Disclaimer: All characters in this story are the rightful property of Disney, except for Luo Jin and Captain Hsiao Tso-liang, who belong to me :)

A/N: Anonymous reviews are now accepted. Apparently I'd disabled them a while ago and forgotten. Sorry to anyone who wanted to review and couldn't. Anyway, without further ado, here's the next chapter.

Towards the Setting Sun

Chapter 9

Shang couldn't sleep.

After spending much of the night tossing and turning restlessly, he had eventually given up on it. It wasn't the first time either. Many nights had resulted in something very similar, and now fatigue was beginning to catch up on him. Scrubbing at his eyes with the heels of his palms, Shang stood and threw on his cloak. He would walk, for the time being; it was the only way he could quiet his turbulent mind.

The battlements of the fortress at Kashgar offered a good view of the city below in the valley, and with little thought Shang found himself there, guided by the familiar route his walks would lead him on. He leant against the cold stone for a moment, angling his head to look east, where the sun would rise in a few hours time. It was the direction from which they had arrived here, almost three weeks ago now, exhausted from the long trek across the unforgiving Taklamakan desert. Bad memories permeated his recollection of the place.

"Mulan…" Shang muttered beneath his breath. Turning his back to the distant sands, he closed his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest. If she had just listened to him, they wouldn't be at such odds now. But no. She had to get herself involved in something which was of no concern to her, and which he had to settle. Stupid female compassion.

Of course, it was easy to blame her actions, and pretend that he was angry with them, but in truth he would have been able to forgive her. At least, had she not called him heartless. As it was, he was too deeply hurt by that to care. Heartless? Was it heartless for him to have spared the life of an innocent woman, exposed and vulnerable in the cold mountains? Shang's heart twisted at the memory, but he snuffed its complaint without hesitation. If she wanted this animosity between them, then so be it. He didn't care.

Indeed, Mulan had been purposely avoiding him whenever she could since that incident. She still had to come for instruction every other night, but their sessions were short, sharp and to the point. He would waste no time on someone he had no wish to speak to, although he did occasionally find himself missing holding a proper conversation with her. Of all of the people in their small group, she had been the only one he could trust as a friend, and the only one with whom he could discard formalities. That sense of companionship was severely lacking with nearly any other person, and until now he hadn't realised how much he'd become accustomed to it. But… that's right - he didn't care.

A bitter wind momentarily stung his face as it blew from the western mountains, but he stubbornly remained facing it. This was his mission. Head west, stop the Turk army and return home. The sooner he was done with it, the sooner he could go home, the sooner he could forget this and the sooner his life could return to normalcy. At the moment, there was nothing he wanted more.

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The fortress was a huge collection of buildings nestled high up in the Kashgar valley, ringed by a solid stone wall and overlooking the city and all of the roads and passes in the area. From the city, one could see it looming threateningly from above, a warning to any who would cause trouble, but from that distance its menace was somewhat dimmed. It wasn't until you stood outside the gate that you realised its true majesty. Fashioned from large blocks of stone, the walls surrounding the fortress towered above passers-by. The banners hanging from the walls above the gate and bearing the insignia of the Emperor, proudly displayed in bright red and gold, flapped occasionally in the gusts of wind that would periodically come rushing down the mountain.

Shang stood in the Gatehouse watching rank upon rank of soldiers marching into the fortress, the dull thump of their feet against the paved road causing his head to throb. Five-hundred infantrymen from a garrison in a smaller city to the north to add to the seven-thousand men already here. There were far more on the way, Shang knew, and they would be arriving very soon, before the winter set in. If they didn't make it for then, they wouldn't make it at all; it was suicide to carry out military operations during the winter.

With a heavy sigh, Shang pulled himself away from the small opening to head into the courtyard below. These troops would need settling before long, and there were none present save himself to do so. He felt his headache increase its throbbing, as though in complaint. It was going to be a long day.

The courtyard was in chaos, to say the least, and Shang hoped that he'd be able to find whoever was in charge quickly. It was hard to see anything through the milling heads of the newly-arrived soldiers, even from his vantage point on top of the stone stairs leading to the Gatehouse's entrance. Shang briefly scanned the faces of the soldiers as they assembled themselves, measuring each one of them with his gaze before moving to the next. It was alarming how many of them looked so young.

Too young to be in a war, Shang thought sadly. Is this what it has come to?

A flash of red caught Shang's eye and snapped him out of his reverie. The soldiers were parting to let their superior through, a captain, by the looks of his armour. He was tall, standing almost head and shoulders above the soldiers under his command and taller even than Shang, although only by a few inches. Despite his height, however, he was not lanky in the way that Mulan's friend Ling was, but broad in the chest and filled out with muscles. He must have been in his mid thirties at least, judging by the dusting of silver hair at his temples and the battle-worn face. A thin white scar ran diagonally across one cheek beneath his dark, penetrating gaze.

"General." The man said, bowing quickly. "I am Captain Hsiao Tso-liang. I have come under orders from his Excellence to aid against the Turk army."

"I thank you for coming to us so late in the year. I am General Li Shang." He replied, walking down the remaining stairs to stand level with the Captain. "Accommodation will be arranged shortly for you and your men."

The other man bowed again, hand over fist. When he rose, he asked "Is the woman-warrior Fa Mulan here also?"

Shang didn't know what to think. He blinked instead.

"She is." He answered eventually. "Why do you wish to know?"

Tso-liang gave a short burst of rumblinglaughter, his dark eyes twinkling with mirth. Somehow, Shang thought he would come to like this man.

"Stories of China's heroine reached my ears many months ago. It would be a great honour to talk to her, if I may." The captain answered with a lingering smile.

"Very well."

Shang led Tso-liang to the training fields, where Mulan was currently instructing a portion of the force stationed at the fortress on the finer points of horsemanship. So far, most of the soldiers had little skill in handling the beasts, and those that did paled in comparison to Mulan. When they struggled to complete the task set them, she would demonstrate with impeccable skill how it was to be done.

While Shang stood in silent observation, Captain Hsiao beside him, he could almost forget what she had said back then in the desert. But then he would remember, and the same simmering anger would boil up again. His head thumped dully, and he gritted his teeth. This was doing him no good.

He turned to leave, but as he was about to walk back to the main body of the fortress, Tso-liang spoke. "I understand that she was under your command during the Hun invasion? Back when you were a captain."

"She was." Was Shang's short response. He kept his back to the training field, feeling the simmering anger increase intensity.

"And you spared her life. It was a noble thing to do General."

"A life for a life. My debt is repaid." I wouldn't call it noble… It was cowardly.

"She saved my life…" Shang said quietly, and hung his head. The heat of his anger died down, if only slightly; he wouldn't forgive her so easily.

"Really? She is a marvel…" He trailed off, and Shang rose his head to cast a glance in the Captain's direction. He was looking out on the field, a frown on his face.

The clamour that followed was alarming, and Shang wheeled back to see the cause. A horse had cast a shoe in mid gallop, and consequently tripped, tossing the rider from the saddle to the frosted earth. Shang started forwards immediately, dashing across the field to the rider and horse where they lay sprawled across the ground. In the next few moments, almost all of the people present followed.

It was Luo Jin, clutching his shoulder and groaning in pain. Shang knelt by him without hesitation, and began to assess his injuries, temporarily forgetting his dislike for the man before him. The left side of Jin's face was scratched from his impact with the hard earth and slowly leaking blood, and the shirt beneath his fingers was similarly damaged, revealing a quickly bruising shoulder, out of which the white of bone glared in the light. His collarbone was broken.

"Jin!" Mulan's voice shouted as she, too, rushed to her friend's aid. She stayed back, however, hovering over Shang's shoulder. She had no medical training, and was thankfully leaving it to him.

"Get the medic." Shang ordered over his shoulder to no-one in particular, his voice leaving no room for argument. The sound of feet rushing away behind him followed. "Mulan, take the rest of the recruits and continue as normal." Thankfully, she obeyed, and soon the mass of soldiers had moved off.

"The horse's leg is broken." Tso-liang informed Shang, coming to kneel opposite him. Luo Jin had passed out from the pain, and Shang lay him down carefully. Sitting back on his heels, he glanced at the animal. A horse with a broken leg was useless to them, and it would have to be killed. It was a regrettable loss, but nothing would be wasted. The meat would probably go into the cooking pot this evening, the hair and sinew would be used for bowstrings, and the bones would be boiled down into glue for the armoury. It meant more work, however, and they were hard pressed as it was to prepare for the impending war.

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The desk in his room was strewn with paperwork. Under normal circumstances it may have been more orderly, with everything systematically stacked and arranged, but Shang's day was taking its toll on what was already a tired and sleep-deprived body. His work had been piling up over the past few days, and now even Luo Jin's injury meant more toil for him, organising his care and re-writing the schedule of guards on watch. And then there was the accommodation for the five-hundred newly arrived soldiers which still needed seeing to…

His eyes were stinging. The dim light offered from the small lamp to his right made the letters swim on the parchment before him, and no matter how many times he blinked, they would not stop moving. It was agitating; these reports needed to be written! Even so, a niggling thought in the back of his mind refused to leave him, or, perhaps, he would not let it. He knew that burying himself in his work was pointless, especially in his current situation, but at least it would temporarily draw his restless mind away from…

Recent events… Shang concluded.

The knock which sounded throughout his room startled Shang from the daze he had unwittingly fallen into. For a moment, he sat and wondered how he had not noticed his hand had stopped writing, and sat frowning at the appendage as though it would provide an answer. The knock came again, and finally Shang remembered what he was about, springing from his seat to the heavy wooden door. It was the medic.

"Yes?" Shang asked, distantly noticing the drawn tone of his voice but paying no attention to it.

"The soldier you sent to me has been treated." The medic replied in a voice thick with the heavy accent of the Kashgarian locals. He stayed standing in the doorway.

"And?"

"He has broken bones here," he pointed to his elbow, "and here." A brief touch to the collarbone. It was worse, then, than Shang's initial assessment. Jin would be out of training for several weeks, at least.

"Take me to him."

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The medic's wing of the main building was dingier, if possible, than Shang's own room, and he wondered how anyone could treat the sick in such little light. There were three windows lining the wall of the room in which Shang stood, although they were facing north towards the mountains, and very little light made it through to the rows of pallets that lined the room, arranged in long columns. Luo Jin lay beside one of the windows, the meagre light afforded from it illuminating his brow and the scratches which ran across his face. His entire left side was a mass of pale yellow bandages, and the faint outlines of splints could be seen where the daylight hit them, casting faint shadows. From the rise and fall of Jin's chest, Shang could tell that the other man was asleep, probably under the influence of the opium used to kill the pain of his injuries.

Shang didn't often feel pity. His father had often said that pity was for the weak-spirited, but sometimes even Shang couldn't deny the feeling. Even now, he felt sorry that Luo Jin had suffered what he did; horses were large animals, and many an accident involving the beasts had proven fatal if not severely disabling. The agony of breaking a limb was far from pleasant, Shang knew, and their situation, far from their homeland, among strangers and on the brink of war, would hardly make things any better.

Shang crossed his arms with a sigh. Perhaps Luo Jin wasn't such a bad person, and Shang was unjustified in his dislike of the man. Jin certainly hadn't done anything thus far to incite these feelings towards him, and he was well liked among the soldiers. What was it, then, that Shang couldn't stand about him? Jealousy had occurred to him before, but… no, it was most certainly not that, especially seeing as he wasn't even on good terms with Mulan at the moment. Shang mulled over the possibilities, but was left answerless. Maybe it would occur to him after he got some sleep…

The door behind Shang creaked on its worn iron hinges, alerting him to the presence of another. Mulan poked her head in, and looked in his direction. From this distance, he could see the slight frown which flitted across her brow upon spotting him; was she displeased that he was here? Maybe she hadn't forgiven him for intervening with her scuffle with the slave driver back in the desert yet. Or, perhaps, was she merely confused that he was watching over Luo Jin, whom he disliked so much? Whatever the reason, he wasn't going to hang around. Almost immediately after seeing her, he whirled towards the door, schooling his face into a stoic mask and strode forward. She seemed to hesitate briefly just before he brushed past her, as though she was going to reach out and catch him by the arm but decided against it. He walked to the door straight backed, the very image of a military leader.

"Shang," Mulan's voice called from behind him.

He stopped in mid step, his back to her. Was she going to apologise? He highly doubted it, but he would listen anyway.

"Thank you," she continued quietly, a hint of what sounded like relief tinting her voice, "for taking care of Jin."

'Taking care of Jin?' Who said he was doing anything of the sort? He only came to check the medic had done a proper job…

Shang left the room without looking back. Had he done so he might have seen the smile on her face.

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A/N: Another chapter done and dusted! Thankfully, I've had enough time off to be able to get this up just before Christmas, and I hope I have done a sufficient job for everyone on the story. Of course your reviews will help me get a move on and post the next chapter sooner, so please, write a review for me! Consider it a Christmas present, if you will.

Well, to all of my readers, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

icedragon6171