THE PRINCESS OF ILU MONDI ISLAND by Isamon Emmanuel

CHAPTER ONE
Chidi was grateful to be away from all the noise and different smell, fragrance and odor emanating from the different people on the dancing floor. Refreshing was the only word that came to mind, as he moved farther away from the music, which as far as he was concerned too loud. He remembered his friends telling him how he missed all the fun of campus life by been too tight and Christian. He had always felt jealous and left out whenever his friends talked about their adventures from the club, but as far as he was concerned, after his experience tonight, it was just so much fuse over nothing.
 He had been impressed at first by the number of girls in skimpy dresses, some of them was what his mum just like most Nigerian mum’s will call naked, though they wore clothes that barely covered their breast or thighs. “Damn this girls were sexy and he wouldn’t mind having one of them tonight” was his first arrival thoughts. But after he danced with a girl who wore a big T-shirt, it was when he grabbed her to dance that he discovered that was all she was wearing, they had danced for like 20 seconds before he stopped dancing with her, because she put her hand in his trousers in a failed attempt to grab him down there. He had also danced with four or five girls for very short periods always finding one thing or another he didn’t like about them, it was either their body odor was too strong or their perfume was or their mouth odor was not tolerable.
As Chidi sat down on a log of dry wood in front of a shop which was deserted for the night, he wished he had not missed Tuesday bible study in fellowship just to come here and mingle around with half naked girls and guys whose every breath smelt of Indian hemp and the nauseating odor of alcohol and unwashed mouths.
“What are you doing here” came a voice different in a good way from all the ones he had been hearing all evening Chidi, a bit startled shifted his gaze to the direction of the voice, and what he saw whooshed his
breath away. Standing there to his right and leaning on one of the walls of the shop, in front of which he sat was an angel like figure, he could barely see the face but for the dark blue eyes staring at him with an expression he could barely place, and the hair flowing down the shoulder probably to the nape of the figures back suggested it was a girl, and that voice which he must say was tantalizing definitely was that of a female or an angel.
The voice interrupted his thought with a “hey, am talking to you” as the figure moved to stand in front of Chidi. He instantly knew he was right about the figure being a female and also about her being an angel, because standing in full view of the light was a girl with long hair her that would touch the ground if she bent her head backwards, blue eyes that david would have sworn beckoned to his soul, nose unlike any other he had ever seen, a neck that would definitely stand out in a sea of necks, and a glance at those lips sent him shivers, as different ungodly scenarios of the lips and various parts of body played in his mind’s eye, and to crown it all her dress was none like any he had ever seen, even on screen, papers and even fashion shows.
After staring at him for some time, she started walking to the direction of the club before Chidi, enchanted said “hey, my name is Chidi and no need to introduce yourself, I probably know who you are”
She had surprise written all over her as she turned with a smile “you know who I am?”
“Yeah, I had be a fool not to know that you are a princess or an angel or maybe you are both, something like princess angel”
The smile on her face evaporated as fear became evident in her words “how did you know my name”
“Chillax, you look like a princess and an angel so I just put the two together princess angel, and besides what other name befits someone beautiful like you, especially with that dress”
“Ok so you are not a kidnapper” she said as she moved towards him adding “you don’t look like one anyway, but it could be a disguise, right?”
“Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t sit” he said as she moved to sit beside him “I may not be a kidnapper but I could be a serial killer”
“Ah what’s a serial killer?”
“Seriously you don’t know who a serial killer is?”
“Yes, am I supposed to know?”
“Ah never mind, tell me something, your name really is princess angel”
“Yes”
“So you are saying your name is angel and your surname is princess”
“What is surname?” “You don’t know that too” he said as he adjusted his sitting position, so that he faced her and
couldn’t resist the temptation of cupping her hair in his hand before adding “never mind”
“Ok, ehn I better get back to the club my friend would probably be looking for me with my body guard”
Chidi almost shouted with exasperation, that she has a body guard too, heavens who was this that has been sent to him, she was beautiful, he voice is what he would call soothing and her hair in his hand right now felt as smooth as a silk and he was having a good time just sitting here with her, sipping her fragrance of fresh lily into his soul, damn perhaps he was in love, did he just bring love into this, ha-ha he really was out of it tonight, perhaps all that heat in the club was finally getting to him.
“Please don’t leave” he heard himself say
“Why”
“ahh there is the song I want you to listen to, its dope, I mean its ah interesting and almost as lovely as you” before she could reply he brought out his phone and started playing Bruno mars’ marry me.
She said I love that song as she joined in the part
 “Looking for something to do
 Who cares baby
 I think I wanna marry you”.
 

   CHAPTER TWO
Angel was grateful, she had slipped from her guard and also dumped the guy her friend has introduced her to, and left the noisy crowd in the club to be here right now. Thinking back about the scene at the club, she wondered why people would leave the music of the wild birds in the forest, the howling wind and the gentle movement of the branches in combination of the sounds made by the running river, just for them to come and mingle with sweaty other people and make what she considered real noise, and for goodness sake what is it with all the rubbing and pressing together of bodies, and they call it dancing.
She hoped she was not making a mistake with this guy, Chidi, she had been sitting here with him, head on his shoulder, his hand going through her hair over and over again, she liked that and listened to a particular song ,which is very romantic, over and over again for the past hour. Well she thought she is in love with this guy, no she couldn’t love him, she liked him, though she wouldn’t mind if they stayed like this forever till the end of time.
She had known she should never had talked to him from the moment she set eyes on him, he was just sitting there doing nothing, who does that, she had thought perhaps he was handsome and looked tired and a bit frail but sitting down and resting her head on his shoulder with hands on his chest this big, the word frail was inevitably out of the equation. “If I kissed you, would you slap me or get angry” he had asked her fifteen minutes ago, she had
answered that she would not slap him but he shouldn’t. She was the princess of the unpopular ilu modin island, she is to get married to Balogun Salumo the leader of all the warriors in her little island, she had never been out of that island since she was born, culture demanded that she who has been selected by the gods by birth and circumstances to rule must never leave the island until the dismissal of the reigning queen after which the selected princess would have to mourn her mother for eight months before travelling for another six months around the world, after which she would come back to the island and marry the chief warrior called Balogun who is also considered the strongest man in the whole island.
She was in her final day of her travelling around and her friend who is the chosen escort was also from the islands, they had grown up together in the islands, but Bisi having no obligations, to stick around had travelled out of the village and country to the united states of America to study tourism and wild life, she had only returned to Nigeria at her friend’s request to come carry out the promise she made as a child, to be the escort.
   
 CHAPTER THREE
 She heard her mother’s voice calm and clear
 “Angel I need to go now, but make sure you take care of your father and the island”
“Mummy, please don’t go” angel said
“Be strong for you, be strong for your father and be strong for your people, I have to go”
 She kept on sobbing as she continued saying “mummy please don’t go”, then she felt somebody patting her back, nuzzling her ear and whispering the words
“Princess you have to wake up, it’s only a dream”
Then she felt strong hands shake her, her eyes shot open and instantly confused before understanding began to dawn on her that she was having a dream about her dead mum.
“Princess are you okay?”
“yesses” was all she said as she tried to remember where she was and who was this handsome guy with brown eyes that soothed her the more and strong hands that could shake of her nightmares,
“My name is Chidi”
“Ok” she said, as she gazed into his eyes before adding “I know who you are”
“You looked confused”
“Yeah just dreaming about my mum” she replied as she rested her head on his shoulder, grateful she could do that.
“Chidi you can kiss me now” she said
“Are you okay?” He asked as he lifted her head from his shoulder to look into her eyes, as if he could see her heart and confirm he heard her well “don’t you want to kiss me aga…..” he covered her lips with his as her tongue moved inside his mouth, she remembered the expression ‘as sweet as honey’ well as far as she was concerned, what she was having now was as sweet as honey and proved to be better as his left hand carefully and reluctantly moved through her back to her waist and the other increased the pressure on her head. She herself had not known when she had shamelessly wrapped her legs and arms all of over his hard strong body.
 The fact is she only noticed she had wrapped herself round him when her bosoms came in contact with his chest, whose hardness was reduced by his shirt.
 If she could make things happen with her mind, she would have torn or burnt his shirt to the ground or made it disappear. So she could feel the full hardness of his chest, but that could wait for now.
 Desire took over her as she felt David’s gentle caress move deliberately to her behind before he gently pulled her lower lip, and then sucked on it before making sure his tongue knew every corner of her mouth. She whimpered with pleasure as his right hand left her head, and moved to her thigh, while his left hand methodically moved to and fro her hips and behind in gentle caress.
 The bulge in his jeans pressed hard into her abdomen, as he increased the tempo of his exploring tongues. Damn she had read in books of kisses that could make one lose their minds, she had always thought them fairy tales, but today, there, and right then, she had known kisses that could make you ache in wonder and desire was real and she was having one, because her spine ached, like someone’s who has been carrying blocks to and from the top a hill three days.
She finally got her opportunity to pull his shirt off, as she grabbed the shirt in an attempt to yank it from his neck, she heard the very familiar voice of her body guard say
“Princess I think that’s enough” she paused then continued hoping she heard the voice in her mind and not for real.
“Princess please don’t make me do what I don’t want to do” to hell with this guard
“What did you say to me” she asked the guard as she unstrapped herself from Chidi’s body
“please, angel take it easy the guard was just doing his job” Bisi said as she appeared from nowhere to stand beside the guard who was now tense, “besides I think it’s time to leave, it’s almost day break” Bisi added as she moved closer to check out a Chidi who was by now understanding who and what the interruption was about “he is cute, here I thought I was one of the best pickers in the game, talking of which why didn’t you guys use her hotel room” she said as she grabbed a frustrated Chidi’s hand and shook before adding “no wonder, with those strong hands, me myself wouldn’t have tortured myself waiting to get to the hotel”
“Bisi I don’t want to go” was all angel could say
The guard made an advancement towards princess and Chidi moved to stand in front of her, adjusted her dress and said “stay for just another hour darling”
“Seriously, you guys almost had sex and she is suddenly your darling” Bisi said as she grabbed angel’s hand pulling her towards a limo that just arrived. “Bisi you don’t understand, I think am in love with him”
“You are to be married to Balogun in a month’s time and here you are saying you think you are in love, what a shameful spoilt brat you are” came the guards voice as he spat on the ground, before walking to the limo as he added “basic make her see reason before I make her.

    CHAPTER FOUR
Chidi sat down throwing stones into the river as he explained to Bisi how he got to the ilu Mondi islands a month after he met Princess Angela who he knew as princess angel. He told her how the body guard who the princess had ordered not to travel with her that night for disrespecting her had grabbed him and given him a life threatening beaten before his shouts drew people to the club along with some patrolling cops, the guard had been arrested while he had been taken to the hospital where he was discharged.
He continued by telling her how he could barely sleep without dreaming of princess angel and how saw her as he walked through the street. He had finally decided to look for her after he was almost suspended for kissing a girl in class who he thought was princess in his usual unconscious state of mind since meeting her. He had then come up with a plan to go to the police station where they still held the princess’ guard, since he knew nobody around and couldn’t find a way to make contact with people here.
The guard had agreed to take Chidi and his friends to ilu Mondi Island once they bailed him out of police custody, and he had done exactly that except for the fact that his friends had stopped at the village of naked since they couldn’t be convinced to leave all those naked people behind.
As he concluded his narration, Bisi said “come let me take you to the princess, she herself has been distracted since that meeting with you”
“The king of this great kingdom would like to see you right now” came a man who seemed a bit familiar to Chidi, as he raised his hand pointing towards where they stood “is this the animal who defiled the princess of this kingdom?” the guard who had brought Chidi to the islands appeared from the bush and answered “yes Balogun that is him”
“good, take him” as he muttered this words, two guards appeared from the bush and grabbed Chidi, as they dragged Chidi away, he saw a tattoo on the Balogun’s hand and remembered somebody talking about that very tattoo or a look alike. He also heard the Balogun telling Bisi that her infidel had been captured and would be punished for defiling the princess and hereby ilu Mondi island.

CHAPTER FIVE
 There she was, looking at her, he had no regret for passing through everything he had passed through, and now all that needed to be done was very simple, he had to show the people of ilu Modin Island that he was smarter and stronger than this forty three year old man. He hated their culture here, the thought of that man who Chidi believed to be old enough to be angels father now defiling her, taking what only she had given him was more and more annoying, in fact let the contest begin already, he couldn’t wait to put that man in his place. The Balogun had claimed to like him and had even offered him a chance to save himself, but he had be a damn fool, to have come this far, and then let the love of his life fall into bondage, not possible he thought, not after her friend has told him his plans put in place in other to manipulate the island and its people and become their first male ruler, what other way to do that than to kill the queen when her daughter is just eighteen, and get married to her a day before he twentieth birthday, Chidi was not yet sure, but he knew right deep in him he was right, the flower which was used in killing the queen may be scarce or not available in the ilu Mondi island, but it was a weed in Akure and was as common as most weed in Akure.
 Another thing was if he was right about the queen’s assailant, he would also be right about the fact that the Balogun had also travelled out of the islands. The Balogun according to what he had been made to understand just like the queen was not supposed to travel out of the islands or he would be breaking a rule of the gods of ilu Mondi, which only means one thing, he would be drown in the beach by the chief priest of ilu Mondi.
 The man they had been waiting for finally arrived, according to the island’s culture, if rain fell when the chief priest arrived, then the gods of the land have decided to bless the course of the day and had no message for the people, but if the sun shone like crazy the way it was shining today, no sinner amongst them must go unpunished.
 The chief priest without looking at the king nor princess as was the culture cleared his throat and announced that the gods of the land had a very important message to pass to the people of the land, the message was simple and clear, the village was unclean and needed to be cleansed by the usual way which was everybody in the island had to go take their bath at the beach before night fall re dedicating their lives to their ancestors and their cause, as far as Chidi was concerned, he loved that type of cleansing, which means he would see lots of naked and beautiful girls, and the princess would be there too, cool Chidi thought, before he could start fantasizing about the princess naked body, the chief priest next words cut him by surprise, but before the cleansing, the chief priest continued with the announcement, one of this two have to die today, pointing to where Chidi and the Balogun stood, because they were the cause of the uncleanliness. Wow he was here to contest with the Balogun for the hand of the princess in marriage and not die in the name of some stupid gods Chidi thought as shivers ran through his spine.
 One of the nine elders stood up and said that is no problem who other than the stranger could have brought uncleanliness on the village, in fact they should take Chidi and drown him now so that the cleansing ceremony would take place as usual. Another of the nine immediately stood up to speak, but was cut short by the voice of the chief priest which said the both of them would be let into the dragon’s cave, anyone who survived without a scratch would be considered clean and fit to marry the princess while the other be drowned, the test was to take place in an hour’s time.

    CHAPTER SIX
 As Chidi stepped into the dragon’s cave, he kept on reciting the words the princess’s friend had told him to recite in other to deceive the whatever was in the cave that he was from around the island, the words played in his head, as he became grateful for all his computer programming lecturer’s for helping him develop his ability to cram meaningless words and formulas, because without that ability now he wouldn’t have been able to repeat words without meaning in a language he didn’t understand. As he walked as slowly as possible towards the other part of the cave where he was to exit he began to ruminate on how to expose the Balogun’s evil plans to his own people, he heard a wild roar as the cave came to life with fire, damn perhaps the dragon was going to roast him to death was his thought as he unconsciously started shouting the chants at the top of his voice.
 “Stop shouting” came a wild roar from where the fire came from.
 Chidi immediately went quiet for five seconds forgetting even the first word of the chant before turning ready to run in the direction he came from.
 “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” another roar
 Chidi instantly stopped in his tracks and burst out speaking in different tongues and English praying for the forgiveness of his sins.
 “Stop that boy, today is not the day you die” the roaring voice continued
 “When the Balogun gets out, make sure to remove his cap as fast as possible, after that go ahead and tell the whole island all what you know.

      *       *      *      *        *   *

 The Balogun came out of the cave looking untouched and a smile on his face, as he joined Chidi on the platform in front of the old king and his daughter, Chidi rushed and removed the Balogun’s cap, as he did so, the Balogun turned and gave Chidi a resounding slap, the crowd shouted in unison
 “Ewoooooooo”
 “Balogun what have you done” the king asked
 “My king you saw what this small rat here did and you look surprised that I gave him a good slap”
 “Balogun it is not the slap that brings out that question but what is written on your head with fire”
 This words gave Chidi the presence of mind to look at the inscribing’s on the Balogun’s head which was this words in bold letter.
 “HE KILLED THE QUEEN AND WOULD HAVE KILLED THE KING A DAY AFTER HIS MARRIAGE TO THE PRINCESS”
 No wonder the villages shouted ewoooooo, which simply means abomination. Chidi without wasting time told everybody that the queen was killed with a rear poison called rabbit grass, and that the grass was not found in the islands, he also told them that his friend’s new girlfriend from the village of the naked told him that she had seen a man who matched the Balogun’s description collecting the same grass from her father’s compound, she even talked of the man’s tattoo made her suspicious but at the time she was telling them this, him and his friends just laughed about it saying who cares about some old man.
the chief priest announced in a loud voice “behold our new king ye people of ilu Mondi islands”, as he made this announcement, the princess came running to him, threw her hands around him, gave him a kiss, all this for the first time since his arrival to her home before saying
“Promise me you would always stand beside me forever”
“I promise” was all he could manage before she drew him into a long kiss as applause erupted from the crowd.
    THE END