The ancient beginnings

To soon.

'' oh dear brother, may I ask why you have graced us with your presence this fine day? '' the second princess and a sister to the fur Prince asked but Prince Anei just smiles at her and focus on studying his father's body language. The king is a very unpredictable person, not many can read his body language but he do not fool him one bit. He always knows what his father is thinking or feeling without saying anything, it's not like anyone knows that, it is one of the secrets that keeps hidden from everybody. Prince Anei can read in to people's behavior very well and that too easily.

'' Ah, so the prodigal son has finally returned now that calls for celebration, don't you think father? Such occasions are most definitely rare so brother how was the human world, last time I checked you left your kingdom for a human not just any human but a woman. ''

The first Prince smirk at him knowing well enough that his relationship with the human must have ended badly.

'' There is plenty of me to go around and a lot of time to spare too so why not let the minister finish with his presentation, do not tell me that life had been that boring without me though I know am a big deal. ''

Everyone is not happy with his responsible but it is not like it's a new thing around here, people always do not like whatever he says though it seems the minister whose presentation was interrupted looks somewhat grateful oh well.

'' like he said let the minister continue with his presentation, my dear son here seems to have finally woken up from his long slumber now he remembers he is a Prince, the last time you sat on that throne was when you were four, that is twenty one years ago, son! ''

The king said smiling at him, he already knew that his father would try and make him feel out of place as usual ' not this time my dear father ' he mumble under his breathe while sending him a smile of his own and put on am all business face.

So the minister continued with his presentation and Anei just use the time to study his siblings who are mostly consumed by greed for power, affection and influence, all of which but one hates him with every fiber in their bodies for obvious reasons of course. Princess Achai is just a eighteen year old girl, she is the sister of the second Prince, although her brother hates him, she just can not hate him how can she when he is the only royalty with spare time for her. She is known as the mysterious princess in the palace well it looks like they both have got nick names for themselves.

She hate the competition between the princesses just like  he does, the princesses also compete for marriage proposals from other royalties like seriously? Every princess wants to be a Queen someday and what better way to achieve that than marrying a Prince if they can fulfill those dreams in their own kingdom. They go extra mile to look beautiful every time there is a royal Ball but not Achai, she has dreams, she wants to be an artist, to paint all the lovely places she knows or maybe become a singer so that she can sing during royal Balls or the festivals instead of wearing all the expensive beads, gems and precious stones to please people who actually care less about you but that is what it is a mere dream that only Anei knows about, he actually let her sing to him whenever he is in the kingdom. That is why she is the only happy person in the room, at least there is someone who hates this kind of sessions just like herself though he had always got away with not attending any, she reckons when she decided to voice her discomfort in regards to why they attend these meetings when only the sons stand a chance at the throne, the old man had the nerve to say;

'' My daughters are the future Queens and governesses of this kingdom and beyond so they ought to know one or two things about diplomatic matters. '' 

Can you imagine the audacity but now that Anei is here life will not be so miserable, the two siblings smile at each other with a promise of catching up later for now they focus on the minister of Defense, apparently his future father in-law, you see the King's actions are never an innocent gesture and for him to fix his marriage with an insolent woman like Alu, Aluel Day the minister's daughter who is under an illusion that is royalty well jokes on her because she is stuck with the least favorite son .

***

'' My Prince your bath is ready, is my presence required by my Prince? '' the servant inquires, the king had decided to throw a royal Ball in celebration of the third Prince's final maturity phase the King's words not mine much as Prince Anei should be offended by how low his father thinks of him, he is actually appreciative that his father made things a lot easier for him because now he can make his grand appearance like he had planned so two days later here he is getting ready for the royal Ball which is in an hour.

'' That will be all, I can take care of myself just fine you may take your leave. '' his plans to step on every person in this palace do not include the servants and the less fortunate call him whatever you want but he will not be sway from what he deems fit, it is not like they have ever offended him well minus the fact that they gossip a lot.

Thank you my Prince, good evening. '' and with that she leaves him to prepare, in this realm everyone wears animal hides and the difference between an ordinary person and the royals is the kind and number of beads they wear, Prince Anei's attire is made of animal hides for his lower half, three lines of beads of different sizes and length on his neck  the upper half being nude, a bracelet made of beautiful green precious ruby for his right arm it sparkles in the light, his crown is the rarest in the kingdom having been crafted solely by his mother several years ago. He never worn it, the Prince's crown is simple and very beautiful. The band is of the strongest Ivory and attached to four sides of it are green rubies with the front ruby being bigger than the other three and the middle part made of finest feathers in the kingdom all in all his crown is something that took his mother two solid years to piece together since the mothers are in charge of their children's crowns. The King's other wives just go to the royal craft man and give him their ideas but not his mother and it is about time they saw why he has kept hidden from them all these years.

Prince Anei is quite a macho man, he is very well built so dressing himself up to perfection and his crown well balanced on his head, he set out for the ball room, the ball room is made of an open roof, handling his staff made of ivory in hand, he is what his father and brothers will never compare to, he commands respect just by appearance for now, powerful aura is just like his second skin. His presence screams power, dominance and all that no body here possesses not even his father.

Upon his entry everyone's attention is shifted to him but he pays them no mind and when he meets the stare of his sister he sends her a smile, princess Achai looks at him with nothing but pride in her eyes, his strides across the room to his father's throne are just as powerful. It is like a god had come to this realm to bless their Ball with just his presence, no one has ever seen him in his royal attire but this is not what they expected he is everything they wish to be and more.

He comes before his father and kneeled before him on one knee bowing his head low.

': father bless your son for he has finally decided to make you proud for once in his life. '' 

The king studied him for a while to say he is surprise would be understatement, he is stunned Prince Anei just declared himself in the race for the throne not in exact words but in his own way as usual, he wish to make his father proud which other way to impress the King other than prove himself worthy of the throne, with a heavy heart the king pant him on the back with his sacred staff.

'' you may rise son and may the gods of our land guide and protect you in your quest '' it is not like he wants to do he have a choice he may be a king who can make laws but public biasness is something he can not afford and it looks like the third Prince played his cards well and outsmarted the king when he did not expect.

He sat proudly on his throne, see even when he has never desired the throne as a Prince he is required at the age of sixteen to go hunting and his hunt would serve as a sign of his bravery that very animal hides would be use to craft his throne putting around it pure gold and his precious stones on the top finishing the signature look of the Prince. Prince Anei throne is of pure gold and leopard's skin with his green rubies on top of the throne making his throne stand out, so yes in the throne room every Prince and princess have a throne pass down from generation to generation but the thrones in the ball room are the ones they used for public appearance thus the Prince's throne say a lot about his personality since his throne was crafted he had never sat on it, today being the first time he has ever attended a royal Ball like a Prince would, everyone is awed by his aura and uniqueness. Everything about him is different from his brothers unlike what humans believe, the shadow men or the boneless like the humans like to call them are just shifters but most of their time is spent looking like a human, they can only die by extremely heated spear and that is why he thought that human girl must have guessed, no normal human would sustain such number of extremely heated spear wounds and survives, had one so much as reach close to his heart he could have died for sure.

Still had she not dressed his wounds when she did, he would not be here right now  attending a royal Ball the irony, thinking about her meant thinking about someone's betrayal and that fuels his desire to do as he had planned.

Alu was skeptical about marrying the least favoured Prince since that meant less chances of being a Queen but right now she could not be happier upon seeing her most prized possession, Prince Anei is by far the most good looking man in this room that has graced this god forsaken realm, he is impressive even his brothers right now envy with the King's favour upon them not him.

She is pleased by the fact that her future husband is a hunk of a man and that she may become Queen after all, right now she feels like she is on top of the world and makes sure the Prince notices her, she has dressed extravagantly, very many expensive beads around her waist, neck, hair, legs, arms and on the feathers on her upper body. She looks exquisitely beautiful, that exaggerated beauty is what repulses him the most and he finds himself comparing himself with the human girl who had only one line of beads around her waist, plain feathers on her upper body, strange clothing on her lower half and a scarf, nothing more, no beads in the hair whatsoever, come to think of it even the human women wear beads in their hair but she still looked way beautiful, she is the first woman that he ever saw without so much ornaments but why?

He is very curious about that human girl only her can make him almost forget the ball, key word almost , Prince Anei knows there is something different about his mother and now himself but he do not know what it is, not dwelling so much on that he focuses on the task at hand, the people in this room with their fake smiles. A new determination rises within him, a drive to unmask all the hypocrites in this room even if it is the last thing he ever do in this life time.

Humans are quite deceitful but all creatures are just as deceitful especially here in the shadow realm, various kingdoms lay side by side in this realm each kingdom wanting to be superior to the rest, kings marrying many wives than necessary just to ensure that he has a son, most times so many sons that it causes more harm than good but that is the way of life in this realm what can a mere Prince do about it.

He do not wish to change the way of life of the shadow men but rather acceptance for those that are different, different aspirations and dreams like his kid sister is that so much to ask for that he do not know. He also believes there is more to the story of his mother's attempt to the King's life than meet the eye and he intends to uncover just what actually occurred all those years ago.