Luke woke up to find that to his surprise, his hands had become covered in hair, and so had the rest of his body. It was the same brown as the hair on his head, except for around his mouth and his belly. His head became shaped like an otter, and he had a long, thick tail swaying behind him. He was an otter person, and he had no idea how it had happened. When he got dressed and went into the living room, everyone had likewise become otter people, and they greeted him just like nothing had happened. Even the pictures around the house suggested that he had always been an otter person, as well as his family.
When he went outside, everyone had become some kind of animal person, and there were even a few flying in the sky. Everything else was mostly the same, except for the matter the furniture had been remade to fit tails, and more people had flying vehicles. The choice between having one or a regular car seemed to be a personal preference. As a result, the airways were more highly regulated, and all flying vehicles had to be fitted with communication equipment so that their pilots could be aware of each other. Airports were more like a bus service, and care had to be taken for "ailestrians", or people flying with their own wings.
As he found out more about this world, he discovered that there were more cities and towns, and they had been made either underground or in the water. Most urban developments had their own underground portion, but some had been made entirely in the ground, and some had been there for ages. The underwater cities were also mostly very ancient, having been made by the aquatic ancestors of many of the creatures that now existed. There were now many vehicles that could withstand the pressures of the deep sea, and ferries existed from the land to the underwater developments.
As he read more about the underwater cities, he found out that this world had seen a series of civilizations, each based on what he understood as prehistoric animals. The water based ones were the oldest, followed by the colonization of land, which gave rise to an amphibian civilization. Soon, they developed into the reptiles and the synapsid ancestors of mammals. Some of the reptiles became a civilization of dinosaurs, of which the avians were glad to claim descendence from. He was amazed at the vast history of this world and how it shaped what it is now. Skyscrapers were even more prevalent thanks to the avians, and all the parts of the world were connected in a diverse civilization. To his surprise, though, he also found that these ancient creatures still exist, even if their civilization was long past it's prime.
The ancient mammal ancestors were odd, although other things that he knew to be extinct in the world he came from lived in present day. Mammoths, saber toothed cats, and giant ground sloths were longside their modern equivalents. Even things that had become extinct within recorded history were around as if nothing had happened, which in this world, nothing did. You could even better tell the dinosaurs to be related to the birds, as they had simple feathers that made them look like fluffy lizards.
Finally, Luke saw some of the animal people manipulating things around them by gesture or even with their mind. They were happy to show him that this world also had magic, although the ability to manipulate things was genetic and ultimately sourced from one of the species that naturally possessed the ability. From there, he was introduced to dragons, gryphons, sphinxes, and even unicorns. He was surprised he did not notice flying horses sooner, or that they could also be unicorns. Even kitsune existed in this world, and were noted for their multiple tails. They still had to live a long time to obtain them, though.
The new otter person was left with the question of how he ended up in this world and became like one of them. The ones that knew magic told him that anybody that had the mind could enter this world and become like them. However, to the people in his world, he would still appear to be the same person and living the life that he did. He wondered what the difference was, and they asked him "Do you remember your old life?" When he answered "yes", they said that was the difference. He had replaced the version of him that existed in this world, although that meant next to nothing, as he had the same life here, only with the knowledge of having lived in this world. He could continue as if nothing had happened. He could not help but continue to be awed in everything he saw, though. Something about that made him feel content and he enjoyed living in that world from that point forward.
