Teo Tioliendo

Dancing In The Glory Of The Sunflowers Teo Tioliendo

Like the most beautiful flowers they are everywhere in the Konjo ( Beautiful) Kingdom. They are the water girls in the hills, on the mountains, in the road, walking for miles to get fresh water from the water well. Many had been taken to become child brides, but the most beautiful water girl, Dovawit was not one of them. She dreamed for all of tbem, or so the older child brides now women with children, use to sing. She was always greeted with sunflowers by the boys playing on the road. She was promised by her father he would never make her a child bride. So many water girls were sold, married off as children. Not his previous "Dove." But it happened to Dove. She was heart broken like the grown up child brides, now grown women at the well. They were happy mothers but bitter from when they were child brides, sold to pay a debt, to get food. Dove had dreams to be more than just a faithful water girl for her father. She sold flowers, danced, sang, and modeled to entertain the boys and child brides bringing her gifts to show how she would become a great success as one the beautiful daughters of the beautiful kingdom. But now her fear had come true. She was a bride. She was married. She was now seen as just a water girl however unwilling, a child bride, married to of all men, her father's rich friend, a retired poacher wanted by the rangers, hiding in the highlands among them. In her heart she already promised herself and her cat named Lion she would not give up just because she was married. She would not be a child bride long. Not for the rest of her. The wanted ex-poacher's friends acted as if they read her thoughts . His poacher friends argued with him whether he should start beating her to keep her in fear so she would not run away. When the poacher revealed he couldn't, his friends hated her for weakening the great hunter. They blame her for using her beauty to confuse him and began to beat her for him. They also beat her cat, Lion who bit and scratched them. But her cat Lion had friends from when he was a kitten. His friends also lives on their mountain in the hill of the Konjo Kingdom. His always listened for him, stiffed out his trail on the road and watched him at play with Dove. His friend were always stalking him in the bush. On this day they hear him and come to the rescue. Lion's friends are the legendary Pride, a mysterious pride of lions that had never been seen in daylight. After Dove and Lion are rescued they head back home. Child brides become banned in the Konjo Kingdom from that day forward. All girls in the kingdom dance and keep a cat to ward off any men trying to take them to become child brides. Whenever the lions hear a cat in distress they come out of their caves and roar as a warning. The water girls now live to fulfill their dreams of getting an education and marrying a man they truly love, and celebrate by dancing in the glory of the sunflowers which grow wild and free in the beautiful kingdom.