The summoning was nothing like a rift.
Rift was almost instant, one step through, one step out, the world changing between one breath and the next.
This was different.
It was slower, as if whatever had called him wanted him to see what he was arriving into, or as if the distance itself made the leap impossible to ignore.
His body existed somewhere between places, and the world gradually assembled itself around him.
First, he saw the sky.
It was wrong, yet beautiful at the same time. Too vivid, too present, the blue of it deeper than anything Earth's atmosphere had ever produced, layered with clouds that moved against each other in patterns that suggested the weather operated far differently than on Earth.
Somewhere far above, something large moved through those very clouds, bigger and faster than any planes built by humans. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, leaving parted clouds behind in its path.
Then came the land.
