Fearless (A Mulan Retelling)

Chapter Twenty One

General Zayn watched as his rogue reacted to the sounds first, by leaping up and grabbing the hilts of her daggers. He stood up, cursing himself for being foolish. Of course there were wolves here in the woods --wolves that would be able to follow the scent of the deer's fresh blood until they reached their campsite. The rest of his solders followed suit, and Ra went as far as to draw his weapon, ready to attack.

"What's the new plan?" Shen asked him.

"Not sure. We can't stay here, that's for sure."

There were no responses for a good few seconds. Everyone, including Iris, just seemed to stand there in shock at the fact that they might be attacked.

"Well, come on," said the general, who was the first in motion. "There's no need in getting ourselves injured or worse before the real fighting begins. Grab what you can and let's get the hell out of here."

With that, everyone seemed to be moving quickly and efficiently. The howls were growing closer and closer with each passing second, and that in itself only inspired them to move faster and faster. In what seemed like no time, the horses were packed and ready to go.

The song of the wolves was now right upon them, and Iris knew that it was only a matter of seconds before they breached the campsite. She looked around fearfully as she mounted Gretchen. The other soldiers in her group seemed to be doing the same thing.

General Zayn was the first to take off, and everyone went right behind him. For that moment, they all revoked the position they were supposed to ride in and simply just went as fast as their horses could carry them. It took a good while before General Zayn finally called them to a halt. Once everyone was completely stopped, the general dismounted his horse. Iris saw the way he glanced quickly at their surroundings.

He seemed to see nothing within the nearby trees, yet he was still watchful.

"We shouldn't go too far, lest there are more than wolves in the woods. We'll set up camp here," he motioned to the ground beneath him, "but we won't light a fire this time."

It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down from the sudden change of camp, and become somewhat comfortable with their surroundings. Iris found this especially hard because it was so dark, not to mention the trees that surrounded them. She knew that the trees might be hiding unfriendly creatures.

With a sigh of acceptance, she rolled out bedroll, which was severely wrinkled since she had hurriedly stuffed it in her pack moments earlier.

Several long minutes went by as the men listened for the wolves. Iris heard them get very loud at one point... and then it was as if they were never there. Well... almost. A few minutes later, she heard some of them cry out in pain, and she wondered if they were fighting over the deer carcass they had most definitely found. She watched as the archers grimaced at the wolves' brutality with each other. She assumed her face held the same expression. The cries kept getting louder and louder.

"Gods, what ferocity..." General Zayn commented as he listened in as well.

----

The group finally, after the wolves had seemingly finished their meal, went about trying to relax. Iris was watching them as they set everything up. As the general had suggested, there was no fire this time. However, it was still decently easy to see because the stars and moon were so bright. Iris found herself to be content... for a minute.

Then, it happened. As the men were getting ready for bed, they were talking amongst themselves, which wasn't half-bad. Iris listened to the mildly interesting conversation for a good while. It was what happened as they were still speaking to one another that had come without any warning.