BALLAD OF HUA MULAN 》THE WEEPING MONK

chapter 5

chapter 5:
be proud.
Lancelot

"When will my reflection show who I am inside?"

Mulan asked me to keep her company while she bathed, but I kept my back to her for her own privacy. I heard the water swishing around, but then it lay still and I had to resist from looking back. Apparently, she was angered by her own reflection in the clear water and splashed at it.

"Mulan, are you alright?" I asked.

"Look at me."

What?

"Mula-"

"Look at me!" She screamed, and I slowly turned my head to see her chest covered by the water but her eyes were red and puffy.

"What do you see?"

The woman who stuck by my side since day one.

The woman who kept my secret, despite having an urge for Fey blood on her hands

"I see. . ."

A woman deserving of adoration.

"You."

"Tch, like that helps," She rolled her eyes, her teeth grinding together from the sheer frustration of a problem that I didn't even know.

"What do you see?" I inspected her movements in the water. She was filled with rage towards herself, wanting nothing more than to throw a tantrum and scream and kick and throw things. Yet like the raging waters, she could contain herself.

"A liar. A traitor. A mistake for a daughter," She choked out the last part, trying to keep the tears from coming back and trying to control her breathing.

"What do you want to see?" I got up and started towards the water, whatever little connection I had left to the Hidden whispering in my ear and encouraging me.

"A warrior. . .someone my father can be proud of," She turned away in disgust, but then noticed what I was doing.

"Monk, what are yo-?"

"Hua Mulan, how do you know that your father isn't proud of you?" My feet dipped into the water.

"He. . .he trained me to proud that I was a girl who could defend herself. I hide as a man who can slaughter a village."

My clothes were getting soaked.

"Mulan, he wanted you to survive."

"Survive? But-"

"He never trained you with the intention that you would go off into war," My chest met hers.

"He did so in hopes that you could grow up and bring honor to the Hua name. To keep it alive. To keep it beating," My hands lay on her shoulders.

"But I-"

"But nothing. You are Hua Mulan, not the Soulless Soldier. You are a woman, not a girl. You are everything I wish I. . .I wish I could be."

She turned away, "You're soaked."

My heart pounded at my chest as the words tried coming out. They were choking in my throat, begging for release, and so I finally said it.

"Lancelot."

Her deep brown eyes met with my blue, "What?"

"Long ago, my name was Lancelot."

[For all my Teen Wolf lovers, I just put up my Isaac Lahey fanfic and it is also a Disney princess re-telling!]