SERENA

PART II: Chapter 3 - Extraterrestrial Life

Serena keeps walking around, trying to ignore the people around her that keep on staring at her. Most of them seem to be around her age, and she wonders if there are no older people in that place, or if the elders of these people don't look like the older Elementals. Or even if this is what the elders of these people look like.

The one thing that makes it easier to relax around these strangers and in this strange planet is that she is surrounded by vegetation and tall trees. They don't look exactly like the ones in Elementia, but they're close enough. Serena has always wanted her element – or her core element, since she found out she could control more than one – to be earth. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way for her and her core element is fire, but she never lost her love for the earth. And her favorite color has always remained green.

Speaking of colors, that's another thing that Serena notices to be very different in this planet. In Elementia everything is always color coordinated to the four elements, but here the colors are mostly more muted and neutral. She has never been a fan of having those four vibrant colors screaming in her face every direction she looked – except for the green, that can scream in her face all day every day –, so this is a happy surprise.

After a few more minutes of walking, a building in a light pink-orangey color starts to be visible, and Serena keeps walking in its direction. The architectural style is also very different from anything she's used to seeing in Elementia. It's not as tall and, again, the colors are way less aggressive. And it's more angular as well.

But it's beautiful.

She's admiring the beauty of the building as she walks, but suddenly she crashes into something that makes her stop walking. And, when she looks toward what she hits, Serena realizes that it was someone and not something.

A girl is standing right in front of Serena and she's one of those people – who are pretty much everyone who she has seen – that has a strangely colored hair. It's light brown, and Serena realizes that she's staring at the girl. But the girl is staring right back at Serena and her hair. The one that has a normal color. Or maybe it's not a normal hair color hair, since nobody seems to have it, she thinks and looks from the girl's hair to her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The girl says and Serena's translator makes it possible for her to understand. "I didn't see where I was going."

Serena looks down at the small translator in her hand, and it says 'English – Earth'. Then, she proceeds to talk to it and let it translate into the girl's language. "It's all right. I wasn't either." Serena says in her language. "I was admiring the building."

"You're not from here." It's not a question.

"No." Serena replies, without elaborating how 'not from there' she is.

"Is that a translator?" She points to the object in Serena's hand.

Serena nods. "Yes."

"That's so cool. I've never seen anything like that. Is it translating what I'm saying, like, in real time?"

"It is."

"That's insane. Where did you get that?"

So, maybe they don't have these types of translators on this planet. Noted.

"It was a gift." Serena says, and it isn't really a lie. It was installed in her spaceship by whoever made it, and her family does own the spaceships, so...

"Cool." The girl says again. "And your hair is also really cool. Where did you get it done? And where are you from?"

Serena opens her mouth to speak but no sound comes out. Is it okay to tell this person that she's from another planet? Is that a think these people are okay with? Is it something they even know about?