Fearless (A Mulan Retelling)

Chapter Thirty Six

*Warning: Strong language

Iris raised an eyebrow at Zayn, but the moment the words had passed his lips, he looked away. With a small smile, she walked along with the two men as they began their way downstairs. Before they even reached the inn's lobby, Iris heard Ra speaking, perhaps to the other members of the group. Gods, his voice was loud.

"Seems like they're up," Kayde commented, hearing the voice too. The general simply nodded. Iris looked over at Zayn to see that he seemed to be lost in thought. She wondered what he was thinking about, and she guessed that he was most likely coming up with something to say to the Token captain. No doubt she would be using this time to think about what she would say if it were all up to her. On this thought, she realized that it might be, in fact, all up to her. Her stomach coiled in a knot.

"Shit," she muttered, not loud enough for Kayde or Zayn to hear. She wondered what she would do if the talk with General Zayn did fail. After all, earlier when he had mentioned this part of their mission, he had left it up to her if he was not able to get information out of the captain. She wished that he had also told her what he wanted her to do if all didn't go as planned, because she had no idea. She knew that he wanted her to use methods of deceit. After all, when he had suggested that he might need her help, he did comment how duelists were good at conning people. If only she could have told him then that she wasn't very good at lying. Then again... that itself would be a lie, she realized. So, therefore, she would be lying about her ability to lie.

Now she had gone and confused herself.

"Morning to you, General. Ingred. Kayde," Ra greeted gruffly, giving Iris a good slap on the back. She almost stumbled forward at the contact. After reinstating her stature, she nodded in his direction.

"Morning to you," she said.

"Is there anything that for us to do, general?" asked Dregar.

Zayn looked over at the swordsman.

"As for now, we all need to find somewhere where we can sit... and perhaps eat," he started, "I have a few things I want to discuss with all of you before we go and meet our prisoner."

"I see," Dregar replied, "We should get going, then."

"Yes. We should," the general agreed, and began for the door.

As Zayn walked, he succumbed himself to thought again. But this time, it was not about what he would say to the captain. At this moment, he pondered on what he had heard Iris and Kayde had said this morning. She'd called him interesting looking.

He remembered that Kayde had indeed heckled her for a good minute over it too. He looked to her as he contemplated, not able to discern at this moment how exactly he felt about what all had been sasid. Zayn had never really received lots of attention from women. Of course, maybe that was because he hardly spent any time at all around them. After all, he'd been in the military since he was old enough. But it was more than that, he knew. Before now, he hadn't met a single one who'd shared any of his interests. Any girl he'd ever found attractive became less so very quickly because they'd all been so vapid.

As he looked at the armor-clad Iris, he wondered why more of them weren't like her. Even if it was illegal, he liked the prospect of a woman soldier far more than a simplistic, impeccable woman. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he had decided not to kill her when he found out, because she broke the mold of every woman he had ever spoken to. Her eyes were filled with more determination than anyone's he had ever seen, men included. Then he looked away.