Shang's POV

I felt my heart stop. A young girl, both Ping's sister is in trouble, only…. She's safe with Zhou's sister right? Her aunt. At least that's what he told me. But why would he lie? I could help him if he asked, I mean, if she was kidnapped by Huns I would love to kick their butts! It would be repayment for all the heartache everyone had to face. Sons, husbands, and fathers that wouldn't come home because of stupid, ignorant, blood-thirsty Huns. I refuse to let Ping come home to a house without his loved sister.

"Who has your sister?" I try to keep the shaking out of my voice. No one should go through a death of a sister. Ever.

"The bad people." His soft voice hit my ears just as he turns around and runs to his house. Far away from me, sighing I start walking back there to get my horse and find an inn. With more questions in my head than those that had been answered. I take another step but to my uttermost surprise, and embarrassment, I fell down a small step down. Into a pond.

The cold water came at my face faster than I expected it to. I mean I only missed one measly little step but because of that I fell! The great Shang Li has fallen into a pond. I barely had time to register the fact of the water lilies floating above my head as I was plunged into the water. Thank goodness that I know how to swim I think to myself before swimming to the surface.

The pond was surprisingly deep. I couldn't touch the bottom of the pond unless I dived down and swam a bit to it, but why would I do that? I wonder to myself as the impulse hits me to. Normally this impulse had kept me alive so why start ignoring it now? I take a deep breath of the smell of a pond with lilies on it. Relaxing, right before I dive down. The cold water hit my head again, almost making me lose my precious air supply. It felt like it was a second skin on me. The water was silky, calm, and surprisingly deceitful.

A gold glint hit my eyes, hidden under mud and silt. I change my direction from a shallower end to the middle of the pond. Swimming deeper and deeper I focus on finding out what the gold glint is, until I reach my hand out towards it. The feel of softening wood hits my fingertips. Odd, I think. I brush away the mud and silt from the wood. Not much bigger than a small log. I keep brushing away all the mud as the gold becomes clearer and clearer.

My hand hits the gold metal. Yes! I think happily. That is until I realize what it is. The last of my air disappears with a silent scream. Racing as fast as I could to the surface and as far away as possible from the terrible scene I had just saw.

I hit the land and dragged myself up, not even stopping for a breath of fresh air, even though my lungs are burning for it. As my whole body hits the soft grass I look at the pond. Full of mystery, mystery I rather keep a mystery.

I stare out at the pond for a while more, almost expecting the thing to come out of its underwater grave and come after me. The small child. Hidden forever

Mulan's POV

I couldn't believe it had been that easy to leave the general in that stupid room. Hah! And he called himself smart. Smart my butt! I smile as I walk down the hallway, towards freedom. I could almost hear the birds chirping, telling me that I had done the impossible, and that I was free. Free like them! Until I went back to my village, then I would be known as the 'screw up of Fa Zhou'. Really you couldn't blame them, I have always been more boyish than girlish. I guess I have...

I lost my trail of thought as I came to a fork in the walkway. One was dark, a perfect ambush. The other was lighter, full of laughter. Male laughter. My breath caught as I looked at the two different ways I could go. Neither was ideal to say the least, either way I could die tonight.

I let go of the air I didn't know I had been keeping in my mouth as I silently screamed at the ancestors. How could they let me be like this? The only reason I was like this was their freaking fault! If only I hadn't seen Hua die. The only sibling I had when I was three. He being only five at the time, jealous I had climbed the tallest tree. A faint smile tugged at the left side of my lips. Carefree laughter as the two of us had chased each other in the forest next to our house. Our own little sanctuary. My favorite place to be.

Unconsciously I felt my feet walk closer to the dark cavern until it was over my head, blocking out any light. The darkness closed in on me. I couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't even control my own mind. My unconscious body hit the ground with a thud, rocks stabbing into my skin, breaking the pale, almost luminous skin in the dark. Blood darkened the ground underneath me. Staining the dress I was in, I could care less though.

The mind is a strange thing. Things always happen that I can't ever hope to explain. Maybe it was the dark cavern, maybe it was the fact that I was alone. No one was going to save me. I was all alone.

My head lifted up on its own accord. The sunlight poured down through the green leaves of the katsura tree I was hiding in. Hua was counting down below me, against a yulan magnolia. His eyes peeping out looking for his baby sister. I giggled as he dramatically ended his counting to 10. His warm chocolate eyes searching the green for my black hair. A dead give away in this game.

His head snapped to the side as he saw a black cave, five times the size of him at the time. Pitch black, perfect hiding spot for a little girl. I should have spotted it sooner! I thought to myself as he walked into it.

That scream will haunt me forever. Pure terror mixed with pain. His broken and bloodied body thrown out of the cave. All for my young eyes to see. After Hua's body had been thrown out of the darkness two men followed. Each as big as a small tree. Neck as thick as my waist. Arms as big as my head. Dagger raised in each hand. Each repeatedly stabbing my idol, my hero, my brother. His limp body torn up, intestines spilling out onto the soft grass. A man reached into the open chest and grabbed the heart.

The howl that came out of the man's throat will haunt me forever. It could never have been human. It wasn't human. The only thing I could think of was that I needed to get to my brother. Protect what was left of his body.

Thump. I felt something graze my side as I fell from the 50 or more foot tree. The ground coming closer at an alarming rate. The side of my head smashed into a rock, instantly knocking me out.

When I had came to I found a dagger impaled into my stomach. No sign of the men. Only me and a mangled body of what once had been my brother. The sight of him made me retch. Eyes torn out of the sockets, blood everywhere. Vital organs placed around his body almost like a sick burial ritual. Skin torn off the bones.

That was my last image of him before I looked for the wooden box we had found in the woods. Small enough to fight a child in. Big enough for a child to lie forever in. My throat constricted as I gently placed his organs and everything else I could into the coffin, along with his body.

Gently I pushed the coffin to the lake, his favorite place to rest on busy days. The dagger in me all but forgotten as I watched the box sink.

"I love you." I whispered, the coffin sinking.

Thank you all for the reviews! Sorry its not that long and it took so long to write, but I promise that I will try to finish faster! Reviews=faster chapters? I love you all!