Whelp - here it is - my opening scene...

 

"...swords clashed and sparks flew while the battle raged on beyond the weary warriors. The skies were black from ash and smoke and the ground was slick underfoot from all the blood..."

Rainie sighed and ran her hands through her curls. "It's hard work creating worlds" she muttered to herself. She looked around the coffee shop and noticed that the crowd was getting smaller and daylight was fleeing. Picking up her laptop and stuffing it into her bag she gave the barista a quick wave and headed out into the fast approaching night. While she walked towards the subway she thought about what she was trying to write - she wanted to write an epic fantasy full of sword fights, politics, knights, and princesses in disguise. But what did a woman from the Bronx know about sword fights? Let alone princesses? She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk letting the bustle of people flow around her. This was the life Rainie knew, the hustle of the big city, people going past with masks on their faces, protected from others by their earbuds and the music they choose to be the soundtrack to their everyday lives.

Resigned to never finishing her book, Lorraine "Rainie" Green hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and continued towards the subway, mulling over possible plot lines, funny quips, and landscape ideas for her foreign lands. Tendrils of smoke and ash flowed around her feet, noticed only by the bum sitting on the corner.