Fancy seeing you here (Mulora log)
Mulan didn’t know where the cat had gone as she didn’t try to keep him tied up with her. She wasn’t going to try to keep the cat if it didn’t want to stay. Windows were open for it to come and go as it wished. She had walked the resort as long as she could, deep into the night, and she didn’t find anything. The warrior allowed herself sleep, finally. Just a few hours.
Waking up, she thought for a moment, she was back in her home. Mulan thought for a moment that maybe it had all been an awful dream. All of it. She felt an ache at the next thought that the one she’d been looking for was gone. That was enough for her to wake fully, and she rolled over to see the window and the fluttering curtain. The smells were not of her home, neither was the room.
She sighed softly. Got dressed in another outfit that was all too inappropriate as far as she was concerned. Tankini and board shorts. A pair of slip on shoes - none of those sandals for her. She started for the food; Aurora wasn’t food obsessed, but Mulan hoped she’d need to eat. That she was looking after herself. That she was actually in this strange place.
Aurora still couldn’t get used to the clothing that she’d been left here, but she was now wearing just a sundress. It was too warm with all the layers, even if she felt a little over exposed. She tried not to mind that as she made her way into the dining hall yet again. Eating wasn’t all she did, but it was certainly something that she needed to do at least three times a day. And food was more plentiful here than in the Enchanted Forest. It was nice that she didn’t have to find berries she could eat or somehow learn to hunt. But it also felt odd. Unearned.
She stopped as she stepped inside the large room and spotted someone that she’d worried she might not see again. The man that had explained all this to her hadn’t seemed to think that there was much chance of finding their way home, and there were no guarantees that Mulan would have been brought along with her.
She rushed forward and threw her arms around the woman whom she’d been missing.
“Mulan! You’re here as well.” She released the attempt at a hug and took a step back just as impulsively as she’d given it. Hugging wasn’t exactly something they did normally, was it?
----
Mulan didn’t mind the hug, but she was a little embarrassed now at her own lack of proper attire. She didn’t care that it seemed to be what was acceptable for where they were; she was without her armor after all. Her armor and weapons. But, she could relax a little now that she knew where the princess was. She’d returned the hug as long as it was given, but then hid away any feelings about Aurora’s pulling away.
“I’m not sure if I should be glad or sad that you’re here. We are no where near our camp. I do not know where my horse and armor are.” She looked down at the ground then took a breath. “I am sorry that I did not prevent this.” As if she really had a choice in it.
“I will find a way to fix this, princess.” She was still responsible for Aurora’s health and somewhat her happiness. Mulan wouldn’t let Aurora down a second time.
----
Aurora might have had people try to take care of her all her life, but she was tired of it. She shook her head, not wanting Mulan to hold herself solely responsible for this.
“We,” she said. “We will find a way to fix this.”
She started to walk toward the food tables, gesturing that Mulan should follow her.
“Until then, I suppose that there are worse places we could end up. I’m still trying to figure out if someone’s cursed us and perhaps cursed us so we don’t remember, or if something else is going on. I talked to someone who seems to think that we’ve been taken, though he didn’t say by who.” She finally stopped for a breath, realizing that she’d been rambling. “We should eat. We can discuss further over the feast they have for us.”
At least the food was plentiful and they had a safe shelter. For now. She knew that it couldn’t last, from what little she’d gleaned from talking to Max, but she could be grateful for small favors when they could get them.
----
Mulan let a smile slip to her lips at Aurora’s words. The princess wasn’t the whimpering demanding thing she’d been when they first met. No, she was a true princess, worthy of being a queen one day. The warrior nodded and followed.
“I do not believe we are cursed. What Snow White and Emma Swan said seemed to suggest people forgot themselves. We have not forgotten ourselves, although we have certainly misplaced our clothes.” She tried making a joke.
“Why would anyone take us and bring us here?” The jokes forgotten as there was now an obvious threat. They had been abducted, and nothing good came of abduction. Or the reasons were rarely for the abducted’s benefit. Her body tensed slightly as if she expected danger at any moment.
“I do not trust any abductor who wishes to feed the captives so well.” She’d heard the story of witch who kept children to fatten them up and eat them later.
----
Aurora smiled a bit at the joke, though it did make her self conscious. She looked down and smoothed her sundress, as if she could somehow make it cover her legs. She did feel a little over exposed, and Mulan was certainly in less clothing than she’d ever seen the warrior in. It was a nice look, all the same.
She frowned a bit at that last statement.
“Nor do I. But I’m afraid we have little choice but to eat at least a little of what’s provided to us. Starving ourselves won’t do us any more good than our captors.” They needed to eat to keep their strength up, after all. If it came down to a fight, they would lose if they starved themselves. But Mulan knew that. She had to, or else she wouldn’t be in this room.
“The curse that Snow cast didn’t erase our memories entirely,” she pointed out. “It only erased a few months prior to sending us to Storybrooke. Waking up much further along than I expected was quite the shock,” she said with a small wince. It had been terrifying to wake up to a stomach that was much larger and a baby that was much more active than she remembered. This was somewhat of the same feeling-waking up in a place and not knowing how or why she’d gotten there.
She piled some food on her plate, moving slowly enough that Mulan could easily keep up, and that they could continue their conversation.
----
“You do look very nice.” Mulan hadn’t meant to hurt Aurora’s feelings; she actually cared what the woman thought and felt. She actually wanted to make sure the woman never had to worry and that she was cared for. Her hand rested on Aurora’s shoulder before claiming a plate for herself. She got her own food, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
“The one before that had changed everyone. Didn’t it change everyone?” She was simply verifying, not correcting the other princess. She lightly claimed Aurora’s elbow to guide her to a table that was out of the way and possibly gave Mulan a better view of the room.
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll figure out what we need to do, and we’ll do it together.” There was a hint of a smile for both reassurance and at the word ‘together.’ They did work rather well together.
----
Aurora nodded. She hadn’t heard a lot about the first curse, but enough to answer that question.
“It did. From what I understand, everyone had a different name and memories of a different life. Everything was different.”
She set her plate down and took a seat at the table, glancing around the room. It wasn’t completely empty, but it was large enough that it should have had more people than this. The entire resort was like a palace that had been built to accommodate great royal parties and yet was cavernous in between events. It felt a little lonely. Less so, now that she’d found Mulan, but the building itself just felt as though it had been built for more than this.
“Together,” she repeated, smiling at Mulan. “We’ll find a way.” Her voice wavered a bit, but her confidence was returning now. She had more hope with the warrior at her side than without.