Orion was just a fearful as he is, but is not as exaggerated as in the bedtime story.
Since the entire thing is revealed to be a bedtime story that an older Orion tells to his daughter Hypatia, which justifies the fantastic elements and Hypatia somehow inserting herself into the ending, Orion might be just as fearful in reality, but not as exaggerated as in the story where to the point that he needs a scrapbook to document his fears. Orion And The Dark and The Bad Guys (2022) take place in same universe.
Both movies have very similar artstyles, humans in both movies look similar to each other, while Richi Panichi could be member of Chief Luggins family due to also being muscular bad-tempered redhead.