When Mulan agreed to fight for Misthaven, no one said anything about babysitting a princess. Yet, Princess Aurora was offered asylum after Maleficent's coup and Mulan was riding behind her on the way to Misthaven. Queen Snow would say Mulan "volunteered" to retrieve Princess Aurora, but Mulan would say "voluntold" was the more appropriate term.
Their path out of the kingdom was problematic because it was the only path. They couldn't have been a more conspicuous target if they had a sign reading, "PRINCESS ABOARD!" on the back of the carriage. It should have been a twelve-hour journey, but Mulan knew they would be attacked. She considered it an inevitability with their numbers. Four soldiers rode alongside the carriage while one was up front to steer.
Mulan rode behind them, hoping her instincts were wrong.
They weren't.
Mulan hoped they would be ready for the attack.
They weren't.
She saw the first of Maleficent's lackeys from the corner of her eye, just before he dove behind a tree. Mulan leapt off her horse, drew her sword, and said,
"Stop the carriage and secure the princess!" The wheels made an awful screeching sound, dirt flew at the soldiers on either side, and the horses whinnied as the carriage came to a halt.
Shang always said, "Never make the first move. Never start a fight by revealing your strengths and weaknesses. React, look for holes in your opponent's plan, and exploit them." Mulan always remembered him before a fight. Without Shang, she would not have become a warrior. Mulan would not have been able to defend herself or their kingdom, let alone anyone else's.
That was seven wars, three crowns, and two lovers ago. Mulan's resolve had only hardened in the years since. That's what lost love will do to you, I know that now. War is my only constant. The world could take everything from her and Mulan would fight on because that is what warriors do.
Warriors do not, however, lose sight of their enemy in the woods. A dozen of Maleficent's lackeys chose that moment to strike, forcing Mulan and her five soldiers to close in around the carriage. She positioned herself in front of the door; no one would get in or out unless she wanted them to.
Mulan ran the first attacker clean through with her sword. Eleven remained and it was obvious they were not battle-hardened. Nothing more than a bunch of lackeys trying to impress their boss. They were dressed in simple black clothes, too loose and easily pulled for leverage. They didn't have any insignia or rank, it was a coup pulled together by whomever Maleficent could find. Mulan's only disadvantage was being outnumbered two-to-one. Cornered around their target, she didn't like those odds.
One of the combatants hopped onto the top of the carriage from a nearby tree.
Really? Is he a fucking owl?
Mulan turned toward him and clambered her way to the top of the carriage. (No small feat in all that armor.) She dodged as the lackey swiped at her with a dagger. Mulan punched him then ran her sword across his abdomen. Ten left, as she picked up his small knife and stuffed it into her cuff.
Turning her back was a mistake, an amateur mistake, and she should have known better. By the time Mulan was on solid ground, two of her soldiers were lying dead and four of the enemy were approaching the carriage door.
"Flank me!" Mulan ordered, but they were on her before the soldiers could move. She figured that these attackers weren't used to working as a team, so it was best to use them against each other. Mulan ducked the first punch and took her attacker out at the knees. He fell and tripped the one behind him, and Mulan made short work of them both. The next two came at her from either side, the fucking idiots. Mulan took three steps forward and the two lackeys ran into each other before they fell to the ground in a daze. Mulan ensured they wouldn't get up again.
Six remained.
Mulan's biggest mistake was vacating the carriage door. Princess Aurora popped her head out and asked,
"What's going on? Is everything o—"
She yelped in surprise as one of Maleficent's goons slashed her shoulder with a dagger. The fabric of her dress sleeve ripped open and pools of red seeped into the bodice. Before the lackey could raise his weapon again, Mulan ran her blade through his neck. Princess Aurora screamed as foreign blood splattered onto her dress, no doubt unused to the horror of war staring her, quite literally, in the face. She stumbled backward and breathed rapidly, clutching her right shoulder. Five were left.
Princess Aurora's shouting continued as Mulan surveyed the scene. Four goons lied dead, next to what had been her three remaining soldiers. One opponent remained, and she felt him before Aurora screamed, "BEHIND YOU!" Neither of which occurred in time for her to react. The goon pressed his forearm against Mulan's throat, locking her in a chokehold. She struggled but knew it would be fruitless. Shang's voice rang inside her head. One-on-one, have one plan and then another plan for when that plan goes wrong. The goon's breath was hot on Mulan's ear as he said,
"I've heard about you. The greatest warrior in the realm, they say. But to me you look like a little bitch who—ow! Did you just bite me?"
Too much talking.
Mulan pulled the dagger from inside her cuff and sliced his arm open. When he dropped her, Mulan spun around and did the same to his neck. She kicked him backward and stuffed the dagger back inside her boot.
"If I had a gold coin for every times someone called me a little bitch, I could buy my own damn kingdom," Mulan muttered. She sheathed her sword and returned her attention to the princess, dazed from some combination of blood loss and trauma.
Mulan removed her helmet and placed it on the carriage seat. She took one look at the cut on the princess's shoulder and grimaced. She cut a strip of fabric from the hem of Princess Aurora's dress, bound the wound, and tied it off with a knot. Princess Aurora's eyes fluttered. She asked,
"You're a girl?"
"Woman," Mulan corrected.
"Is everyone else dead?" she asked. Mulan ran through the pockets of Maleficent's lackeys, stuffing daggers, rope, and two pairs of shoes into her bag.
"Don't worry about them," Mulan said as she picked Princess Aurora up bridal style. "We're less than an hour's walk from a safe house. Stay awake for me, Princess."
Aurora's eyes closed but she kept talking. That was the goal: keep her talking. She was a bit heavier than Mulan expected, as though there was some muscle beneath that soft exterior. No matter, Princess Aurora was hardly the heaviest thing she'd hauled over rough terrain.
"I am sure you'll be rewarded for getting me back," the princess mumbled.
"It is my duty to Queen Snow and Prince Charming," Mulan replied, carefully stepping around a large rock. The safe house was a mile out from the path and there was more to worry about in the forest than rocks and Princess Aurora's endless inquisition.
"You don't expect anything? No recognition of your bravery or an award or—"
"I serve the crown, the crown does not serve me."
.oOo.
Halfway to the safe house, her arms were starting to numb. She shifted Princess Aurora's arm around her shoulders and told her,
"Sit up, Princess, stay awake … Stay with me."
Princess Aurora obliged and opened her eyes for a minute.
"Where are you from? You're not from Misthaven," Aurora sleepily observed. "Snow and Charming would never want to be referred to as 'the crown.'"
"You're an observant person," Mulan replied.
"Observant enough to know you didn't answer my question. Where are you from?" Princess Aurora repeated. Mulan pretended not to hear the question. When she repeated it, Mulan said again,
"I didn't hear you."
"My mouth is four inches away from your ear. You heard my question and I demand an answer."
Mulan scoffed.
"I serve Queen Snow, Princess, I don't serve you. Your demands are nothing to me. Seeing as I am carrying you to a safe house on your way to asylum in a foreign kingdom, I'd say you don't even have a crown for me to serve."
Princess Aurora's eyes popped wide open and her mouth formed a surprised little "O" that was just on the wrong side of adorable. She pushed Mulan's shoulder and shouted,
"Put me down!"
"We're still ten minutes' walk from the safe house. You'll fall."
"I won't fall!"
"Have it your way," Mulan acquiesced and placed Aurora on the ground. Princess Aurora huffed and took a couple steps forward on unsteady feet. She started walking to her right and Mulan laughed.
"Wrong way, Princess!"
Aurora stomped back to her left before the hem of her dress caught underneath her shoe. She fell face-first onto the forest floor. Mulan laughed, scooped her up, and threw her over her shoulder. Aurora slapped Mulan's back and demanded,
"Let me go!"
Mulan kept walking.
"I said let me go!"
"Queen Snow and Prince Charming tasked me and five now-dead soldiers with getting you to Misthaven alive. If you think you'll be better off without me, I invite you to remember that only one of us is a warrior, only one of us has weapons, and only one of us knows how to get to the safe house. You can stop talking and let me get you to a place where I can protect you, or you may return to the path and wait for more of Maleficent's lackeys to kill you."
The princess stopped struggling. Mulan sighed internally, grateful for the few minutes of silence before they arrived. She placed Princess Aurora on the ground and put a finger to her lips.
"Shh."
Princess Aurora rolled her eyes but obeyed. Mulan opened the door to what was actually a fairly nice cabin. The dwarves had several like this scattered alongside the path, built during the days Snow White was on the run. Robin Hood and his band had other locales but their safe houses were, more accurately, tents. Not suitable for a princess—even one on the run. After a quick sweep through the rooms, Mulan returned to Aurora and said,
"Come in, Princess! Can you make it up the stairs?"
Aurora stomped her way into the cabin and plopped down on the couch. Mulan closed the door and removed her armor. She put her bag on the small table next to the couch and reverently placed her helmet next to it. She unhooked her cape and draped it over the arm of the couch before doing the same with her sword belt. She pulled off her gloves, then her tunic, then her shoes, all forming a neat pile at one end of the couch.
When Mulan looked up, Princess Aurora was staring at her. Mulan was used to being in her long-sleeved black shirt and black leggings around fellow soldiers; there wasn't much of her they hadn't seen. Standing in front of royalty, though, she felt rather naked. Mulan shrugged and joked,
"Like what you see?" Aurora took several moments to respond. Mulan stood, anxiously awaiting the answer. Eventually the princess admitted,
"I thought you were a man."
"I told you I wasn't."
"I thought I was dreaming."
"You weren't."
"Good then," Princess Aurora shrugged. Mulan grit her teeth. She couldn't harm the princess, no matter how hard she might've punched anyone else for speaking to her that way. She ran into the bathroom, muttering,
"Sneezy keeps a medikit in all the bathrooms … Ah ha!" Mulan yelped triumphantly as she pulled the medical supplies from the bathroom cabinet. She returned to Princess Aurora and said,
"I apologize for this. I shouldn't have allowed this to happen," she nodded to the fabric bound around Aurora's shoulder. Mulan bent over to untie it and winced at the laceration's depth and its jagged edges.
It will leave a scar.
"I'm going to sew it up, which may be painful for you."
"Just do it," Princess Aurora commanded. Mulan didn't like that at all, but she let it go. Aurora was in the habit of commanding soldiers and servants, and she assumed Mulan was the same. Mulan wouldn't bother correcting her just then. Instead, she grabbed some rum from the kitchen and held it out.
"Drink this," she said.
Aurora looked at it distastefully but swallowed it anyway. Her face pinched and she said, "That was disgusting."
"It's what we've got," Mulan replied before taking the bottle and pouring a significant amount onto Princess Aurora's open shoulder.
"Oh, ow! My GOD! Are you INSANE?!"
"You may get me there," Mulan mumbled. Aurora's breathing was erratic so Mulan placed hands on either side of her face and said, "I need you to be calm, okay? You lost some blood and hit your head, so you have to breathe for me. In then out. In," Mulan inhaled for several seconds and waited for Aurora to do the same. "Out," she exhaled and Aurora mimicked her. "Again," so they did it again. "Again," and again. "Good."
Mulan pulled a needle and thread from the kit and took a deep breath to steady her hands. She'd done this a dozen times. But never on a princess! I'm about to stab royalty. Not a big deal. I can do this. I'm a warrior. I can do this. Inhale. Exhale.
Aurora ground her teeth together when Mulan made the first stitch. She took another swig from the bottle of rum and said nothing. Her breathing remained steady, though, so Mulan kept at it.
Her hands shook. She tried to make the stitches as straight as possible, but it was hard to treat Princess Aurora like a soldier. Soldiers wear scars like badges of honour or treat them as mementos of hard-won battles. Royalty shouldn't have scars, they should be above all that. While Mulan did her best, once she knotted the end it was apparent additional medical attention would be needed in Misthaven.
Princess Aurora hardly reacted. Her eyes were wet and droopy, her right hand balled into a fist while the left clutched at the arm of the couch. The only sounds she made as Mulan wrapped fabric around the finished stiches were tiny groans buried deep in her throat.
"I'm sorry I can't do better, Princess."
"You've done what you can," Aurora sighed. "Thank you."
"What?" Mulan asked. Aurora raised an eyebrow.
"I thanked you."
"This is my duty, there's no need to thank me." Mulan stood up and returned the medikit to its place in the bathroom. She grabbed some spare clothes from the bedroom. When she returned, Princess Aurora hadn't moved.
"Why are you like this? Why do I feel like you want nothing to do with me?"
"I am duty-bound to keep you safe and get you to Misthaven. I never fail a mission, and that's all you need to know."
Princess Aurora groaned again.
"Duty? Your loyalty to the throne? What good is loyalty if my crown can be taken from me and placed upon someone else's head?! It was stolen from me!"
"Do not question my loyalty, Princess! I chose to serve Queen Snow because I trust her to do right by her kingdom and it has been too damn long since I've seen a royal like that. The last one, I loved—"
Mulan abruptly cut herself off. She took a deep breath and gathered herself before saying,
"The crown was taken from you because you're running. You haven't given your people the chance to defend you. You didn't even bother to defend yourself."
"My parents are dead! Prince Philip is dead! I feel like—"
"Philip is dead?" Mulan asked, unable to conceal the sudden ache in her voice. Aurora peeked at Mulan overtop the couch.
"Did you know him?"
"I …"
Is there a term for what we were to each other? I fought alongside him because I loved him. He was the only man who looked at me like I never needed to prove myself, never needed to overcome my sex. I agreed to lead this rescue team because Philip loved the princess and I would do anything for him.
How do you tell someone you were in love with their fiancé?
"We fought together."
Aurora stared at her suspiciously. Mulan threw the shirt and pants at Princess Aurora and turned her back. Aurora cleared her throat and motioned to her shoulder once Mulan turned around.
"I can't … This is terribly awkward but I can't do this alone."
Like a soldier. Just do it like you would another soldier.
Mulan took a deep breath and undid the remaining strap on Aurora's left shoulder. See? Easy. The corset tied in the front and Mulan's hands were certainly not shaking as she undid the threads. At this point, Mulan wished she had more female soldiers in her life. Perhaps then she might have been more prepared for pulling down the bodice of Aurora's gown.
Try as she might to keep her touch clinical, her eyes weren't. Princess Aurora was soft, with skin so pale Mulan could see veins running from her neck down her chest and back to her heart. She must have stared a moment too long because Princess Aurora cleared her throat to startle her out of her reverie.
Mulan grabbed the shirt and drew the sleeve up Aurora's arm before pulling the rest over her head. Aurora drew her left arm through the other sleeve and pulled the shirt down her midriff. She wriggled out of the dress as Mulan pulled the multicoloured fabric from underneath. Aurora pulled on the loose pants and sagged against the couch.
"You are keeping something from me, I can tell. I loved Philip and he was slaughtered by Maleficent for that reason alone. I saw her … I saw …"
Aurora went quiet. Eventually she continued, "I have seen too much death. I don't know how you do it."
"You shouldn't have seen that, Princess. You shouldn't have to know."
"Why do you? Why do you know?"
"Because it's what I'm good at." Mulan absentmindedly tugged at the end of her shirtsleeve. "Sometimes if you're not good at loving people, the only thing you can do is defend them. Give them every opportunity to be happy and all that you could never give them yourself. All you can do is not let anyone else close enough to hurt you. That is why I'm a warrior—because I'm good at it."
Aurora narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to one side.
"Did you love Philip?"
"You should take the bed. In the bedroom. Where the, um, bed is, Princess," Mulan said a little too quickly. "I'll sleep on the couch and watch for more of Maleficent's lackeys. They shouldn't find us here; we are fairly well-hidden. But just in case, I'll be here. Like I said. You. Bed. Please."
Aurora begrudgingly lifted herself off the couch with the help of her good arm and padded to the bedroom door. Once she reached the frame she turned to ask,
"Tell me your name."
I don't owe you anything. You are the reason Philip is gone! If he chose to love anyone else he might still be alive, but he chose you and it damned him. I'll get you to safety, but only because it is my duty to Queen Snow and to Philip's memory. I don't care about you. I don't. I can't.
"My name is Mulan."