In the Moonlight || ONC 2025

A girl in a white veil, the forest calls her to itself. She will be lost in it forever. A quiet voice, a whisper leads his bride far away. Somewhere there stands an old castle, a cursed prince dwells within its walls. When the full moon rises in the night sky, the monster awakens. The white veil of the bride turns crimson.

A story as old as time.

Nereyeny ran towards the forest as if her life was at stake. She hesitated for a moment before crossing the line of no return. She looked back at the place where she had grown up, lived, and was supposed to die and lie in the ground there forever. All her life layed there, everything except the one thing she longed for the most. Freedom.
"Nereyeny!" They were already looking for her.
She couldn't afford to hesitate any longer. She turned on her heel and stepped into the darkness.
She knew that no one would dare to chase her there. Only a fool. People were afraid of the cursed forest. Eyes watching your every step. Whispers leading you into the void. Creatures from the depths of hell itself. They say dark forces dwell there, no one who goes in will ever come out. And Nereyeny was proof that it was all a lie, spending almost every day there, running under the treetops like a wild wolf. She didn't believe those tales. About the full moon. About the proud prince. About the curse. Until she too became one of those lost in its bowels.
Trapped in the same trap as Prince Astreus, son of the Sun and the Moon. A proud prince, real, made of flesh and blood, who is not at all like she has heard of him. At least the fairy tales are wrong about one thing.
And maybe they are wrong about everything.
Secrets, pride, the whims of the gods, and maybe even fate itself. A burnt-out faith in breaking the curse. Nereyeny must now find a way out before the next full moon comes and the monster finds her.