ADONIA | #Historical | RomePi™

Zéro ɬ 0 (BWWM)

KING CURI

"Odu, my friend. You have my permission to speak."

The King opened the floor to one of his most trusted advisors.

"Your Majesty, it is with the greatest and most sincere regret that I ask for your assistance concerning a royal matter." Imoju Odu humbly spoke. The position of Imoju required that he was often tasked with bringing issues before the king that might not be well received.

"Allow yourself to be at peace before me and please speak freely." The King extended his grace to his advisor.

"Your Highness, it has been brought to my attention that there are serious grumblings in the villages. Many of your people question the continuous breaking of tradition. It makes them feel afraid that the crown might be growing unstable," The advisor spoke apologetically for broaching the subject matter.

"What is the meaning of this chatter?" His leader's heated ire replaced a previously jovial disposition.

"Princess Adonia breaks protocol every time she moves about in the village. She insists on behaving as if she is a peasant, but worst of all, she does not carry herself as a young woman at all." The man paused to gauge the king's temperament.

"And..." The king prompted his advisor to finish his statement.

"Because she ignores the ways of her forefathers, her actions create unwanted questions. We insist that the people follow the rules, but it is a bit confusing when the royal family refuses to lead by example." Finishing his report, Imoju Odu bowed and made slow decisive steps backward in the direction of his seat as it was customary to never turn one's back to the king.

As the advisors awaited their leader's decision regarding the matter, Princess Adonia was yet again engaged in what she did best. At that moment, she was busily causing an uproar amongst the people.

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"Princess, stop this instant," her governess called out to her in distress.

The young woman had the most uncanny manner of entertaining herself by joining in foot races with those she had known from her earliest childhood memories.

Three of the young men in the village bet the princess that they could outrun her. Of course, she would never back away from a challenge. The young princess was prepared to take on her foes standing right alongside them dressed in the clothing of one of her brothers' servants. After a countdown was completed, the four contestants struck out.

As the intensity of the race built upon itself, many people stopped their daily toils to enjoy the entertainment. They cheered on the participants as if it was the best show any of them had ever seen.

The young men had bested the princess up to that point, and to her delight, a rather large crowd gathered to encourage the contestants along the way. The male youths had easily outpaced the princess as they gave the race their all. Considering she had placed a bet of ten gold coins, each of them had a vested interest in sufficiently beating her.

Soon the runners were close enough to the finish line for them to envision themselves winning the prize. At that instant, Princess Adonia found a final boost of energy to overtake her opponents.

As she moved with the speed of a cheetah to zoom past the three young men, the people screamed their pleasure as the underdog moved in place to cross the makeshift finish line.

The resounding noise was thunderous as they discussed how the young winner, whom no one guessed to be the youngest princess of their land, beat the three so thoroughly. The villagers joined the raucous laughter patting her on the back while congratulating her win.

All was well until one spoiled sport called the princess out.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Kofi spit venomous words out expressing rage at his defeat.

Everyone turned to hear the petition of the loser who was carrying on in such a dishonorable manner.

"Shut up... this your grumbling. The young man beat you fair and square." One old man stopped to address the complainer.

"That's no young man. Indeed, it is the princess of this land."

Poipo knew very well who she was, so he joined in to voice his own complaint drawing greater attention to the issue.

The princess stared at them in disbelief. Her eyes pleaded with her so-called friends as they lost no time selling her out.

Trapped in a crowd of disgruntled villagers, she did the one thing that made sense. Princess Adonia took out both the coin purse she had utilized to secure the money for the bet and another purse hidden under her clothes to cause a diversion.

"Look. A gift for all," She yelled as she hurled enough money in the sky to feed every villager for weeks.

Presented with the opportunity to change their financial fate, the crowd cared less about the accusations made by the sore losers as they all fought to grab as many coins as possible. The princess used the diversion as an opportunity to high tail it to the palace before her father learned of her latest disaster.

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"You know you're in trouble... right?"

The second youngest was Prince Ja. Of the ten children of King Curi, Prince Ja was the most understanding of Princess Adonia's disposition. Even though he agreed not with her antics, he understood his sister very well.

"I have no idea of what you speak?" She lied right through her teeth with the straightest of faces.

After waiting three grueling days for potential consequences of the race, Adonia believed herself to be in the clear until that very moment.

"If you desire to play dumb, be my guest. Just know, father is on his way as we speak. I came to warn you, so prepare yourself." Before he was able to get the last words out of his mouth, the king accompanied by his guards burst through the door.

"Ja, out. NOW." The tone of his voice left no room for further discussion.

Prince Ja rushed out the door to avoid being caught up in whatever misfortune was about to take place.

"Good evening Your Highness." Because she never addressed her father as such--except when she was in trouble--Princess Adonia gave herself away.

"Why must a little whiff of a human being like yourself torment me so?"

"Father, why would you say such a thing?"

"You have no right to speak. Because I allow you too much freedom, you are in danger of dooming this dynasty."

"But father, I..."

"Save your words and your tears. I told you if you made this mistake again, I would be forced to deal with you. Even though I love you, I will never allow you to bring shame on this family."

The princess had grown accustomed to living her life as she saw fit. Now, that she stood before the king's rage, a cool breeze rushed across her skin reminding her that her fate could be changed in an instant.

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