Forgotten

There was once a small village on the outskirts of a forest which separated it from the rest of a kingdom.  A single road that ran around the forest acted as a lifeline connecting the village to the nearest city.  The forest was vast, however, making the trip between the two take several days and nights.

First-time travelers traveling on the long scenic route would always ask why there wasn't a road that simply goes directly through the forest.  Indeed, there had been a path through the woods in ancient times, but it had been long been abandoned.  The village elders insisted that at some point, the forest became cursed and no living soul who entered it would come out alive.  There were plenty of doubts as to whether it was true, but the elders were well respected and nobody dared to challenge them.

That is, until one day when a young woman visiting the village for the first time did not want to take the long trip around the woods again.  Believing the tales of the curse to be nothing more than superstition, she announced that she would march along the abandoned path and prove everyone wrong.  The next morning, she put on her finest dress (for surely, if a young woman in a dress could traverse the dangerous path, any knight could) and set off along the old trail.

Many days passed, and there was no sign of the woman.  The elders said it was a sign that the forest was indeed cursed, but some still held hope.  Days turned into months, however, and hope faded into a distant memory.  It seemed the curse of legend had claimed a victim.

Time marched ever on.  The village became a town and then a city.  Wars were fought.  Governments rose and fell.  While nobody dared to enter the forest out of fear of the curse, the actual story of the young woman faded from fact to legend to myth before finally fading from the collective consciousness altogether.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the young woman remains to this day as a statue standing in that very same forest she so confidently entered thousands of years ago.  There, she is cursed to stand forgotten forever.

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It's sort of a bleak piece to end the week on, but oh well.  I'm very veeeeeery satisfied with how it turned out.

High Definition Pack available here:  www.mediafire.com/download/6ab…