I shall, as
promised, discuss three characters that show up in volume two (books four
through eight) of my novel series, Diaries
of Darkwana.
Each of these
characters arrives at Inari House as a recruit sent from another kitsune clan
(see earlier post, “Zenko, Inari, and Shinto Clans of Darkwana).
Let’s meet
Bagheera, first (Yes, I named her after the panther from The Jungle Book. Because why not?).
Bagheera, like all
three characters that I mention here, exists as a young, female, kitsune, full
breed. If you scratch your head in wonder what that means, I invite
you to read a few of the earlier posts for this blog.
Bagheera possesses
yellow-and-black fur in a pattern swirled across her body.
She wears a duty shirt and dustier blue jeans. She stands as one of the few kitsunes with human hair, in her case long, black
dreadlocks.
Bagheera arrived at Inari House from the Shklaf Clan (see last week’s
post).
She arrived with a
bit of backstory that I explained over several flashbacks spread across several
novels. I present here the Cliff’s Notes (read: Spoiler Alert).
Bagheera’s parents
gave birth to her shortly after the revolution that earned the Shklaf Clan
their freedom from the tengu (see earlier post, “Creatures of Darkwana”).
Her parents
trained her in the martial art that their clan invented, in which their wrists
remained shackled together.
Bagheera possessed
an unusual ability to melt, reorganize, and regrow her bones.
The nomadic
Shklaf Clan decided to send Bagheera to compete for admittance into the Inari Clan.
She, at the age of
ten, faced a long hike across Darkwana to get from the mountainous region in
which she grew to the tundra in which Inari House stood.
She, along her
journey, discovered a village held hostage by a tengu-human half-breed. She
fought and defeated this creature, and earned two rewards.
First, she
received a revolver that bound itself to her. No one could remove this
revolver’s bullets, nor could someone add more bullets to it. Each bullet
packed enough punch to bring down a skyscraper.
No one, save
Bagheera, could fire this revolver.
Once she fires its
final round, she will die.
Second, she earned
her first battle scar, the savage removal of her muzzle. Her voice consequently
sounds ugly and gravely. She used her special ability to secrete a bone mask
over the lower half of her face to hide the ghastly sight of her injury.
Bagheera (before
her battle with this tengu-human ended) evolved her second tail, and with it doubled
her power.
She shortly
thereafter arrived at Inari House, where her den mother assigned her to House
Mother Kyoto’s team.
We, the readers,
meet her about three years later, while she and her teammates prepare to take
the deadly exams that determine whether they continue as members of
the Inari clan . . . or face banishment.
Minerva arrived at
Inari House from the Yama-bito
clan.
As I mentioned in last week’s post, all kitsunes from the Yama-bito clan
carry a virus that will instantly kill anyone not from the Yama-bito clan.
A person can contract the virus
through childbirth, sex, direct contact with infected blood, or even a kiss.
Minerva, a young, blue-furred
kitsune, soon started a relationship with a kitsune-human half-breed. They
could not, of course, do much about it physically (think Gambit and Rogue).
Tenko, as a former
member of the Kiko clan, challenged and killed her father with her bare hands
and claws. This two-tailed kitsune grew up in a society where a child holds no
rights until she challenges and kills a parent or legal guardian.
The more family
members a kitsune in this clan fights and kills (all fights remain to-the-death), the more freedom that kitsune
earns.
All other kitsune
clans frown deeply upon the Kiko clan for these practices.
Tenko, at the age
of seven, killed both her parents,
and her sisters, and her brother, and her uncles, and her grandmother, and her
nephew.
Tenko wears green
fur with a thick, white stripe that runs backwards from between her eyes to the
back of her skull.
Tenko owns a very
special Rubik’s Cube. I won’t spoil the surprise of what wonders that cube can perform.
When Tenko first
arrived at Inari House, her den mother assigned her to House Mother Yukari’s
team.
Again, I don’t
want to spoil too much here, but I will tell you that Tenko becomes a major
villain in the second volume (books four through eight) of this
series—especially after she discovers a way to steal other characters’
abilities.
Next week: I’ll
introduce the characters that you meet from the start of my series (book one: Daughters of Darkwana).
As always, thanks
for reading!
Thanks for reading.
You probably noticed
that I went about a week without a blog entry. I apologize for that. The
creation of the prototype for my card game, Duelists
of Darkwana (based on my novel series, Diaries
of Darkwana), managed to eat up a lot of my time.
I also need to
explain, on that note, where the heck the third novel for that series went. It
sits done and ready to publish on Kindle.
At the moment, my
wonderful cover artist deals with a few distractions. I promise that as soon as
I get the completed cover art from her (if not sooner), I shall publish the
third novel in my series.
OH! Also, Daughters of Darkwana received a sweet, succinct
review, which you can read here, http://www.thebookeaters.co.uk/daughters-of-darkwana-by-martin-wolt-jr/
I
publish my blogs as follows:
Tuesdays:
A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.
Wednesdays:
An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com
