SERENA

PART II: Chapter 2 - Somewhere

The sun is already way up in the sky when Serena wakes up. She gets up and checks on the aircraft. It's still broken and out of power, which was to be expected.

Serena grabs her translator, which has all the languages which Elementals have ever come in contact with or have ever collected samples from. And, since the coordinates to this planet were known, they must have come in contact with their language – or languages – at some point as well.

She also grabs some of the food and water she has left and throws it into a bag. Then, she sighs and walks outside, and she's immediately hit by a scorching heat. Even the wind, which throws the coarse sand onto her exposed arms and face, doesn't lessen the heat. Serena can always successfully raise her body temperature, but not lower it.

"So, I went that way yesterday, right?" She asks herself, looking toward the direction she thinks she went. "I guess I should probably go on the opposite direction now."

Serena starts walking.

There is nothing but sand. Under her feet, all around her, being thrown against her skin. She has her right hand in front of her eyes to prevent the sand from entering them, and is trying to take shallow breaths in order to not inhale too much sand.

After walking for some time, the sun starts setting, which Serena finds strange. She has been walking for a while, but not long enough for an entire day to go by, even considering that she only woke up when the sun was already high up in the sky. In addition to that, she isn't feeling tired at all, even after all the walking she did. The only reasonable explanation she can come up with is that the days on this planet are much shorter than those in Elementia. That will be a problem for her, because in an Earth day she won't have enough time to get to anywhere. They're just too short.

She considers turning back and going back into her aircraft, but then she would just have to go through all of this again, just for the day not to be long enough again. And, like she had noted before, she's not tired at all. These days are too short for her to get tired in such little time.

So, she keeps on walking, even when the sun is fully gone.

Luckily, there's an orbiting object, which might be a natural satellite and gives off some light during the night. Otherwise, Serena would have to set her hands on fire, but the light that would give off wouldn't be nearly as much.

The temperature has dropped considerably when compared to the scorching heat that was felt during the day, but Serena doesn't even notice the cold, because her body automatically raises its internal temperature.

The sun starts coming up again, and Serena can now confirm that Earth days are much shorter than Elementia days, because the night went by really fast.

The temperature has barely started to go up again when Serena sees a road.

"Yes!" She exclaims and the excitement causes her to walk faster.

She's unsure of which way to follow, but a road should probably lead to something on both directions, so it shouldn't even matter. In any case, when she gets to the road, she starts following it to the direction that was on her right.

Some noise comes from behind Serena, and she turns around to see a vehicle approaching. It has four wheels, two on each side, and it looks nothing like any vehicle from Elementia. It makes a honking noise as it speeds beside her, which Serena also doesn't understand.

She just keeps on walking, and more vehicles go through that road, in both directions. And, after some time, Serena starts seeing some buildings in the distance.

She smiles and starts running. She's finally getting somewhere. She has no idea where, but it's somewhere. She approaches the place with the buildings and there are also some people around.

Everyone looks very different than the people she's used to seeing. Not anatomically, which is surprising, considering this is a completely different planet, on a whole different galaxy. But they are dressed very differently, and their hair has colors she has never seen on anyone's hair in Elementia. There are people with brown hair, dark and light, or black, or yellowish, or even grey.

She realizes that she has stopped and is just staring at everyone else around her. And she also realizes that people are looking back at her. She must look as strange to them as they look to her. And she must also look like a mess. Her long blue hair hasn't been brushed since she crashed her aircraft, and she's wearing a ripped orange dress, which is covered in blood. Not to mention the dried blood plastered to her face and arms.

Yes, she definitely looks stranger than anyone else.

Even though Serena isn't tired from walking, she is hungry and thirsty. She finished the last of her water and food she has brought with her while walking, and now she doesn't know how to get more. She doesn't have any money from whichever currency is used in this planet, and she's also not a princess here. In Elementia, sometimes, people would offer her things just because she was the princess and they wanted to be in the good graces of the royals. It was completely unnecessary, because they had more than enough money to pay for anything, but people genuinely wanted to offer. And it was considered rude not to accept. But here, Serena's not a princess, she's not the heir to the throne. She's not even a person with money. Here, she's no one.