Thanks! I really like the direction OPR is taking their orcs, and knew I wanted t do something with that. I also wanted to try to hit the theme from multiple angles.
Ha, I really enjoyed this one. From the smashing of poor Brangon's expectations, to the the battle-cry at the end, I was hooked. As a child of the '80s, I appreciated this.
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.
You really nailed the feel of a folkloric myth with this. I was captivated by the story of Shadow Song. As others have said, I think the story could have benefitted by a higher word count. The heavy use of patois also made the frame story a little hard to follow, at times.
