China would sleep safely tonight, but its heroine did not. She fidgeted uncomfortably in her sleep; her pale face shadowed by doubt and fear, the picture of haunting dreams. She squirmed, pulling the blanket around tighter, hoping to protect herself from the invisible demons of the late Shan Yu. A man watched her from across the tent, studying her face in her tormented sleep. He noted her movements with troubled eyes, hoping the nightmare would subside. Suddenly, her tension ceased and she relaxed into a deeper state of sleep.
Shang sighed and left silently, knowing that one night she would awaken and catch him in her tent. He could not remember when he had started his nightly vigil, only that it was a habit now that violated his code of honor. He thought little of it now, and knew not what compelled him to wait until the late hours of the night to enter her tent and study the extraordinary woman who had saved his life. Perhaps he was consumed by the guilt of almost executing her, or perhaps he possessed feelings for her. Whatever the reason, he never failed to ensure each night that her nightmares had ended before he would leave.
Li Shang stepped out into the cool spring air, making sure the tent flap did not make a sound. His face turned toward the moon, illuminating his striking figure. Captain, now General Li Shang of the Chinese Imperial Army. He stood at a tall six foot two, with a toned figure and an aura of power. He had been born into power, and one could see it radiating from him with every purposeful stride and graceful movement. His ebony black hair was always tied back, and his dark slanted eyes were serious with a hint of hope. His naive dreams of glory were gone, and his face looked older than his eighteen years.
General Li Shang had been appointed by the emperor to train peacetime troops. Rumors of the survival of Shan Yu ran rampant in the Imperial City behind closed doors. Chinese scouts had gone missing, and a diplomatic message to the Huns had been returned with the teeth of the messenger. And to make matters worse, the old bitterness between Japan and China had flared up again, and Chinese along the coast had discovered that the Japanese knew of China's prized Black Powder. Cannons had been launched along the coast, and citizens had begun to grow frantic, calling in the army that no longer existed. The Emperor had commanded protection for his people, and wanted Li Shang and Fa Mulan to go to the distant coast and train troops. The trip had been postponed by weather, and the army that had defeated the Huns had been training near the Imperial City for instructions to move out. The time for departure was fast approaching as the brutal winter storms in the Tung Shao Pass had begun to subside. Shang regretted the delay, and as more and more recruits joined the rag-tag army every passing day, a hope for peace took hold, or at least a quick end to the war with whomever the enemy was. He was not looking forward to the prospect of a revival of the Hun invasion, nor the growing Japanese threat. No, he was not at all eager about what laid ahead.
"Cockadoodaldoo!" The sound of a rooster at daybreak.
Fa Mulan slowly opened one eye, then the other, half expecting herself to be at home with an overeager Little Brother licking her awake. She stretched lazily, hearing the bones of her back cracking. She got up after tying up her short black hair. It had grown a palm's length since she had cut it in her father's military room so long ago, falling just below her shoulders now. She smiled at the thought of growing it out again, and the debate and banter among her friends Yao, Ling and Chien Po still had not been conclusive when she had asked them for their opinions on it. They were a lovable trio, and she missed their antics, for they had been sent to deliver army notices several days ago.
Mulan left her tent, squinting at the sun on the horizon. She headed towards a spot on the lake to wash her face. The camp was quiet and still with the exception of a few recruits who had been assigned to help set up that day's training course. A few sleepily stood at attention for her as she walked by, and she promptly gave them a smile to put them at ease. She knew how hard it was to adjust to life in the military, and the fact that she was a woman made some of them uncomfortable with her authority. She had been promoted to major by the emperor and had graciously accepted. She took the leadership role in stride, and secretly enjoyed being able to have an excuse to spend time with Shang every day.
Before reaching her destination, she noticed the open flap of Shang's strategy planning tent and surreptitiously glanced to see if he occupied it. She was not disappointed. He was wearing his light robe and gray pants, studying a scroll obviously sent by some high official to make him aware of news. His back was to her, and she noticed how tense he was. She forced her eyes away from his sculpted back, washed her face, rinsed her mouth, and began retreating to her tent.
A grumpy Chi Fu awoke and glared at her with minimal effort to hide his dislike. Mulan brushed past him, fully intending to make it to her tent without a war of wits (or lack thereof, in his case) with the middle-aged man. In truth, she pitied his insecurity about his authority and hoped that one day he would be able to see past his bias against women. Or perhaps his wife could manipulate him into being a gentleman.
As the morning progressed, recruits and veterans awoke and ate a breakfast of pork and boiled rice soup. Friends were sitting together, talking of their hopes and dreams; veterans told new recruits of their battle with the Huns or whispered rumors about the now legendary woman, Fa Mulan, among their troops. The men eyed one another, making sure not to get too rowdy because they had already experienced the tiresome task of picking up spilled grains of rice.
Shang watched his troops with scrutiny from his tent. He watched as a young man, boy really, named Mah brag about his ability to catch eggs in his mouth, and proceeded to do so. Shang watched as a stout Lum taught a recruit how to play a game involving little sticks. He observed impatience, annoyance, friendship, playfulness, reluctance and joy among his men that morning. The general wanted to know his men this time around, if not because of tactical reasons as much as personal reasons.
In some ways, Shang regretted allowing Mulan to pass under his guard for so long. If he had found her out earlier, he still would have released her and she would not have been wounded. Of course, she saved his life, twice, and had become China's greatest hero. 'Heroine,' he corrected himself. It did not bother him that Mulan, a girl, had saved his life and had become one of his most trusted advisors. However, it did bother him that he had not become friends with her until she had saved his life. Trust and friendship go hand in hand, but one can come before the other. He had trusted her before he had become friends with her, and still he did not know her as well as he should.
Shang's thoughts were interrupted by a disgruntled Chi Fu.
"Excuse me, General, but concerning the message you received this morning without my knowledge..."
"Was simply another message delaying the troops from moving to the Eastern Plains."
Chi Fu took some notes, not believing the young general. He grumbled something under his breath that General Li chose to ignore.
"You are dismissed," General Li said, and with the departure of Chi Fu entered a cheerful Major Fa. She was in tan training clothes, wearing a smile too bright for a man and carried a bow over her shoulder.
"May I come in?" She said tentatively, as his blank face dampened her mood.
He nodded, his only greeting. However, a slight smile graced his face, and she picked up on it.
She fidgeted for a moment, before clearing her throat and starting. There were still quiet, tension filled moments between Mulan and Shang, and neither of them knew how to break those moments smoothly. However, in their positions as Major Fa and General Li, they could always resort to discussing business as usual.
"I have been informed by a certain emperor's counsel that you have received a message from His Majesty. Anything I should be aware of?" Major Fa stole a glance as the open scroll on the general's table and returned her gaze to meet his eyes. She tried to separate Major Fa from Mulan, and told the little schoolgirl crush in her head to stop lowering her eyes to his lips.
"Nothing. There has been nothing new." He looked past her and raised an amused eyebrow, allowing her to become herself again.
"Do we have an audience?" He inquired around her loudly, tempting her to turn around and discover whom the observer was. She broke into a fit of laughter and joy as she saw the rice covered Yao and Ling waiting outside Shang's quarters. They grinned sheepishly and welcomed her hug with minimal awkwardness. The gang of three had immediately accepted Mulan as Ping, one of their own after they had discovered she was a girl. They protected her like brothers whenever a new recruit gave her a hard time before she could do it herself.
Now thoroughly covered in rice as well, Mulan attempted to brush herself off and welcome her friends back. Mulan had been a bit lonely without her trio of friends and eagerly welcomed two of them. Yao and Ling bid greetings to their general and settled down to telling Mulan about their days across China. Ling told her of his adventures, or rather, misadventures with a single marriage-happy forty-year-old woman and Yao told her of Chien Po's luck with a quiet village girl. He would be returning in a few days.
Mulan gave Ling a punch in the arm when he waggled his eyebrows at her mention of Shang, and he asked her how she had been. She only replied that the extra training sessions had taken their toll, but she was getting used to military life once again. Shang had told her that even though she was a competent fighter, the Japanese were known to be ruthless and quick, unlike the powerful but slower Huns. He had told her she would need to learn some new techniques, and she had taken to them quickly.
They had begun to practice daily at dusk after the troops had started dinner and Mulan enjoyed the quiet but intense sessions. She found that she learned more about her friend Shang through his movements and facial expressions rather than anything he said. Unless "You fight good" was considered characteristic of Shang, all she could learn through those words were that he was a complete idiot. She could tell from the set of his eyes that he had become wise beyond his years, like her, from battle. He was a quiet, serious man who rarely let his amateur sense of humor show through. His life consisted of honor, and he had once told her that there was no honor in killing, only in saving your country. He had turned his eyes to the ground and remained motionless for a moment. He was hopeless around females, as she had noticed whenever her feminine figure showed through a tight shirt or that one time he had caught her finishing rewrapping her bandage around her ribs. He had immediately averted his eyes and muttered some apology, becoming incoherent and as flustered as stoic Shang could get. They never mentioned anything of the incident, and Mulan assumed that he had forgotten all about it.
Mulan snapped out of her daze when Ling flicked a stray piece of rice onto her nose. She laughed good-naturedly and decided against retaliating right away; Ling had already been covered in rice once that day, he didn't need to be another time. She crossed her eyes to look at the piece of rice, drawing a laugh from Ling and a chuckle from Yao. Gingerly picking it off, she held it in her fingertips, twirling it around until it had become a piece of paste rather than a grain of rice.
'One grain of rice can tip the scale,' she thought back on words told to her by the emperor after China's victory. 'But what's in my fingers now is no longer a grain of rice? Can it still tip the scale?' She studied the paste rapidly disappear into a thin invisible film as she squeezed her fingers together. 'Could I still save China?'