• I looked up at Cou for a long moment. He stood by the river, a shadow among shadows in the thin rays of light that shone down through the canopy of leaves overhead.

    Somewhere down the river I could hear the melodious voices of women warriors. I could feel the vebrations along the ground from their steady march.

    "Cou..." I said softly.

    His head turned slightly, revealing the blood that had dried on his cheek. Not his blood, but the blood of some unknown warrior. He pulled off his armor and waded into the river for a well earned bath. He washed the grime and blood from his limbs and unknotted his muscles, slowly and deliberately, using a technique that most soldiers used after combat in order to slow the massive amounts of adrenaline being rushed through their blood.

    When he climbed out of the river he slowly put his armor back on, performing a simple spell to clean it so that in the end, every piece of black metal gleamed darkly.

    "Cou." I reminded.

    He nodded and tossed something on the ground beside me. It was a blue flower crystal, the rarest and most powerful. I could feed off of its energy for several days. That meant...

    "I've been saving it. We can't stop for a while. Patrols are getting more and more thick along the pass." He said, his voice low and calm. He shouldered his longbow and took a last look at the beautiful river and peaceful water.

    I still didn't move. For a long moment, I toyed with the blossom, slowly placing it in my mouth. As my teeth crushed the delicate petals I could feel the regenerating juices running down my throat.

    "Cwen." Cou said softly.

    When I looked up, Cou's arms and legs were wasting way, disappearing into nothing. He held out his hand, which was almost completely gone. As soon as I grabbed it we were gone. Into the mountains where there was snow and men. Many, many men. Then we were in the jungle. The thick, lush, untamed nature. The the middle of a men's camp. And then inside a women's headquarters. But I wasn't worried. We didn't exist. We were nothing more than whisps of smoke, puffs of air...tiny bits of matter.

    Cou was a transporter. One of four in our known world. And transporting was completely random which meant he had to keep doing it until he got it right. Which could take days.

    I closed my eyes and pressed my face against his cool armor as we appeared in the desert. He brushed my hair back and looked up at our constantly changing surroundings.

    "Sleep, Cwen."