Well-made folkloric tale atmosphere, although it would have benefited from developing the central story more.
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1000 words is far too few, in my opinion.
I originally had six or seven paragraphs more of the central story, but had to cut for time. I cut even more of the descriptors. I didn’t even get to describe the inside of the hut properly.
Perhaps I was just too ambitious.
The difficult part was balancing what descriptors to keep, as losing the right ones in the tale makes it more mysterious, and the wrong ones in reality make it bland.
I could have done better.
Still, glad you enjoyed it!
1K words is limiting, but with a big jam like this anything longer starts to get unmanageable for reading and rating purposes. Personally, I like flash fiction lengths because it forces me to be razor sharp with my words. Having a big idea, then needing to take it apart, examine it closely, and put it back together again in a way that fits inside the limits.