We met in “the pits”, the holding area beneath the coliseum. He was Ephrates. I introduced myself as Laodice. We were surprised to find that we had lived near each other our whole lives, but never chanced to meet until we found ourselves here under different circumstances. Even more bizarre, neither of us knew how we arrived in this situation. The only points we could agree on were that we were on the paths to our homes one evening, were startled by a flurry of sounds and flashes, and found ourselves here. Our “guards” we covered in heavy leather and metal armor which obscured their faces and they did not deem it necessary to answer our questions. Finally, the gates opened and we were pushed into the arena. The crowd erupted. There were cheers and boos, but not in any tongue Ephrates or I were familiar with. Yet we knew that we were not in our ancestral home. In the large crowd were beings of all shapes and sizes, with skin the color of blue or red or green, or yellow and sometimes mixtures of the colors. My eyes, drawn to the crowd did not take in our other surroundings until Ephrates placed a hand upon my shoulder, staring up at a harsh angle. My gaze follows his and I understand now that we were not in fact in our homeland. In the sky above us, hanging like the moon but infinitely larger, was a heavenly body floating as if close enough to reach.