Jason leaned forward for a second before Logan quickly grabbed him. Jason was just so ready to kiss her that he forgot that he was supposed to wait for Mickey to finish the ceremony.
Mickey laughed softly, "Archer Jason Valkara of Earth, do you take General Fa Mulan to be your wife, to take care of her through good and bad times, to love and cherish her with all of your heart, in life and death?".
Jason breathed, "I do.", with a beaming smile, and Mulan gave a little muffled sob of joy, and Mickey smiled, "General Fa Mulan of Narnia, do you take Archer Jason Valkara to be your husband, to take care of him through good and bad times, to love and cherish her with all of your heart, in life and death?".
Mulan nodded, "I do.", with a bright smile, and Jason's heart swelled up in joy. Mickey grinned widely, "Then by the power of the Great Spirits, the Kings of the Past, Mount Olympus, the Evening Stars, and vested in the Deep Magic, Aslan, and myself, I bid you in name of husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.".
Jason finally took his chance and leaned forward to kiss her this time. Their lips locked as he wrapped his arms around her, making sure not to let go for hours if it could be allowed.
Mulan closed her eyes, relishing the kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and the couple barely heard the cheers and applause, yet they clearly heard an echoing giggle. Their hearts swelled in joy and love as they realized that Ping saw it all and gave his approval in a way that they can only hear.
After some minutes, they had to let go for fresh air, smiling at each other, and Mulan spoke, "Hello, Mr. Jason Fa-Valkara.". Jason chuckled, "Hey, Mrs. Mulan Fa-Valkara.", holding her warmly.
Mulan whispered softly, "Did you hear...", and Jason nodded, whispering, "Yeah..He's happy...", with a warm smile, before turning his attention on the group as they parted, still holding hands as the group clapped and congratulated the couple.
The couple thanked everyone, smiling happily, feeling at peace, and then Mickey smiled, telling everyone to disperse for the evening. They gladly did that, with the couple getting up on Khan and Buck bareback, heading for the tent.
Mulan spoke, "I don't feel any different yet.", and Jason smiled softly, "That's because it's a personal, intimate instinct to do it in private, as transferring my dragon energy to you is between us alone, not in public.", having listened to Soul on the way to the ceremony earlier.
"That actually makes sense in a way as I am your mate, right?", Mulan smiled and asked, and Jason blushed, "Exactly...", and Mulan giggled. Under good time, they made it to the tent, and they bid the horses good night, noticing that there's hot-proof bowls of stew on their sole table as they entered and closed the zipper.
Mulan smiled coyly at Jason, "I'm not hungry right now...Emma told me that it's fine to make love when the baby is small.", removing the layers of her dress by loosening up the ties. Jason smiled, and moved to help her, "She's right about that...I don't know about you, but knowing that you're carrying our daughter like this, and making love, it makes me want to take you in...", lowering his voice huskily, "hard.".
Mulan blushed red, gasping as Jason squeezed her breasts, and she breathed, "And the dragon part?", and Jason smiled, using his conjuring ring to remove his clothes in a flash, and his eyes turned dragon-like as he kissed her hard.
Mulan moaned into the kiss, feeling his hands roam all over her, and heard his rumbling voice, "Do you accept to be my mate forever and ever?", and Mulan whimpered, "Yes.".
She then felt something going into her, not Jason himself, but like a hot, burning yet not painful power, something that's changing her just a slightly bit different, the incredible sensation somehow making her wet, and Jason growled softly, "Do you want me to be your mate?".
Mulan gasped, "Gods, yes!", and then she then felt him enter her, causing her to cry out in pleasure and surprise.
Jason moaned as he pushed himself as far as he could inside her; it was good that the tent had apparently been soundproofed; rather not a good idea to distract any nearby solders, especially since they still were in hostile territory.
"You feel so good, love...", He whispered in her ear. "Give it to me more, Jason... please.", Mulan begged as Jason kept on going; he was going to make sure that she was well pleased tonight and unlike the first time they did it, they had all the rest of the night so long as an attack never came.
Indeed, Mulan and Jason enjoyed their wedding night, with Mulan discovering her dragon form through extra appendages and such, and Jason gave her all his passion for many hours, with brief breaks of dinner and conversation.
They grew exhausted only an hour before midnight, and fell asleep in each other's arms, pleasantly sore and happily in peace for the time being.
They, like everyone else, woke up a while later after the sun was up, and naturally, Mulan was mightily curious to fly in her full dragon form after they got dressed and exited the tent, and Jason gladly taught her, glad that the mountains hid them from sight from further down the pass.
Upon hearing the report, Mickey was glad to know that they have gained one more dragon for battle, yet with sharp orders, he told Mulan to stay in advantageous spots where she can be safe yet afflict the enemy with fire or poisonous spikes.
Mulan agreed to it and was glad to see that Khan and Buck didn't freak out at the new changes of Mulan, though she should have expected it as they were used to Jason for, he's a dragon shapeshifter as well.
The army set out down the exits of the pass to Sarip, meeting up with the river path, and King Triton gave his sympathies when he heard the news of the ambush and the ordeal of Ping.
"What a desolate landscape this place has become...", Phoebus said as the march was continuing. The Talons could clearly see the almost dead and lifeless landscape and could just make out what once was a more lush and bright land.
"Influence of evil, Captain.", Mickey told him. "With the Chernabog... it probably added to it.".
"And we still haven't reached Sarip yet...", Emma tightened her fist, already having a good idea what to expect when they would get to the village. Probably similar to the scene in Mulan when they found General Li's massacred army and the village burned to ash by the Huns.
Helga replied, "No wonder why no scouts made this far in...Nothing can survive...Nothing to hunt or forage...", and Phoebus sighed, "You should have seen it before the war began, or even before Frollo came in..The land was so gorgeous in the summer...It's close to the end of August, so there would have been plenty of normal, dumb animals running around in a huge forest, the valley itself with gorgeous fields of flowers and berries...Gods, the orange trees would hang heavily with so many ripe oranges, ready to be picked...Sarip, there was music everywhere, and oh, Notre Dame, with the bells accompanying the music, there were practically parties every day...Topsy Turvey was my favorite party...", with a fist tightening on the reins of Achilles, his horse, and Achilles neighed, snorted, looking back at his master and friend.
"Sorry, Achilles...", Phoebus sighed apologetically, and Achilles kept walking on. Mickey nodded, "It sounded marvelous, my friend. Is there any chance to rebuild Sarip?", and Phoebus shrugged, "It's hard to say...Sarip would need help to cleanse the dark magic in the town first...".
"A lot of help...", Logan admitted. "So much so that I'm not sure if it would even work. Unless we get another Pleasure Island situation..."
"Well, that's not the case, Sarip was a more normal town rather than that island. No fairies or anything to call it their homeland.", Helga sighed.
Emma nodded, "Right, that's true. Still, we will all help, Phoebus. After all, Sarip was your hometown, your birthplace, correct?", and Phoebus smiled wryly, "It sure was. I would greatly appreciate it, Lady Emma, and all of your friends as well. I just don't know how to refill it with people again...Sure, Clopin and his people could want to return, and maybe Quasi, but who would want to live in a rebuilt town after being destroyed by one of the most terrible tyrants ever?".
"They'll come... it's hard to believe but the human spirit will make it happen.", Jason said as the Talons gave an agreeable nod. "I sure hope so... I'd very much at least like to see some life return to this place before I die...", Phoebus told them.
Helga grabbed his hand and raised an eyebrow, "I hope you meant that by a long, long time, mister.", and Phoebus smiled softly, lifting her hand to kiss it gently, "I wouldn't dream of leaving you alone, not by force or anything, my Co-Captain. After all, I am your husband.", with a crooked grin.
Helga smiled firmly yet warmly, "Good man.", and the United Talons smiled at the almost teasing, tender moment. "How much further before we reach Sarip?", Zuri asked.
"Should be just around this path, the head of the march should already be there.", Phoebus said as the group nodded and kept their eyes peeled. Place was still good for an ambush from above even if griffins were flying top cover.
Indeed, a few minutes later, they saw Sarip...Somehow, the buildings are still standing, yet ashes, shingles, and household things filled the streets, with blackened signs of bodies, stones, and even the bells are dull...Notre Dame herself is incredibly standing, but the glass windows are broken or ruined in melted monstrosity figures, the statues ashy yet dully shining. No sounds of birds chirping, no sounds of the bells, no sounds of the village life at all...
The head of the march stopped before the burnt gates of Sarip, and let through the group, and Phoebus was pale yet determined, exhaling sharply, and Mickey replied, "We can just go around the village, Phoebus.".
Phoebus shook his head, "It's faster to go straight than go around entirely...Lady Emma, will you have your team in pairs to help out the different kingdom armies go through? I do not know why, but I do have a feeling that one street alone wouldn't fit the entire march, so several streets it is, and they all are connected to the main street to the other side of the village where the path continues on...".
"Of course, I think everyone wants to get through Sarip as quickly as possible. I fear this will be another good spot to ambush...", Emma said. "The scouts searched the town, nothing to report.", Mickey reminded.
"All the same, this would be a bad place to stage a battle.", Helga replied. Phoebus nodded, "Better to expect than wonder.", before taking a deep breath as Helga squeezed his hand, and he sent her a grateful look. He then spoke, "Relay the orders. Let's go through Sarip.".
With quick reorganization, Emma and John stayed with the Narnian army portion, while Pippa and Adam took up the Coronian army portion, with Zuri and Haku went with the Congo army portion, Jason and Mulan helped out the Fantasia army portion, and Logan and Jasmine came with the Atlantis army portion.
They then entered Sarip, through several streets. The Narnian army portion took up the main marketplace and the courtyard surrounding Notre Dame. Outside, the smell was quite terrible, but now on the inside, it's horrendous. It seems like Frollo had decided to keep the town intact with the smell to ward off travelers and such as a warning.
Emma was horrified to see the state of Notre Dame herself. Having seen the movies and having visited the great church back on Earth a couple of times on vacation, it's like a zombie version...Phoebus was even worse off, but he's keeping it tight in himself, she can tell.
She can see so many stained windows cracked, destroyed, or melted into nothing but pieces...She saw three familiar statues of stone, and they're so still, and after checking around them, she looked back, and blinked in surprise as the statues are now changed, yet still stone. Victor, the tall one is doing an army signal that says 'Slow'. Hugo, the tubby one is doing the signal of 'Enemy seen', and Laverne, the short one, is doing the signal of 'File formation'.
"Something wrong?", John asked her as Emma continued to stare at the trio. "A bit... the statues... I think... they're different somehow... get Phoebus, I need to know if these statues were like this before.", she said. Emma wasn't taking any chances in case the gargoyles were trying to warn them.
John nodded, "Aye.", and urged his horse to get to Achilles and Phoebus, whispering quickly, and they returned to Emma's position, and Phoebus spoke quietly, "Silver said something about statues.".
Emma gestured subtly to the gargoyles, "Are they different to ya now?", and Phoebus looked her way, and blinked, "Quasi said that Notre Dame is sentient in a way. She must be still alive to change those statues. That's definitely army signals, but how did they know that?".
Emma spoke, "Who cares as long as they're warning us?", urgently looking at Phoebus, and he nodded, "With them being high above us...the enemy must be hiding among the roofs and balconies...".
"They couldn't...", Phoebus shook his head then in thought. "I mean, the griffins are right above us, surely they would've seen something...".
"Any chance we could ambush their ambush then?", Emma had a small smirk. Clearly Frollo's ambush was probably waiting for even more of the army to come through... or perhaps just wait until it's the rear of the army to really cause damage.
John smirked, "If only Notre Dame can help out.", and Emma looked again to see the gargoyles, and they're not there, and then suddenly, an eerie, muted sound of bells rang out, the sun striking the bells, and the streaks of shine landed on several certain buildings where the enemy was hiding, not on the balconies, but inside the buildings.
Emma grinned, "John, you got those grenades with you?", referring to the manmade grenades Haku made for the team, and John blinked, and smirked, "You read my mind.", before getting off his horse from the side, and with Emma and Phoebus blocking the way, John went to transport through the sunlight shadows.
Phoebus ordered loudly, "Formation, everyone! Eyes peeled! Archers, get set!", and not even a minute later, seven buildings exploded, with the enemy screaming and stragglers struggling to get out of the buildings, with John destroying the seventh building as he emerged out in his dragon form, roaring.
The archers let loose as soon as they spotted the enemy, a whole squad of dark forces slayed in less than a second while a few more explosions went off. Frollo's forces had little time to react as they were caught completely off guard for the forces of good.
The explosions caught the rest of Frollo's forces off guard in different sections of town where the other kingdom armies are, and with orders from their kings/queen or generals, they went into skirmishes with the enemy, with Jason unshrinking the cannonball slingshots to shoot into buildings where more of Frollo's forces are, as the rest of the United Talons went dragon to scatter the enemy into the sights of the armies.
At the same time, Mickey and Mulan were together, deeper in the marching columns further back when they heard the sounds of battle ahead.
"Sounds like another ambush...", Mulan sighed as Mickey looked to her belly, "Phoebus is up ahead. He can easily handle things; I want you to stay back today.".
Mulan nodded, "Yes, sir.", hearing the commanding tone in his voice, and patted Khan on the neck, "Stay close to Mickey, Khan.", before gathering her knees up, and leaped, shifting into dragon, flying up to a high building, and landing, her spikes erect and ready.
She kept watching over Mickey and his squadron and released spikes at the enemy before they even got the chance to ambush them or even come into her building. She saw that this technique surprisingly worked wonders, and she is relieved that Mickey is right, and she knew that Jason would be happy to know that she is safe this way.
The fighting went fever pitched, Frollo's forces were on their last legs already and the Narnian army and its allies could see victory here already and were rushing in to finish the job.
"Come on, just a bit further!", John called out as a cavalry squadron rode by and crashed right into a weak defensive rank that had been formed.
In the river that crossed through the town, King Triton and his army made it, with Zuri guiding them, and Triton used his trident to blast the remains of Frollo's army while Zuri in her dragon form fired water-fire balls at the archers as Triton's soldiers surrounded Zuri, protecting her from any stray arrows, by using their swords to deflect them away.
It was perhaps 15-20 minutes of battle before the armies saw that they won, and a great cheer echoed through the town, and King Triton smiled to himself before feeling his Trident get hot for some reason, and he listened, his eyes laying on a dark building, not knowing that it was the Palace of Justice, Frollo's former home, but he felt a dark magic wardstone.
He strikes the Trident in the ground, and a streak of gold-white went through the ground like an earthquake scar, straight for the building, and dived under the building through cracks of the foundation, and found the dark magic wardstone, and with much focus and determination, the power of the Trident destroyed the wardstone, and in turn, the building became destroyed, and suddenly, the smell of dark magic was gone, and Notre Dame was ringing quite clearly and loudly as numerous blue wisps of the dead villagers appeared, having been trapped behind the dark magic for almost five years, unable to find their way to the heavens of Neverland, until now.
