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4| PRINCE JOHN NANDA

Prince John Nanda of Nanda Island sat by the glowing embers of wood. The way it glowed made him watch it keenly. He was not the only one awake in the sleeping camp, three of his guards were not asleep also, standing guard, keeping watch. He smoothened his hair over and over again as if it was the cause of his insomnia. Sleep eluded him and He knew why. He had not wanted to ponder on it, that was the reason he had risen from his sleeping palette and come to sit by the fire, to look at the sleeping form of Meila and not to keep warm as his guards might think.

Instead, he found himself looking at the young man, Daniel with some kind of curiosity. He wondered what he had been thinking and doing, walking through the forest at that hour alone. Who was he? Why was he going to Menai? There were too many questions but no one to answer them. His gaze shifted from Daniel to the wood embers. He should not be thinking of the young man. He had other pressing things to think about. There was his father, King Cyprus Nanda of Nanda Island. He grunted at the thought. The old man was a prick up to the hilt in the asshole. The things the man wanted him to do were unspeakable, destructive and debased.

Prince John was just over eight and twenty. He was young , vibrant, handsome and still very unmarried -something that was rare for a man of his status and high calibre. He was in great demand among spinsters, unattainable. His mother, the former queen had died while birthing him. Her name had been Queen Nneti Nanda of Nanda Island. The way his father spoke of her, he was assured that he had deeply loved his mother. The love was deep enough for him not to remarry. He kept insisting that his mother was his only Queen, no one else.

John had had a good childhood thanks to his Father's concubine, Alice. She was the only woman in his Father's harem. She had been his only mother figure. She had treated John like her son. He in return treated her like a mother, loved her too as much as  she loved him. To him, she was his mother. He tried on so many occasions to get his father to marry Alice, but it never went well. His father would not marry her despite pressure from Prince John. His reason was quite obvious. Alice was barren. She was yet to bear a child.She had lived in the palace, in his Father's harem for more than twenty years, and yet she had never mentioned a child. Thankfully, his father, the king hadn't thought her worthless and thrown her out of the harem. Still, he wouldn't take a new mistress, a new concubine, seemingly satisfied with the barren Alice. None of the pretty women he met appealed to him well enough to bed he had given as an excuse. But, Prince John knew that was not the case. His father loved Alice but didn't want to make her Queen because he viewed his late mother as the only Queen. But, in the eyes of the people, Alice was Queen Nanda. John had made sure of that. He wouldn't have the woman who raised him wholeheartedly be seen as anything less.

Well, when it came to women, his life was one huge interesting razzle dazzle. He was the best playboy in the whole of Nanda. Other playboys tried to emulate him for he was their role model. One might think that was the reason he was unmarried but it was not. He had begun at seventeen with Sandy, at the time his sexuality was choking, fresh. Sandy was the daughter of Sinat Golia, Nanda's greatest warrior then. Lady Sandy Golia had been a delight to him at the beginning. The match had been masterminded by none other but Alice and he knew. She had thought that he didn't. He might have said no to her, but Lady Sandy Golia was so into him. So, he had accepted and so had begun their journey.

It had been moving well, him and sweet Sandy. Their relationship was a nice naive one. There was kissing and groping. Then, he had begun to notice some things about her that just did not sit well with him. Sandy was flirty. She flirted even afore him. She once kissed another before him. When he had left angry, she had accused him of being uptight and adviced him to loosen up. It had taken Alice's intervention to save the naive relationship. Then came another unsettling one the first time they tried to be intimate. Tatoos. He discovered that she tattooed her body with names of men he knew off. He had instantly lost his erection and confronted her. She had assured him that it was just random names but he would have none of it. He didn't touch her again. They were not on speaking terms for weeks. Somehow, Alice had mended their unspoken argument. Well, what wasn't made to last long would not, despite intrusion.

Weeks later, He had discovered a new tatoo on her breast. The tatoo was out in the open, right upon her cleavage and she came to his party like that, Like that?! It read Fenaq. Now, that was brazen, very shameless, something he would not condone. She had had such done to spite him. He was having none of that. He had been so so mad at her. He had taken her out of the party and demanded of her the meaning of such. When he had asked who Fenaq was, she had hesitated a little and he had known that this time things would not quite work out. He had requested not to ever see her again. He was happy when it was all over and Alice noticed it, doing nothing to ressurect the dead relationship. A little while later, she was betrothed to Lord Fenaq. John had assumed the man liked tattoos, considering that his name was on her breast. They must have been seeing behind his back. But, he did not mind or rather did not care. He was having nothing to do with her ever again.

He went through two quick relationships with Perpetual and Octavia. Then came peeress Junagho. The lady was a looker, drop dead gorgeous. Her beauty was all soft and feminine yet sharp in a slight way. She had a sweet duende that finally charmed his heart off an unsuspecting him, leaving him bare and open to her.  She was a pretty sharp witted girl of eighteen. He had been twenty at the time they had met which was through Alice of course. John had had his first real taste of love in Junagho's arms. She had taken down his thickest defences in a moment and penetrated the deepest parts of his heart. He had wooed her, chased her till she reluctantly agreed to date him. Their relationship had been a merry one of shared love. She became his weakness. He had gone against his father many times because if her. Yet, their relationship of two years ended so badly that John had been left shattered and badly heartbroken. He knew when it had all went wrong. He had watched her drift away, slip from his fingers, unable to do a thing. He had felt so helpless and confused. She had told him that she had fallen out of love with him and was in love with someone else. He had promised that he would wait for her to come back, which he was keen on doing. He had felt emptiness for three long months. And then, she came back. Mayhap she shouldn't have, he would have been better if she hadn't reared her shameless ugly neck.

"Well, sometimes we wish for something that is not there. Then, when it is there, we realize that it is not truly worth it."

@OmaPhinaPhire😢😭