Valley of Shadows and Roses | ONC 2024

Chapter 5

Rumors of the curse spread. Word of mouth. From ear to ear. It was about a dark prince who came to the Rose Valley kingdom to ask for Princess Luna's hand in marriage. She refused the prince, and so he cursed her as punishment. Every night, precisely at midnight, the princess experiences her own death until she changes her mind. In the morning, she wakes up as if it was just a bad dream, and when night falls on the kingdom, she will be forced to relive the terrifying fall from the castle's highest tower, which will cost her her life.

And so on and on and on. An eternal cycle that no one can break.

People didn't believe it at first. It sounded like one of those bedtime stories told children to scare them. A cursed princess who is rescued by a brave prince. Except that the end has not yet been written for it. That prince might never arrive, or might lose the battle to save her. Many from the royal court and the surrounding villages sneaked into the castle gardens to witness that horror. The clock struck midnight. The princess fall and fell.

It was true.

The guards kept these perverted curios as far away as possible; Princess Luna is no attraction after all. However, this did not prevent the spread of testimonies of people who saw it with their own eyes. It spread at the speed of light. It reached all corners of the world.

The king tried to hide it, but it was too late. The people living in this kingdom were not blind. They noticed the changes in the country where they grew up and lived. The forest that had once been full of life —birds singing in the treetops, animals roaming under the canopy of branches reaching for turquoise skies, green leaves fluttering in the breeze — had gone dark. Darkness engulfed it. A thick, impenetrable fog rolled through the forest. You couldn't see clearly in it. It was playing with your senses. Showed you illusions that you were not allowed to believe. And in that fog crept shadows, creatures of pure evil and darkness. They instilled fear in people. No one knew where they came from or what they were capable of, but they heard about the massacre of the royal army. The best men couldn't protect themselves; how would they protect them?

They were afraid that the wrath of the dark prince, the Shadow Lord, would turn on them.

The people saw what happened not only as a curse on the princess but as a curse on the entire kingdom. This kingdom has always been full of joy. In the wider area, they were envious of its prosperity. And one day, a sad princess was born into the happy kingdom. It was a great misfortune for the Rose Velley. People took it as a bad omen. At that time, however, no one knew what fate would bring.

It took years for the king to dispel the rumors surrounding Princess Luna, his precious daughter. The queen's death didn't exactly help, either. They blamed the little princess for it. However, Princess Luna did not bring misfortune to the kingdom, but people who believed it came with her did. The king struggled for a long time with these fears, deeply rooted in human souls. Nothing, however, can remain forgotten forever, especially when the source of those fears is still alive and growing.

And so the past seeped to the surface. Old wounds were opened. The Shadow Lord cursed Princess Luna, but she was already cursed long before him. This was just a continuation of the curse she was born with.

Princess Luna cursed the entire kingdom.

After all, it was she who attracted the attention of the dark prince. It was she who rejected him.

She was to blame for everything.

Luna was a problem.

Even the king himself did not know what tobelieve. On one side was Luna, his beloved daughter, who reminded him of his belovedwife, Queen Samira, when he looked at her. On the other hand, he was aware thatdark clouds, the threat of tragedy, had hovered over the kingdom since the princess was born. It was impossible not to see it.