Excerpt: Better Than I

Claire had always sworn to herself that if she ever wrote fantasy, she would not start out by saying, “(Character) woke up with no idea where he/she was.” A lot of her favourite books, TV shows – the first episode of Lost, for goodness’ sake - movies, even some fanfics, seemed to start that way. It was never likely to come up, as she couldn’t write anyway – she could tell stories in her head or out loud, but when she tried to write them down something got lost in translation – but it had always seemed to her to be a lazy way of starting anything.

So when she woke up with no idea where she was, her first thought was “Karma’s a bitch.” After that there was some freaking out that she didn’t really remember afterwards.

When she started paying attention to her surroundings, she realised that she really didn’t know where she was. The trees around her were utterly unfamiliar and a weird shade of blue, and she’d never seen birds in quite that shade of purple before. Sighing, she started walking, thanking anyone who might be listening that for whatever reason, she was wearing hiking boots and thick clothes. The heat was uncomfortable, but at least the vines couldn’t get at her. And she was pretty sure they were trying.

She thought she was doing pretty well, right up until she fell into the river.