Descendants of Mother Nature

the prince:doom

I didn’t want to leave her.

I stood there, half-hidden behind the trees, just watching.

The way she sat among the nisa blooms,completely untouched.

The way the wind seemed to hush around her,like the forest itself was listening.

I’d never seen anything so strange...or so beautiful.

But the light was fading fast,and I knew I’d already pushed my luck.

The guards would start searching soon, first the stables, then the city gates, and if I waited too long, they’d send hawks into the sky.

So I took one last look.

She was still touching the flowers, whispering something I couldn’t hear.Her curls framed her face like a dark halo,

and her eyes—gods,those eyes—were lit with something I couldn’t name.

I turned away before I changed my mind.

The forest seemed different on the way back.

Quieter.

Shadows stretched longer.The wind picked up just enough to make the branches whisper above me,and a

strange chill settled between my shoulder blades.

I told myself it was nothing.

By the time I reached the palace gates,dusk had swallowed the sun completely.The guards at the outer wall gave me long,worried looks,but didn’t speak—probably afraid to question the crown prince after another one of his“escapes.”

The marble steps of the palace felt colder than usual.

Then I noticed it.

A silence.

Not just quiet—wrong quiet.Like the air was holding its breath.

I stopped halfway up the stairs,my hand brushing the stone pillar.My gut twisted.

Something’s wrong.

No.You’re just imagining it,I told myself.It’s late.You’re tired.

Still,my steps slowed.

The palace doors loomed ahead—carved from darkwood, inlaid with gold, usually guarded by two sentries.

But tonight...they were gone.

Both of them.

No torches lit.No sound of foot steps or clinking armor.

My heartbeat rose in my throat as I reached for the handle.

The moment the door opened,everything inside me stilled.

The entrance hall was wrecked.

One chandelier had crashed to the floor, shattered like ice.Tapestries torn from the walls.The long crimson rug that stretched toward the throne room was streaked with something dark—mud, maybe.Or...

I stepped inside.

My boots crushed broken glass.The air smelled strange—metallic and burnt.

No.No,no,no...

I turned the corner toward the main hall.

And that’s when I saw it.

And my heart dropped.

The moment I turned the corner, I stopped breathing.