and she lifted up the night shirt and found the strings on the trunks. It took a lot of willpower for him to not look at that ft, perfect stomach, to not imagine what might lie beneath the trunks and between that stomach and those amazing legs but he managed, barely.

  “You have it, there,” he said more quickly than he had expected. “Umm… there’s the bed. I… I need to get some sleep. See you in the morning,” he said, easing past her and out of the room.

  She followed him to the door with a sad smile on her lips, and then slid into the bed. It was softer than she was used to but still very pleasant. She fell asleep quickly.

  In the other room, David y down on the couch, wondering why he felt so uncomfortable and why he felt like he was missing something important - but, after calcuting a few measurements from the armor, he quickly realized exactly how exhausted he was, stretched out on the couch, and fell asleep almost as quickly as his guest had.