2 MONTHS LATER

A wooden cottage stood elegantly in the middle of a field. Surrounded by a plethora of plant, flowers and occasional weeds, it seemed secluded from the world by mother nature.

Out from the house stepped a dark, muscly man putting on a singlet, shorts and straw hat with a pickaxe in his hand. Walking not too far behind him was a chubby light skinned woman in a light pink dress with a slight bulge in her stomach. The man strolled off further into the field while the woman settled down on a wooden chair in front of the cottage. Married life had drastically changed Ravea and Jerome.

Unlike before, Jerome now engaged in consistent manual labor, from cutting firewood to tilling the soil on their farm. His muscles had responded to the sudden change in lifestyle by a gradual increase in size overtime. Meanwhile, Ravea, lean as she was before marriage, was now comparable to the fattest women in the village.

Although her pregnancy had a part to play in that aspect, everyone, including Ravea herself was shocked at how her body changed due to the pregnancy.

Two months earlier, if anyone had told her she'd gain that much weight within a short period of time, she'd have punched them. But as she sat comfortably under the shade of a mango tree and thought back on her wedding night, she realized that her current state was to be expected.

After realizing that she might not be able to enjoy a normal wedding night as per the norms and customs of society, she rushed to her mother to seek advice. Reserved as she was, Agnes was an expert on matters like that and Ravea was witness to it.

She remembered one night, her father had come back home tired as a donkey due to an extended work session of harvesting crops from a client's land under the hot sun because of an ongoing financial strife in their family. Unluckily for him, her mother was on heat. She had been on heat all week but had managed to hold back herself so as not to drain what little life force her father had left. But that night, she couldn't handle it any longer.

Knowing fully well that her husband would say no to any sort of sensual activity that night, Agnes secretly went ahead to add an aphrodisiac to his food. Ravea had watched her do so. A few sprinkles here and there and a couple hours later, Mr. Semira was like a rabid horse high on ganja, or as the locals called it, the shrub of emotions. And her mother's voice echoed for hours through the house. A couple years later, when she was old enough to understand what happened that night, Ravea wondered how her mother escaped that night without getting pregnant.

Agnes chuckled when Ravea told her about her predicament. "Don't worry, I came prepared", she whispered into Ravea's ear. Then unfolded a small knot in her wrapper and brought out a small bottle containing a black powder.

"You never cease to amaze me", Ravea said in awe.

"A pinch of this and he'll be a man once again." Agnes placed it in Ravea's hand and closed it.

"Who carries an aphrodisiac around." Ravea wondered.

Agnes noticed Ravea was lost in thought so she repeated herself, "Just a pinch okay? Two pinches if you want more fun but nothing more than that."

Ravea nodded then got up and left. She was utterly surprised. This was the same woman that warned her not to stay too long around a man. Nevertheless, her wedding night was saved.

When all was said and done, when the sun had gone to bed and left the moon on night shift, when the good evenings were being replaced by goodnights. The Dernewt and Semira families escorted the newly wedded couple to their new home. But Hilma and Agnes didn't want to stay too long as they both knew the newly wedded couple wanted some alone time together.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

20 minutes later, the house was evacuated and Ravea and Jerome lay hand in hand in bed. They both let out a sigh of relief. It was over but the crescendo was just about to begin.

"I'm hungry, are you hungry?" Ravea asked.

"Uhm, not really, I'm still pretty nervous." Jerome replied.

Ravea sat up, "Don't worry, once you eat you'll get yourself." She let go off his hand and went to get food for him.

There was a bountiful amount of foodstuffs to choose from; yam, plantain, cassava, cocoa, potatoes, onions, pepper, vegetables, carrots, pear, banana, apples, oranges etc. No expense was spared for the marriage.

Regardless, Ravea had neither the time nor the strength to cook, she was on a mission, so she settled for the remnants from the wedding. Their was little of it so after dishing a fairly large quantity of vegetable soup into a plate, she took out the bottle and went to work immediately. She added one pinch, then two, then the third. "There's no such thing as too much fun", she thought to herself.

Just then, "Ravea! Are you done?" Jerome called from inside the room.

Startled by the sudden noise, Ravea dumped the entire content of the bottle into the soup. She quickly threw away the bottle and tried to scoop out some of the powder but the soup was quick to accept the upgrade.

"No no no no!!" She began to panic.

"Ravea are you okay?" Jerome asked.

She didn't notice when he walked up to her.

"I heard something fall down." He looked around to find out what it was, but he saw nothing. "Are you okay?" He asked again.

"Yes, yes I am." She replied hastily.

He looked at her curiously, "Well alright, if you say so. Although, I thought I heard you say no repeatedly, like some sort of chant."

"Uhm, no, I mean yes, it's just-", she took a deep breath as she tried to buy time to think of a lie. She looked at the food, "I don't think the food will be enough for both of us."

"Oh, that's no problem, I'm not that hungry so you can have it." Jerome replied open-mindedly then rubbed her back.

"What? No, What sort of wife would I be to sup while my husband starves?" She needed him to eat the food, by any means necessary.

"Are you sure you're alright? You should probably take the dress off, I actually thought it looked a bit tight on you."

"I'm being serious."

"Okay, why don't we share it? We'll eat together." He said then picked up the soup and two spoons then placed them on a tray.

"I wonder how many pinches are in there", Ravea thought to herself as she watched Jerome eat a spoonful. Her heart felt like it left her body when he eventually swallowed it. "How is it?" She asked.

"Pretty good, but it does have a weird aftertaste. Here", he tried feeding her some but she jerked backwards. "What is it?" He asked, but she said nothing.

Ravea was fighting a war of confusion in her head. She didn't know what to do at that point, and whatever she did, it would probably be useless as Jerome had already eaten a fair share of the food. So she decided to conform to the situation and just go with the flow, "If we perish, we perish", She thought to herself then took a bite.

5 minutes later, they were done and signs of the aphrodisiac working were beginning to show. Ravea's cheeks glowed bright pink as the candle light hit the corners of her face, while Jerome's trousers grew a mighty fine bulge.

"Oh my goodness, this is worse than I expected", Ravea said, breathing heavily.

"What is?" Jerome asked immediately. He was using a pillow to push down the bulge.

"I'm so sorry." Ravea said then untied her gown. "Oh I feel so hot."

"Sorry for what?"

"In an attempt to help with your, nervousness, I borrowed an aphrodisiac from my mother." She fanned herself with her hand.

He looked at the empty plates and instantly understood. "Wait, you mean there was an aphrodisiac in that food?"

"Yes."

"Oh goodness. Okay, no need to panic, Aphrodisiacs vary in potency; the white lasts an hour and a half. Was it white?"

"Mm-Mm", she shook her head.

"Very well. So long as it's not brown, we're safe. Was it brown?"

She shook her head again.

"Thank heavens. So what shade was it?"

"It was... Black", she answered meekly.

Jerome recoiled, "Black?! Black?!! Where in the gods name did you get a black aphrodisiac from?!!"

"From my mother." She was on the verge of tears, her womb felt like it was about to burn itself inside out. "Is it bad?"

"Black aphrodisiacs are illegal!" Jerome replied immediately.

"What? How long does it last?"

"5 days!" He put his hands on his head, "It lasts 5 days!"

For a second, the sensible part of Ravea made her feel discomforted at the thought of being on heat constantly for 5 whole days, but the lust quickly eclipsed her sense of reasoning and she pounced on Jerome. "Then you have 5 days to actually get me pregnant."

After everything, the walls were most probably thanking the gods that they had ears and not eyes.

2 months later, as Ravea sat and thought about that day, she wondered how she wasn't pregnant with triplets, but who knows.