Also adding to the confusion surrounding just how much Kingston personally identifies with Fa Mu Lan is Kingston's use of the subjunctive mood — "would" — as the narration transitions from her remembering hearing the talk-story as a child to the actual tale itself, which is told from the first-person "I" perspective of Fa Mu Lan. This narrative technique of using the subjunctive mood begins with Kingston's recalling how her mother told the young Kingston that she would grow up to be a wife and slave, but she rejects these roles and instead promises, "I would have to grow up a warrior woman." This promise is then immediately followed by the transitional section that begins, "The call would come from a bird that flew over our roof," which signals a change in who is narrating the story: "our roof" seems to refer to Kingston and her mother's house, but "The call would come from a bird" begins Fa Mu Lan's story. Only after the old couple on top of the mountain asks Fa Mu Lan if she has eaten yet, and she replies that she already has, does it become clear that the persona of Kingston appears for the last time. After Kingston breaks into the narration at this point and says in a child's pouting voice, "No I haven't. . . . I'm starved. Do you have any cookies? I like chocolate chip cookies," she transitions this modern-day childlike voice into the long-ago voice of Fa Mu Lan, who was seven years old when she began her training as a woman warrior.
The legendary Fa Mu Lan remembers being led by a bird through brambles and over rocks. The narrative then changes to the present tense: Fa Mu Lan finally reaches the summit of a mountain, atop of which stands a thatched hut. There, an old man and an old woman, who represent ultimate wisdom and enlightenment, greet her. They offer to teach her to be a warrior if she will stay with them for fifteen years, but the choice is hers: Either she can return home to pull sweet potatoes in the fields with the rest of her family, or she can become a young woman warrior who will "avenge [her] village" and "recapture the harvests that the thieves have taken." "You can be remembered by the Han people for your dutifulness," the old woman assures her. Fa Mu Lan gladly agrees to stay with the old couple and so spends the next fifteen years undergoing intensive martial arts training in mental and physical activities and disciplines.
