Fearless (A Mulan Retelling)

Chapter Eight

The moment Iris stepped off the platform and moved about the area, she found that there were more soldiers out and about now, standing in crowds around the campground. Iris observed them for a long minute: some were sparring against each other, some were eating, some were exercising, and the rest talked amongst each other in scattered groups. Things appeared relatively normal, actually --almost like she were in a small village rather than an army camp. The biggest thing that Iris noticed was that none of them were even paying her any mind -she seemed to be almost invisible. No one appeared to care for the likes of a new face. Oh, that was good.

Perhaps it was silly, but Iris had almost expected them all to turn and look at her at once -to see her immediately for what she was... a woman. But they didn't.

Iris was nervous, she walked toward the registration cabin with her hands close to the handles of her new daggers. They looked rather out of place just tucked into her sword belt -but what else could she do? She didn't have the proper equipment to sheath them properly... at least not yet. Iris took care to make sure she still walked with her back ramrod straight. She reminded herself that she needed to look confident -even if she certainly was not.

She reached the registration cabin quickly, having been there just a small while ago. And when she walked in, the captain was finally back. They hardly spoke, however -in fact, he hardly even looked at her. He just handed her a map when she'd asked and let her be on her way. The encounter was more proof that she was no one here.

Despite the general's advice, Iris went to the stables before the barracks to find Gretchen. After all, the supplies she'd packed remained in the mare's saddlebags. From what she could tell on her map, the rogue's barracks were thankfully not that far from the horses. It was about a five minutes to and from -give or take a minute.

Iris walked back to the empty stall that she'd stabled Gretchen in to find that her mare was no longer alone. Stabled beside her was a majestic black stallion with a long, dark mane. The animal was proud and muscular -laden with several heavily-packed saddlebags. Iris gaped at it for several moments before finally turning back to Gretchen. The provisions she'd brought were thankfully still there.

Iris began fumbling with the bags and thinking to herself -doing her best to not bump into the other horse. After untying the saddlebags, she truly felt bad for her mare. These bags were heavy, especially all together.

"Can you lift all that by yourself?" A voice behind Iris made her jump and drop all of her things. Whipping around, she didn't see the source of the words immediately. She looked up. Kayde was perched on a low ceiling plank near the stable door.

Iris looked around, panicking for a second. "How did you get up there?" she whispered in her scratchy voice when she was sure no one was around to hear her. Kayde said nothing in response. Instead, he just leapt down and landed softly in front of Iris. He began untying the bags from the black stallion's side.

For a moment, Iris was alarmed. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Do you wish to see me whipped for theft?"

"As far as your first question goes, I climbed." Kayde motioned to the ceiling plank where he'd been a minute ago. "And this," he motioned to the horse, "is my stallion. His name is Dhangru. If you remember, I told you he'd be delivered here promptly with supplies. I have things for both of us in here." Iris nodded, the memory coming back now. Meanwhile, Kayde just chuckled at his distraught trainee.

"They let you stable it here? You? But you're not a soldier."

He laughed again. "Of course not. I didn't deliver the horse here -they did. Before schedule, too. I doubt the stable-master asked too many questions." And then, he shrugged. "I might have re-stabled it, however, to be beside your horse. And before you start worrying, girl, no one saw me do it."