I awoke one day on my side, not in my bed, but on a sandy beach. Scattered around me were the remains of an apparent shipwreck. A long plank rested in the sand to my left. Something glinted at me to my right. It looked like my ruby-and-diamond ring.
I looked down at my left hand. No ring. So it was my ring.
I stood up, walked over to my ring, picked it up, and slid it onto my left ring finger. Then I walked over to the plank, picked it up and pushed it aside. A small box, partially buried in the sand, rested beneath it.
I stooped, opened the box, and found a small copper coin inside. I took the coin, slipped it into my pocket, then brushed the sand off my fingertip.
Wait a second, I heard myself thinking. Why is this place so familiar?
Then it hit me.
"Uh-oh."
Somehow, I have no idea exactly how, I had wound up beached on the Isle of the Crown, the main isle of the Land of the Green Isles.
