THE FIGHTING LIONESS

The unmistaken heavy groans indicate trouble as Adanna wrestled two girls bigger than her in size, she was almost stripped naked. Passing by the scene of the fight one would think that the two girls fighting Adanna were the ones beating her but, it is not so, Adanna is strong for a girl of her size. They couldn't bring her down, one of the girls was bleeding profusely from her eye, she had a cut above her left eyelash, luckily her eye is not affected. Dike the palm wine tapper separated the girls, and began scolding them "Ofunneka! Why do you choose to degrade yourself by fighting with your younger sister's age mate and yet you couldn't even beat her" "she started it" Kosy interjected. "Look at you, mermaid. You are already bleeding, look at your eyes, I'm sure if you are to fight Adanna alone you will lose both eyes" Dike pressed on. "Dike, mind your business this is not your fight." Kosy fired back venomously. "You evil child" Dike rebuked her with his machete raised into the air and the two sisters took to their heels at that point, Adanna started crying. Dike consoled her "calm down my child and tell me what happened, you are ought to be on your way home, isn't this your pot of water? Stop crying ok, don't mind those useless girls, just ignore them I am going to report them. It seems all they do is a fight in this village." Dike my pot is broken" she cried "They just attacked me for no reason. At first, they insulted me as we were coming home from the stream I didn't know what I did to deserve this, the next insult I heard from their mouth was that leprosy while struck my household if I kept mute. I couldn't swallow the insults any longer."Don't worry my dear child I will escort you home to at least explain to your parents what happened and we will have to meet Mr. Obiora to explain why he won't control his daughters, especially that spoilt brat Kosy."Ichie ikechukwu Ikem, a wealthy businessman who sells cash crops to earn a living was discussing how important the new yam festival is with his wife, who as a businesswoman is paying rapt attention to her husband's business proposals, while they were interrupted by wailings heard around his compound and shouts of his name by Dike the palm wine tapper."Ichie! Ichie Ike…chukwu!" Who is that vermin? Who is that baboon that lacks manners?" ichie Ikechukwu answered, emerging from the front door while his wife Ngozi follows up behind him. "It is me Dike" "Yes, Dike can I help you?" "Dike, why is Okorie's daughter crying behind you? And why are you yelling my name without respect, have you gone mad?" He fumed. Dike was burning in so much anger that his hands holding a machete begin to quiver "look Ichie, I cannot come to your house to be insulted anyhow, I don't like the tone you address me with. I'm here on behalf of Adanna whom your daughters by the way attacked when going to the stream. They fought her to the point of stripping her naked and breaking her pot, that is why I'm here. Call your daughters out and let's find out what went wrong." Ichie frowned at Dike and muttered "Your machete doesn't scare me, who made you the chief judge of the case? Are you now her father? Why didn't you take her safely to her place while I sort this case between Mr. Korie and myself? I am not answerable to you." Then he turned to Adanna "Adanna stop crying, just please tell your father I will visit him this evening over this matter. Meanwhile, take this money and replace the broken pot. Good day Dike." After he spoke, he turned and stormed into the house with his wife trailing behind him like his shadow."Kosy! Ofunneka! Koooosy!! Of…Nneka!"Sir!" Both girls answered in unison and came running, they had sneaked into the house to quickly refresh and change their torn clothes into new ones. "Vermins!" Mr. Ichie yelled "what did I just hear about the both of you? that you forget you are women who would sometime marry tomorrow and be mothers to your children, you went out to disgrace yourselves. And you Ofunneka I keep telling you that soon suitors will start knocking, you are no longer a child you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You led your younger sister Kosy into a fight. If you girls so desperately need to be warriors why not change your genitals and come out boys." Kosy at this point started to sob and complain "papa so you mean because we are girls we should stand by and watch a poor man's daughter insult our integrity? Eh?" Nana any It is true our daughters need to stand up for themselves my lord" Ngozi intervened "it's not their fault neither is it mine that they choose to be girls nobody has the right to insult my daughters." "Woman shut up!" Ichie Ikem fumed"but my lord what I am trying to say is- " "SHUT UP and get inside, if you keep supporting these rascals you will end up marrying them yourself. Did you even bother to ask your daughters how they got into a fight? They always get into one fight or the other. When they are not fighting outside they are here fighting each other, what kind of curse is this? What have I done to the gods to deserve this? Now, Ofunneka what is the cause of this fight that you have to involve Kosy who is bent on disfiguring her beauty?" cozy made a poor attempt to cover the fresh wound on her left brow "Asshhh!" She hissed in pain "oh so you are feeling the pain, the aftereffect of your weak fight!" Interjected the father "Fight again next time, if Ofunneka orders you to jump into fire go ahead. I asked what is the cause of this fight?" It's nothing father" both girls muttered."Did you girls say nothing? I see. So you people overfed and went out to fight. I don't remember sending any of you to the stream, I don't even send any of you on errands, yet you girls find it hard to coordinate yourselves. So you mean to tell me you guys sneaked out of the house to fight Adanna Okorie's daughter for no reason, whatever is hidden shall manifest. I don't blame the both of you, I blame myself for overfeeding you girls, as from today onwards we will all go to the Shop to learn a trade, is that clear?"Yes daddy" both girls muttered. "Now get out of my sight, both of you. I have to pay Mr. Okorie the miscreant a visit because I have daughters who behave like vagabonds.

'It's ok" the wife cuts in. With these, he stood up and left."Go inside, both of you. Your father is now angry you know how he sounds each day business goes bad." Ngozi lightly nudged her daughters into the room. "But mama are we the cause of his misfortunes and why is he always reminding us we are girls?"MICHIE ONU, SHUT UP" Ngozi hushed the girls.

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Mr. Obinna Okorie is one of the few that loved peace, seeing his beloved daughter crying destabilized him so much. He gets quite emotional listening to his daughter sob as she narrates the fight that occurred between her and Ichie Ikem's daughters, while Mrs. Okorie fumed and tied the end of her wrapper, ready for war. Mr okorie finally spoke "eh, thank you Dike for bringing home my daughter safely, may the gods reward your effort. As for fighting the family of Ikem, am not sure that would solve any problem, you see, youths nowadays just know how to create problems without knowing how to solve them. They create problems for their homes and then back out and expect the old ones to do the fighting.

I believe chief Ikem will not keep quiet on this matter if I don't visit him at this very moment am sure he will be on his way here to solve this issue. This is not something we should create a scene for but rather let's seek peace as if the gods had beckoned Chief Ikem to answer Mr okorie's call he arrived at his doorsteps and cleared his throat "Ahem! Ahem!"Talk of the devil" Dike whispered and everybody turned their attention to the visitor entering the yard. "I greet you all." Ichie Ikem greeted, even though he knew his reception into M.r Okorie's compound would be cold. He continued "My friend Obinna, nobody is dead yet, or is anything the matter apart from the incident Adanna reported to me earlier with Dike?" He felt different malicious eyes on him as he continued, "I apologize on my daughters' behalf and I promise this kind of incident will never occur again." Mrs. Okorie couldn't suppress her anger "Your daughters wanted to kill my child. They ganged up on her and beat her like a thief, humiliated her, and almost stripped her naked, and all these for what? Is it because you are rich?" "Shut up woman!" Mr. Okorie intervened. Ichie Ikem remained silent but cast a glance at Adanna only to discover she had no scar no injury of any sort. "Adanna on behalf of my daughters am deeply sorry, whatever your hospital bills cost am will pay double." "Sir, I don't need your money for anything, talking about hospital and treatment I think Kosy needs it more." Ichie smiled and responded "I agree. I was thinking Kosy fought a lion when I saw her eyes I didn't know you have the energy to fight two girls twice your size, at the next wrestling competition, you will be my first pick." the men roared into laughter, it was so much Dike had to clean a tear in his eyes, and the men sat down to drink and discuss on the upcoming village market trade and how the authority of their community the Umuagwu village is been challenged by their neighboring village Aguiyi clan.

Adanna and her mother served the men with a delicacy of bushmeat in oil sauce and palm wine and excused them to their discussion. At the end of the discussion, both parties concluded that Adanna was wronged and she deserved better than Ikem's daughters should visit her and apologize for their lousy behavior. Mr. Ikem took his leave shortly after the palm wine tapper Dike left the compound promising to supply both families with fresh palm wine supply, and the few sprinkling of trees swayed and nodded their fronds uniformly to the winds of peacefulness that wafted about the air at the moment.