Jon steadied himself. He'd never been awake while being pulled through the rift before, and now that he had, he wasn't sure it was something he wanted to repeat. The universe he left behind, the strange sexual nature of it, the threat of being adopted out to a suitor, were all things Jon was glad to leave behind. But the sensation of the rift...
It had started in his stomach. A sense of pressure, then a sense of pulling. That increased, then decreased, in ever larger waves. Soon, Jon felt as if his body was beginning to move in ways he didn't think possible. His arms and legs lifted up, then were pulled into his belly button. He would have screamed if he could, but his head was pulled in next. Before Jon could understand what was happening, his whole body inverted, being pulled into itself, in an impossible maneuver.
Then there was darkness, a deeper darkness than he had ever experienced, but he was not without sensation. Every cell in his body seemed to burn, each sending signals to his brain independently, each moment a torment worthy of hell. After that, when all he could think of was death, a huge explosion, and...
There he was, awake, mid-way through the day, in his new universe. His stone hadn't come with him through the rift, but it might be in this universe, somewhere, waiting for him. If he wanted to find it to figure out a way to stop the rift, he would have to hurry. If the rift was going to return while he slept that night, that meant he would only have half of the day to find it.
Jon's mind clearing, he looked around him to see what reality the rift had deposited him in. He saw...
