Valley of Shadows and Roses | ONC 2024

Chapter 11

Rumors about the cursed princess spread beyond the borders of the Rose Valley kingdom to the rest of the world. In the beginning, the kings of the foreign kingdoms recognized the Shadow Lord as another of Princess Luna's suitors, whom she rejected. They kept the rest a secret, and now it has all come to the surface. It was about a powerful dark prince who cursed Princess Luna to eternal death. There was talk of a village full of life that he turned into a ghost village. Also about how he was able to defeat the entire royal army without the slightest effort. 

There were rumors of shadows in the Dark forest, beings of pure evil. They should have sharp fangs and large claws. Under cover of night, they crept into the homes of unsuspecting people and killed them in their sleep - or allegedly kidnapped small children and took them to their realm of darkness. There were many theories about what happened to the children, but each ended with the fact that they never returned. Beautiful fairies also lived in the woods, who lured you with sweet singing and then ate you alive. 

Many of those stories were often exaggerated. The further they went, the worse they got. Stories were told to instill fear, and people were afraid. The kings feared that the threat might reach the borders of their kingdoms.

The desperate king of Rose Valley, Princess Luna's father, has decided to declare that whoever can free the princess from her curse will get her as his wife and the entire kingdom with her. Luna lost her choice. Once upon a time, her own choice put her in this situation. Her father, the king, deprived her of her free will. She hated him for it. The king knew he had earned his daughter's wrath with this decision, but he saw no other option. They didn't know how to save her. Maybe someone else will figure it out, and the reward was very tempting.

Princes and wealthy lords came from distant lands for an audience with the king, accepting his challenge. They took it as a second chance. Princess Luna had refused them the first time, but now, for the second time, she couldn't. She hurt their pride, and now they could marry her. All it took was to kill some Shadow Lord. It seemed simple, or so they thought. In fairytales, good always wins over evil.

Princess Luna was forced to watch them come and ask her father's blessing to hunt her. And he gave it to them with pleasure. For some reason, the hunt for the Shadow Lord felt to her like a hunt for herself. From that day on, they were connected. Silently in her mind, Luna wished every suitor for her hand a terrible fate, an end in the clutches of the shadows. Luna hated them for their audacity. She might be smiling on the outside, out of duty, but on the inside, she was cursing them all.

On the outside, she played a prefect pretense of a good princess.

"Thank you for your bravery, gentlemen," she was telling them all. "I can't thank you enough for the risk you put yourself into just to save me. Wish you all the luck of the world. Come back to me safely."

Or rather do not return at all.

They came one prince after another, one lord after another. They came, asked for the blessing they received and made an absurd promise to save the princess and the whole kingdom, and they left for the Dark forest fight the darkness.

But they never came back.

Entire expeditions of dozens of men disappeared from the face of the earth, consumed by whatever was lurking beneath the treetops. They went in and never came out. There was neither sight nor hearing of them. Pure emptiness. As if they never existed. The royal sons did not return to their homelands. Kingdoms have lost their heirs. Families of soldiers have lost their loved ones. The world was sprinkled with the tears of mourners.

If anyone had ever doubted the threat of the Shadow Lord and his shadows, now they believed. Now they were afraid.

But Luna laughed deep inside her soul.