Breath.
That was the first thing Kai felt.
A sharp, burning breath forced into his lungs as if his body had forgotten how to breathe and suddenly remembered.
He coughed, choking on air that felt… different.
Thicker.
Warmer.
Alive.
His eyes snapped open.
Light flooded his vision.
Not the sterile white of a hospital.
Not the dim flicker of emergency lights.
Sunlight.
Golden, natural, and blinding as it filtered through towering trees above him.
For a moment, his mind refused to process it.
"…What…?"
His voice came out dry.
Weak.
He pushed himself up slowly, his body trembling not from injury, but from disorientation.
Leaves crunched beneath his hand.
Grass brushed against his skin.
The scent of earth, damp and rich, filled his senses.
This wasn't right.
This wasn't
The plane.
His eyes widened.
"Rion… Lira!"
Panic surged through him as he turned sharply, scanning his surroundings.
No wreckage.
No smoke.
No fire.
No bodies.
Just forest.
Endless forest.
Tall trees stretched toward the sky, their trunks thicker than any Kai had ever seen. Their leaves shimmered faintly, almost as if they reflected light in unnatural ways. The air itself seemed to hum quietly, though there was no clear source.
"Kai… calm down," he muttered under his breath but his heart refused to listen.
Then
A shape.
Two shapes.
Lying a few meters away.
His chest tightened.
He scrambled toward them.
"Rion! Lira!"
They didn't respond.
For a split second, fear gripped him harder than anything he had ever felt.
He dropped to his knees beside them, his hands shaking as he reached out
And stopped.
Their chests.
They were moving.
Slowly.
But breathing.
Relief hit him so hard it almost hurt.
"…Thank God."
He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, his shoulders dropping slightly.
"Hey… wake up," he said, gently shaking Rion first. "Rion. Lira. Wake up."
No response.
Still unconscious.
Kai swallowed, forcing himself to think.
Think.
They were alive.
That was what mattered.
Everything else he could figure it out.
But first
Where were they?
He stood slowly, his gaze scanning the area again.
No debris.
No broken metal.
No sign of a crash.
That wasn't just strange.
That was impossible.
"…We fell from the sky," he said quietly. "There should be something…"
But there wasn't.
Only silence.
Not the peaceful kind.
The kind that felt like it was watching.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Something about this place felt wrong.
Not dangerous yet.
But unfamiliar in a way that went deeper than just being lost.
The air felt heavier in his lungs.
The sounds of the forest if they were sounds echoed strangely, as if they came from too far away… or too close.
Even the light
It didn't feel like sunlight.
Not completely.
Kai clenched his fist.
"I need to see where we are."
He turned toward the nearest tree.
It towered above him, its bark dark and rough, its branches stretching high into the sky. Climbing it wouldn't be easy—but he needed a better view.
He glanced back once at his siblings.
"…Stay alive," he murmured.
Then he began to climb.
The higher he went, the more the forest revealed itself.
And the less sense it made.
When he finally reached a stable branch and pulled himself up, his breath caught.
"…No way…"
The forest stretched endlessly in every direction.
No roads.
No buildings.
No signs of civilization.
Just green.
And beyond that
Mountains.
Massive, jagged peaks rose in the distance, cutting into the sky like blades. Some of them seemed unnaturally shaped, too sharp, too perfect… almost as if they weren't entirely natural.
The sky itself felt… off.
It was blue but not the same blue he knew.
Deeper.
Heavier.
As if it held something behind it.
Kai's chest tightened.
"…Where are we?"
No answer.
Only the wind, brushing through the leaves with a low, whispering sound.
For a moment, he just stared.
Trying to make sense of it.
Trying to force logic into something that refused to follow it.
Then
A faint sound below.
"Kai…?"
His head snapped down.
Lira.
She was sitting up now, holding her head slightly, her expression dazed.
Rion stirred beside her.
Relief flickered across Kai's face.
"I'm coming down!"
He climbed quickly, dropping the last few feet to the ground with a soft thud.
Lira looked up at him, her eyes filled with confusion and something else.
Fear.
"Kai… where are we?"
Rion pushed himself up, groaning. "My head… what the hell happened…?"
Kai looked at both of them.
Alive.
Safe.
For now.
But he couldn't lie.
Not about this.
He shook his head slowly.
"…I don't know."
Silence settled between them.
Heavy.
Uncertain.
Rion glanced around, his expression shifting from annoyance… to unease.
"…Where's the plane?"
No one answered.
Because they all knew.
There was no plane.
No wreckage.
Nothing.
Just this place.
This forest.
This world.
Kai looked past them, deeper into the trees.
Something about it pulled at him.
Not comfort.
Not safety.
But inevitability.
He exhaled slowly.
"…This isn't Earth."
The words felt unreal as they left his mouth.
But none of them argued.
Because deep down
They felt it too.