In reality, the meteor disintegrated just before hitting the ground, but the flash and the boom made Teseu fall on his butt and almost soil himself with fright. He got up, a bit unsteady, cursing softly to himself, only to be stunned again. A show of shimmering lights floated around him, extending from the house to a large part of the garden. The lights alternated between violet, or purple, and even pink, some lighter, some darker, but all of different sizes.

"It... it's beautiful!" He was impressed, he had never seen anything like it. It seemed so psychedelic that it didn't belong to reality. But there it was! He reached out to touch one of the lights, and it simply landed in his hand and slowly disappeared, causing a slight burning sensation that was immediately replaced by one of relaxation.

"Well, screw it. If this is radioactive, I'll already be dead just from being close to it. At least this way, I'll die in a very relaxed state, haha." So he began actively "hunting" the poor and innocent lights until there were none left or until he collapsed on the ground, completely numb from the relaxing sensation, whichever came first. What he didn't expect, however, was that at a certain point, the lights began to "migrate" closer to him.

At first, it was subtle, just a feeling that they were slightly closer, but it could also be the effect of gravity since many of these lights were still in the sky where the meteor disintegrated, he thought. But as he "captured" more and more lights, it became apparent that this was not the case. There were so many lights around him that he couldn't even see the house's porch anymore. Heck, he could barely see his own feet!

WOOOOSHHHH!

Suddenly, all the remaining lights entered his body. The reaction was so strong that it made him fall backward onto the grass. He lay there, with his body numb, looking up at the sky.

"It's a good night to die." A faint smile crossed his lips. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes, Teseu found himself lying in a clearing surrounded by grass. In fact, he only realized it was a clearing when he got up and saw that he was surrounded by trees... and grass, lots of grass. The grass almost reached Teseu's chin. He didn't consider himself very tall, being only 176 cm, but at that moment, he felt... small? It's not like he had suddenly become 30 cm shorter; it was more like the scale of things around him had increased.

He wanted to walk toward one of the trees to confirm his theory, but he stopped as soon as he saw his arm as he pushed aside the wild growth.

"What in the world!?" His arm had a faint crystal-blue tint, and it was translucent, just like crystal. Unfortunately, to Teseu's agony, it wasn't just his arm; his entire body seemed to be made of crystal. He carefully examined himself and found that it was just the appearance. He still felt like flesh and bone, his skin still had the same sensation as normal skin, and his weight seemed unchanged. He could even see the outline of some of his organs.

"This must be a dream. It can only be a dream, or a hallucination caused by those radioactive lights," Teseu said, and then did what anyone in his situation would do... He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"It's definitely not a dream because I can distinctly feel the grass under my feet. The touch of my hands, the wind, and the warmth, only foolish people would need to pinch themselves despite all of this."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Which leads me to the second possibility: hallucination." Teseu ruled out this possibility too; the things around him seemed too coherent and real to be a creation of his mind. So, he continued on his way toward the nearest tree.

"The scale seems really off." Of course, the tree could just be a larger-than-average tree, but something told him he was right.

"Now, only one thing remains," he said as he circled the tree in search of a good foothold to climb as high as he could. When he reached the top, many things became clear to Teseu. The unnatural hardness of the wood, why he felt the scale was wrong, and, above all, the likely reason for his body's current state.

This world was not Earth. The sky was still blue, and the clouds were still white, but above the clouds, he could see four small moons. The smallest was green, two were blue and apparently of the same size, and the last and largest of the four was yellow. The sun also seemed to have a more golden hue than Earth's.

"Haha, at least the scenery seems normal." A mountain range to what he presumed was the north and extending to the east, forests all around, except for a location to the west that he suspected might be a body of water, probably a river.

"I think I already have a destination. I may not be thirsty now, but I don't think that will last. I'll also need food eventually, and I'm much better at fishing than hunting. But first and foremost, I definitely need something to wear." Yes, he had been naked all this time, but the craziness of the situation had prevented him from thinking about it until now.

As he descended, he picked up some leaves nearby to try to somehow produce clothing. On the ground, he pulled out some leaves from the wild grass. This grass had a very long leaf, almost a meter long, with a stem that split the leaf in half. Separating these stems, he intertwined them with the tree leaves to create a very rough skirt. It was basically several 30 cm leaves tied around his waist with a rope. He also tied leaves to the soles of his feet. Many people died in wars underestimating how serious it is to have injured feet in a potentially hostile environment.

Now he was ready to go. He looked at the sky to confirm the correct direction one more time and moved on. At some point, the amount of grass began to decrease, and he had a little more visibility ahead. About twenty minutes had passed, and he had his first encounter with a living creature. It was a bird that resembled a black parrot, trying to unearth something in a cluster of rocks on his left. The bird had yellow feathers under its wings and a shiny navy-blue beak that looked more like a razor blade.

Stopping to admire the beauty of the bird, Teseu crouched to pick up a nearby stone and moved very slowly toward the unsuspecting parrot. Of course, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to potentially obtain a beautiful navy-blue dagger connected to a potential lunch.

The lunch, I mean, the parrot had its head stuck between two rocks, obstinately trying to find something. The poor thing only seemed to notice something when it was too late. Teseu was already swinging a stone, twice the size of his own fist, directly onto the bird's back.

"CRAAAAAAA!!!" The parrot squawked loudly in pain but didn't die. It flapped its wings rapidly to dislodge Teseu, who was right on top of it. Teseu didn't expect the creature to still be alive, and even less that its wings would be so strong as to push him away and even make some shallow cuts on his arm. Granted, the parrot was large, even bigger than a macaw, but still, a stone that size should have done the job.

"CRAAA!" Now he had an entirely irate parrot coming toward him with no apparent intention of letting him get away with his life.

Teseu knew he couldn't escape, so he tried to grab another stone, but as soon as he got his hands on one, the parrot was already on him. He knew that if that sharp beak touched his skin, it would easily tear it apart. He just had to choose which part of his body that would be. It ended up being his left hand; he needed to stop the creature's momentum in some way so he could land a good blow with a stone, and that's what he did.

While his left hand was almost separated from his arm, Teseu gritted his teeth and struck the bird's head with all the force he could muster. The darn thing still seemed alive when it hit the ground, but Teseu didn't give it the chance to recover and affectionately caressed the bird's head with the blood-stained stone.