Mushu listened to Cri Kee-x's chirps of protest as he plopped the insect down beside him and the freshly re-lit flames.
Pahlin had poised himself for sleep much closer to Ching's tent than he had done the previous night, stomping his legs purposefully up to its side and then locking them in place with a quick glare in their direction. He didn't say anything, but his position made his thoughts quite clear.
Mushu had decided to just let it go however. If the horse didn't trust him, he didn't trust him. There was no reason for him not to, but if he started ignoring him, Pahlin might begin to do him the same courtesy.
He caught Cri Kee-x yawning and had to suppress one of his own. It was very late and they had done a lot today, it was definitely time to curl up and see how much sleep he could get before the sun came up.
He allowed his eyes to close, and began to feel himself drifting down to sleep. He was getting used to the idea of getting the good, non-magical kind of sleep more often, the small fear he had felt when he had gone to sleep outside Mulan's and Shang's bedroom of not being able to wake up again for such a long time had ebbed now.
It had been irrational, he thought now. It wouldn't all disappear, he was almost certain that he needed to be back at the temple to go under that other way. But he felt he was repeating himself, thinking all of this again, and tried to clear his mind.
Mushu only realized that he had been half-asleep when he was awoken by a soft rustle that had made his right ear twitch. Immediately after he heard it he opened his eyes and turned to look.
Ching had reemerged, kneeling down to sit on her legs next to him. Clothed for sleep in a light blue gown and dry now except for her hair, she watched the fire for a bit before looking over to where he and Cri Kee-x were.
Cri Kee-x was still close to Mushu, though evidently not asleep. Once he had seen that Ching had come back out he all but sprang into the tent, and Mushu watched him go in silently.
He turned back to Ching, she had watched Cri Kee-x go in too, and smiled. "I think I've spoiled him, he doesn't want to sleep out here anymore."
"Yeah," he answered half-heartedly, he had kind of enjoyed the company, what with the only other one out there being Pahlin.
A silence followed, and Mushu was thinking about laying his head back down when she spoke again.
"I wanted to thank you for putting that up for me," she said with a slight awkwardness, gesturing to the tent. "I'd thank you both at once, but little Cri Kee's already gone in."
Mushu had noticed that she didn't add the 'x', or even the XXIV. He didn't exactly like it, but he let it slide. She'd have been lucky to have known Cri Kee original, though.
"Hey, no problem," he said sounding friendly, though a touch cautious. There was still an air of stiffness between them, more formal rather than friendly.
To ease things he added, "What would things be like if we didn't help each other out every now and then?"
She nodded, and he watched her eyes fall back on the tent. Another pause and some mental deliberation on her part seemed to follow.
"If you'd want, you can sleep in there with me tonight, too."
Mushu hadn't anticipated that, he certainly hoped this wasn't her paying him back already. He'd much rather use up his favor with getting to hear about her family.
It was tempting though, in case of any more rain. Plus he would be away from Pahlin, or at least from seeing him, what with how close the hulking beast was to the side of it he stood against.
Weighing the offer for a moment, he agreed. She smiled as she stood back up to go in, possibly the first non-sarcastic smile she'd given him.
She opened one of the flaps to let him in first, since he was so much smaller than her. There wasn't much to see, it was pretty small. A bit cramped really, now that Ching was in there. She crawled over to the blankets she had spread out for her bed, and he saw Cri Kee-x asleep in one of her shoes, chirping contentedly.
Ching picked up something and placed it closer to the flaps, not too far from the foot of her sleeping space. It was the towel she had used earlier. Mushu scooted out of her way as she scrunched up the towel, making a kind of nest with it. When she had stopped fiddling with it, she looked back over to him. She gestured to it, as if showing off her handiwork.
"There you go, that should be comfy," she said quietly but with a polite tone.
But all Mushu could do was stare at her and blink a few times. Did she really just make a little bed for him out of her laundry? Did she think he was some sort of dog? He fought pretty hard his desire to voice these thoughts. He reminded himself that this was a nice thing she was doing, that they were trying to be friendly, and he should really just take what he could get.
He climbed into the center of it as she crawled back over to her space, still pretty flabbergasted that this was the way she thought of him.
It wasn't entirely bad. The towel was still a little damp, but not as wet as Mushu had anticipated. It did hold a few odd scents though. The smell of wet cloth was still pretty strong, as well as that heady farm animal smell from Pahlin. There was a good smell in there however; the merest hint of orchid…or some other flowers, definitely the scent of the essence Yun had sprinkled on it after it was cleaned.
To make it easier for him to fall asleep, he tried his best to focus on the pleasant smell through the stronger less-pleasant aromas.
When his eyes opened again Mushu could tell it had been much longer than the last time, but not too long. The amount of light filtering through the thin sides of the tent was about enough to see by, if you ignored the giant silhouette cast from Pahlin sleeping outside.
Bleary-eyed, Mushu picked his head up to see if anyone else was awake. He felt the textured fabric rub against his cheek as he moved. It was completely dry now, or at least it felt that way. He still got a huge whiff of those smells, but at least it had been comfortable.
His eyes found Ching's shoes, and in one still lay Cri Kee-x. He saw one of his friend's antennae twitch in his sleep, and amazingly he was still chirping softly. It was more sporadic and much quieter now, but still oddly impressive that he could keep it up.
Another light noise caused him to shift his gaze, and he found Ching's sleeping form. (It wasn't exactly hard to find since they were in such a small space, but still.)
It was a light kind of sigh, almost like a coo, but she did not move. It was a little hard to see clearly – since he was closer to her feet and they were presently spread out, obscuring some of his view – but he could see that one of her arms wasn't lying at her side like the other. Her left hand was propped under her head, her elbow sticking straight up in the air.
This – Mushu thought – was a very weird way to sleep. Even as he thought this, Ching turned over onto her right side, pulling her legs up and scrunching into a ball with that darn hand still lying on her head as if glued there.
He thought back over the last few days, and concluded that she didn't seem very much like what he'd thought the granddaughter of Mulan would be like. But then… he had never considered Mulan ever having a granddaughter.
He laid his head back down onto the towel; they could afford maybe another hour. Mushu did make a mental note to say something about how she saw him, if this towel thing was any indication.
All too soon the tent was alive with three awakening individuals, one trying to rouse the others while still getting up himself.
"Come on, we've still gotta pack everything up," Mushu said as he picked up Cri Kee-x who had not budged from his comfy shoe bed.
Ching had heard him, and she sat up blinking and holding her left arm. She moved her hand around a bit as if it had gone numb. "Just give me a few minutes to get dressed."
Mushu nodded impatiently and carried Cri Kee-x out of the tent. He had miscalculated on the time and they had slept much more than he had planned. It was making him feel a little more hurried than normal seeing the sun so high in the sky.
He put his friend down near the remnants of his fire and began to clear it away. Mushu didn't really want to have to wait on her like he'd had to do; very strange how he could wake up feeling like this when he'd actually had a restful night's sleep.
At least the horse was up, up and now standing in front of the entrance to the tent. Mushu didn't care, he wasn't going back in. He'd have to help take it down but that was all.
He heard Cri Kee-x bleat a weary greeting, and inquire as to why he was outside, but unfortunately he didn't see the cricket jump back inside to presumably get back in Ching's shoe. If Mushu had caught him, he could have saved his friend from a newly-discovered phobia.
It was when he noticed that Cri Kee-x wasn't there that he came dashing out of the tent to hide behind Mushu.
"What?" he asked as he whipped around to see his friend and try and keep him from grabbing onto his leg.
All he could make out from Cri Kee-x's jibbering chirps was that he had seen something on Ching's back.
"Ok, ok, just stay here," Mushu said only a tad forcibly. Cri Kee-x had calmed, but he wouldn't do anywhere near the tent.
It looked like Mushu wouldn't be either, what with Ching's guard-horse blocking the way. Rolling his eyes and holding up his hands at the horse to show he wouldn't go any further, he called to her.
"Everything alright in there?"
"I'm almost done, don't worry,' he heard her answer back from inside.
"It's not that, it's… could you check your back?" He felt a little dumb asking, especially having to shout across only about two feet.
"For what?" she shouted back, sounding confused and a tad perturbed.
But she must have done so without an answer, for a few seconds later her hand emerged from the flaps, flicking something off into the grass before disappearing again.
Mushu turned back to Cri Kee-x, looking from him to where whatever it was had landed. He raised an eyebrow and made his way over to the thing, Cri Kee-x following him curiously but with some caution.
"It's a tick," he said flatly. Cri Kee-x nodded and chirped that he had seen it on the small of her back and not known what to do.
"It can't hurt you," Mushu said while trying not to sound too unsympathetic at his friend. "It's a bug, you're a bug."
At this Cri Kee-x quickly chirped that it was a much meaner kind of bug, it sucked blood.
"Yeah, they suck blood, do you even have blood?" he asked, really trying now to not be too amused. He steered Cri Kee-x away from the tick and they continued what part of the packing up they could with Ching still inside.
With the 'danger' passed and Ching finally out, Mushu and Cri Kee-x helped Ching take the tent down to her surprise. Cri Kee-x had pleaded with him and Mushu ended up agreeing. She had thanked him for the last time, but it was looking like it would become a more frequent occurrence.
Despite their late and considerably weird start, the group was actually making good time by late afternoon, thanks in most part to Pahlin focusing more on his trotting when his jibes towards Mushu were ignored, and due to Mushu's adamant refusal to allow any stops to be made until nightfall.
Almost fully recovered from the tick incident, Cri Kee-x had zonked out a few hours into the day's journey, and he now lay curled up next to Mushu who – despite his own feeble attempt – could not manage to sleep through the ride.
Today they would reach their midway point, the home of one of Ching's relatives. While Mushu assumed this was good news for her, he hoped that they wouldn't be staying too long. Anything more than one night would not go down well with him, but he wasn't sure Ching really needed any reminding about what might be lost along with any lost time.
He didn't like not knowing how Mulan was. He didn't like thinking about her lying in that bed back home, looking so weak. Someone that strong inside and out shouldn't have to waste away like that.
"You're being quiet," Ching observed. It was a statement, but it had a hint of a question near the end. It was true that he and Cri Kee-x hadn't said much throughout the day, but that was mainly because he was sleeping… and honestly, Mushu hadn't felt like it.
His mind hadn't allowed him to distract himself enough to push that creeping worry about Mulan back down from whence it came.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," he mumbled, still a bit lost in his thoughts. At least her speaking had reminded him of his mental note, and it could have the dual purpose of helping him think of something other than his friend's failing health.
"Hey, about letting me in last night," he began, trying to make it clear that he wasn't ungrateful. "Thanks, but what was with the bed that you made me?"
"What about it?" she asked, turning her head the slightest amount she could. Her question sounded guarded; obviously his sentence hadn't come out as he'd hoped. "Was it uncomfortable or something?"
Actually it hadn't been, he'd gotten a better sleep than he'd had since he 'woke up'. It wasn't really that big a contest; he'd only been awake what, a week now? Less?
"Nah, it's not like that, it's just…" He tried again to avoid offending her, so he didn't go for the accusation of 'you think I'm a dog or something?' that he was thinking of. He supposed he could go for the real question.
"How do you see me, exactly?"
He was half-expecting some cutesy response like 'with my eyes', but he was surprised that she seemed to be actually pondering it, looking for a genuine response.
"You know, I'm not sure," she said, thoughtfully. "I really just thought you were here just because no one seems to trust me, and that apparently I needed someone to watch over my shoulder." She turned her head slightly again, and he leaned around to catch her eyes as they glanced back for a second.
"But that's starting to change now. You may seem like a babysitter at times, but I guess that you're really just like a talking guard dog."
He could tell that she meant it as a compliment, but hearing the word that he himself had been thinking was far from complementary to Mushu.
"But I'm not!" he said defensively, and then lowered his voice as he remembered his sleeping insect friend beside him. "Not the 'dog' part anyway, it's not like I'm some sort of animal."
"Well…you kind of are," Ching said, evidently thinking she was stating the obvious and trying to be delicate about it.
Of course he knew that, Mushu knew he was an animal. He had just never thought of himself as one, and had never come across anyone who counted him as such. At least, not in the Fa family.
"Your grandmother didn't think of me like that, I wasn't anything else but her friend. I helped her out through most of her biggest and baddest times, too."
"But, is that normal?" she asked "for a… guardian?"
Mushu leaned his head to one side then the other, deliberating. "Probably not," he admitted, but stayed firm with his defense.
They hit a lull again, but at least for the first time that air of stiffness seemed to be fading, if only a tad.
"I'll see what I can do about the sleeping arrangements when we get to Miki's," she said to end the conversation at about where it began.
Mushu supposed that went better than it could have, but as he laid back next to Cri Kee-x, his head pointed up and his eyes watching Ching's hair bouncing in-time with Pahlin's steps from way up in that weird up do, he still felt a bit perplexed.
He certainly hoped that by the end of this trip, she could at least count him as a friend. Not on the Mulan level – that wasn't possible – but at least friendly.
Author's Note: Well, we're over halfway, and as you know now so are they. This chapter had a pretty sizeable overhaul, and I was attempting to bring the feel back around to where it's supposed to be, because somehow it's gotten to comedic. The funny thing is, I didn't think I could write comedicly…still don't. But yeah, gonna have to turn it 'round. But don't worry, it doesn't turn into a big list of characters dropping like flies like what seemed to happen in SSF. But I am trying to get back to the emotion of the characters.
