The birth of the rain queen

It was hot sunny day in LeSotho Maseru, queen mother maBotle was in labour ready to bless the world with her second child. Under the meticulous care of their trusted royal midwife as well as two palace maidens, she was in the room screaming her lungs out due to the unbearable pains. King Lerumo and the elders anxiously awaited the birth of a prince or princess. “She has been in there for more than 4 hours now and still no update, what could be taking so long? Because I can hear my queen is in pain” said the king worried that something is wrong with his queen and child. “ I can feel you pain my king but there is nothing we can do at the moment but wait and let nature take its course” said one of the one of the king’s elders Mosia trying to comfort his king seeing how distraught he was about the situation. “ I hear you but when the prince was born the queen was only in labour for 2 hours, why is this one taking so long” said another elder, while they were still talking the weather changed outside, dark clouds started to form and wind started blowing hard that the roof of the palace started shaking. “Look at this weather, maybe the gods are angry at us for something or the baby is already dead” said elder Simon, who did not like the fact that Lerumo was king. His father passed on when he was young, back then his father has been king. Hus assumption was that the throne would remain in his family waiting for him to grow but things had gone in another way with the throne being passed on to Lurumo’s side. “That would be good news for us then.” Said elder Lance who is friends with elder Simon “What do you mean?” asked elder Simon “ I mean we can use the baby being dead to accuse the queen of being a witch and you know what our laws say about witches in the kingdom.” Elder Simon smiled at the thought of what could happen if the queen were accused of being a witch. “I see where you are going with this, then finally our cousin can the throne and we will be well taken care of.” They both nodded at each other smiling. The weather was getting worse outside, the wind was so harsh that the people of the kingdom started getting scared. Some took their children and hid them under the beds while the women sat on grass mats and the men on the bar stool. All sitting anxiously waiting for the worst to happen. At the royal palace in the throne room the king and his elders were also worried about what could be the reason for such a storm as is it summer and storms are expected in winter, and in summer only warm summer rain is expected. “Gods of my ancestors what could be the reason behind this, please show us the way and save our people from this and punish me instead.” Said the king begging for their ancestors to show him the way. “Don’t worry my king everything will turn out as it should.” Said elder Lance smiling thinking of his plan should things turn out the way he planned. “What are you smiling about Lance, are you now the eye of the gods that tells the future of this kingdom.” Asked elder Mosia annoyed by Lance’s tactics. “I am not the eye of the gods, but all am saying is that everything happens for a reason and the gods are always watching.” Said elder Lance smugly looking at elder Mosia. “Lance is right, besides nothing happens in this kingdom without the god’s approval.” Said elder Simon supporting his friend. “The way you both are so annoying its like you are not elders, please do keep your mouths if you have nothing better to say until we hear from the gods why we are in this predicament.” The king got enough of the bickering between his elders and decided to intervene. “ That is enough now elders we have more pressing matters to deal with, elder Lance please do go and call the chief priest here to come and tell us what the gods are angry about” elder Lance left mumbling under his breath. In the labour room the queen was giving birth to the princess of the land, after pushing a few times a loud baby cry filled the room and the rain outside started pouring heavy, hail stones dropped from the sky, as strong winds blowing with force. The apparent weather situation got the whole kingdom scare. “It’s a girl!” exclaimed the midwife. “My princess.” said the queen in a low exhausted voice. The midwife sent one of the maidens to go and inform the king of the birth of their princess. The maiden left in a hurry going to the throne room where the king and his advisors were. She got there and bowed her head to show respect to the king “As you were dear maiden” she straightened up. “My king, I was sent by the midwife to inform you that the queen has given birth to a princess.” The king smiled upon hearing the news. “We praise the gods of our land, my thanks dear maiden” the maiden left, the king could not contain his smile while Simon was fuming on the inside that yet again his plan will not work, he wondered what it would take to finally get what he wanted. But one thing that was clear was that he was not giving up. The king was still troubled by weather outside and wondered if the chief priest will be able to shed some light on the matter. While he was still consumed by his thoughts the chief priest was heard coming by his chanting and granting as he come closer to the throne room. That made everyone in the room tense because they knew that the gods of the land have spoken.