The Ambassadors

A New Home

I sat in the cabin, nervously awaiting the news. Could we go out into Elysium, or would we need to construct specialized gear? I could be sent out any minute, or not go out for months. It felt as if the walls of the ship were getting smaller. And I thought the laboratory was cramped.
I shuddered.

"You okay?"

I looked up, a boy with black hair and ash colored skin stood beside my seat. He was a vampire, obviously.

I gave a nervous chuckle, "I'm fine. Excited." I said, without conviction. How could I be fine with every emotion ever felt was raging within me at once?

The vampire looked awkward, "No, I didn't mean emotionally. I am a trained physician and I'm checking to make sure everybody has a clean bill of health before we enter Elysium."

"Oh." I went red, "I'm, uh, fine."

He nodded, "Yeah, that's what everyone's been saying. With all the adrenaline rushing through us right now, nobodies going to notice if they do get hurt or sick. Can I have your name and race though, I'd like to start fresh medical records for everyone."

"I'm Kell." I said.

"Mm-hm." He made a note in his clipboard, "And you're Kemonomimi, right?"

"No."

He glanced at my ears, "Uh... Dragon? Wait, no I've spoken to both dragons..."

"I'm... Multirace." I said it as if it was a bad word.

The vampire's eyes widened in realization, "You're the Twenty First." He made a note, "That makes sense. So you're Dragon and Kemonomimi blood?"

"Uh... Yes." I glanced around as if it were a secret. People who visited the lab always look on as if I were a horrific experiment, which I guess I was, "Among others."

"Others?"

"I..." I gulped. They all had to find out sooner or later, "I was created from the mixed DNA of each race."

The vampire's eyes went even wider, "that's... Wow, okay. Any pre-existing health conditions."

I got whiplash from how quickly he changed the subject, "No."

He nodded, "okay then, I'll let you go. If you ever need medical attention, let me know. My name is Alec Nightstar. It was nice to meet you."

He left as suddenly as he had shown up. That was a talent that vampires shared. I could do it sometimes, but never on purpose.

I bit my lip, trying to tell if he had sounded horrified like the visitors who had seen me at the lab. I didn't want to make a bad impression on the people I would be spending the rest of my life with. Especially not my doctor.

I guess I just needed to show them that I wasn't a threat. They'd tolerate me if they knew I couldn't hurt them.

I sat alone for a while. A girl with bright green hair entered the cabin and sat at the other end with a piece of wood. She looked at it with a knife in her hand.

She noticed me looking at her and gave me a nod. I smiled nervously back. We sat in silence for a while and I secretly enjoyed being in the same room with someone, while not actually having to carry on a conversation. However, after a stretch of silence, she sighed. I glanced up and saw her holding the block of wood, which was untouched.

"Ugh." She sighed again and flipped her hair out of her face, "I don't know what to make."

I leaned forward in my seat, "What are you doing?"

She shrugged, "It's wood carving. Invented by the humans. Us fae don't use it, since touching dead material is forbidden. But I don't think you can have art without both life and death working in harmony."

I nodded, "So you carve the wood with your knife?"

"Yes." She twirled the blade in her fingers, "But this is the last block of wood I have. If Elysium doesn't have trees, then this is the last piece I'll ever carve. I want to make something special."

I looked down. I had never lived in a world with trees. I couldn't even imagine having them all around me and then going to a barren moon. I hoped, for her sake, that there was plenty of wood available.

"Kell. Hey."

I glanced up. Oscar had entered the cabin, with Circe, Koraline and Cameron the werewolf with him, "We've got the news. We can go outside."

Never in my life had I been struck with such a mix between terror and hope. I mutely followed them to the hangar, where the main hatch was. I barely paid attention as we put on our exo-suits that would protect us from unexpected problems.

I stood before the hatch as Oscar had his hand on the release controls, "Is everyone ready?"

The other's nodded. I followed suit and gave a nervous bump of my head. We were going out.

The door opened.

The world outside was dark.

One by one, we slowly left the hangar and entered Elysium.

My foot touched down on soft, springy grass. I bounced on my feet a bit, smiling. Grass would imply that trees could grow as well. I lifted my eyes to see if there were any around and gasped.

The sky was glowing.

I had seen stars before, but this was nothing like that. There were swimming clouds of light, pulsing and dancing above us. A rainbow of colors pooled into my eyes until it was all I could see. They were a part of Elysium's atmosphere, I realized, noticing that some were floating only a few miles from the earth.

They lit up the ground below, showing that we were in a massive, stretching feild of grass. There were hills and a few spots that looked like forest in the distance.

The grass glimmered with water that had fallen from the glowing clouds and a few feet away I saw a flower, glowing blue.

I knelt beside it, awestruck.

Circe knelt beside me, "We should take it as a sample." She said, "Maybe it's edible. If not, it's still very pretty."

I nodded and reached out to pluck it from the ground.

"No, not like that." Circe stopped me and then gently began to dig around the plant, "We need the roots too. If we can keep it alive, it'll teach us a lot more than if we kill it."

She soon had the flower in her hands. It's stem and roots were translucent white with speckles of blue throughout.

"How does it feel to have discovered the first organism found on Elysium, Kell?" She placed it in my open palm and gave a crooked smile, "What are you going to call it?"

My heart fluttered as I beheld the perfect little flower, "Star."

Yay! This took a while to get done! This time, there's no question, but as you can see, I try to put music with every chapter. If you have any music recs, leave them in the comments and I'll use them if I can find a chapter they suit!