"There was a story about a man and a woman who met in a forest. The man was on his way to a place but had to cross the forest. But as he went to the forest, he got lost. In the evening, he saw a woman, she was extremely beautiful but there were tears in her eyes. He asked the woman, 'Are you lost too?', and the woman answered, 'I'm not lost. I'm waiting for someone.' The man asked the woman more questions but the woman didn't answer him. The man decided to leave and find the exit of the forest. But the next day as the night came, he realized he didn't go far and met the woman again. When he asked her if she was lost, she answered the same words she told him. Again and again, he kept meeting the woman until one night, he felt fed up and directly told the woman, 'If you're lost too, we can cooperate together and find the way out of this forest.' This time, the woman answered, 'Okay.' The two then began trying to find the way out. When they finally reached the exit, the woman smiled at the man for the first time. She said, 'I'm not really lost. I'm the deity of this forest and I've been waiting for someone to offer help. Asking people whether they are lost or not, whether they are okay or not, is the same as looking at a wounded animal and not doing anything. Simply knowing something doesn't mean anything will change unless someone extends his or her hand after or even before knowing."
The fire flickered as the howling wind entered their ears, twenty students aged thirteen to fifteen, looked at their teacher at the center, the one telling the story.
"But professor, what if the man is a mute or slow person? Or what if he fails to understand the situation and doesn't extend help to the woman because his question is stupid or wrong?" one student asked.
"Good question. Is there anyone who would like to try to answer this question?" The professor asked the class.
Although it was only happening inside the academy grounds, the night sky and the moon above were enough to amplify the mood, giving a closer and more comfortable exchange of stories and knowledge.
One of the students raised a hand and the professor gestured him to speak. "Second Prince."
"For two people to communicate well, they would need to speak to each other with open minds and hearts. If not, one might misunderstand and conclude something different. Just like in the story, if the man doesn't speak, he will not know because the woman is reluctant to tell the truth herself before they exit the forest. Unless they are close enough to know what the other is possibly feeling just by looking, I would suggest an open communication. For a man to be mute or slow is not an excuse. If someones wants to understand something, they need to openly ask no matter how simple or dumb the question may be, and no matter the method."
Everyone turned silent as they only listened to the Second Prince's explanation.
One couldn't help but feel astounded as she praised in her seat, "The Second Prince always sees the bigger picture. The more he grows, the smarter he becomes. I wonder if he has someone in mind yet? He'll reach fifteen this year. The Alpha King will choose the best candidate to be his Luna mate for sure!"
"Aren't mates chosen by alphas themselves? Some say they could even be humans! I'm so excited. What if Prince Gavin chooses one of us in this class?" One exclaimed, dreamily looking at the Second Prince from afar.
"No matter how rich our families are, the Moon Valley Pack prefers to stick with tradition. It can't be humans... I heard one of the brothers of the Alpha King died years ago after taking a human as his mate. They said the Moon Goddess doesn't approve of it so she punished them. They both died in the end, along with another royal blood..."
"You're talking about the princess no one wanted, right? That cursed princess. I heard she's attending classes every now and then. They say she's not allowed to leave the palace however she wishes. In every action she does, she must inform Luna Veron. But living near where the princes lived, isn't it already considered a blessing? I will take over her place if she wants to exchange!"
"You want to?"
The two whispering female students felt hair standing up all over their bodies as they slowly turned around and found a woman near their age, eyes glaring at them as if she would eat them up any second. "I-Is she...?"
"Yes, I am that princess you two are talking about. My name is Carrie and I'm not cursed," Princess Carrie said, age fifteen as she flipped her hair and turned around, taking her previous seat next to one of the two female students talking about her from behind.
"W-We're sorry!" The two students said, bowing their heads and trying their best to appease the princess.
To their surprise, however, the said princess was nowhere the pushover person they were speaking about. They could only watch as in a moment, she had raised her hand and told the professor, "Professor, the two ladies beside me wanted to have a debate about our topic. I also want to join. Please allow us to stay in front of the class and exchange meaningful remarks about our present topic."
"Is that so?" The professor looked overjoyed as he hurried the said students to join him in front.
The three female students in the class began their "debate" in front, with, of course, Princess Carrie almost carrying the entire topic with her. It was then the class realized the female student who only joined their lessons irregularly was someone who couldn't be bullied easily as the rumors spreading about had said.
One of the people who especially realized this was the Second Prince, who then had the idea of the princess to be someone too stubborn and snobbish. After all, not everyone in the palace was entirely friendly at all. Most of them, women especially, had different kinds of attitudes Gavin rarely understood.
"Carrie," he had called her then, to which the princess angrily looked at him back.
"Who said you can speak my name directly?"
"Why not?" The naughty kid inside Gavin emerged while looking at her. The hallway was silent as they were the only ones left. "You once said my name casually too."
"When did I-"
"After that fire," Gavin said, remembering the day when Luna Veron's Pavilion almost tragically turned to dust. Fortunately, Gavin who was then playfully trying to jump from roof to roof of different dwellings happened to catch the burning residence.
When he was about to run away from it, he heard a voice from one of the rooms of that pavilion. He peeked through the wooden wall and there he saw who it was. It was the princess rumored to be cursed after returning back to life. Gavin, seeing how the girl desperately tried to crawl out of the room, did the most heroic thing he would never forget.
Saving that girl, the girl thanked him then. "Thank you... Gavin."
For the first time, someone called him by his name without any formalities. Little did he know it was the start for something he would eternally think about, unable to ignore, impossible to forget.
"Carrie," Gavin called, making the other blush hard.
With one last glare, Princess Carrie left Gavin in the hallway. Although it was a secret between them that he was the one who saved the princess, Gavin's heart knew, it was one of the reasons why he could and would never let anything bad happen to this person. To the person who struggled to live and continued to do so when everyone else hated her, he would continue protecting her.
Even if it made other people unhappy, he would never get tired of doing so.
"Gavin... you stupid... prince..."
Gavin heard the woman he was carrying uttering, her fingers holding Gavin's clothes as they ran through the forest, many years since that incident in the academy.
Foolish or not, who had the right to say? People were trying to declare who had the chance to live and who didn't. It came to this point where even the moral value of people became questionable because of judgment from those that surrounded him or her.
In this kind of world where nobody would want to extend help anymore never mind ask people whether they were still fine or not, who had the say what was right and what was wrong, who was good and who was evil? Who was cursed and who was blessed?