A Kind Of Bravery: A Mulan Retelling [1st Draft]

6. In Good Company

Chapter Six:

In Good Company

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The sky above her was slowly turning from light grey to a darker shade, and Harriet was starting to worry she would never reach the camp.

It was supposed to be a couple hours walk from the palace, but once the clouds had decided to release a pouring rain, Harriet began to doubt if she would be there before night fall. So much for making a good impression by being early or on time.

Now soaked through to the bone and her boots slicked with mud, Harriet trudged through the forest paths at as fast a pace as she could manage. Her newly shortened hair did nothing to protect her neck from the chill present in the air, and Harriet felt like kicking herself for deciding to wear her hoodless cloak. She was certain that she looked like a drowned cat, but at the moment she didn't care, she was a little busy focusing on sloshing through the mud.

She was just about to crest over a small hill within the wooded area when she heard the sound of hoofbeats behind her. Turning her head to glance over her shoulder she could just barely make out the sight of two horses galloping towards her through the rain.

She stepped to the side, waiting for them to slow down as was the custom of passing a walking person on such a narrow path, but instead the rider of the first horse seemed to order his steed to increase its speed. However, that wasn't all he did. Just left of Harriet's feet was a massive puddle which she had painstakingly walked around to try to keep her boots from being both flooded and muddy, but the rider had other ideas.

With a crash, the rider and his horse galloped through the puddle, showering Harriet with dirty water faster than she could put her arms up to shield herself. She had just wiped her eyes clean when the second rider rushed by, the echoes of his laughter reaching her ears as he passed her.

Harriet brought her hand to her eyes, attempting to wipe the mud from them away, but unable to do the same to the annoyance that was beginning to boil within her. She hoped to all goodness that they wouldn't be at the camp, or worse in the same company she was supposed to be in.

Finally turning to face the view that the top of the hill provided her with, she let out a sigh of relief. From where she stood she could see the tops of tents and a long line of men lined up in front of the largest tent. She would bet her lucky leather boots that it was Leopold's tent.

Harriet frowned as she noticed the steepness of the hill. It had been a gradual incline throughout the forest, but with the added mud and streams of water covering the well beaten path, Harriet was a little hesitant to go down.

Nonetheless, she began the descent down to the camp, her boots sliding in the mud, causing her to push her arms out from her sides to try and regain her balance. However, as the sound of another set of hoofbeats was heard behind her, the rider of that horse decided that they would help her trip to the ground along with a rough push, sending her careening towards the wet earth.

Muddy water churned around her as she heard the sounds of loud laughter coming from the men lined up, but instead of letting their laughter get to her, she surged to her feet, not giving them the satisfaction of seeing how much their laughter bothered her.

Harriet walked to the end of the line with as much dignity as she could muster, ignoring the loud chortles and snorts coming from the men she would working with. She fixed her posture to the rigid straightness that Sir Blackwell had trained into her since age thirteen and stared fixedly ahead, only moving when the line did.

Out of the corner of her eye she watched as the rider who pushed her down skipped ahead to join three other men five places in front of her, earning claps on the back and loud whistles. She did her best to ignore them but found she could still make out their words.