MELINA

chapter fourteen

It was finally the day of the tournament. A big clearing was made in between Lasantha and Aztar kingdom. The whole area was bustling and bubbling. Girls were looking splendid in their different attires and make up. There was a small tent where the two kings and queens were seated to judge the display of powers. Parents also came with their female children to support them.
The special advisor to the king whose name was Maxwell was the one in charge of conducting the ceremony. He got to the front of the crowd and started talking with the microphone in his hands. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today because of one important reason. We are all here to know who the girl in the prophecy is. This tournament will last for just today and by the end of it, we will have our answer. So, shall we begin?" The crowd cheered.
He continued "the first thing we are starting with is the display of earth powers. Seeing as the number of young girls right here are about fifty, you will all be in five groups, making a total of ten girls in each group". All the girls arranged themselves until there were ten girls in the five groups. Ashley kept on raising her head high up and was feeling very important.
"Now begin!", Maxwell boomed. Some girls that did not have earth powers could not display anything so, they were set aside. It was there and then that king Arthur noticed something. He saw his niece who had air powers creating flowers and he was dumbfounded. He called the attention of the others to it and Maxwell was notified. He was told to pick Ashley out and set her aside. Olivia smirked as she noticed it because, her plans were already falling into place.
"I have an announcement", Maxwell said. "we have set Ashley, king Arthur's niece aside because of something spectacular we just saw. Her original power is air but, she just displayed earth powers. So, the rest of you can go and sit as we test her on the other powers". Ashley was told to come forward and display ice powers. She started by creating small balls of ice. She increased the intensity to bigger balls of ice and very soon, she started shooting ice spikes out of her hands. People were going wild and there were murmurs everywhere.
Queen De'arra was so jealous, she cursed Melina in her head for being so useless because, she was the same age with Ashley who was displaying different powers beautifully. Ashley was told to display fire powers. She created balls of fire first then, rings of fire. She even spiced it up and created a volcano. The two kingdoms did not need any more evidence, Ashley was the girl in the prophecy.
King Arthur came out to make an announcement. "Great people of Lasantha and Aztar kingdom, today is a very great day in the history of the two kingdoms. We found our mother, the person that will guide us rightly. Now, I need all of us to understand that we need to give her adequate respect because, right now, she is more powerful than any king or queen anywhere. Now, she will be moved into the palace in my kingdom and a special room will be given to her. Whenever we are meeting with anybody, her decision is what will be acted upon. Now I need all of you to stand up and pay homage to her".
Everybody got on their feet and bowed to Ashley. She felt very powerful and happy. Olivia was already planning one thousand and one things in her head. She was imagining how she was going to take over the kingdom and overthrow her brother. Afterall, Ashley was her daughter. People went back to their various homes thereafter; Ashley and her mother were called into the tent as they talked about how to get Ashley's things and what she would want in her room and things she would be comfortable with.
Before the continuation of the conversation, king Quan asked a very important question. "when we visited an old woman few days back, she mentioned something about the girl in the prophecy having one half of the second piece of paper. Please can you show us?"
Ashley looked at her mother in confusion and became tongue tied. Olivia quickly salvaged the situation and spoke "oh yeah, about that paper, I found it in Ashley's room and looked at it as a very useless piece of paper from one of the books she reads. So, I threw it out. I am so sorry I acted like that". A throaty laughter came out of her mouth as she continued. "Who knew that Ashley was the girl in the prophecy?" The explanation seemed real and they all laughed about it. Ashley was taken back to Lasantha kingdom. Noe came outside to welcome his father and mother without knowing about the Ashley issue. It was after they had all settled that king Arthur broke the news to him. His mouth was open for like five minutes but, he did not say anything. He smiled and congratulated Ashley.
"Melina!", the king boomed. "Come out here, dumb fool. Your cousin has made us proud unlike you. You see, there was a prophecy where a young girl will have great powers and rule the kingdom. Guess who the girl is? Yes, it is Ashley. So, now you will pay her respect and do everything she asks you to do. You will serve her faithfully and show her no form of disrespect. If any of the rules I mentioned earlier are broken, you will be punished severely".
Melina ran out quickly to attend to them. Ashley smirked at her and insulted her. Melina kept quiet as she packed her bags into the room meant for her. As she came back to carry the last set of bags, she felt a surge of anger course through her veins. She had to quickly compose herself because flames were already licking the handles of the bags. When they had settled down and retired to their rooms, Melina went to the garden where she usually met with her brother with only one word in her head.
How?

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