Revised Entry 2 mshatch

The Way to Dendara YA Fantasy:

marcy@tidewater.net entry #2

Pitch: Lucy, a young woman with bad dreams and a tragic past, inherits a kingdom. But instead of the nice kingdom with the fairies and elves and wood sprites, this is the other one, the one with trolls and goblins and a half brother who’d like nothing better than the throne for himself. For Lucy, the hardest part will not be ruling the kingdom; it will be keeping it.

Second line, first paragraph: No return address, no postage, not even any tape to keep the paper from being torn.

Second 250: She saw it as soon as she woke. The creature. The thing that had stolen her away, standing by the only door, waiting, watching her with cat’s eyes. She looked around, noting the ornate bed and heavy velvet drapes, pulled back and tied.

This was not her room.

Dreaming, she thought, still dreaming. She closed her eyes and told herself to wake up, but when she opened her eyes again everything was just the same.

The room was immense, the size of her flat, and as richly appointed as the bed. The decor was French, all rococo and curved lines, plush upholstery in deep, vibrant plum. She could smell incense burning.

The creature hadn’t moved, still stood by the tall wooden door, watching her with its amber eyes. She had thought at first it was some horribly deformed person. She had rather hoped, in fact. Because in the back of her mind there had come an unbidden thought: not from here. Now she knew there could be no doubt about its lack of humanity. It was too tall, too big, and its shape wasn’t right. It wasn’t a person at all. No person she’d ever seen had ridges like scars so perfectly made. No person had hands like claws and no one wore studded leather armor – except in books or movies.

She shuddered. Not real, she told herself. Couldn’t be. It was a dream, just like all the others she had. A very bad dream.