Nahur, the small, perfect country of sunsets, butterflies, jips and burwa's. The bearer of miserly folk with deep pockets. In it, is four kingdoms—initiated into the system as a way of showing respect to all rulers of the provinces, which happened to oppose the natural order of monarchical countries with one capital and one King with lower ranking noblemen with titles—existing to serve a purpose from the beginning of time.

Kindo, the first kingdom of Nahur—known for its medical precocity. The mini metropolis suffers in overpopulation and houses the infamous, wealthy Kindoni families of The Nasir's, Chike's, Umaru's & Kila's ruled by a higher authority who was a gang leader that also served as the King.

Bunisa is the kingdom of pedagogy where they   feature a plethora of exceptional universities, breed the greatest of intellectuals and socialites. They had no king but there was a president of the academic council who managed all of their affairs.

Gaso is the trading empire of the country, illustrious for its religious fanatics and beautiful, sophisticated women who are known for stealing husbands, has the poorest of citizens and one wealthy man as the king. He neither cares nor helps the city and only gifts when he knows he will receive.

Disa is the war enclave. If a war begins they become the face of the nation, distributing weapons from a stash all the king's have paid for. Weapons are illegal for everyone in the country, only higher ranking officers and royal guards are allowed to have a pistol. They also invest in futuristic tech and support the country by producing equipments to dig out the homeland's famous gemstones; Vine of the river Ho, all over the country.

River Ho is the sea that separates all four parts of the country with a wall enforced by all four kings and the den of drug lords in the country.

The Queen of Disa is the army general who is a mutual enemy of all the other kings but accepts their money because it funds her kingdom and in exchange, she provides security and weapons to her enemies. Ironically, she's comfortable with that but what the other kings  don't know is that she is building a bomb to take each of them out so she can rule the entire country.

The King of interest, Ramzy Yunus, referred to as the Mighty Zaki is the biggest distributor of flowers in the country with no one he considers an heir to his flower business despite having a daughter. Then he takes in an abandoned child under a tree by a small river who's tiny fingers happen to be holding the future of the Kindoni kingdom.

He eventually decides she's fit for this lifestyle despite his overprotection. Surayya grows to become as ruthless as her father. She soon falls hopelessly in love and can never go against the special young man.

A love that should never survive but manifests into catch-22 occurrences that mostly present chaos. As if that wasn't enough, her fathers enemies are after her and Sanusi, the Mighty Zaki's adopted child who grows to join her in a never ending battle for the rest of their mortality.

****

Ten years ago...

"This is treason." A man in the crowd screamed with his fist in the air.

"He should be drowned!"

"Yes." Most men concurred while some others remained quiet.

Drowning was the Kindoni punishment for treason or major culpability. Today a man tried to assassinante King Ramzy Yunus of the Kindoni empire. He was caught in the kitchen trying to put poison in the food prepared for the King's brunch with delegates from the Disari royal house.

He was said to have been pretending to be a chef until the head chef came to supervise that day and caught him. Now he was knelt before the king and behind him, were the provoked sycophants of the king ready to throw stones at his head and strike him with the pointiest of spears.

King Ramzy slowly rose his hands in the air and spread them open so the crowd would go silent. All mouths were shut closed but their faces told they were ready to destroy the man as he was an enemy to the clan women and men.

"Now," he began "He shall not be drowned."

Gasps filled the air with disapproved glares and annoyed whispering.

"Silence!"

The room fell dead again.

"We're going to execute him here so everyone can watch and know what happens when they try to cross me."

The King whispers a few words into the royal guards ears and the man exits the room of bedlam, only returning with a ten year old Surayya and twenty year old Sanusi.

"Come here my children." He beckons with his arms spread wide open to be able to hug them both at the same time. It's obvious Sanusi isn't comfortable with it but he doesn't want to offend his father so he smiles it off unlike Surayya who was enjoying it.

"Is there something you need us to do daddy?" Sanusi smiled, extracting himself from the embrace then Surayya let's go too.

"Yes son." He looks at him then at Surayya "I need you two to do something. Do you think you're strong enough?"

"Anything for you daddy." Surayya clapped enthusiastically, Sanusi nodded.

He needn't explain what was about to happen. The royal guard had filled them in on the man's reprehensible affront before they were brought here.

"Bring me two guns." He orders the royal guard.

He unlocks a small cabinet below the Emir's chair, takes them out and hands it to him.

He spreads his hands open with the guns infront of them "Now take this."

He'd trained them well and knew they were both taught to insulate fear so it makes them stronger and fearless. Surayya was a bit shook but was ready to carry out her fathers bidding nonetheless.

"Ok." They chorus "We're ready." They already knew the blood of a felonious man would be on their hands but they trusted their fathers judgement and would kill in his honor until the day their hands couldn't slit a throat or manipulate the ways of the pistol he'd entrusted to them the day they started training with him.

"Look at this man carefully."

Their eyes avert to meet the unrepentant man who stares icily at them "Stare all you want cowards! I'm not the least bit remorseful."

The crowd charges at him punching and kicking till he's covered in blood with torn clothes, panting harshly, still no fear in his eyes but he definitely felt pain which was the default punishment for offenders.

The King laughs, the vibrations sending shivers far beyond the wall of his palace. He takes in the view to his fill before asking them to stand down.

"Teach him a lesson." He tells Surayya and Sanusi. They nodded and strutted towards him to stand on both sides of his head.

Surayya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't Sanusi's first kill but for her it was and she was scared she might miss or shoot someone else. King Ramzy purses his lips as he watched intently and pled with the deity's to not allow this child embarrass him. If they believed she was weak, they'd look at him as weak too.

As for Sanusi, everyone knew he was adopted except him so whatever he did wouldn't incept the introspection of being an ineffectual ruler on his father.

Sanusi was already set "Are you ready?"

"Yes." She clears her throat "Let's do this."

They aim the gun at both sides of his head and pull the trigger that simultaneously burned holes through the forest of hair on his head, causing the gushing of what they come to know as brain juice at their next class with the king. His body fell with a thud and the murder crew lifted him out.

Surayya turned to her father and smiled, she'd enjoyed taking this life to save her fathers. Sanusi wasn't too happy but he couldn't care less because to him, a criminal was always a criminal. He felt free to always call a spade a spade, forgetting that second chances help determined whether they deserved the leeway given to them that might've preserved their lives for the better, or not.

"Return to your chambers" King Ramzy claps, astounded as his two children had made him a proud father—not just a proud King—who suddenly felt they were ready to be sent to Disa to train further with his fathers friend Mentor Mas'ood at the District War Progressions Academy.

It was the best in the country for the kind of grooming he intended for his children and he thought they deserved nothing less than that.
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Jips: a non-alcoholic wine-like slushy made from sweets and a sugar-like substance named rem.

Burwa: smoke from cups filled with aromatic spices and herbs that heal and make you intoxicated if taken too much.

Rem: gold coloured powder gotten from heating, breaking and drying brown sugar.

Just so you know, all these words and places were created by my imagination. Definitely crazy, but I'd love to know what you think.

~Aisha SafiyanuXO💚