3 First Queen

Even as nonchalant and cold Oranmiyan was towards Okiki-osupa; who was the first queen, there was a time he couldn't breathe if he had not set his eyes on Okiki-osupa in a day.

Love is a precious gift that is presented to everyone and anyone in their own respective time. The moment it happened to us, we cannot do but be amazed by the kind of attributes we will find ourselves fulfilling.

This was no different to Oranmiyan as the then prince of Ifa-ile who was totally in love with the princess of Efon even if it was just one time he had seen her at the river called olomitutu.

Olomitutu was the only flowing water in Efon to which all the people of Efon draw water from. According to rumor, they say back in the time of their fathers, the river used to be a woman and a very powerful woman at that. Even as she was a woman, she was a warrior who fought so gallantly for Efon and many villages like Agogo she conquered for Efon.

In her old age, she was made one of the high chiefs of the land of Efon but even so, the people saw her as a deity because she has the power to solve almost all their problems. The news of her upcoming death which she contniued to chew in her mouth was a medicine the people of Efon cannot drink which made her turned to a river that even so she was gone, she was still with them and the river became where they all continue to drink from.

Okiki-osupa had gone to the river with her maids to fetch water this very morning though this was not the duty of a princess, she would not always want to sit back and have her things be done for her. To her, the lifestyle a princess was compelled to live was so uncomfortable and if she could switch places to become just an ordinary lady who only lives down the street with no title to her name, she gladly would.

Two of the maids walked up front, and two walked behind her with each one of the maids carrying an empty calabash to draw water from the river. Oranmiyan who has come to the village of Efon with a message from his father to deliver to Oluborode; the King of Efon only walked past her as he was on his horse and the rest of the heralds who were behind him, also on their horses.

Truth be told, in all the villages that existed, a princess was always not as cherished, worthy as a prince and what they were always good for was to be used as an instrument for peace settlement between two conflicting villages or a grand price to the winner of a royal challenge.

Maybe Okiki-osupa had liked Oranmiyan the moment she saw him but Oranmiyan had not even acted as if he saw her. He continued to lace his eyes straight on the road until he reached the palace of Efon for his father's message comes first before others can follow.

To the villagers of Ifa-ile, it was believed that you will do to your father what you want your children to do to you. This was something that meant that if Oranmiyan will leave his royal task to chase a woman, so will his children do to him.

Before a war, there must always be a warning and this was the message Oranmiyan had come to delivered to Oluborode but the beauty he saw had changed his mind even so, he must speak up, for the message of the king cannot be ignored.

Oranmiyan entered into the palace and remained stood up like a broom stick. His troops of heralds had done the same as the chiefs and elders of Efo vexed from their seats with the continuous question if they lacked manners to have forgotten to pay homage to their king or could it be that Oranmiyan who is a nobody than a prince lacked palace etiquette and has not been thought how to greet the king?

Silence remained the answer he had given to the chiefs and elders who had hoped for words to be returned to them. The only word that breezed out from Oranmiyan's mouth was the strict warning of King Osabiegun, his father as he has called him, that: no birds of Efon, or the animals of Efon should henceforth cross over from the boundary of Efo into the land of Ifa-ile and worse than making it their land or permanent home.

He stressed out his hand confidently to Oluborode which touched the handle of his throne. This flapped the jaws of the chiefs and elders of Efon in exclamation as they ask again if indeed he lacked home training?

Oranmiyan wondered why the chiefs and elders started to plead with their king to not send down thunder from the sky as he was sure their king couldn't because if he will not return to ifa-ile, a bigger war that they will not be able to conquer even with the allies they could have would descend on them. At least, that was what he said and that was a lifeline that made him and his heralds walk out of the palace alive.

But just outside of the palace was Okiki-osupa who was just arriving from the river whom Oranmiyan cannot resist to take his eyes away from.

Even if Okiki-osupa was not a princess the fact remained that she was one of the most beautiful lady in her village, and if she was not the most beautiful her title automatically gave her the most beautiful lady anyone could have ever seen.

Aside the fact that she was a princess, Okiki-osupa was a lady with a light skin and no dark sport. Her body texture was soft as sink and her lips succulent. She has a longer eyebrow which was one of those things that compliment her so well and even her gap teeth. She has a long dark hair plaited into braids and was obvious to the world to see.

A princess was always known for their royal beads that will be obvious on their wrist and same with their legs and heads as cap. Every woman of the land were always tying fabrics around their bosoms and around their waist, which will not exclude the princess as this was their type of dressing even in Ifa-ile.

While the Prince would be recognized with his beads only around his wrist and around his neck with fabric sowed into the fashion of dansiki (style) and in the same way will all the men and boys throughout the land dress in their dansiki except for the beads which was only pertaining to the royals.

The moment their eyes caught against each other, he quickly looked elsewhere as he proceeded on his way but at this moment, even the princess was revealing her smile as she went into the palace.

Definitely, Okiki-osupa had remained in Oranmiyan's mind and if both villages are not in a quarrel maybe, Oranmiyan would have revealed his intention to her father.

Different questions as traveled across Oranmiyan's mind even as he rode on his horse all together with the herald that had accompanied him and even though they were many on the journey he was alone.

At first, he thought to go back and forcibly grab the hand of Okiki-osupa as he would take her away where she would become his and his alone, but he couldn't because another thought struck his mind if he should go back and plead with her father, the king for a marriage between Ifa-ile and Efon.

But he couldn't do that as well. Only a king as the right to dialogue such a thing with a fellow King and to the extent to which he knew, Osabiegun his own father will never consent to this because he sees anyone from Efon as a thief striving to steal his land from him.

Oranmiyan entered into the village of Ifa-ile and as they arrived at the palace, he laid down before his father for the feedback he has for him.

His father, Osabiegun who was seated on the throne and the priests who were all seated at the right hand of the king where the chiefs and elders on the left and Oranmiran who laid on his chest in the middle of them all spoke about the unwillingness of Oluborode to deviate from encroaching into the land of Ifa-ile.

The jaws of the priests, the chiefs and elders dropped at once for the news was unbelievable. To the culture of the people of Ifa-ile, it was a sign of respect to send a prince on a journey to deliver a message but their garment have been trampled upon as Oluborode and his people who did not honor his wish and therefore, the man who lift the bees comb must be ready to be bitten by the bees.

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