*These are still human beings we watch dancing upon the stage of light and life. Oichi, a woman of twenty seven years. Erin, the age of twenty four, but mature far beyond her years. It is a human story. It has nothing to do with business. It has nothing to do the titles, or rings. It has even less to do with the VWE. It is about two women, isolated for very different reasons, finally finding love and escape within each other. It is a story told a million times, with a million different names, and as many endings... the same number as well.*
*There was something... special... between these two before they even met. A thread tying these two together, realized the first time their eyes finally met... in a bingo hall located in Green Springs, Ohio. The Queen of the VWE came down from her glass tower to meet a woman whose name had reached her ears, and her interest. The first tug of the thread that pulls everyone to someone they need... whether they know it or not. From that first meeting, ever so long ago, the seed was planted and would grow.*
*In Oichi, Erin found, a woman of kindness and caring. A woman she opened her door to... and a strange thing did the occur. Oichi did visit often, and after a smile, a good conversation, a laugh or even a stolen drink... she would leave... without asking for a single thing. Month after month, trial after trial, disappointments in the ring and in her career... Oichi asked for nothing more than the company of the female Blackthorn, enjoying her for who she was not what she was... enjoying the times together the simple and all. This simple act, this simple human need... fulfilled for the first time in perhaps her life, by a small woman from Japan.*
*In Erin, Oichi found, a woman who treated her as such. She saw behind the make up and silken robes, the broken English, the culture that was different and impossible for many to understand. Erin did see past it all, and found the human being inside. Oichi found a woman of taste, and of life... and an understanding deep of never quite belonging... a woman of careful words and thoughts... a woman strong... a woman who saw through the facade to the human being inside. The swirling blue eyes the trusted by the pools of black that were her own. Oichi swore her undying loyalty to Erin Blackthorn, though it was not the first time...*
*In a flash of dreams and hidden lives of the past... it was the revealed that a Queen of times long ago did receive a gift from conquered lands... a single Lotus Flower from the frozen Northern Lands. The young Queen would take the small, frightened woman into her home... where they would grow strong together. Erin, the queen of a vast Queendom stretching to the sea... and Oichi her most trusted guard... forever more by her side until the Dragon Wars brought everything crashing down upon them,,, leaving the Kingdom in shattered pieces... it is there the visions end.*
*It is there the story repeats... again and again and again through the falling of the years... to the season that was the 5th of the VWE. Again the Queendom crumbled... and again the Queen and her guard were separated as the land lay broken beneath. But this time... this time... the visions did not end.*
*In the exile of Northern Africa lays the Blackthorn Family Compound... Oichi was called in the deadest hour of the night, and returned to her beloved Queen. The woman she had spent lives growing with and protecting.*
*Following Erin's orders one more time. Oichi presented herself to the room of Erin Blackthorn the next night. In the simplest of dress, and the barest of faces. The women finally accepted what had been buried between them since the earliest of times... that they were together not by chance but by design. That Oichi would die for Erin, not for loyalty... or some ancient samurai code... she would die for Erin because she loved her. Erin too realized that Oichi was more than her most trusted and constant protector... she was the one beautiful constant in her trust less, empty, and often ugly life.*
*From that came a kiss, and from that kiss grew a passion that would consume the last hour of the night... until the morning light found their limbs intertwined, and final dreams the found and shared. Two women the always the alone... found they had each other all along.*