A merchant’s quest to bring home gifts for his daughters goes terribly wrong when he plucks a forbidden red flower from a dazzling, otherworldly garden. Confronted by a monstrous Beast who demands a life in exchange, the merchant’s youngest and bravest daughter offers herself in her father’s place.
Transported to a palace of shimmering halls, singing birds, and silent magic, she discovers a world shaped by loneliness and longing. As she wanders its golden rooms and moonlit gardens, the Beast becomes her unseen companion—fearsome in voice, mysterious in heart, but kind in words.
In this tale of courage, sacrifice, and the slow blossoming of trust and even perhaps love, the young girl must decide what it truly means to keep a promise… and to see with the eyes of the heart.
","author_name":"Nicholas Kotar"}