Ink Raindrops

Overview:

Way of the Dragon follows the story of Anri, a young girl seeking the path of a warrior.  It is rare for a female to pursue the Way; a set of rules and guidelines for knights and mercenaries seeking to live their lives by their swords.  However, Anri is not just any girl.  Though her history is marred by scars that she cannot remember, she has desired nothing more than to overcome the restraints and limits placed on her as a woman and as a person as well.  Her anger is her strength, but nine times out of ten, it also proves to be her undoing.  Will the young Dragon regain her lost memories and succeed in becoming more than just the wife of a lesser knight?  Or will her anger burn her out once and for all?

Rating:

This story is rated yellow, for infrequent coarse language, moderate violence and/or death of humans or animals, and sexual references.  It was originally intended to be a green story, but the complex romantic relationship in play, and the ultimate direction that the Way and all of the battle training is heading, prompted me to bump it up a notch.  I’m not sure it can maintain a green rating and I’d rather be safe.  I’ll get a green up here one of these days though, I promise!

Spoiler-Free Author’s Notes:

This is an oldie, pulled up from the darkest recesses of my backlog of things I’d love to work more on.  I have always liked the concepts I came up with here, but I always ended up trying to put my focus somewhere else over the years, and never got around to it.  The time has come for me to try again, I think.

I tend to think of this story as a cross between Disney’s Mulan and the anime series Naruto.  Anri is very much a Mulan kind of character, willing to fly in the face of tradition and expectation for the sake of the greater good.  However, the story is also about the growing relationships between Anri, her friend and would-be love Raimen, and the other adolescents training under Master Mikhail.  The world they live in is not a kind one, and they will have only each other to rely on as the coming storm approaches.  Whether they grow together or apart is anyone’s guess for the moment!