Story: Legend
Based: Mulan
Genre: AU (big time), romance, mystery, drama, time travel, action.
Pairing: OFC/OMC and Mulan/Shang
Summary: Yori Tanaka received a call from her Uncle in Shirakawa Japan after her mother died, explaining that she may come live in their home since she had no more living relatives in the states. When Yori arrives in Japan she doesn't realize that her life and fate has just made a drastic change. She will find out who she is and where she comes from… even if it means having to go back in time over 200 hundred years.

….

In the heart of the Chinese Empire during the Six Dynasties, in the time of a brewing war, lived a girl named Hua Mu Lan. With hair of black silk and eyes of the darkest wood her mouth like a cherry tree's flower petals and her skin clear and smooth though darkened by the sun. She was a child of the Hua family, her mother a seamstress, her father an old warrior hero for the imperial armies.

Raised in both tradition and nontraditional Hua Mu Lan grew to be a woman of many talents, of many virtues and of a secret that saved her family and her home. She was taught in the art of tea by her grandmother and learned the way of ink by her grandfather. Her mother taught her to cook and to sew, to mend and to repair, her father taught her the way of the spirits, of prayer and of her ancestors.

In the nearing heat of war time, her father, now elderly and grey though proud and strong, was once again summoned by the Emperor to up stand an enemy, to fight for their home. Mu Lan thoroughly against this tried to stop her father from accepting the summon begging him not to go for his time as a great hero of China was now at an end, Mu Lan knew in her heart that if he did he would die. The father refused and prepared for battle, sharpening his blades and strengthening the cloth that clothed him under his armor, his heart weakened by aged caused him a great difficulty as he walked through his village with his chest held high and walking stick set aside, not knowing that his daughter saw the pain he concealed behind his eyes. .

An evening came when Mu Lan could not sleep in fear for her father's departure the next morning. So with a hurried heart that pounded like the drums that sounded through her village every morning, she slipped into the darkness of the night and went to her family shrine.

In the silent calm that poured through the small sanctuary as rain fell outside, Mu Lan lit the incense that lay untouched and bowed her head to the cold floor, hands folded around her head as she kneeled on the ground. She prayed to her ancestors for protection through her mission she was to meet, she prayed for protection for her family and for her father so he may forgive her of what she is to do.

Mu Lan slipped into her parent's sleeping quarters like the night and gently bowed at their sleeping forms with love and respect. Stepping with light slippered feet she stole her father's armor, his swords and his summon leaving behind only a small pink flower of the ancient cherry tree that willowed and blossomed in their orchards.

With armor fastened securely on the back of her grandfather's light stallion, and her silk hair cut short like a man's, knotted in the back with dark ribbon. With the summon tucked through the sash that fastened at her narrow waist she made her way through her family's estate's heavy wooden gates, slipping un noticed by no one. She fled in the darkness and rain, the night cloaking her in a thick velvet cover.

The legend of Hua Mu Lan is great, known through the lands of Asia like the rain that the sprinkles the crops in the summer. She is the hero of China, a fearless warrior who fought for twelve years to save her people from an evil conqueror. The people of now know her as a myth, a children's tale of obedience and honor. The elders know her to be a fraction of truth to history. Though neither knows of the truth that lies hidden under the legend of truth, it is an unidentified matter that was kept secret for centuries. It was a truth of love and of sacrifice made for her country. The love of a man and of her home she had to chose, she could not have both in her life but may have them in the next.

People know her as a legend for now, and soon even those who know her to be truth shall soon forget to see and will call her a myth. They do not know that a secret lies with Hua Mu Lan, for when she lived she had a love affair with the man she loved, though could never have for the law forbade a marriage between two men for no one knew her for what she was… all but on. And soon she bore their child in secret, loving her with all she had.

When battle summoned her she went with a willing heart, leaving behind her precious daughter May-lee not knowing that would be last she sees's of her smiling white face, not knowing she would meet her end in the battlefield.

As the small war drew to an end and the last hours of day struggled to shine, Hua Mu Lan was killed at sunset, pierced in the heart by a hidden archer's poisoned arrow, and soon minutes after, she lay dead with her fellow men at arms. Eye's closed and heart opened to death's warm embrace.

The legend of the great warrior Hua Mu Lan lives on through the ages, not by stories and talk, but by blood and kin.

So as the legend goes on through time, an evil once conquered will rise once more then soon so shall a warrior of great heart and courage.