No Armor Against Fate

Her dark brown eyes looked away from his the moment she noticed his arms tighten against his chest. His words also struck a cord with her and she began to feel bad for acting the way she was. Mulan had known that he cared about her but to actually hear him hint at having such feelings made it seem more real to her. Her eyes returned to him when he mentioned her either staying with him or back at the tavern. She had thought she would stay at the tavern but the thought of walking up stairs wasn’t exactly something she was fond of. And if she was going to be resting then she wanted some place quiet and she wouldn’t get that with the bar right below her. “…If I stay with you then you won’t make me see a doctor, correct?”

Just to tease him, she harden her glare and moved her chin out a little more when he told her to stop. But after a minute she relaxed and wrapped an arm around her waist. She chewed on her bottom lip a little as she tried to think of the best way to tell him what had happened. She knew she couldn’t get away with lying, especially since he would already see through her bluff. Mulan stayed quiet for a little longer as he moved next to her, placed an arm around her waist, and lowered his shoulder enough for her to wrap her own arm around him. “You’re still too tall,” she muttered through a soft hiss while she wrapped her arm around his shoulder as best as she could. “I was attacked by bandits. They spooked Khan and he threw me from his back. I wasn’t able to land correctly and hurt myself because of it.”

#mytruereflection #v: main #para: i'm out here without a shield

Raising a bushy brow the blacksmith tilted his head to look down at the young warrior. “Now I didn't say that, Mulan.” Bart replied as he then lifted his head and looked towards the smithy and his small house that was somewhat attached. “You have to see a physician. Even if you don't think so.” He could tell that she was certainly more than just winded. If he thought for any second that Mulan was simply winded then he would have picked her up and laid her down in bed for a couple of days – but the fact she had at least broken ribs and many bruises – no she had to be properly tended to. “The physician will come tomorrow. I'll let you relax today.” There was going to be no denying it. There was little to no argument. The warrior needed to be tended to or else she could do herself more damage than good. Having seen worse wounds go bad just because they weren't attended to he knew what to expect. Broken ribs he had seen many a times – and Mulan was showing symptoms of it. He rolled his eyes as she told him that he was still too tall, “And you're still too short.” He replied as he began to lead her towards the house. His attention turned on Khan as he glanced over his shoulder. He decided to would tend to the horse after he got her settled down inside. The horse was clever enough, he wouldn't disappear in a matter of minutes. “Well you're safe now,” He replied after hearing her story. “Those bandits will be long gone. Did they get anything from you?” Apart from her obvious dignity. He could tell that she was embarrassed about what had occurred.

Mulan straightened her posture a little more when she saw Jasper and then come over to greet her. She smiled at the dog and up at the man before she noticed his smile vanish. She must have looked worse then she originally thought if he was already frowning at her as if he knew what was wrong. Then again she sort of guessed he would. He was a knight and had been one for awhile. Wounds were nothing new to him as much as they were to her and he had more years of fighting under his belt then she did.

That didn’t stop her stubbornness from coming out when he told her she needed a doctor. “I know what’s wrong with me,” she said as she tilted her chin out a little in a stubborn gesture. “All I need is some medicine and some rest.” And by medicine she meant herbs to brew into a tea to dull the pain. There was very little a doctor could do for her besides tell her what she already knew. The only reason why Mulan would visit one was to get the medicine she wanted. She was a little surprised he hadn’t asked her how she had got wounded but then she guessed it was only a matter of time.

#mytruereflection #v: main #para: i'm out here without a shield

“That being said, Mulan.” He spoke firmly, his arms tightening across his chest, “I have very little delight in seeing you in this way – and unless you're going to stay at the tavern and not in my house then---” He moved forward and placed his hand to Khan's reigns. “I'd rather you were seen by one.” The Knight tilted his head and looked at her. She was beautiful as ever, even with her stubborn look and the slight glare that tempted to be thrown her way. “Now don't look at me like that,” He rolled his dark eyes before looking back at his house. “What happened?” He questioned as he decided that maybe he should assist Mulan first before taking Khan to the stables next to Midnight. Moving his arm around her waist he offered her arm to go around his shoulder. “You didn't get that just dilly dallying down the road.”

She was thankful that no one stopped stopped Khan or even seemed to notice that she was injured. It was painful sitting up in the saddle but after some time she barely noticed it unless Khan moved in a way that moved her body. It would return then but she would once again focus her mind elsewhere and forget about it. Stopping and wrapping cold bandages around the spot also helped but Mulan tried to keep that to minimum. She knew that staying in the saddle for long periods of time wasn’t exactly good but it was the best way for her to get back to England as fast as she could.

The sight of the smithy made her release a sigh of relief. The lecture she knew would come once Bart learned she had hurt herself was worth it just to see him again or so she thought. The only problem- getting down from Khan. Stopping her stallion outside the smithy, Khan looked back at her and a soft worried nicker came from him. Mulan patted her hand to give him some reassurance that she was going to be okay as she prepared herself with the task of dismounting. The quicker she did this the better. Counting to three in her head, she dismounted as quickly as she could on three. She let out a hiss and immediately leaned against Khan the moment her feet were on solid ground. Khan nuzzled her arm as she waited for the pain to subside. She could hear Jasper barking and knew that soon enough Bart would probably come out to see what exactly was exciting the dog. And had every intention on using that time to regain her breath and get ready to be yelled at.

#mytruereflection #v: main #para: i'm out here without a shield

Placing his hand upon the top of the dog's head Jasper began to calm, but was wagging his tail excitedly and wanted to see what that smell was. He could almost sense that there was someone familiar that he hadn't seen in a while around the corner. Turning his head and looking up Bart looked towards the village and saw that Mulan was back. He was surprised to see her; thinking she would have done anything but return to England, but he couldn't help but smile. But, as he opened the door – Jasper dashing out before him towards the Chinese warrior and her horse, Bart began to head towards her. His walking slowed a little as he walked, however, as he noticed that there was something wrong. He furrowed his bushy brow and crossed his arms over his chest as he stopped a little bit away from her. Normally he would have went in for a hug – but he knew battle wounds (or at least a broken rib) where he saw it. One of his fellow knights had at least broken three ribs one day... and Mulan had certainly seemed to be in the same state. “You need to see a physician.”

She didn’t know which was worse, the painful journey back to England or what had happened to make her return in pain. Gāisǐ de tǔfěi. The memory still made her grit her teeth and cringe a little. How they had taken her by surprise was a mystery but the fact of that matter was it had happened. They had surprised her, spooked Khan, and made him fling her from his back. She had managed to fight them off, get back onto Khan, and put some distance between her and them thanks to Khan’s speed and the aid of the thick forest. Khan tried to make it up putting her in pain afterwards by being more gentle and even more careful when it came to walking with her on his back. But that didn’t make Mulan’s bruised or broken rib hurt any less.

In the end she was just glad to be in a town. She could get the attention she needed, since her methods of lessening the pain while she traveled were beginning to not work, and she knew she would be safe. But being able to see Bart again was the thought that kept on coming up in her mind. She had missed more then she thought she would and the thought of seeing him again made her excited. The thought of finding out she was hurt, though, lessened that excitement a little. Shaking her head, Mulan nodded politely to the few people that seemed to remember her from her last visit as Khan walked down the street towards the smithy. She knew she should have gone to a doctor or the inn first, but she at least wanted to tell Bart herself what happened and not have him find out some other way.

#mytruereflection #para: i'm out here without a shield #v: main

The blacksmith opened the door from the smithy into the backyard so that he could tend to Midnight his horse. The last thing he wanted right then was to do more work. He moved his hand after un-gloving it and then wiping the back of it against his sweaty brow. His attention was mostly on the grazing horse who hadn't taken a hoof out of the stables. He knew he could trust the old stallion. He wasn't as young as he used to be; but at least he was as loyal. “Huh?” He questioned, turning his head at the sound of his pet dog barking loudly and bolting from the smithy, around the side of the building and towards the front and into the town. “Jasper!” Bart called out, before coughing away the feeling in his throat. “Ugh,” He groaned, throwing his gloves to the small table beside the door and then following him. When he found the dog he was barking at the closed gate, trying to push up so that his front paws were on the wooden planks that surrounded the smithy and stopped him escaping when Bart was busy but let the dog run around. “What is it, Lad?”

titansdaughter

❝When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves.❞ ↳ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 51 || Jon’s wolf dream The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes? Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow. […] Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him. […] And suddenly he was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. […] Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun … “Ghost!” Jon shouted, sitting up. He could still feel the talons, the pain. “Ghost, to me!”

#mytruereflection #para: i'm out here without a shield #v: main

{I'm out here without a shield}

It had been a long time since Bart had seen his old apprentice Mulan. She wasn't his apprentice, per say, but he would call her that – he helped her learn English little by little when she was in England, aided her with her swords, showed her how to take expert care of them. They would practice with the swords. She would even stay at his house and kept Jasper company when he was working. Having her been gone for months now had caused him a slight cause of disappointment because he had to admit – he missed her. She had become such a regular face in his life, and he wanted to see her again. Hopefully, one day soon he would hear her laugh and curse at him in Chinese whilst he had teased her and she would tease him back. It was just how they were. And maybe she would come back to England and reconcile with him – they had probably missed so much in each other's lives and Bart wanted to tell her all about how he had been as a Knight and a father/older brother figure to the King, Arthur.

Being outside and alone, save for Khan grazing in his pin, helped relaxed the warrior more than she had thought. It wasn’t something she was about to complain about either. Working or having her mind distracted always helped her cope with whatever stress she was going through. It had been happy when she learned that during her time training for the war and she wished she had learned it sooner. Maybe then she wouldn’t have pushed her chores off so much. Then again Mulan still did that so perhaps it wouldn’t have helped all that much.

Needless to say, her guard gradually fell as she worked the stone against her sword to get it to shine once more. Getting lost within her own thoughts she didn’t hear the man walk intot he courtyard until his shadow loomed over her and he spoke. So much for knowing when he was arriving. Straightening her back and looking up at him, her eyes widened a little at what he told her. That caused a small gash to form on her pride and she fought back a blush of embarrassment. The only time that Mulan had heard such a comment was when she was still in training. Now she thought she could do it as well as any seasoned soldier. To hear otherwise from someone that was a complete stranger to her…Well that didn’t go over so well.

Her hand stopped and she tried to keep her grip on the stone and the hilt of her sword. It was harder but she believed she managed. The last thing she needed was for her mother to scold her on mistreating their guest. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said as she went back to running the stone down her blade. Fortunately Mulan didn’t think her blade needed that much cleaning and after another pass of the stone she placed it on the ground in favor of the cloth. Whipping it down the blade to clean it of any left over remnants of the stone.

"Mama is in the kitchen preparing tea," Mulan said as she kept her eyes on her work. "You go inside if you like. Grandmother and Father would most likely not object to the company."

#mytruereflection #au: unique birthmark #para: unique birthmark I

A small sigh left the Blacksmith's lips as he looked at the way the girl glanced at him. If that wasn't a hate look then... he shrugged it off and shook his head. “I'm just saying,” He replied as she finally spoke. He had an assumption of who she was. When she finally said where her parents were, Bart knew that he was right. She was the granddaughter, the daughter that they were proud of. Mulan. She had served in the army in disguise of a man and saved the whole of China. “It's my trade,” He shrugged a shoulder as he looked down at her again. “Well, it was. I was a blacksmith by trade. When I wasn't serving my King as a knight. It's the metal that you use here,” He nudged his head down. “Sharp enough, it would with hold that stone no matter how much pressure was added with it.” Nodding his head he decided to leave her be. It seemed that she didn't want his company; but he couldn't blame her. What she had been through he guessed she had to be weary, especially with her family – and especially with foreigners. “Well your Father would probably be thankful for the saving.” Discussions of tea when discussions of war could happen instead? Yes, he had a feeling the old man would prefer that. He could even have offered Mulan in on the talking – but she still seemed to want to keep her distance. Making his way past the girl, careful of her armour and her sword, he hoped that she wouldn't make him work too hard for her respect.

I don't quite think Glameow works well as my mun fc over here...

buron

Third of the Fifth (5)

cinenanime

savesupergirl2

#v: pokemon #;the team

Grunting she wiped some sweat from her brow and finished muking out Khan’s stall. Unfortunately the mad mood she had left the main house with had yet to vanish. She knew that her reason for being wasn’t fair. The only reason her parents had asked for help with the farm was because she was away. Though they had won the war against the Huns, the Chinese army had taken a major hit. Many lives had been lost and therefore the army needed to be rebuilt. As the one that had saved China, the Emporer had asked her to help Shang train his new army. With it being a direct order from the Emporer Mulan couldn’t say no. So she packed her bags and left for the Imperial City.

For the past two years she had been living there and the only way she was able to talk to her family was through letters. It was a shock to her when her mother wrote and informed her that they had “adopted” a foreigner. Well, Mulan wasn’t really surprised by it. Her father couldn’t take care of the farmer like he used to and neither could her grandmother. There was only so much her mother could do on her own too. She was more surprised by the fact that her father had agreed to allow a foreigner to help with the farm. But according to her mother the man was helpful and the family was happy to have him come by and help.

Then, of course, her mother had to constantly ask her about her search on her soulmate. That always made her eyes roll while she read the letter. In her mind she didn’t have time for it. She had been training men to protect China and therefore there was no room for romance. But now…Now her mother would say there was. By now girls had already found their soulmates, happily married, and either had children or had one on the way. But not Mulan. She had been busy risking her life for her father by going to war. Pretending to be a man also didn’t leave any sort of room for it either. She had developed a crush on Shang but when she saw that he had a completely different birthmark then hers she gave that up. Her birthmark, one that was on the back of her shoulder and looked like a chinese dragon, didn’t seem to be on anyone within China and she was fine with that. She didn’t need to get married or anything like that to be happy and live the life she wanted.

Leaving Khan’s stall and entering the house again, her mother immediately ushered her out of her clothes and into warm (thankfully) bath. As her mother began to scrub her hair and body clean the older woman explained that they were expecting company later on. When she questioned her mother on who was coming by she got an answer she didn’t exactly like. The man that had helped the family while she was away would be visiting. Wonderful…Once her mother was happy with how clean she was, Mulan was free to get dress and do as she pleased until their guest arrived. “As long as you stay clean,” her mother had said in a stern voice. Which meant she couldn’t practice any of martial arts or go riding. It didn’t stop either from crossing her mind. A ride would have been wonderful but she had managed to stay in her mother’s good grace since she returned a few days ago and didn’t want to get the older woman angry at her just yet.

Instead she grabbed a few pieces of her armor and her sword and went outside. With her she brought some soap stone and a cloth so she could clean and polish her armor and sword. Taking the soap stone in hand and taking up her sword, Mulan began to clean the edge of the sword as she sat with her back against the house. She was in the right spot to see anyone enter the main courtyard and would know when the man finally arrived. She had no intent on socializing right away and just wished to see how he treated her family. His actions would determine whether or not he earned her trust.

#mytruereflection #au: unique birthmark #para: unique birthmark I

It was something that Bart hadn't gotten used to. Cleaning up after himself and tending to himself when it came to cooking and laundry – that was second nature. Back in England he had to take care of himself, although the King had assured him that he would be welcome to stay in the castle with the other knights – but he had a home and he wanted to keep it; especially to honour Catherine. After spending two years at sea travelling, he was still surprised that the had gotten to China unscathed. The fact that the wars had happened... he just hadn't really gotten used to the fact that he had been so welcomed into the village. Getting the wet clothing back into the basket, he made his way back to the little hut that he stayed in. He had strung up a make-shift clothing line to dry his clothes. When he placed the clothes on the line he knew that he would have had to head towards the house of his friends for the tea. Bart knew the grandmother well enough to understand if he bailed that he wouldn't hear the end of it. Apparently there was going to be something happening that she wanted him there for. He didn't know what it would be, but he wasn't going to dishonour them. He owed them a lot for helping him when he had come into the village in the first place. Taking off the top that he had managed to get covered in the water from the river, Bart pulled on some of the clothing that the Fa family had given to him to wear so that he didn't stick out more than he already did just because of his appearance. Making his way towards the courtyard his attention soon went on the young woman that was sitting with some armour and swords. His attention was actually more on the swords. The way that she was cleaning it – it wasn't something he had seen a lot of, a woman tending to swords. But as a blacksmith he knew how it was done and he could comment on her use of the stone and cloth. “You can work the stone harder than that,” Bart commented – announcing his arrival. He knew that because he hadn't met this girl before that he should have been more courteous and showed his manners, but well – he was sure they would be introduced soon enough. “It won't break with a little more of a push.”

mysnarkyself

mysnarkyself