Twenty-Seven

"She turned towards the voice but there was no one there. Had she been so desperate that she was even hallusinating? She didn't know what to think.

"She was already giving up when she saw a stranger behind the drunk. He pushed the drunk away from her.

'How dare you?' The drunk said but got no reply as he was beaten up by the man our princess still didn't know the name of.

'Do you need a hand or can you get up on your own?:He asked her.

'Who are you?' She said instead.

'From the look of things,I'd say your Saviour.' He smirked at her.

'My saviour.' She whispered to herself.

"He took her hand and pulled her up.

Thus,began their friendship and her obsession with him. They became really close and she'd find it easy to tell him anything and everything about herself but for some reason he couldn't do the same. This bothered her.

"When asked he claimed she would become attached and he wasn't from that kingdom,so he could leave at any time. She told him she was already attached so he might as well tell her and he did.

"You see,my dear listeners,this is when our princess found out that her saviour's name was Alani."

She paused but didn't get the expected reaction.

"Come on that had to have surprised you?"She tried again but was met with the same reply;silence.

Apeke didn't want to believe that her brother was capable of whatever it was she was planning on accusing her brother of because she was obviously here for revenge but with his silence she was dreading what it was that made her so bitter towards her brother.

"Since you aren't responding I'll get back to my story."

"He became more open to her and he told her about his one true love, Omowumi. He told her she was the only one for him. This broke our princess' heart but she could do nothing about it.

"You see, my dear listeners,she thought he was in love with her just as she was in love with him so she was heartbroken to hear otherwise but she pretended it didn't hurt her. She hid her feelings and she became good at it .

"She thought that if she spent time with him he would get over Omowumi and eventually he would love her.

"She thought she could bear the pain and wait patiently for him to reciprocate her love for him but the thing with love is that it never comes easy. It can't be tamed ,it can't be controlled. She couldn't bear the pang of jealousy she felt whenever he spoke about Omowumi.

"She thought she could bear the pain but she could not. All her efforts were in vain so she thought a little distance would do them some good. She tried to distance herself from him a little. She hoped to drive them apart little by little until he eventually gets tired of her antics and leaves her but he could not even give her that. He asked her why she was trying so hard to push him away and she just couldn't bring herself to answer him so she took the cowards way out and ran.

"She ran as fast as her legs could take her. She ran like her life depended on it. She only stopped when she could run no longer. She sat under a tree as cried her heart out.

"You see,my dearest listeners,the reason our princess wanted them to drift apart was so that she wouldn't end up hurting him but it was all of no use now seeing as she ran from him,it would hurt too much."She paused and closed as if having a bad memory.

She continued,"Or at least that was her plan but the events that occured at her home changed her mind.

'Not so fast,young lady. Where have you been?'Her mother asked,the moment she walked in. She froze!She wasn't expecting this. She really was not. She wasn't in the best shape for this. She couldn't even cook up a lie.

'Have you suddenly gone mute?Or are you just too happy to speak?'

'So,you finally care about what's been happening within this walls? I thought you were to busy hanging around with riffraff to care.' Her mother smiled when she saw the shocked expression on her face.

'Yes,I know all about your little adventures.'She mocked. Everybody does. You have brought disgrace to me but even then,I said nothing. I was going to make all the rumours go away by getting you married to a good man from a reputable family but you had to ruin that too, didn't you?'

She looked at her mother, perplexed. She didn't know what to say. She didn't mean to wrong or disgrace anyone. She just wanted to be free. She just wanted to experience life outside this walls and she knew she wasn't going to be allowed to do she just did it anyway. Why was that so wrong? If she hadn't done what she did then she wouldn't have known the true meaning of love. Even if it was a one sided love,she was grateful for the opportunity for the chance to know what it felt like to love someone.

Yes,she was definitely grateful for that.

'Mother,I apologise for...

'I don't need your apology. What I need is your cooperation. I was trying to get you married into a good home so you could be happy. I even invited a suitor to come here with his family to meet my beautiful and OBEDIENT daughter but you were nowhere to be found. I'm doing everything I can here. Don't you care at all? Why are you willing to throw your life away so easily for s man that Clearly doesn't deserve it'

'Mother, please listen to me.'

'I'll listen to you when you start making sense.'

'Mother I don't care how my actions look to you but I want you to understand something; I'm not ready to get married and you will not force me. If rumours are spreading about me then let them. It's me not you. I can live with it,I don't need you to try and get rid of my problems by giving me an even bigger one.'

'It's not just your name that'll be tarnished. It's the name of the royal family and what bigger problems am I giving you?'

Our princess sighed,knowing her mother would never understand.

She opened her mouth to explain but closed it once again

'You wouldn't understand it, mother.'She said and left."