In a collapsing society, a boy learns that the world is a weirder place than he could ever imagine.
“Perhaps the powerful and the mighty have their own name for this land, but the people who live here, if they have need to call it anything at all (which, on the whole, they do not) simply call it ‘The Realm’. Ask them why, and they will say: ‘That’s what everyone else calls it.’ Ask them where its borders lie, and some will likely shrug and produce some well-worn formula along the lines of ‘over the hills and far away’. Ask what lies beyond The Realm and they might very well accuse you of misleading them with tricky questions; if they do, then this is probably a very good time to stop asking, before they become too suspicious of your motives...”
(This is a fragment of something I started a little while ago but with no clear outline or plot in mind, I quickly ran out of steam. It was meant to be the start of a fantasy epic, much in the mold of Ursula le Guin's Earthsea novels. I intend to resurrect it, so please read and comment, if you would like. I would love to hear what people think.)