Princess Nala is getting so fond of her cousin but in a different way, far from what he thinks or feels. She is now determined of winning him to herself and probably become queen when he is eventually crowned as Akinidad Linette Duah III of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
Akinidad is now in the middle of something that has been fueled by his ambitious mother, who was so much determined in ascending the throne, either by her or her supposed son, but things are beginning to get out of hand when Akinidad finds himself in the midst of a persuasive cousin.
Princess Nala: Not at all. Am I not a woman? (She says with a little bit anger) Don't I know what is good for me? Don't I know which man I want to share my bed with? (She says with so much affection and enthusiasm)
Akinidad: Well, go on and tell me.
I know nothing of what women want, so, teach me, teach me. (He teasingly said)
Princess Nala: Oh Akinidad! You mean you haven't noticed the efforts I have been making day and night to get at your heart? (Akinidad shakes his head in a negative response) What! Do you shake your head?
Akinidad: Nala, my cousin. I find it really difficult to understand that such words should come from a woman. Oh, it is most shameful.
Princess Nala: (Angrily) nonsense!
What is shameful about it? Tell me, what is reprehensible about that? I don't see anything wrong with a woman laying bare her emotions before the man she loves.
Akinidad: Well, I understand you alright and I like you very much. I am really fond of you as…
Princess Nala: I am not dog or cat to be fondled (Sharply interrupted)
I want your love, your heart, all of it and I will give mine, all of it. Let us go a little bit beyond fondness and fondling.
Akinidad: To step beyond fondness I have for you will send me rolling down…
Rolling down into yawning bottomless chasm.
Where there is total darkness and no one, not you, or the gods, or even the spirits can rescue me. I shall keep falling but never landing. And never returning.
Princess Nala: Unfounded fears you harbour in that manly chest. Fear of things that never exist. Forget it and let's share love together…And when death comes, we shall together share that too.
Akinidad: You know not what you ask.
Princess Nala: What do you mean?
Akinidad: It is ever and never, forever and ever impossible!
Princess Nala: (Shocked) Impossible? How?
Akinidad: (Furiously) I explained everything to you seven market days ago, didn't I?
I told you to forget about me and find yourself a new man. A REAL MAN for that matter.
Princess Nala: (Speaking softly with real emotions)
And I said you are that REAL MAN! For me
And just as the green grass can never forget the morning sun that licks the dew off its face every day. So would it be impossible for me to forget about you or find myself a real man, for you are my love, the one my heart yearns for and will always do. You are simply irresistible.
Akinidad: (Still fuming) But you said you would try… You would try hard to forget about me. To chuck me out of your memory. You even promised to…
Princess Nala: (Calmly) Yes, I said all that. Indeed, I promised, and I tried staying away from your sight. But after seven market days I feel…I feel…I feel… (Tries touching Akinidad)
Akinidad: Hey…Hey… stop making me angry. You feel what? Tell me, what do you feel?
Princess Nala: (Tearfully) Its so difficult to explain. You may never understand. My love for you has taken roots deep down in the soft fertile soil of my soul. My promise to keep away from you only succeeded in hastily pruning the wild branches and leaves. My seven market days away from your sight, instead of making me forget about you, rather became the adequate rain and sunshine that fed the roots and gave the tree fresh leaves.
Leaves that will appear again and again and again if you should prune them again and yet again. So, I have come with fresh leaves of love. From the pure system at the bottom of my soul. Love that shall not change with the changing seasons but shall ever be constant as the rising and settling of the sun each and every day of my life my love.
(She is so involved that she doesn't notice when her outstretched arms fall on the chest of Akinidad)
Akinidad: (Hits Nala's hand very hard) Take your hands off my chest. (Nala screams in pain) I warned you before and am still warning you to get yourself a real man. I am not the man for you. What is so hard in understanding and respecting my decisions?
Princess Nala: (Angrily) And you hit me this hard!
Akinidad: I warned you!
Princess Nala: Akinidad, you hit me this hard?
Akinidad: I warned you, didn't I. (They looked at each other as if ready to get in a battle)
Princess Nala: Alright, we shall see about that. (Walks out in anger)
Akinidad: (Shouting after her as she walks exit the room) You cannot threaten me. I am not going to bow low to those empty threats. I mean what I have said, and you can do your worst for all I care.
(Akinidad starts to feel the rise of his insecurity and has entered a desperation mood, hoping and praying thing don't get out of hand)
(Pause)
How can you reconcile this? A moment ago, you were telling me you loved me. And now you dare threatening me. What type of love is that? (Angrily shouts)
Love as I know, it never wounds the loved. It regrets, perhaps, but it doesn't respond to disappointments with the deliberate intent to destroy. This is not love. That's a false pride, a distasteful acknowledgment of one's own insecurity… (Softly) Insecurity…insecurity which of us is insecure? She or I?
(Frustration has taken over him as he finds himself wanting in the middle and an abandoned Island, with no one to his rescue, neither his ambitious mother)
(Pause)
O! Spirits of our mothers are you around? Why didn't you forewarn of the insecurity that law strewn on this carved-out path chosen for me by an ambitious woman of a mother? Look at me now, Ye spirits… I am a thief… Yes, a thief…
A thief disguised from his real identity and sent into a palace through an opened window by the mother. To steal a stool and sit on it. A stool which isn't rightfully mine. And as I groped in the palace for the stool, I stepped on something soft and tender, my heart quivered and my frame shook. Slowly bent down and picked it up. The moonlight peeing through. The cracked window revealed to me what it was. Ye Spirits of our mothers and father, it was a heart. A big and soft heart.
(Begins to sob with so much pains in his heart)
Yes, I had stepped on the heart, but it was too late. For it was broken! (Sobs)
A broken tender heart of a cousin so young and pretty. (Sobs)
A broken tender heart of a cousin that loves me sincerely from that heart.
How can this be amended? (He continued to sob)
O, how I wish I could call her back and whisper into her ears the whole secret. Yes, the secret that self within wants to let loose, but the outer self strongly rejects. (Begins to sob harder)
O spirits, look kindly upon me. I had no will to usurp. No…No! that has never been my intention. I wish…that woman…my mother…
(Knocking at the door. Knocking continues. Akinidad quickly wipes the tears off his face)
Come in whoever you are
(Enters Emissary Boateng)
Emissary Boateng: My Lord, the King has asked me to bring you.
Akinidad: What for? If I may ask. (He ask with a pale face and a suspicious look)
Emissary Boateng: My Lord, it is time for Anansesem (tales time). Everyone in the palace is seated except for you, my Lord. So ai am sent to fetch you.
In ancient African Kingdoms, there are times for tales telling normally done in the evening after meals, and mostly told to Kings and their royal families.
Akinidad: My cousin, the princess, is she seated? (Ask out of outmost curiosity and worry)
Emissary Boateng: No, my Lord, she is not seated yet. However, one ahnekwaa (also referred to as an escort) has been despatched to escort her.
Akinidad: Alrigh, shall we go now. (He hurriedly put on his cloths and shoes and joined Emissary Boateng who was standing by the door)
Emissary Boateng: Yes, my Lord. This way, please.
(Emissary Boateng and Akinidad exits the room and head towards the Kings bungalow where the Anansesem is to take place).