This is a interesting story for sure! A girl looking for a way to help her father, only to be devoured by the one she saved. Definitely something that'd be a great plot for a longer story. Here's my over all thoughts as I see not much needed to be improved on for your writing style. Seeing as you have to stay under a limit I totally understand having to slim down how things are described and paced.
Here's my over all opinion on the story!
--
Ignatia portrays chaotic destruction very well. All it wants is to consume and devour, with no apparent heed to it's actions. So the thought of the fire prompt is definitely apparent.
The other character, the girl, seems desperate and foolish as well as innocent. The bit about her father needing medical attention was quite saddening. However I started to get lost when she said the village healer needed a wraith essence? If I read correctly, I don't recall a reason why other than the mentioned. I mean why as to 'yes he has a sickness but what/how is the healer going to do with it' description wasn't made clear, to me at least.
Thus with the scene of the wraith and so forth is when I got really, really confused. How could a simple wraith wither an entire village while they were gone? No sense of time passed from what I gathered and there wasn't any other actual scary happenings that led up to it. So somehow a wraith popped up, destroyed a village while chasing the girl, is what I'm getting at. Then the fire elemental just decides to destroy everything..? Even for a fire elemental that's pretty strange. Going from 'thanks you saved me' to "I'm going to eat you' is understandable, but it got made from just being asked to help?
The part where the fire elemental feels anger is okay, but if going by the story, it was already angry. Wasn't the girl sad and fearful when the fire elemental did its deed? Idk maybe I'm confused, which is my point.
So my main feeling about this story: It isn't scary. I felt no dread, no somberness. Things were too rushed, with a frenzied pace. I was given a plot and characters but little to no environmental depiction as well no background story. I didn't feel any emotion with any of the characters other than the rather selfish fire elemental. If anything it annoyed me with it's rashness and disrespect.
It is a good idea. You have the plot, but the story feels flat to me due to the rushed pace and lack of backstory/expression of thoughts/feelings. Doesn't mean it's bad! It's just not thought provoking nor scary in my opinion. Girl was a fool to trust a ruthless element of nature, the end...not really anything I can say is of any note...
I do apologize if this seems harsh, but trust me I took this from a writer and reader point of view. As a writer, everything flows very well together and the story itself is simple and has a simple lesson to teach: don't trust fire. As a reader, it's simple, to the point, and frankly confusing. I'd not want to read it any further than the ending.
Here's some suggestions!
Story Depth: Why is that she's able to just run off into a dangerous forest with a fire spirit?
Emotional Depth: I felt little connection to any of the characters, maybe form a more solid bone with the reader?
Story Pace: Instead of rushing through the story, try to drag it out, describe the forest, describe the fear the girl is having. The fire spirit is much more developed naturally as it's about it, but the girl needs the attention too.
I hope this helps out! :3
|