Jason blinked in surprise as Buck gave a snort and nicker, and he patted his neck, "Don't worry, boy, we'll beat them one day. We just need to practice, that's all.".
Buck whinnied softly as Jason rode him, cantering as he caught his breath, soon joining Mulan and Khan as they waited at a four-way signpost. Mulan giggled softly, "Maybe you need to practice in the country horse races...Gods, we used to have so much fun back then, right, Khan?", ruffling Khan's mane, and he whickered lightly.
Jason smiled, "Country horse races, huh? Must have been something to see.", and Mulan nodded, "We used to have them long before the war, and now, Khan is practically a warhorse not by choice, but by necessity, but oh, Khan is one of the fastest horses that everybody knew in all of Enchantia.".
"Well, we can have those races back when we win the war, Mulan, no doubt about it. I'll be cheering you on in those days.", Jason chuckled lightly, and Mulan grinned, "That would be wonderful.", before looking up at the signpost, "Let's head to Griffin Meadow in the south, and then to King Eric's kingdom of Zaren in the east, and then finally to Cair Paravel in the north.".
"Quite a few days journey for all of them.", Mulan reminded. "Hey, it's something to do while we wait for the honeymoons to finish. After that; more than likely, the team will probably be on the move again north to the Congo; finally liberate everything there and keep pushing.", Jason said.
"Really is hard to believe when you think about it. That the war could be over soon... and that we'll win...", Mulan sighed in bewilderment and amazement.
Jason smiled, squeezing her hand as he reached over, "Sure seems that way, Mulan.", turning the reins to the right, "South, it is.", with Mulan at the side, doing the same.
"What is Griffin Meadow anyway?", Jason asked curiously, and Mulan chuckled lightly, "That's where most of the natural griffins live with a handful of griffin shapeshifters here and there, with the rest of the griffin shapeshifters scattered over Enchantia. You met one of them, right, Jack-Jack?".
Jason nodded, "Yea, he was a teenager, was a prisoner in Cruella's kingdom takeover. Lucky, King Edward put things back to rights as it should be. He's back together with his family, thanks to Emma's portals and Adam's magic mirror.".
Mulan smiled softly, "That's really good to hear. Anyway, the griffin shapeshifters created a community of foragers and blacksmiths in Griffin Meadow, making incredible armor from the natural griffins' talent of finding gold in unique places. Captain Phoebus's armor is one example of that.".
"Certainly make our job a little easier than in the future.", Jason shrugged. "Indeed. Of course, at the rate you and the rest of the Talons are going; it might not even be much of a need.", Mulan smirked.
Jason grinned, "True. All the soldiers would want to hang up their armor and swords after the war is done, but there will be clean-up, I can tell you that...The war back on Earth was quite messy and difficult even with our weapons at the time, and especially with the fact that the region where the war was happening, ignored my nation's help to clean up...".
Mulan widened her eyes, "That's wrong! We may have regions and kingdoms, but Enchantia is our home at heart, and we will always help each other clean up and put things to rights again. It's like how King Mickey said, 'One people, one home.', and he's right.".
Jason smiled softly, "I like the sound of that, and Mulan, Enchantia is my home now, I'm 100% of it, and besides, there's nothing back there on Earth for either me or Logan.", looking at Mulan tenderly.
"I'm... I'm glad to hear that.", Mulan gave a small smile. "I would very much hate to see Enchantia's heroes leaving once we have our victory.".
"I agree. After all, you never know who else might want to rise up someday. Part of me thinks we'll still have quite a bit of work even after we finish off Frollo and Scar.", Jason commented with a shrug.
Mulan chuckled softly, "Possible, yes, but Enchantia will be stronger than ever to fight against any other person who dares to rise up.", and Jason nods, "Learn from the past, success to the future. I don't remember who said it, but I never forgot the phrase.".
Mulan smiled, "That's a fine saying, Jason.", and Jason smiled warmly before humming lightly, "So, is this King Eric a minor king or something?".
"Of sorts, he has lords and ladies here in the south, connected to him by distant family or family friends of Eric's deceased parents, so King Eric is essentially a caretaker of the south while King Mickey is a caretaker of the north...Eric is a good man, but he has been struggling to fight off depression for his people.", Mulan replied.
Jason blinked, "I've heard rumors of merpeople living in an underwater city called Atlantica, not too far off from Zaren...", and Mulan chuckled softly, "It's true. I myself witnessed it when Eric's true love tried to stop a sea witch from marrying Eric who was a prince at the time. Ariel was her name, I believe...She died from the sea witch's murderous ways, but not before Eric killed the sea witch with a wrecked ship's remains.".
Another unhappy ending, Jason thought as he cursed. He knew how screwed up the land was in many ways compared to the movies he had watched. Hearing that gave him a slight pain in himself to hear that, "I'm sorry to hear that. Not much we can do about it, can we?".
"Not that I know of, unless you have a way of bringing her back to life or something.", Jason shook his head at Mulan's statement.
Mulan shrugged lightly, "It's alright, Jason, you didn't know. Anyway, yeah, King Eric has been depressed ever since. Apparently, he and Ariel had been courting each other for 2 years secretly before the whole sea witch mess, and then of course, a year later, the war began. So, he's majorly trying to fight depression for the sake of his people, and the sake of King Mickey's calls of help, and Atlantica itself has been on the low-down, though I heard that Eric and King Triton have been talking here and there on the anniversary of Ariel's death every year since.".
Jason felt sad to hear that...He knew Zuri would be beyond shocked and upset as the Little Mermaid movie was her top favorite of all the Disney movies, and she admitted to the team that she had a crush on both Ariel and Eric as she is officially bi-sexual.
"So, what's the plan then, just check up on him and see if he's able to hold the line?", Jason asked. "One of the reasons, yes; it would be very upsetting to find all our gains reversed because Frollo or Scar hit us while we weren't looking. They've done it before.", Mulan said.
Jason nodded, "Especially when his kingdom is on the shoreline. I can see your point there. So, basically, check on the progress of the forging in Griffin Meadow, check on King Eric to see how he's holding up, and then head up north to Cair Paravel for you to report to King Mickey, right?".
Mulan grinned, "Yes. No wonder why I am getting to learn how to be in love again. Besides your exotic looks, your wonderful gentleman personality, and incredible skills in archery and swordsmanship, you are very perceptive as a soldier.".
"Years of training and all. Not exactly the type to command in ways though; I'd rather keep more of my focus on the fighting aspect.", Jason said.
"That's a good point in some ways. I know the difficulty that comes with command, when so many depend on you to get through things alive.", Mulan replied.
Jason nodded, "Yeah, Emma has the same issue. She deeply cares for us, the team. I think she'd be glad to retire and have a happy, peaceful life with Silver and the kids, you know?", and Mulan smiles, "I can believe that...It would be weird not to fight again after fighting all those years...True, I was Captain before General Mufasa for two years, and then the next two years as General...".
Jason hummed lightly, "Maybe we can do sparring competitions or something for all the surviving soldiers...Back home, many, many comrades of my nation's armies take time and patience to rehabilitee themselves for civilian life.".
"Huh, sounds interesting. Most of the armies here are just raised up from the population and once the fighting is done, go right back to whatever their jobs were beforehand.", Mulan explained.
Jason blinked, "Really? What if their jobs got filled of other people?", and Mulan smiled, "If their mentors are old, they couldn't mind multiple people for the same job. Same thing for apprentices. We are not cruel on homeless situations for we find solutions for them. Orphans of the war, they will get adopted, apprenticed out, or seek a place within their betrothed's home if they are close to marriage age.".
"I see...", Jason nodded. Very much how he expected with the Middle Ages and all; considering these lands very much were like that in society and technology in many ways.
Strangely enough, Jason feels like he could do life easily here, and besides, with magical healers and such, the world here is healthier and more accepting, far different than his Earth. He wouldn't wish discrimination, pollution, starvation, abuse, politics on this world, no way.
"Something wrong?", Mulan asked him as he shook his head. "No, just thinking this place is a lot better than home... in certain ways.", Jason chuckled. "Of course, it'll be even better once the lands are fully at peace.".
"That's the dream we've all been having for the past few years.", Mulan nodded with a smile. Jason smiled, "Then we can have a new dream together after that.", glancing at Mulan before noticing a bush with flowers, and he plucked one, giving it to Mulan with a tender look, "If you would like that, of course.".
Mulan gave a small chuckle as she took the flower and placed it in her hair, "Thank you very much, Jason. You're certainly quite the charmer.", with a warm smile. "I try. I always thought it never hurt to give a woman flowers.", Jason told her.
Mulan blushed softly, and looked at Jason, "You would be surprised that I actually never did think about what's after the whole peace thing...", and Jason chuckled, "I couldn't blame you for not thinking that far ahead since you had been focused on being General and helping Narnia. But now?", looking at her curiously.
Mulan chuckled lightly, "Well, there's one thing for sure. You'd have to meet my parents...", and Jason widened his eyes, gulping as he hadn't thought of that, "D-Do you think they'd be reserved about me since well, that we weren't betrothed or anything?".
"After everything that has happened, and especially the legacy you and the Talons have already left, I think they would be more than happy to meet you.", Mulan assured him.
Jason gave a sigh of relief, nodding, "I hope you're right, Mulan. Meeting the parents for any man in a relationship is essentially frightening...You will teach me how to be respectful around them, right? I don't want to mess up.", with a grimace, finally realizing what being a boyfriend feels like.
"Don't worry, just be as you are and you'll be fine.", Mulan assured him. "Still, maybe it would be best if I give you a few pointers with them... but not right now... I think it's still a bit too early for you to meet them. Maybe after we destroy Scar and Frollo would be perfect.", she smiled.
"Oh, taking care of the last threats to your lands would honestly make me look great in their eyes.", Jason joked.
Mulan chuckled, "That would be indeed perfect.", with a smile, and Jason smiled softly, "Yep.".
Mulan nodded, and urged Khan to walk a bit faster, and Jason happily followed her. The day and the next few days were then spent of camping and staying overnight in the inns, with Jason and Mulan's relationship growing steadily while checking on things Mulan wanted to do.
In the village outside Cair Paravel, Jason was looking at the shops while Mulan was catching up with some of her soldiers who are taking some rest from fighting. He saw two necklaces in a shop, one with a blossom flower and one with a cricket.
He knew that Mulan sold her and Shang's old yin & yang pendants two villages back as a symbol of making her peace with her past, and now it's the future, and she's with Jason now...He glanced at Mulan who's nodding approvingly at one of her soldiers' improvisations with swordsmanship and went into the shop to buy the necklaces.
"And here I thought I was going to have to be the one to buy everything." Jason chuckled as he thought about it. It wasn't too far from the truth; usually, he always expected to be the one to spend quite more for the girl in his relationship than the other way around. Then again, this place nor Mulan wasn't like what he normally knew.
Jason, with some bartering, bought the necklaces, and thanked the shopkeeper, and headed out to join Mulan who smiled at him, "Ready to meet King Mickey officially?".
Jason nodded, "Oh, yes. Let's go.", and they headed up to Cair Paravel, and made it in after a few minutes.
Mickey, Jason thought to himself. He had no idea how to truly react to all this. He had known the king all his life as a high-pitched talking mouse; not a man and certainly not a king; well, except for that Kingdom Hearts series he heard about, but other than that...
In the throne room, King Mickey sat in his throne chair with his wife in her throne chair next to him, smiling warmly as Mulan kneeled before him, with Jason following her example.
"General Fa Mulan, it's good to see you. How did the double wedding of Atlantis fare?", King Mickey spoke formally with a slight casual tone. Mulan looked up with a smile, "It fared quite well, and soon, their honeymoons will come to an end, though I couldn't blame them for the length of their time off for it gave me time to check on important things in the south.".
Mickey nodded, "The progress of the forging?", and Mulan replied, "It's going well, and the new recruits will have protection to wear within a few days' time before they can go off for battle.".
Mickey smiled, "Excellent, and my old friend?", and Mulan sighed heavily, "King Eric's people has been working hard on the greenhouses, and the food supply will be delivered within a week's time, and as for Eric, he's still deep in the pit of depression, why, he hasn't managed to even go out the week before.".
Queen Minnie gasped in horror, "Not even to go sail?", and Mulan sighed heavily, "Turns out the anniversary is coming up next month.". The king and queen widened their eyes before sighing, nodding as they understood before Queen Minnie smiled lightly, "And who is this? Rise up, young man.".
"This, your majesties, is Jason Valkara; brother of Logan who was one of the two grooms of the wedding. And is a member of the United Talons.", Mulan introduced him.
"The heroes of the war... the group that singlehandedly has turned the tide of this war back into our favor.", Jason could hear Mickey's impressed tone.
Jason bowed deeply, "Thank you, your majesty, but I know we are not done yet. Frollo and Scar is still at large, and who knows what kind of tricks they have up their sleeves?".
Mickey nodded, "Well said, Jason Valkara, I agree quite vehemently.", with a smile before chuckling, "I can sense magic inside you. Are you one of the fabled dragons?".
Jason shrugged, "Yes and no. I am still getting used to the magic inside me, and I'm not a dragon yet, but I have it deep inside, waiting for the moment to come out.", with a nod, and Mickey nodded, "Ah, I understand. I am a magician of good magic, and I can see that the magic inside you is good, for otherwise if your magic was dark, you wouldn't ever been able to come through the shield that's protecting Cair Paravel.".
Jason smiled in relief, "I appreciate the honesty, your majesty.", and Queen Minnie smiled, "I may not be a magician like my husband, but I am quite perceptive with signs of love. You are at peace, Mulan, and this man is clearly the cause of it.".
"These last few days... things have changed.", Mulan admitted with a small smile. "Uh, sorry, your majesty; I just wanted to add; that I understand what you mean about the shield and dark magic... I'm guess it wouldn't stop an invading horde, right?", Jason cut in as Mickey nodded.
"I wish it was the case but no; even the shield wouldn't hold back a true tide of darkness. And for a while, it looked like that would be the case...", Mickey sighed.