ÀWÈLÉ: Hell Hath No Fury ☑️

•three•

Days passed, and Adéoba became too busy to look for the girl his mother had told him about. His father had begun to train him in preparation for when he became king. One day, as he was busy with his father and the council of elders, Adéronké, the king's favorite and youngest wife, entered the hall and requested for Adéoba to be allowed to leave.
As he left the meeting hall with her, she turned to him, raised her brow, and said
"So..."
Adéoba was confused, "so what?".His mother scoffed and slapped his head. "What do you mean by so what?. I'm asking about the girl. ", Ignoring his quiet "not this again!".
"I don't even know her name"
"Come to think of it, I don't either. Your father told me once. But now I can't remember"
"Really? Maami. Àgbá ti n dé"
Adéronké glared at him before squeezing her eyes shut, trying to remember the name.
"Àdùké? No, it's not that. Àbèbí?. No it's not that either. I'm trying to recollect but the name eludes me."
"Don't worry maami. You'll remember with time."Adéoba comforted her.
Adéronké nodded and smiled at her son. "So, what are you going to do now? You've been excused from the meeting and the day is still young. Why don't you take a stroll around the village to relax."
"I'll do that, I don't have anything else to do today anyways. Thanks to you", he said, looking meaningfully at his mother .
"You're welcome! pass by the stream, there are a lot of pretty girls there" she shouted at his retreating back.
"No, thanks"he shouted back
"Ingrate" his mother muttered to herself and walked back into the palace.
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Adéoba's curiosity got the best of him after his stroll. So, he decided to walk by the stream to see if his mother was right about the pretty girls. He was a man, wasn't he?.
The stream was buzzing with activities, even more than the village square. Children were playing by the river, women were washing clothes and young girls were splashing each other playfully while fetching water. There were six girls at the stream, in two groups of threes . All of them tall and  curvaceous. Well, all except one. She was small and thin, with cute curves and was being mercilessly splashed by her friends. Adéoba's breath caught in his chest when he saw her face clearly. She was beautiful, exquisite. His breath rushed out in a woosh when he heard her tinkling laugh.
His eyes were so focused on the girl that he did not see a little girl approach him, she poked his leg, for she was far too short to reach his thigh, and asked. "Are you looking for someone sir?"
Adéoba knelt down and looked into her eyes." My name is Adéoba. What's yours?"
"Àríké" she answered sweetly.
Adéoba nodded. "Do you know that girl there?" He said, pointing to the pretty girl.
"Yes. That is my nanny. Auntie Àwèlé . Do you know her?"
Adéoba smiled at the girl, " not yet"
"Okay" the little girl replied, loosing interest in the conversation.
While the two had been talking, Àwèlé had been searching for Àríké, the child she was watching. When she saw him with an unfamiliar man, she quickly ran over to meet them. Adéoba was pleasantly surprised when he saw Àwèlé walking towards him. He smiled and straightened up to greet her. When she got to them, Àwèlé pulled the child towards her and placed a protective arm around her.
"Who are you?"she asked, not bothering to be polite.The man looked at her for a long time before blinking and uttering a confused
"What?"
"Who. Are. You. I have never seen you here before, and what were you doing with this little girl?"
Adéoba had been staring at her bow shaped lips as she was talking and only caught the end of her sentence.
"My name is Adéoba. I was just talking to your little friend "
Àwèlé was shocked."Adéoba? Like the prince?"
Adéoba smiled, many people knew his name, but his travels hadn't allowed the people to meet him well, he nodded " yes, the prince".
Àwèlé was embarrassed.  "My prince, I am so sorry. I didn't recognize you. I'm very sorry"
" It's okay, many people don't know how I look. It's no big deal"
" What brings you here, your highness?"
Adéoba smiled " perhaps, it is fate, so that I could meet a beautiful girl who would capture my attention"
Àwèlé smiled and replied " I hope you meet her. Good luck"
And as she walked away, Adéoba called out. "I have"
Àwèlé didn't reply, but she looked back at him and nodded.
Adéoba watched as she walked back to her friends, who began to tease her and plague her with questions about the man she was talking to. Àwèlé just shrugged and told her friends casually, " the prince"
Omololá, her friend tripped and almost broke her water pot.
" The what?" Her friends chorused.
"The prince"
" Olódùmarè! I knew he wouldn't be an ordinary man with that body" Aríyíké put in. Àwèlé ignored her friends fawning over the prince until thdy went their separate ways. She did not see anything special in the prince.
But Adéoba was already infatuated with the girl he saw by the stream. He began to dream about her, day and night. Zoning off during meetings and sparring sessions, his mind on her smile, reliving their conversation. He did not know how obvious his feelings were until his mother asked him about it.
His answer was, " I think I've found my queen".

A/n:
Boom! 1000 words. This is to make up for not updating soon.
We're done with chapter three. Yay!!!!!
I noticed that I didn't translate some words in chapter two, so...
Maami means mom, mother
Àbí  means "right?"
Àgbá ti n dé  means you're getting old.
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-KTPL😘