Mulan's quests and wanderings had taken her far and wide. She had seen some truly amazing, as well as truly terrible things. She had crossed paths with giants, dragons, dastardly pirates, vile sorcerers; she'd seen curses, enchantments and spells of every sort.
But the creature now standing before her was something different entirely.
Was he real? How could he be? He was SO big? Mulan's mind stammered inside her head.
"What's wrong?" Merida asked her curiously, looking over her shoulder to find Mulan hovering several feet behind her.
The big black Clydesdale, Angus, snorted quizzically, shaking his great head. Merida gambled up to her horse, throwing her arms happily around his neck.
A moment later, realizing that Mulan had not moved so much as an inch, Merida turned to look at her again. "What's wrong?" Merida repeated kindly. She watched the woman's face as it fought to remain in a composed and neutral mask. That fight betrayed her true feeling, one which Merida had not seen the usually brave warrior fall to before: fear.
"I've seen you swing up and down from a horse like you were born in the saddle. I know ye aren't scared of them." Merida told her, in what she hoped was an affirming manner. She patted the large Clydesdale again and retraced her path back to Mulan, taking her hand and gently leading her forward the last few steps towards her beloved steed. She could feel a quiver of resistance shoot through Mulan, but she followed her nonetheless.
"Angus, Mulan." Merida chirped. "Mulan, Angus!" She finished, guiding Mulan's hand to rest on Angus' soft nose. The horse stood perfectly still, kind brown eyes looking quietly down on the usually unflappable warrior.
"He's...he's very big..." Mulan finally mustered, her fingers starting to tentatively pet Angus, though not leaving Merida's comforting grip.
Merida giggled. "Well he's a mite bigger than those wee ponies I've seen in the books about your homeland, I'll grant ye that."
Mulan blushed, looking down. Staring at her boots, she was hit again by the sheer size of Angus' iron shod hooves. She ran a hand down his neck as she walked to his side, struck by the fact that the top of her head did not even come near to the line of his broad back.
Absorbed with the horse, she missed the devilish grin that lighted Merida's face as she slid up right behind her.
"Bend your left knee a bit," she told Mulan.
"Hmm?" Mulan queried as she complied - only to find herself suddenly being pushed up into the air. She grabbed out to steady herself on the nearest thing she could reach - Angus, and somehow found herself sitting on top of the colossal beast, one hand frantically grabbing a hold of the reins.
Merida was laughing from the ground. "Go on then," she encouraged, waving a hand to the open field before them.
Angus turned his head towards his frozen rider, giving Mulan an encouraging look as he swished his tail gently.
"I don't know about this…"
Merida didn't give Mulan another instant to hesitate. She grabbed Mulan's free hand and used it to swing herself up behind the other woman.
"Come on, Angus!" Merida beamed as she wrapped her arms around a startled Mulan, before giving the giant horse a gentle squeeze. Angus leapt to life in a smooth step, going from a halt to an easy, rocking horse canter in a few strides.
"Not so bad, is it?" Merida asked merrily, right in Mulan's ear.
"No," Mulan answered, surprised to find the tiniest smile on her face. "Not so bad at all."
A/N: I know it is anachronistic to have a Clydesdale in Medieval Scotland, but if Scotland can be next-door to Camelot where several centuries worth of armour gets trotted around, and all quest-worthy items are always a day or less journey away, I think I can be forgiven…
