Disclaimer: So I don't own any OUaT characters, but I'd like to!

Also, if you think I'm doing something really cool, or you just think its crap (oh heavens no she is ruining that character!) whatever send me a message or review—I'd love to hear from any of you! Thanks for reading!—Adria

Also I just edited these today, but I hope to get up a chapter every few days—EXCEPT during breaks or finals.

Chapter 2: A Timely Meeting

If I were being honest with myself, I wanted to meet Bao Yu's sons on my way out of town. They deserved to die for the murder of my family, and if I had seen them, either they or I would have died that day, but I saw no one on my way out of the village. Not a single child, woman, or man was outside, and as I rode away, the usually busy village was silent. I resumed my disguise on my journey—no need to be attacked for being a woman—and I began my long journey west.

The burning sun was like nothing that I had ever seen not in India, not in Persia, and not even in Egypt. I skipped a stone across the Gulf of Aquaba, and watched it sink beneath the waves. Were it not a special day, I would already have left for cooler lands, but it has been three years to the day since my family died, and I have honored their memory on this day each year. My heart had grown sick of war after the last three years of fighting, so I was sitting on the water's edge praying for a sign from the ancestors. I'd been waiting for the last few hours, but nothing had happened—not even a fish jumping.

I was beginning to despair of a sign, and stood to leave, when I heard fighting. I looked around and saw to the north a single man assailed by five Saracen warriors. Without hesitation I drew my sword, put on my helmet, and ran toward the fight. By the time I got there, the man was down and the Saracens were dividing up the contents of his saddlebags. I ran the first man through before they even noticed my presence and spun dispatching the second. By this time, the others had rallied and all turned to face me; moments later they all charged. I tripped the leader and dispatched the man following right behind him. As I turned to dispatch the fifth, the leader knocked my legs out from under me causing me to drop my sword in my fall, but before he could dispatch me I rolled away and jumped to my feet. Turning to face the last two warriors, I tackled the leader, drew his knife and dispatched him; then I rolled to the side, gathered my sword, and finished off the last man.

I ran back to the fallen knight. He had light brown hair which even included a scruffy beard. It was far smaller than the beards I saw in Persia, but unlike my brethren he was not quite clean shaven, and it looked different to my eyes. His armor was made of linked circles of some metal, but he wore a plate of armor with a golden sun emblazoned on it over his chest and a ragged grey scarf around his neck. He must have been wounded on his side as I saw blood dripping from under his armored plate, so I lifted it off and cut one of the head scarves from a Saracen into pieces for bandages.

"Water, please. I beg you, just a mouthful of water for the heat," he moaned and I turned back round toward him. Grabbing a water flask from the Saracen whose scarf I had "appropriated" I poured some water ever so carefully into his mouth. "Thank you" he sighed and began to close his eyes.

"No!" I shook his arm, and he opened them again. "Keep awake. I can bandage your wound a little, but you lost much blood. If you fall asleep, I may never be able to wake you." He nodded.

"I understand, thank you. Who do I have to thank for my rescue?"

I thought to myself before answering; I could tell him the man's name I had been using off and on during my travels, but looking into his eyes, somehow I knew he could be trusted. After tying the knot for the bandage on his side, I took off my helmet. "Mulan, my name is Mulan." His eyes widened momentarily seeing that I was a woman, but he recovered—rather quickly I thought—and nodded his head.

"I see. Thank you, Mulan, I owe you my life, and I am in your debt. My name is Phillip…" He looked round before continuing, "and I should be fine on my own to get back to my camp if you must go."

I shook my head. "It would be better to remain together. I doubt you will be able to walk for at least two days, and there may be more of the Saracens nearby. Which direction is your camp? I am not so constrained in my travels that I cannot take you there."

He smiled and bowed his head. "As you wish. My soldiers and I are travelling northwest toward the Mediterranean Sea and the port Alexandria. I turned back to explore a cavern I saw along the way, and those men followed after me from there. " Smirking a little, he added, "and I outrode them too—even with their little Arabian horses. Had they not cut me off, they never would have caught up with me."

"I will travel with you to your camp. Let me go gather my supplies, then I will return to help you up." After collecting my things I returned and assisted him to mount. Initially he was reluctant to accept my help, but the wound must have been worse than it appeared because he was wincing and grabbing his side the whole time.

We travelled slowly, so it was dark before we reached his campsite. As we approached, the sentry called out, "Halt! Declare yourself, friend or foe?"

Phillip replied, "Hail Thomas, it is I, Phillip, and a friend!"

"Hail Prince Phillip! Welcome back, we were worried after you did not return by nightfall."

"I was attacked by Saracens and injured, but my friend here fought them off for me. Have the doctor meet me at my tent and have food brought for us."

"Yes my lord!" The sentry signaled for a guard to come over and relayed Phillip's instructions as we entered the camp.

On our way to his tent, I turned to Phillip. "Prince? Why did you not tell me, so I could show you the proper respect? Please, forgive my ignorance." I bowed my head to him as was customary when meeting royalty and I pulled back on my horse—riding slightly behind him now.

He smiled and replied "Hey, do not bow to me like that. As far as I am concerned we are equals, and well, I didn't want to tell you everything about me. At least not at once." He laughed, and for the first time in three years I smiled truly because of his reply. No one I had ever met had treated me with this much respect knowing I was a woman. Throughout the ride, I had actually enjoyed his company, and after this, I knew that this was a place that I would not want to leave. We reached his tent and passed the reigns to waiting servants, then I helped him to dismount and supported him on my shoulders at we entered the tent.

As ordered, there was a doctor and food waiting for us. Phillip waved toward the food, "Please sit and eat, while Dr. Whale treats my injury." I sat and began to eat as the doctor removed both his armor and under shirt. I was unsure what much of the food was; perhaps Phillip would tell me before I left. Whale examined the bandage and surrounding area as I watched, curious about this strange culture's medicine. He pressed softly on the wound and glanced under the bandage—seeing the reddened wound area and then stood up.

"My Prince, I have bad news. Your wound is inflamed and I will have to bleed you to relieve the tension. Without it you will overheat and die. I will ret—"

"No!" I burst out standing up. "If you bleed him he will surely die. The wound must be infected; with the proper herbs, I can make the inflammation go down without bleeding him."

Dr. Whale looked at me in shock. "Prince Phillip, who is this woman? And how does she claim to know anything about medicine? Herbs are poisonous, my lord. Any educated man knows this! Guard, take this woman out!"

This time it was Phillip's turn to say no. "Guard, stand down. Whale, this woman saved my life. If she says that herbs can heal my wound, I am willing to let her try." He turned to me, "What will you need, Mulan?"

I turned to Whale, and listed off the supplies I needed. Many of the names were unfamiliar to him, but he recognized at least half of them, and I was confident that using those, I would be able to make a good poultice for the prince. I motioned for Phillip to lay back and took the bandage off completely revealing a deep gash in his side. It looked much worse in the fire-light than it had earlier in the day, most likely because of the journey to camp and the heat. I frowned slightly at the thought.

"That bad hmm?" Phillip said light heartedly. "Don't worry; I've had worse injuries in the war. Although, this is one of the worst…" He drifted off eyes glazing over a bit, and I shook him. He needed to keep his spirits up, so I decided to ask him some questions to keep his mind occupied.

"What war was that? Are you not from here then?" Whale entered and handed me the herbs as requested and I began to mix them with some water on one of the plates as Phillip replied. To my displeasure, Whale watched me constantly over my shoulder as I worked.

"My country, Ireland was called upon by our sister nation England to send soldiers to fight in a great Crusade to take back our holy land. A few weeks ago, we took back the capitol and won victory, but before going home, I decided to explore the area for a bit." He shrugged "A bit foolish of me I gather, as there is nothing here but sand. But I promised my sister to learn as much about these areas as I could, so that when I returned I could tell her of them." He smiled softly, and I could tell he was thinking of her.

I finished mixing the ingredients into a paste and received some new bandages from Whale. "Prince Phillip, I need to put this in your wound. It will cool it and reduce the swelling eventually helping it heal, but be warned it will sting." He nodded and grabbed a goblet of wine, draining it down in a single gulp.

"Continue then, I am as ready as I will ever be."

I lifted up the plate and poured half of my mixture onto his wound. He gasped but made no other sound, and I knew he was struggling with the pain. "Tell me more about your sister. If she wanted so badly to see this land, why did she not come herself?"

He smiled and continued. "My sister? Leave Ireland? My father would never allow it. As the future queen of our land she is constantly beset with suitors and spends all her time preparing to learn how to rule. When we were younger, though, she was my constant companion. We slew dragons, saved princesses, and explored strange lands together. In all my travels, I have never met someone who was so curious about the world as she is, but," he paused and shook his head smiling broadly, "she is the most stubborn person I have ever met as well. When Father told her she had to stay behind, she said nothing–surprising us all. Instead, the next morning I found her on my ship and had to put her back on shore. Some of my men still have scars from where she kicked them." He burst out in laughter, stopping suddenly as his chest pained him, but he kept smiling.

As I wrapped up the wound again I was saddened even to hear his story. From his treatment of me, I had hoped his land was more accepting, but it seemed it was not the case. Remembering my own childhood, I knew how hard it was to be trapped by such a life, and even without having met his sister, I felt pity for her and wanted to learn more. Now was not a good time, however, as Phillip needed his rest now, and when he mentioned his sister's attempt to stowaway Whale had grimaced, so I figured he was one of those still scarred. Picturing him being knocked down by a girl my mouth twitched as I tried to suppress a smile. I stood and Phillip tried to get up also. "Prince Phillip, you must rest, and you should remain lying down for the rest of the night." He nodded, and motioned for the guard to come over.

"Prepare a tent for my friend, and ensure she has anything she needs for the night." The guard nodded and motioned for me to follow him. "And Mulan? Drop the prince—I don't need to be titled by you as well as everyone else." Nodding, I left, hearing Phillip dismissing Whale also. Whale rushed out of the tent shoving me out of his way as he passed—not even turning to apologize.

Undoubtedly I had made an enemy that night, but I was unsure why. If he had truly cared about the prince, who healed him should not have mattered, so I resolved to keep an eye on him in the future. As I had learned to my own detriment, angry men were not to be trusted. I followed the guard to the tent and collapsed inside, too tired to even remove my armor. Before I drifted off to sleep, my last thoughts were of Phillip's sister. I hoped he would talk about her more in the morning, and, strangely, I hoped she had found some way around the fate her parents were going to force her into.

The next morning I rose with the sun and walked to Phillip's tent to check on him, but he was standing giving directions to his men to my surprise. They were packing up the tents and preparing to move out.

"Mulan!" he shouted and began to run, but thinking better of it instead he walked over and embraced me. The act surprised me; not in my land or in any other land I'd visited had men been this familiar with women they were not married to. On the other hand, he seemed like a brother to me already with his kind actions, so I returned the gesture.

"We have received word that our ship has arrived at port less than a day's journey away, and we are preparing to return home! It is truly a joyous time."

I smiled, but was unable to return his enthusiasm. It was unfair of the ancestors to send me people like these and then to take them away this suddenly. I had looked forward to many adventures in this land with Phillip, but now I would have to continue my journey alone. Trying to hide my disappointment, I gave Phillip a travelling blessing. Bowing to him, I said "May your ancestors guide and protect your journeys and bring you honor and adventure in your travels."

Phillip's face fell. "Are you not coming with us? You would hold a place of honor in my family, and I yet owe you my life twice over." He glanced down at his side. "See? Well no, you don't, but my side is much better—nearly healed. I would be honored if you would journey home with us to Ireland, and" he smirked here running his hand through his hair, "I'm sure our ancestors will grant us many adventures on our way home. Will you join us?"

He gave me a puppy-dog face just like Feng's, and I looked down trying to prevent my emotions from showing on my face. The last things I wanted Phillip to see were my tears. I forced a smile on my face, which was surprisingly easy as I actually wanted to go to Ireland with him. "It would be an honor to travel to Ir-ehl-and with you." I struggled with the name, and he laughed.

"She agreed!" He cried raising his sword arm above his head in a fist. The men all cheered, and I looked at him with curiosity. "Do you not know? The men are all excited to see the great Asian warrior who saved their prince, and they are delighted to have her travelling with them." He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered "They think you bring good luck!" then leaned back and grinned.

The look on my face so reminded me of Feng, that I thought if he had been born after Feng's death he would surely be a reincarnation of him. Perhaps their spirits were brothers in a former life. "If I travel with you, you must promise me something," I stated, not about to enter a strange land unprepared.

"Anything you desire will be yours, Mulan. Within reasonable limits of course." He paused for effect, "My Father would never forgive me if I promised away half his kingdom." His men laughed and began to talk of some foolish Queen and I heard some long name beginning with 'R,' but I did not understand how that was funny.

"Would you tell me more of this Ir-ehl-and and your customs? Your family, this war, and your travels. Is that acceptable?" I hoped he would say yes, as I wanted to hear more of his sister. I didn't even know her name yet, but I wanted to know all I could. Back home, a person would never give such information up to a near stranger, but he had said anything… yet by his jest, he didn't seem to mean it.

He tossed his head back and laughed at such a simple request. "Of course, Mulan! I would be happy to tell you anything you could possibly ask. Perhaps you can even match my sister for curiosity, eh?" A soldier brought us both goblets of wine, and he raised his toward the sun. "To the best and most honorable journey home!" We drank the wine together, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we stood there watching the men dismantle the tents in preparation for our journey to his home.