Having only just risen, the sun gave off little light. Beneath the fir and pine boughs, shadows were long and dark, making it hard to see any obstacles one may come across. But Khan picked his way carefully, ensuring that neither he nor Mulan came to any harm.
It had been a number of weeks since the two of them had last been able to sneak away from the settlement to do a bit of exploring. They had already been gone nearly an hour, having left before the sun rose, and had left a number of miles behind them.
'I wonder who will find my note first: Father or Little Brother?' Mulan thought, an amused smile on her lips. She leaned forward, ducking under a branch. 'I hope father—otherwise, they'll have to piece it together from the shreds Little Brother leaves.'
Reaching down, she rubbed the side of Khan's neck. "Enjoying not having to pull a stump out of the ground or a boulder out of the way?" she asked him.
He turned his head slightly, exhaling loudly through his nose.
She chuckled. "I thought you'd say that," she smiled. "I'm a much lighter burden...Though, I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of reward treats for you right now."
He nickered in reply, seemingly unbothered by this revelation.
She patted his neck again. "I had a feeling you'd say that," she teased. "Tonight, though, I'll give you some dried fruit. Maybe some salt, too, depending on how much we push ourselves today."
The plan was to get as close to the mountains as possible before having to turn back. Along the way, they would also look for anything that could prove to be a useful resource: More shale deposits, fruit trees or berry bushes, beehives, game trails...If Mulan thought it looked useful, she would write herself a note.
On their last adventure, they had traveled along the lakeshore to its northern edges and explored the foothills a bit. They hadn't found much on that trip, but they had found a beaver dam, lots of driftwood, and even some freshwater mussels. The most important discovery of that trip, however, had been the size of the lake that made up the majority of the settlement's northern border: It was nearly twenty miles from north to south and twice that from east to west.
'I hope today will be a bit more fruitful,' Mulan told herself, not bothering to cover her mouth as she yawned. 'I know Ling's shale supply is running low thanks to all the bricks he and Yao have been making. I know I won't be able to find any ore deposits for Shang, since I don't know the first thing about ore...but maybe I'll be able to find some oak or cedar for Ting-Ting! And if there are any caves, I could take a quick look to see if there are any bats so Su and Chien-Po have a new fertilizer source.'
Khan snorted, bringing her out of her thoughts. Blinking, she looked around to find that they were heading up a gradual incline. The trees were beginning to thin out, allowing for more of the sun's light to reach the forest floor. Mulan was now able to make out the silhouettes of fallen logs, clumps of ferns, and even some mushrooms growing on the sides of trees.
'This forest looks so similar to the ones back home,' she pondered, 'but it feels so different. Back home, there was always a feeling that I was being watched. But here? It just feels...peaceful. But I know I can't drop my guard down; there are still dangerous animals out there. This part of the world may not have tigers, but I know it still has its fair share of hunters.'
A shudder ran down her spine. She remembered hearing strange, human-like screams come from the forest earlier in the summer. Zhi had told them it was a creature called a mountain lion, though she had never seen one. Hearing that had made Mulan wonder what sort of lion would live in the forest—maybe it was actually a type of tiger?
She prayed she would never see one to find out.
Just in case, though, she had a bow and a quiver full of arrows strapped to Khan's saddle. She also had her sword, though she knew it wouldn't be of much use against an animal.
"Especially against an angry boar," she murmured to herself. "It took Yao, Chien-Po, Ting-Ting, and Shang to bring down just one of those. I didn't know they could get so huge!"
When horse and rider reached the top of the hill, Mulan brought Khan to a stop. By then, the sun was fully risen and she was able to see her surroundings quite clearly. What she couldn't see, however, was just how far away from home they were or how close to the mountains they were. As such, she looked up through the canopy of evergreen branches, trying to see which of the trees was the tallest.
Choosing a fir tree, she started to climb. It was a bit difficult at first, as the lowest-hanging branches were out of her reach. With some help from Khan, however, she was soon climbing her way towards the sky. A lot of the branches this low on the tree were a bit on the brittle side, so she took care to evenly distribute her weight and to not grab or step onto any branches that had absolutely no clumps of needles—those, she knew, were the dead branches.
By the time she reached the top of the tree, her hands and legs were covered in sap and there were twigs sticking out of her hair. But the climb had been worth it: The fir tree stood taller than the others around it, giving her the ability to see in all directions. She quietly gasped, her eyes wide.
It was beautiful.
To the west were the mountains, their white peaks glistening in the morning light. From where she was, they looked to only be a few miles away, but it was nothing more than a deception. Thanks to their enormous size, they looked much closer than they actually were—she had maybe thirty or forty more miles until she would reach their base.
To the north was the lake; she was able to see its shimmering waters even from this far away. Just south of the lake was their little settlement—the houses were impossible to see thanks to the tree line, but she could see a small trail of smoke rising into the sky. She knew the smoke belonged to Su and Chien-Po's home; they were almost always the first ones awake.
To the south was an ocean of evergreens. They stretched on and on for as far as the eye could see—and further. Even when she had crossed China, Mulan had never seen such an expanse of trees. The only thing that she could think of that could compare was the bamboo forest near Moo-Shung, but even that only stretched on for ten miles or so.
To the east, the rising sun obscured most of the horizon. She could make out the silhouettes of hills and more trees, but there was very little else she could make out aside from the colors of the sky: Pinks, oranges, and even a touch of violet surrounded the giant, golden orb that was the sun. The sight reminded her of one of Mei's winter dresses and she smiled; Mei had promised to make her a similar one.
She was about to start climbing down when she noticed something to the north she had missed upon first look. Squinting, she shielded her eyes from the sun only to see what looked like dark storm clouds lining the horizon. They were barely within sight, but their color made them stand out against the pink clouds around them. A frown came to her lips and she started to make her way back down the tree.
"Bad news, Khan," she sighed once she reached the bottom. "Looks like a storm is rolling in from the north." She started to brush herself off.
"Hmm? Whazzat 'bout a storm?" Both Mulan and Khan jumped in surprise as Mushu's head rose out of the quiver. The little dragon yawned, tiredly rubbing his eyes. "What's everyone so surprised about? Can't a dragon find a cozy place to sleep?"
Frowning, Mulan reached over and gently lifted him out of the quiver. "Mushu, how long have you been in there?"
"Since last night," he replied, yawning again. Then, leaning backwards, he started to stretch. "So, what was that I heard about a storm?" Finishing his stretch, he looked up at Mulan only to frown. "Girl, when was the last time you bathed?" He scuttled up her arm, starting to pull twigs and bits of moss from her hair. "Look at you, all done up like you're some sort of tree..."
She laughed, rolling her eyes. "I just got done climbing a tree," she told him. "I wanted to see how far from the settlement we were and I ended up seeing what looked like a storm rolling in from the north."
"A storm?" Mushu repeated before sniffing the air. "Hm. Don't smell like a storm's heading this way. Doesn't feel like it, either."
"You can feel when a storm's coming?" she skeptically asked.
Both Khan and Mushu gave her an odd look. "You can't?" Mushu asked, his brow rising. "Don't tell me you've never noticed how everything around you starts to feel heavy and oppressive the day before a storm hits!"
"I've never noticed that, no," Mulan told him. "Though, grandma sometimes mentions that she can feel changing weather in her bones."
"Well, yeah—she's old. Old people always feel weather changes because their bones are all arthritic and stuff." He frivolously waved his hand before darting along her arm and hopping onto the tree Mulan had climbed. "Give me five minutes and I'll tell you if there's a storm comin' or if it's just passing by." Before either Mulan or Khan could protest, he scurried up the tree.
"He is so strange," Mulan murmured, shaking her head. She quietly laughed as Khan snorted in agreement.
Not long after he disappeared up the tree, Mushu came hurrying back down. Unlike Mulan, he had managed to avoid getting sap and bits of tree stuck to him. "Well, girly," he said, walking across a branch, "those are storm clouds, but they're makin' no effort to come rain on your parade." He dropped down onto her shoulder and resumed picking bits of wood and moss from her hair.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because they're either spillin' all their rain right where they're at or they're super slow movin'." Finding a small spider in her hair, he made sure she wasn't watching before shoving the arachnid in his mouth.
Mulan did, however, hear him crunching on something, though she decided to not question it. "Well, that's good to know, then," she said. Climbing back into the saddle, she lightly clicked her tongue and Khan started to trot once more. "I was worried we'd have to head back before we even really got started."
His brow rose as he swallowed the spider. "Get started on what, exactly?"
"Just exploring," she replied, smiling. "It's been awhile since I was able to sneak away, so I thought today would be a good day. I'm hoping we'll be able to find some resources that'll help the settlement."
"What kind of resources are needed? You got food, water, fire, and shelter. You even got yourselves a big ol' garden!" he chuckled.
"We need more shale and it'd be nice to find some caves where bats or birds live—their excrement makes excellent fertilizer, Chien-Po tells me. And it'd also be nice to find some berry bushes or some oak and cedar among all this fir and pine..."
He nodded in understanding, though he still looked a bit confused. "And if you don't find these resources?"
She shrugged. "Oh, I know they're out there. It's just a matter of finding them. Whether I find them today or another day doesn't matter, so long as they're found before we're in dire need of them."
"Mhm...so why not just wait for Zhu to show up? She knows this area, so she should know where those things can be found. Give her the wagon and the oxen and she'll bring back loads of stuff for you."
Her brow rose. "What makes you think I'm going to let her go off and do all of that on her own?" she questioned.
He laughed. "She's a big girl, Mulan—a real big girl, at that. She doesn't need supervision."
"I haven't seen her in nearly a year, Mushu. When she gets here, I'm not letting her go anywhere without me," she half joked. Her voice then took on a more serious note. "I only had my best friend back for a couple of months before we were forced apart again...I'm actually at the point where I'm tempted to go out and look for her. And I'm not the only one, either. Ling is getting near the point, too."
"Ling? I can see why you'd be tempted to go out there, but why's Noodle Boy itchin' to go Zhu huntin'?"
She chuckled. "Contrary to popular belief, a person can have more than one best friend," she said. "Ling and I are her best friends. And...we're worried for her. Really worried." A sigh left her mouth and she bit her lower lip. "She's somewhere out there, married to a man she hates and is scared off. On top of that, she's also queen and having to make sure she does what's best for however many of her people are left."
Mushu gave her a pitying look before scuttling over and sympathetically patting her forearm. "Hey, don't go getting' all sad now," he gently told her. "Like I said, she's a real big girl—I'm sure she's fine. But, if it'd help bring you some peace of mind, I can ask Rabbit to go out and do a bit of a lookie-loo for you," he offered.
"Rabbit? Who's that?"
"You know: Rabbit, the swiftest of the family guardians?"
"You can do that?"
He shrugged. "Of course I can. All it takes is a bit of gong ringing and tada! Guardian awakened."
She nodded in understanding. "That's interesting. I didn't know that how the guardians were awoken. I just thought they came about when a person was most in need."
"That can happen, but it's not often. Usually, at that point, it was the Great Stone Dragon who'd wake up and go off to save the day." A sheepish grin came to his lips. "I wish I could say I was the Great Stone Dragon, but I'm just Mushu the Magnificent."
A small laugh left Mulan's mouth. "Yes, but you're not shattered in a thousand pieces back in China," she gently teased, "so I think you've done better than the Great Stone Dragon."
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from her. "Uh...about that, actually..." A sheepish grin came to his lips. "I...may have been the one to break that statue." He watched her eyes widened. "But it was all an accident! I was tryin' to wake her up, but ol' Stony had vacated the premises."
"You mean the Great Stone Dragon had abandoned our family!?" she asked, horrified. "What had we done to make him do that!?"
"Her. The Great Stone Dragon was female," he corrected, his voice a bit snobbish. "Despite popular belief, the strongest family guardians are usually female."
"Well, then, what had my family done to make her abandon us?"
"She didn't abandon your family. She knew her physical form was growing weak, so she left it behind. That's why it broke."
She frowned. "So...where did she go?"
He rose up on his hindlegs and poked the top of her chest. "In you." He watched as bewilderment filled her face. "The night you decided to take your father's place was the night she knew you would be the perfect person to house her spirit."
"You mean to tell me that everything I've done up to this point is actually her doing?"
"No!" he cried, looking rather offended. "Mulan, honey, she chose you because you because you already had the strength and determination to do all of this! None of these achievements were made by her—it was all you. The only reason she resides in you now is because you're strong enough to house her spirit. That old stone statue? I hit it with a flimsy sheet of bronze and it shattered."
He then shook his head. "The point is, Mulan, you are the strongest Fa Family guardian now. And that courage of yours will be passed onto any kids you and Shang have and then onto any kids they have." He gave her a reassuring smile.
Her cheeks turned red, but she smiled. "Well...that's good to know. I had been wondering all these years if maybe the statue broke because of some dishonor I brought to my family."
"Nah. Quite the opposite," he chuckled, crawling up her arm and shoulder. He draped himself around her neck like he had done back in Moo-Shung. "Now that I think about it: It's probably why you're so protective about Zhu: You consider her part of your family." He laughed again and closed his eyes, resting his chin over his crossed arms. "Though, with how much you worry about her, you sometimes sound like her fretting wife."
Mulan laughed, her cheeks further darkening. "Now that's ridiculous," she said.
Mushu open an eye to look up at her and frowned ever so slightly. There was something about her laugh and voice that sounded more guilty than amused. He wished he could see more than just the back of her ear and the underside of her jaw.
"You sure about that?" he asked, making sure he sounded amused. "'Cause it does seem like you worry about her a lot."
"I don't fret over her that much," she chuckled. "Yes, I worry over her, but like I said: She's my best friend and I thought I already lost her once. I—I just don't want to lose her again." She shrugged. "Something about pretending to be men and deceiving an entire army of men together can really bring two women together."
Unable to stop himself, Mushu cracked up. "Alright, alright—I'll admit, you're right there, girly," he cackled, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye.
She grinned, her brow rising as she turned her head and glanced down at him. "Why are you laughing? I'm being serious!" She had tried to keep her voice even, but she broke into a fit of giggles halfway through.
Mushu shook his head and closed his eyes again, still chuckling. "Not to derail our conversation or anything, but my offer about waking Rabbit earlier: Would you like me to wake him and ask him to go look for her or not?"
Mulan was silent for a few minutes as she thought his offer over. While it would be nice to get some sort of estimate of how far away Zhu was, something told her that she should wait just a little while longer. Whether it was faith in her friend or her own hope, she shook her head.
"No. Not yet, at least. But I appreciate the offer." She reached up and gave Mushu a gentle scratch on the back of the neck. "If she's not here by the end of the week, then maybe."
"Gotcha," he said. "Ol' big ears gets to snooze a lil' longer then. Speaking of snoozin', I think I'm going to get me a few more minutes of shut-eye. If you don't mind, that is." He yawned.
"Feel free," she chuckled. "I'll wake you up if anything exciting happens."
"Just don't go throwin' me at any bears or boars and we're good."
"Ugh...this stuff is never going to come out..." Sticking his tongue out in frustration, Ling shook his as-clean-as-he-could-get-it shirt in the river before slapping it against a nearby rock.
The last three days had been long and exhausting, having been spent carefully stacking rocks before covering them with layers of mortar and dirt. But now, with fires roaring inside them, the three kilns would be ready for use by tomorrow afternoon. Su had been tempted to be the first one to properly use the kilns to make breads and cakes, but Chien-Po reminded her that Ling and Yao had hundreds of bricks they needed to bake first.
Standing upright, Ling grunted and leaned backwards. He felt parts of his spine pop back into place, earning a sigh of relief. "Now that those are all washed, it's time to wash myself," he murmured, walking out of the water and towards a small bag. Reaching into it, he pulled out a small bottle filled with an opaque, murky liquid. He also grabbed a clean rag before heading back out into the water.
As he waded out, a shiver ran down his spine; the water was refreshingly cool. Maybe just a bit too cool, but at the moment, he didn't care. He just wanted to get clean.
'I'm surprised I'm still able to move after getting coated in so much mortar,' he thought, opening the bottle and pouring some of its contents onto the cloth. He placed the bottle on a rock before beginning to scrub himself. 'Doesn't help I couldn't get the consistency I wanted. It was always too thick or too thin. Probably because I'm not used to having to mill my own ingredients.'
He stuck his tongue out in disgust when he saw, as he rinsed the rag out, the water around it turn brown. "All that was on my arms alone!? No wonder Ting-Ting refused to come within an arm's reach of me the last three days..." He shook his head and, balancing on one foot, started to wash his leg. "Didn't even get this dirty when making the bricks..."
When he was done with his legs, he stretched his back again before looking around. Though the settlement was still within sight, the trees and bushes around him gave him ample privacy. Peeking out from the tops of the trees were the mountains; the first few times he had bathed at this spot, it almost felt like the mountains had been watching him. For all he knew, they could have been. But now that he knew the area a bit better, the feeling was gone.
Normally, he would be bathing back at the settlement in one of the wash basins which he would then wash his clothes in. But after toiling in the heat and being asked multiple times if he needed help, he just wanted to be alone for a little while. He had accidentally managed to make Ting-Ting worried about him—he was the one person in the group who almost never needed to be left alone, after all. But after assuring her that he was just a bit worn out and just wanted to relax, her worries seemed to have mostly faded.
"It just got tiring, hearing the same offers of help over and over again," he murmured, closing his eyes as he scrubbed the side of his neck. "I know they meant well, but c'mon, guys: I said I didn't need help and I meant it." Muttering a curse under his breath, he let his legs fall out from under him and fell into the waist-deep water.
When he surfaced, he let out a small gasp and shivered again. He tried to flip his hair out of his face, but only succeeded in moving one lock of hair into his eye, making him laugh. "A mermaid I am not," he chuckled, pushing the bits of hair away. Tossing the rag onto the shore, he reached over and filled his palm with more of the soapy liquid. "Now let's try to avoid getting hair in my eyes when it's covered in soap..."
As he massaged the soap into his scalp, he started to hear a strange, faint noise. It almost sounded like thunder. "But the skies are totally clear," he murmured, frowning as he looked at the sky. "Maybe there's a storm rolling in? But wouldn't we have seen it from the settlement, since it's so open there? Or maybe there was an avalanche up in the mountains? No. I wouldn't be able to hear that from here..."
Dunking himself under the water again, he used his fingers to help remove all the soap and dirt from his hair. He didn't dare open his eyes to see how dirty it had been—he knew that, even in this amount of water, the soap could still get in his eyes and make them sting horribly. Just when he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he stood up, gasping.
This time, he was able to flick his hair back as if he were a mermaid.
He also heard a loud yelp.
Spinning around with his eyes wide open, he found Mulan sprawled on the ground some yards upriver with Khan minding his own business, drinking water beside her. There was a look of horrified shock on her face; it was obvious he had startled her when he popped out of the water.
A guilty smile came to his lips. "Oh, uh...hey there, Mulan! Sorry if I—Oh gods, I'm still naked!" He threw himself behind one of the rocks, the guilty look still on his face as he peeked out from overtop it.
He saw that Mulan had covered her eyes. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked. "I didn't know you were out here! I just saw your clothes and thought you had left them to dry!"
He chuckled, rubbing his arm. "It's fine, really," he assured her. "I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't know you were here, either. Then again, I was rinsing my hair." His brows furrowed somewhat; the thunder sounded louder now.
"You...spent nearly five minutes rinsing your hair? Underwater?" she asked, the skepticism obvious in her voice.
"I guess? I don't really keep track of time. I just knew that there were some stubborn soapy bits," he chuckled. "How was your day of exploration?" He started to make his way towards the shore, doing his best to keep his lower half out of sight.
"It was fun," she told him, crossing her legs, "but not very fruitful. I went out with the intent to find us some natural resources, but the only things I could find were cedar trees closer to the base of the mountains."
"That's something, though!" He didn't know why, but talking with her didn't aggravate him like talking with the others had done. "Cedar's a useful tree. I think you can use all parts of it in some fashion, can't you?" He glanced at her again, making sure her eyes were still cover. Seeing that they were, he darted to the shore and grabbed his only piece of clean clothing to put on.
"I don't know about the fronds, but I know you can use the bark and the wood." She dared to peek out from between her fingers to see if he was still hiding. Seeing that he wasn't and that she could, in fact, see his entire body at this point, she clenched her eyes shut and closed her fingers. "Have the storm clouds gotten any closer?" she asked, doing her best to sound as calm as possible. Her cheeks had grown extremely hot; she hoped he couldn't see them.
"Storm clouds? The sky's been clear all day."
"Really? This morning, the whole northern horizon was covered by storm clouds."
His brow rose as he pulled a length of golden fabric over his head. "That's odd...but that would explain the weird thunder noise I've been hearing." As he adjusted the fabric so that it sat correctly, he found himself listening for the thunder sound. He didn't have to listen hard; it was growing louder by the second now.
"You've been hearing it, too? Well...I guess now it's more noticeable, but earlier, it was more like a faint murmur."
"Yeah...but shouldn't a storm have pauses in the rumbles? I'm dressed now, by the way."
She cautiously opened an eye only to find Ling wearing a familiar outfit. "You were serious when you said you still had the concubine dress!?" she laughed.
He looked almost offended by her words. "Why would I lie about something so silly?" he pouted, his hands on his hips. "This thing is comfortable! Why wouldn't I keep it?"
"And you look good in it, too," she chuckled. "I'm sorry—I just thought you would have given it back to Ting-Ting by now." Standing up, she took Khan's lead and started to walk towards Ling.
He shrugged. "I tried, but she said I look better in yellow than her. Which, admittedly, is true. Yellow is a hard color to pull off. I can think of only a handful of people who can wear it and not look like they're going to be sick." He held out his hand, using his fingers to help list off people. "Me, Shang, Su, you...Hmm...Zhi can pull off the darker shades of yellow, but not the lighter ones."
She giggled, her brow rising. "I'd say I'm surprised you know so much about what colors suit different people," she said, "but you paint, so it doesn't surprise me much." She started to walk alongside him as they headed back towards the settlement.
"It's mostly about matching a person's undertone," he explained. "I've noticed three of them: Warm, cool, and neutral. Those who have warmer undertones tend to have skin that's more peachy, yellow, or even golden in its shades. Cooler undertones mean a person's skin is going to have pinks, reds, and even blues to it. Neutrals have a mixture of these, meaning they can pull off a lot more colors than average people."
Mulan stared at him, baffled. "I...had no idea there was so much color to a person's skin."
An innocent grin came to his lips. "You start noticing things when you're huddled up in a corner, drawing people," he admitted. He then frowned and glanced away, rubbing his arm. "Sorry...this is probably pretty boring to hear."
"No, it's not!" she assured him, eyes still wide. "It's fascinating, actually."
He looked down at her, confused. "...Really?"
She nodded. "Yes! I always wondered what it was that made it so some people could wear certain colors and other people couldn't. Like, I've always liked darker shades of green, but they always seemed to wash me out."
He smiled; it was clear he wasn't used to someone being interested in this subject. "Heh, yeah. But that isn't entirely because of your undertones: The shade of your skin is also a factor. You've got a neutral undertone but pale skin, so while you can wear almost any color, it's best for you to stay away from darker shades. The exception being that blue concubine dress of yours. It's a dark shade, but it looks really pretty on you."
Her cheeks, having only just recovered from seeing his naked backside, turned pink again. "Are there any other dark colors I could pull off?"
"Reds," he answered, not seeming to notice her blush. "And you can pull off dark green—remember your armor? It's lined with dark green silk. But the paleness of your skin means that greens that lean more to the yellowy side are better."
"Huh. I'll be sure to keep that in mind if ever Mei gets to dye cloth again. I'd love to have a green dr—" She abruptly fell silent as they came around the bend. There, in front of them, was the source of the thunder and it wasn't a storm.
Itwas the hooves of nearly a thousand, galloping horses.