𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 - 𝐉𝐤

𝟎𝟏 - 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐬

The eerie coldness of the midnight sent shivers throughout the room. The whispering continued as the story progressed further and further.

"There was nothing like it, our great ancestors swore seeing them, the creatures of the forest", the girl stated.

"They are nothing but a myth I suppose", another one shrugged.

"What makes you so sure? The Occulta forest still exists so who says they don-"

"Shhh, we're not supposed to speak of the forest, we're not even supposed to be talking about any of this!" the frantic girl commented.

"Oh come on, it's all made up", one of them rolled her eyes at the other.

"You see the Anthropos Kingdom has existed since the beginning of time, the only thing is it was very different in the start", she continued.

"It was home to greedy kings and arrogant settlers, there was one rule to the kingdom and it was to never venture out into the forest but ignorance got the best of them and so they went into the forest unaware of the curse that would haunt them and their future generations", the room was very quiet as all the girls listened closely.

"They never came back from the forest again but legend has it, you can still hear them howl throughout the night, looking for fresh blood like you and me", the girls, very unsettled, burst around screaming in the grand room.

"It's just a story, you guys don't have to get so worked up", Nora chuckled.

"So you don't think any of this is true?", you asked.

"Don't tell me you actually believe this nonsense", Nora snickered.

"Y-yeah, I don't, of course not", you replied confidently even though some doubts lay in your mind.

"Okay guys, turn off the lights, it's time to go to bed", an elderly maid entered the room, shifting the entire mood from horror ridden to calm.

"In a minute", you smiled to the elderly maid.

"Tomorrow is an important date for you Princess, I would get some sleep as soon as possible", the elderly maid chuckled, closing the door behind her.

You were the princess but even someone calling you that made you cringe, you didn't even like to admit it yourself. Sure, you lived in a castle, sure you had people working all around you but at what cost?

You'd never felt happiness, you always felt like an object being traded around.

First, it was your parents. Too busy to take care of you, you were practically grown by the elderly maids and some of their daughters who had become your close friends like Nora.

Second, tomorrow was your 20th birthday and you were dreading it to say the least. You would have a huge party and a huge ball gown and at the end of it all, you'd be married off to some foreign prince.

Why couldn't you just become Queen without all this marriage stuff. You weren't one for greed but you wanted to be Queen to change things around here, you wouldn't want the same life you're living or anyone is living for others in the future.

There was a hierarchy system and the ones at the bottom of it were treated far too poorly and then you had the ones at the top, sitting on a throne doing nothing to change it.

But if being Queen meant getting married, heck you'd run into that forbidden forest right now!

You wanted to explore, you wanted to fall in love, the last thing you wanted was things handed to you, that too against your will.