The Birth of Rekiya: Crown Prince of Akugba Kingdom. 

The voices of the Queen's maids came out beautifully and louder this time. It turned out their voices  were the only voices being heard, disturbing the whole of the palace as they sang about in excitement, their faces putting on smiles, and laughters. Not because it was the Crown Prince birthday, but because they were going to receive lots of gifts from the Queen to send home to their families. That was one of the privileges of celebrating the Crown Prince birthday every year, so they celebrated hard.

They sang and made sure their voices were being heard all over the palace to make the Queen happy. The Crown Prince was her beloved son.
 

Today, the Crown Prince of Akugba was being celebrated. His ten year old birthday was like crowning a King of one Kingdom. And despite all the beautiful smiles surrounding him, he never had one on his face.

"Where is the Crown Prince?"

They didn't take the Queen serious yet, so the celebration went on.

"Where is he!" The Queen yelled, this time, her voice shut the heavy noise in the room down. She turned to her maids. "How can the Crown Prince walk away from here and no one notices! Do you want to send me back...to be barren?" She said very slowly, hoping they can understand why she doesn't joke with the Crown Prince. If she loses him, her position in the palace wouldn't be guaranteed anymore. She was sure they knew. She wanted to show him another gift that had been sent to him when she noticed the Crown Prince was nowhere to be found. "What are you all still waiting for? Let's find the Crown Prince!" She said, and immediately everyone ran out before the Queen spotted anyone slowing down.

As much as they loved her, they hated it when she got angry, and the Crown Prince was her life. If anything happened to him, they knew the Queen could die and never wake up again. And of course, they didn't want that. She was their helper, and they never thought anyone could be kind to them like the Queen was.

•••••

Rekiya sat on a small rock which had become her favourite place to sit. She was in the neglected garden of the palace. Once upon a beautiful place in the palace where all kinds of lovely flowers were planted, but over time it lost its beauty and the King declared no one to ever go near the place since the day one of the maids was attacked by a scorpion.

The whole place was no longer being taken care of, so it turned from a beautiful garden to a jungle. Even the maids were being warned never to go there, and be very careful when passing there. The same place, Rekiya loved to play.

Despite all the warnings she had received from her mother, she never gave up on that place. No one visited the place, so it was her safest place to do what she loved doing.

Rekiya dropped the wooden sword her mother, Ruki had bought for her. She had removed the veil on her head, letting her long hair down as she played with little river near the rock. Whenever she moved her left hand and raised it up, the water from the river came up as well, and that would bring smiles to her face. She fell so in love with it, and her mother told her everyone of them could do the same thing but no one knows, if she ever revealed it to anyone, everyone of them will die.

With that, Rekiya at young age was being careful. Anything that involved her family dieing, she would cry, and hug her mother never to say such things again, for she loved Ruki so much, including her elder sister.

This time, as she played with the water, and lifted things up to where she was, she sang in her beautiful voice, smiling and laughing. She was enjoying herself as always.

The Crown Prince had lost his way back to the Queen's chamber. He had never walked around the palace without the maids guiding him. He had never walked alone. They followed him about, and he was used to it. He had only run after a butterfly he wanted to catch. He wasn't enjoying any of the things being done for his birthday. He had even removed the Tiger costume that made it difficult for him to carry himself. His mother, the Queen, had brought it for him.

He was about to cry after realising no one was coming to save him, but when he looked up one more time, he became fascinated by the leaves moving around on their own from where he was. Then he saw this very black hair. Extremely long and beautiful. "Wow! Is that a mermaid?" The Crown Prince said in disbelief as he ran towards the beautiful hair he saw from afar. The women in his Kingdom were blessed with long hair too, but some of the stories read to him told him mermaids are the ones with very long hair. Though the hair was not as long as the ones he had seen in pictures, but still, the one he was seeing in real life was longer than his Mum, the Queen's hair.

The Crown Prince moved closer in awe of how the young girl moves things with her left hand. Finally seeing what she looked like, she wasn't a mermaid after all, He thought, no fish scales or even tail, but the Crown Prince wouldn't stop staring at her. She was beautiful. He wondered which of the Lords of this Kingdom was her father. He eventually moved his eyes away from her face to watch the quiet river, and calm trees instead. Rekiya had stopped.

"How did you do that? Why did you stop? I really like it. Do it again."

"Do what again?" Rekiya got to her feet, now standing on the rock. She had stopped playing with her powers when she heard the sound of laughter close to her. Rekiya feigned a look at the lost boy she thought had walked about and lost himself. Which of the Lords' sons had gone missing in the palace. Rekiya rolled her eyes. "I do not know what you are talking about. I have only sat down, watching the fishes in the water."

The Crown Prince was starting to grow impatient. "You are lying to me? How dare you lie to me, you low life!"

"What! Low life?" Rekiya jumped down from the rock. "How dare you shout at me! Who said I lied?" Rekiya's voice hardened, her eyes burning with anger already. "Anyways, what can you even do? I was only playing, staring at the fishes. These fishes you dummy." Rekiya rolled her eyes at him, defending her lies.

"Which of the Lords' daughters are you? Do you even know who you are addressing in this manner?" The Crown Prince said.

"Dummy, that's not a way to address a princess." Rekiya bragged, picking up her veil as she wrapped it around her hair and tucked it in.

"And do you know who I am?" The Crown Prince questioned, watching Rekiya pick up her bag and put in her wooden sword. "You are the one lying, and–"

"If you say I'm lieing again, I will splash this water on your face!" She did it before she realised what she had done, shocking herself and the Crown Prince as the two stared at each other.

Rekiya stared at the boy before her in horror. Because of her reckless behavior, she had exposed herself to him. She just stood there, not knowing what to say, and also didn't want to beg him to keep her secret.

The Crown Prince also stood there. He was soaked from head to toe because Rekiya had moved her hand heavily. But he was not bothered. He was only in shock. Seeing someone from the Kingdom doing what he had read in the stories. He had never believed them to exist, but he had seen someone who could move things.

"See I'm sorry, you can't–"

"Rekiya!" Ruki had caught her just when she splashed the water on the Crown Prince. She had gasped, left totally speechless by who Rekiya had exposed herself to. She stood there for some seconds, her hands covering her mouth in shock. Just the way the two shocked, Ruki was.

Ruki ran as she called Rekiya's name. She turned her around, and gave her a slap on her butt. It felt as if she had beaten herself, but this was no ordinary person. He was the next to throne of Akugba whether anyone liked it or not. He was the Crown Prince. And whatever honour was given to King, he received just the same. Ruki went on her kneels and dragged Rekiya next to her.

The Prince watched both mother and daughter. "Oh, so you are a child to an ordinary concubine."

"How dare you call my mother an ordinary concubine!"

"Rekiya stop! Stop and listen to mother once in your life!" Ruki yelled. Then turned to the Crown Prince. "Your Highness, I am just an ordinary concubine with a wayward daughter. But that's just how she plays. Please keep her secret for she's just a child My Prince."

Rekiya just scoffed and rolled her eyes. Now she realised who he was. He was the weak Crown Prince everyone talked about. Not only was he weak, he was full of himself and spoilt. Now she understood why maids were always complaining about serving him. He wore arrogance as a sleeve. How dare you call my mother an ordinary concubine.

"My Prince!"

"Your Highness!"

His maids and the Queen's maids ran in like group of bees attacking honey.

"What! Your Highness, why are you wet?"

"Did you fall into that dirty water!"

"My Prince! Ah…" The Queen was breathing heavily, trying her best to calm down as she kept running. "Dermin why are you wet?" The Queen grabbed her son who had refused to be touched by other maids, but someone else caught her attention. "Why are you here?" The Queen asked, looking down at Ruki and Rekiya. "My Lady, what has happened?"

Ruki bowed again, this time to the Queen.  "Your Majesty we are–"

"Her daughter saved me." The Crown Prince said very quickly, finally had the strength to squeeze some water from his clothes. Then he looked at Rekiya. "I fell into that river, and she happened to pass by and heard my voice. She saved my life mother." Dermin turned to his mother, the Queen. "But her mother blamed her for touching me when she should have reported. I told her I didn't mind since it was to save my life."

What! Rekiya's expression was the look which says…Did he just save me? Like, he saved me? Wait, did he actually say that? Then the expression changed to…He called my mother an ordinary concubine. I'm still not letting that go. "Hmm…" Rekiya rolled her eyes.

"My Lady, I will forever be grateful to you and your daughter. You have taught her so well." The Queen reached for Ruki's and Rekiya's hands, lifting them up. "I promise to return this favour to you."

Ruki was perplexed. Could this really be the Crown Prince everyone said was dumb. She might have believed people for a while because she had never had an encounter with him, rather than greeting him whenever they crossed path, but this, Ruki couldn't get over her thoughts. He saved them. Would he also keep Rekiya's secret?

A/N 💐
Thank you so much for reading The Birth of Rekiya
Who had been waiting for them to meet?
I'm here smiling 😊
We will be seeing more of this two now. Thanks.
See you soon. Bye.