Celina chuckled. "I know, right? But I think at this point we'd all rather be in California than wherever this place is. I keep thinking this is a nightmare and I'll wake up. But I won't.".                                                                 

"Right…? How did you end up here?" Eldora asked.

"I was homeless. I was wandering around--didn't know what to do with myself--and suddenly, this family heirloom of mine points me toward a light, and I end up in this strange world."

"Weird. I ended up here in a similar way. I was at a crossroads, didn't know what to do with myself… I wandered off toward the beam of light and couldn't stop myself. What's going to happen to us?" Eldora lifted her her hands and yelled in shock. They were green "W-what happened? Where are my hands?".                                              

"You've been turned into a praying mantis, it seems."          

Eldora shook her head on dismay. "No… I'm an oversized bug… I can't believe this. Do you know what they're planning to do with us?"                                                  

Before Celina could answer, a man burst into the room, accompanied by ten, hairy guards who looked like apes. The man had blonde hair, a strong chin, and heavy, hooded eyes. But that wasn't the most surprising thing about him. The most surprising thing was that she recognized him. "Adrian?"                                   

The man looked at her curiously. He pointed to her, and she was dragged away.                                                   

                                                                                  ***

Eldora was dragged to a well-furnished room. In front of her was a tall creature made of wood. It held a stack of papers. The tree-creature pointed to itself. "Fraunt.".                                                                                        

Eldora pointed to herself nervously. "E--Eldora.".                    

Fraunt knelt over the desk he stood behind and scribbled something down on a piece of paper. It looked like a letter. She recognized he was trying to teach her to speak his language. He made the sound of an A, and then pointed at her, indicating he wanted her to repeat the sound. Eldora did her best to commit each letter and sound to memory.                                              

After her lesson with Fraunt, she was pushed into the kitchen, where a broom was foisted into her hands. She began sweeping, and once her work was satisfactory, the cooks in the kitchen had her cut tomatoes instead and some neon colored vegetables that didn't exist on earth. Eldora's heart was pounding. She listened to the language of the cooks as hard as she could while she cooked. One of the cooks--a man with pointed ears--pointed at her. "Eldora. Shnutbah ghan heroto." The man came to her side and showed her the way he wanted her to cut the vegetables. He wanted them cut width-wise rather than length. Eldora nodded her thanks. She swallowed and nervously continued cutting. Slowly, tears began rolling down her cheeks--both from worry at being in a foreign place, and from memories about cutting vegetables to feed her husband when they had first gotten married.                                                                                   ***                                                                                                     

"I'm sooo tired honey." Claudius said as he put his keys on the rack and threw himself on the couch next to Eldora. "I'll get started on dinner soon, though."

“No, no, baby. You go sit down. I’ll get dinner started.” Eldora said with a smile and a wink. She got up from the couch, but Claudius dragged her back down. He gave her a smile that made her blush, and his eyes went intense as they tended to do.

“Why are you so good to me? Are you really going to cook for me? Even though you hate it?” Claudius grinned. 

“It’s not that amazing… come on.” Eldora said bashfully. 

He pressed his lips against hers. “You’re amazing. You always cook me dinner when I’m tired, even though you hate it. I have the greatest wife in the world.”

He distracted her, kissing her until somehow they were both naked on the couch. He had fallen asleep a short time afterwards, and she woke him again for dinner. They ate together in silence for a time, smiling cheerfully at each other. Eldora felt a sense  of peace she never had felt in her life before as she ate dinner with him that night. She had nearly everything she wanted; a loving husband, a roof over her head, and good food to eat. The only thing she was missing was a child, and that could wait. 

She looked at her husband with a lovelorn face, and recognized what a marvel–what a miracle–it was to have a man to call husband. So many people searched all their lives for a thing called a husband or wife, but never found it. And what a travesty it was… she had always thought it was nearly impossible to find someone she could trust as much or more than a family member… someone she loved more than a family member, and yet here he was, looking her in the eyes. 

How lucky she was, to have the stars align for her so that she could meet the love of her life. 

As if he had read her mind she said, “What serendipity it was to find the woman I love so early in life. I want to live and love you for every second of it."

She had looked into his eyes and knew that it was one-hundred percent true. She had never been so certain of anything, as she was that he loved her in that moment.