Before the pepper competition began, the Princess signaled to one of her maid, the maid bowed first in greeting, awaiting the Princess's order, the Princess patiently motioned for her to go closer, the maid obeyed in apprehension, the Princess rolled her eyes in annoyance but still patiently motioned for her to bring her ears close to her lips.
The maid though confused obeyed the Princess, inclining her ears to the Princess's lips, 'go to the people preparing the peppers for the pepper eating competition, tell them that they should do what we discussed earlier, that they should give it to the handsome brave man called prince Mudiaga.' The Princess said with a dreamy smile, she had already sent someone to ask for his name immediately after he won the first round of the competition, and she was definitely going to make sure he wins the rest. Thank the gods she had her father's support, it made it all the more easier.
The maid went to execute the Princess's order speedily, not delaying one bit, she didn't want to be on the receiving end of another of her fits, she was most definitely not going to survive another of her punishments.
The Princess's eyes followed her dream man whom she had found out to be Prince Mudiaga Anemor, a prince from a distant land. 'Prince Mudiaga Anemor' she whispered his name as her eyes remained trained on him dreamily, she savored the feel of his name on her lips, almost breaking out in the most lovesick smile possible, but she controlled herself, she was the great Princess of Enale, she can't be caught smiling like a fool because of a man.
Maybe she watched him too intently, for he suddenly turned around and his gaze caught hers, the air seemed to freeze for a split second, electricity ran through her skin, her heart was set on overdrive, pounding in a rhythm that should be impossible.
Just when she thought she was a goner, he had the audacity to smile, gods his smile was just out of this world, she felt faint, but tried to calm herself down and failed, her maids noticing the flustered Princess, immediately increased the intensity of their fanning, under the sudden influx of cool breeze, the Princess calmed down slowly.
He lifted his brows in amusement as he observed the flustered Princess, before he could express himself more, the master of ceremony took the stage to announce the start of the second competition, since he was amongst the last to compete in the first competition, he was number 75 out of 91 contestants left, he motioned for his maid to fan him, as he lined up for the second competition, though he did not feel hot in the slightest, he still had to keep up appearances.
The second competition was about to start, this time, rocks were carried in by guards, so four could sit at a table, which meant forty people were participating at a time.
Two guards were stationed at each tables, they stood vigilantly, their trained eagle eyes, ever watchful, ready to intercept any competitor at any given sign of flinching.
The master of ceremony once again, smiling widely, began, 'we all know what this next competition entails, but for those of you that live under a rock, I'll explain.' The audience burst out in laughter at his snide remark, he smiled in satisfaction continuing. 'The pepper eating competition, hmm, what was I saying before,' he asked seriously, pretending to be at a loss, his attempt, clumsy as it could be, but the audience were eating it up, forcing themselves not to laugh at the master of ceremony's antics. 'Oh yes, the pepper eating competition,' he acted as if he suddenly remembered what he was talking about and the crowd immediately let out their barely suppressed laughter, atleast everyone was amused.
Well almost everyone, some pampered princes and wealthy men were far from amused, here they were, standing for gods knows how long, trying to protect themselves from the sun -though they were actually being shielded from the sun by their umbrellas- but that was not the point, the point was, here they were, wanting to be done with this competition as soon as possible.
The thought of eating these peppers was enough to make them question again if it was worth all this just for a girl who might not even be theirs in the end, but what to do, it was far too late, giving up now would be shameful. But a thought at her dowries and the prospect of being connected to one of the most powerful king amongst all the kingdoms was enough to resurrect their fighting spirit, but that did not mean they would look fondly at this buffoon's delay of the competition. Their collective glares almost poked a hole in the master of ceremony's body.
The master of ceremony suddenly shivered, he wondered at the inexplicable cold wind that just blew at such a high temperature, he shook off his goosebumps, and turned towards the venue arranged for the royal family of Enale, trying to gauge their reaction, so far so good, the king and the queens were smiling in amusement, the master of ceremony smiled widely, until he made the big mistake of turning to look at the Princess, his joy quickly turned to fear, why was the Princess glaring at him like he owed her tens of thousands of cowries, he shivered in fear, cold to the bone.
No! He couldn't afford to offend the Princess, he had enough intimate in-house knowledge to know he could offend the crown prince and the other princes, the queens and even the king -at least the king listened to reason- but he absolutely couldn't afford to offend this volatile Princess. Atleast not if he wanted to continue existing.
He immediately got straight to the point, not daring to delay for a bit. 'Ehh yes, as I was saying the pepper eating competition, the rules are: you'll eat the various specially prepared different kinds of peppers without so much as a sip of water, don't even think of blowing your mouth like this, swhh ahh! I've warned you all, there's water in front of all of you, but remember, if you as much take a sip of water, it means automatic disqualification.' He paused making sure everyone got what he was saying.
Although the audience was puzzled that he made no more jokes this time around, they soon forgot about that, their eyes focusing on the contestants, ready to for the second competition to start, and to catch the contestants at any sign of foul play. 'I believe you all are now clear on the rules, so I won't bother asking or repeating myself. Start!' He shouted at the top of his lungs, announcing the start of the second competition. He took a surreptitious glance at the Princess, relieved to see an improvement in her countenance, atleast she no longer glared at him like she wanted to eat his flesh and drink his blood. He sighed in relief, patting his chest to calm his heartbeat down, he praised himself for being quick witted, that was so close, he shook his head as he went back to his position.
The Princess retracted her glare from the idiot that seemed to have left his brain at home, the gods just saved him for he reacted quickly, or else, well there's no need to say more, there's a pike, ever ready to display his brainless head if he ever longed for it. The Princess hated long winded people, especially now when she was almost going crazy anticipating the end of the competition, she just couldn't wait to be done with this competition and be married to her dream man, and here was this brainless he goat, who suddenly decided to turn her festival into a comedy show. Anyways she won't waste more time dwelling on his buffoonery, she went back to staring at her future husband dreamily, why make herself angry, when she can just feast her eyes on the delicacy before her.
Cowries - money used for exchange in ancient Africa (I can't speak for all African countries, but in Nigeria cowries were circulated as money).