We had been floating for days. The mainland long out of sight. With no power and scant amounts of food, people were starting to get desperate.

We still didn’t understand what had happened, why this little bit of land had just broken off and floated away. Pulled on an invisible current too…where?

We still had mobile service but no matter who we rang, no-one answered and now all but one of our phones were dead. Just one bloke with a battery pack he didn’t want to share left, frantically trying to ‘triangulate our position’ using the maps and fancy apps on his obscure handset.

I spotted it first. Faint on the horizon to begin with but growing larger and larger, closer every moment. Land! Land, according to the phone guy, that shouldn’t be here.

“Neither should we.” I pointed out.

As it drew nearer, we could see movement on top of the crumbling cliff side closest to us – people! We rushed to the edge of our own dot of land shouting and waving frantically.

They gestured and yelled back. Unlike our own cacophony of nonsense, their sound was unified. One message chanted over and over. I flapped and shushed until everyone was quiet enough to hear their words.

Syllables floated over the oceanic gulf between us, faint but clear in their horror.

“Don’t go into the water.”

***

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable,” she pleaded. “Something beautiful and full of monsters.”

Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s Flax-Golden Tales, I have decided to embark on my own creative writing blog series, “Wild & Improbable Tales”, as a way to write more freely and more frequently. At least once a week, I will choose a card at random from The School Of Life‘s ‘Small Pleasures’ box and use the image and/or writing on the back to inspire a short piece of creative writing. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.