Ashen

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I ran as fast as fire on dry brush. They were on my tail, They who killed my husband, They who seek to destroy all of my kind. I took a look behind me and saw that I had lost the over the last hill, and took shelter behind a bolder. I looked west to find my home, or what was left of it. I looked over my shoulder again to make sure they weren’t following me still and ran as fast as I could to the half burnt down brick house. My name’s Fira. I am a Fire-bringer. I can call fire at will and manipulate the element as I choose. I reached the threshold to the house, gasping for air, I took a second to catch my breath and started to look around. I haven’t been here in two years, ever since my husband died, the memories are just too strong. The familiar scents still hung in the air under all the ash and dust that infected our home. I could still see Armond sitting in the den, reading the news reports from Ashen, my heart yearned for Ashen--- it yearned for home. I rubbed my hands together to start a flame to light to see in the gloomy castle, my hands tingled from the energy as I released the light from my hands and out in front of me. I pushed aside my thoughts about the past and focused on what I was here for, Natalie.
“Natalie!” I yelled quietly. It echoed through the halls and reverberated through the decaying foundation. “Nat? Are you here?” I walked further into the house and into what use to be the library and saw a small form laying on the floor. I rushed over and turned it over and it was my cousin, Natalie. She looked as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks and was bruised from head to toe. I started to shake her and she came to.
“Fira? Is th-th-at you?” She stammered along. I brushed her light brown hair out of her eyes and gave her some water from my canteen.
“Yes, I’m here, what happened to you?” I helped her sit up. She pulled the canteen away from her mouth and gave it back to me. I saw a tear slip from her hazel eyes.
“You know how there’s been a rebellion among the Rebel Earth Movers in Ashen right?” I nodded, “Well I was coming back from Blood Diamond Forge for a new sword when they attacked me. Th-th-they beat me up, I got a few of them but there were too many to fight. Then they took my-my-my..” And she broke down in uncontrollable sobs.
“What did they take! What was it!” I said grabbing her shoulders.
“My Fire Amulett.” She stopped crying.
“What? How? Did you crack it so they couldn’t use it against you?” I said letting go of her and sitting criss-cross on the grimy hardwood floor.
“Yes, but without another one I’m not as strong! How can I defend myself? Do you see me! I’m black and blue! Without it I can’t heal as fast or use as much power as usual. What am I gonna do?” She had started drawing circles on the floor.
“We can go to the Council of Elders and get a new one.” I said getting up and walking over to one of the book cases. I looked for the familiar binding, “The Scarlet Letter”, I pulled out the book and open it to a secret section where the pages were hollowed out and filled with a necklace. I pulled out the necklace and handed it to Natalie.
“What is this?” She said wiping off the dust of the ruby.
“It’s a lesser Amulett; it’ll hold you over until we get a better one. Armond always thought it would be good to have a spare. I guess he was right.” Natalie looked over at me and reached for my hand.
“You’ve never been the same since he---passed. Your parents still ask about you, you know? Our family misses you. Why don’t you ever come home?” Natalie said looking into my eyes.
“Its not a home anymore. After the raid, after everyone died, its too haunted. I could never go back. Laris ruined all of it for us, my mother ruined everything.” I spat the word ‘mother’ as if it held a curse, and I felt as if it did hold a curse over me.
“We all fall under temptation, Fira, she didn’t mean to tell Them about us. It was a huge mistake, and we’ve all forgiven her. Armond was not the only one special to us who die, you know.” I had completely forgotten that her cousin on her father’s side had me murdered also. I looked away, feeling guilty, I got up and walked over to the door frame, looked back over my shoulder to Natalie.
“I’m sorry, lets not talk of this again. We’ll leave for Ashen tomorrow morning. Get some sleep, you should be feeling better in the morning form the lesser Amulett, do you remember where the guest room is? Although it might not be there anymore, if its not, then the couch in here looks fine. Goodnight.” I walked out of the room and over to the spiral stairs, almost completely untouched by the fire, and went up to the second story, to my old room. Some of the boards on the floor were missing and the glass was shattered where there was still flooring. I stepped around the holes carefully and finally came to the formally white, windowed, double doors that let to my room. The doors hung off their hinges haphazardly, I stepped around them and proceeded into the room, I saw that this room was also not touched much by the fire past the doors, the cotton bedspread still bleached white and the smell of azaleas mysteriously hung in the air. I kicked my leather boots off and laid all my gear on the end table at the bottom of the bed and crawled into the still soft bed. The indention from its past occupiers was still there, I snuggled into Armond’s pillow, hoping to bring welcoming dreams.

-Fira-


I was dreaming, when I’m home my dreams are more vivid then when I’m away. I was in a dark cavern there were two girls they looked like they were in their 20’s or so. I couldn’t see their faces but their eyes were glowing with power; on their left wrists was a red flame for the fires of Ashen, on their right wrists a lightning bolt for the sky’s of Blitz, a red winged sparrow on the back of their necks for the protectors of Blood Diamond Forge, and a blue flame of the middle of their chests for the forgotten blazing hills, who’s fire burns eternally inside them. They were facing each other, one of their eyes were glowing blue, the others was black, in the space between them; there was a painting on the wall, a scroll. Written on that scroll was a prophecy it said. . .

“The blue fire stays dormant in their chests, the lightning they will call will put you forever to rest, the sisters of ashen will fight to the death.”

Then they started to fight, as soon as one attacked, the other parried and returned with an onrush of swipes. The fight was horrid and I wanted to turn away, but was plastered to the spot where I was standing, and could not. They just kept at it; onslaughts of lightning and black flames, protection wards blasted down by sonic coils of power. They matched each other perfectly and one was not better, nor worse then their counterpart. I summoned my fire, trying to wake up, but only caused a spark of light. I was shocked when I heard the sound of the first hit reverberate throughout the dark, unforgiving cavern; blood was pouring out of the wound on her back, straight down her spine. The attacker ran up behind her and placed her hand on the back of her neck. With one imprecation of the cursed word, the fight would be over. I could see a struggle within her eyes, she was trying to fight the darkness, but in the end I saw her summon her powers and strength…and she whispered that one unredeemable word.
“…blitz….”and I saw the immense pain spread throughout the loser’s body as she gave out one last convulsion, and then lay limp on the cold dirt ground. It was over, the other was dead, the killer’s eyes turned back to its normal color.
“What have I done, NOOO!” she screamed in sorrow as her eyes skimmed over the destruction of her fallen sister.
“Why, why, why! Why did it have to be like this, why did it have to come true, never, never again will this happen. Sisters of Ashen will never kill one another again.” And with that she got a firmer grasp on her blade, and it was the first time I really looked at it; it was pure glass with gold liquid burning in the center making the dark cavern a little brighter ,but not enough to see them clearly. She turned around and slashed the stone prophecy in half, and then she set it aflame with the golden liquid inside her sword. Then she turned back around and held the sword towards her face and my dream turned into a nightmare, it was Natalie, the killer was Natalie, she walked over to the dead body and turned it over and set it aflame but the worst part was, that the dead body was………me.
Last edited by TEcho on Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-Taylor-




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Hey hi!

Mmm, this looks interesting. It seems like there is a lot of worldbuilding and thought going into the world behind all of this. The idea looks interesting and I love the friendship between the two women. Seriously, there are not nearly enough fantasy novels with good friendships in them.

However, there's a bit of a problem with info-dumping here. Too much information too quickly, mostly before we even need it.

For instance, the entire first paragraph is a monster. I mean, huge. And there is so much information in there, it's hard to keep it all straight. Not to mention that we haven't even gotten to know the characters yet, so all of the information about their danger and pasts doesn't really resonate because we don't care about them yet. Let us get to know them first, see them interact a bit, begin to care about them, then we'll be interested in hearing about their family past.

Plus, I was confused by the action in that paragraph. First, she's being chased, then she's walking through the castle, then she's seeing her cousin, then she's calling fire. How long of a period is all of this taking place in? With everything crammed into one paragraph, it all runs together and it is very easy to get lost as to what is going on.

How long was it between Fira getting chased and Natalie calling her? It seems like she came immediately from the first paragraph, but then it seems like Natalie's been waiting two days for Fira to show up. Which exactly is it? Is it supposed to be this is Fira's arrival after the two-day wait? Which is it? *so confused*

There was also quite a bit of repetition. If you say something in narration, it usually isn't necessary for the characters to repeat it. For instance:
As I was laying her down on my old bed, I noticed the she wasn’t wearing her Fire Amulet; the Feuer-Amulett was the source of our powers, without it we would change back to normal humans who could only call up ash, and changing is one of the most painful process ever. She would of known that is was missing, I wonder why she didn’t summon it back. I quickly forged a Heat stone that would briefly return her powers, but without the Amulett she wouldn’t recover fully but enough to summon it back.

“Fira?” Natalie whispered as her strength returned.

“Natalie, your Amulett is missing, why didn’t you summon it back?” I pestered.

“How long have I been out?”

“A few hours, I summoned a Heat Stone to return your powers for a while, but seriously what happened to your Amulett?”

Those bold bits there are basically repeating what was in that first paragraph bolded. You've already indicated this information, so the characters don't need to repeat it. Obviously, they need to communicate with one another, so you could just have something like "I asked her about her Amulett" or instead just have the dialogue talking about the thing instead of the narration and dialogue.

Another example:
It’s nearly impossible; only a ceremonial weapon can break an Amulett.

“I know what you’re thinking, only a weapon with the Shattered stone of ashen can break a Amulett.

Yes, she just said that. If Natalie knows what she was thinking, she could just jump ahead to the explanation, rather than confirming something already said in the narration.

This is an interesting idea and I really an interested in the thought-process and world-building behind the story, but it's all being dumped on us so quickly that I end up not really caring. I want to get to know these characters and then I will be interested in their story. World-building and necessary information can come through in the story and the actions, rather than through expositionary dialogue and narration. Cut back on some of the explanations of background and instead focus on the story at hand. Show us the characters interacting and make us care about them first.

Good luck!

~GryphonFledgling
I am reminded of the babe by you.




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I love how your story starts out! But to much info at once!! It's annoying! :P Other than that, try and be more descriptive :) you can describe all this stuff and make it seem more realistic :). I will train you grasshopper (I'd say young grasshopper but you're older). Lol, just kidding but if you need any help or emotional support I'll be there! :) Love you my lovely cousin/grasshopper!
Remember me for who I am, Not for who I was




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It's a good, complex plot, but you tend to dump lots of information on the reader, which is very bothersome seeing how then I have to use my brain. Before you do that, it's a good idea to introduce the characters and get the reader to become emotionally invested in the character. Some more descriptions and stuff about the characters emotions about being chased would be nice too. If it is possible, could you explain the family history later? The family history is already obvious to the main characters, so why would they explain that to themselves? Have the reader craving the information regarding why they are being chased. It'd be great if you could do that. :) Can you break up your large paragraphs into smaller ones? That is about it... Keep writing, I love the name 'Fira' :)
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