PROLOGUE
Orion opened his eyes to silence and lay still.
Something felt off.
"Am I injured?"
He waited for pain to follow that thought. It never came. There was no sound either. Just a heavy, unfamiliar pressure pressing in from all sides.
As his awareness settled, his breathing returned. His chest rose and fell, slower than he intended, as if his body wasn't fully responding yet.
The air felt wrong too. Thicker, heavier and carrying a pressure he couldn't explain.
It brushed against him in a way he wasn't used to and that alone told him this wasn't a hospital, a room, or anywhere familiar.
He didn't panic. Nothing about this situation would change even if he screamed or cried.
I'm breathing. That's a good sign.
I'm lying down. Stone floor, but still okay.
This isn't my body.
That last thought came with near certainty.
His limbs felt unfamiliar, just slightly off in length and weight. When he moved his fingers, the response was delayed in a way his own body never had been. That was enough to confirm it.
When his vision finally sharpened, the world above him only made things worse.
The sky was darker than it should have been, scattered with stars he didn't recognize. Two pale moons hung overhead and the longer he stared at them, the tighter his stomach became.
One was far too large, close enough to feel oppressive. The other hovered beside it at an angle that felt deeply wrong.
The nausea that followed wasn't just fear. He felt the discomfort of seeing something familiar twisted incorrectly. Like recognizing a family member's face with her features subtly misplaced.
It was as if the sky itself were alive.
And watching him.
Orion stared at the moons in silence and understood one thing immediately.
He didn't need to search any further.
No place on Earth ever looked like this.
And almost as clearly, another thought settled in his mind.
"I opened my eyes in a different world!"