Author Note: Best read in 1/2 width format.

Hello, all! This is my first Mulan fic. This is just a small snippet of what is to come, I'm planning to write a longer, multi chapter piece.

This story will include some darker topics, but I will give fair warning to readers at the start of chapters.

I want this story to take inspiration from the various versions of the legend of Mulan and take inspiration from other historical female warriors as well, but primarily using the 1998 Mulan movie characters. Please enjoy and share feedback, I'd love to hear from readers. Thank you for reading and enjoy.

Beyond the Great Wall

Prologue

Once upon a time, Fa Mulan was a young girl who craved adventure, an escape from her mundane small town life, in a place where women were taught to be quiet and subservient to men, never daring to chase their own dreams.

Unfortunately these days, she did not feel so brave or curious about the world around her. In fact, Mulan felt gravely uncertain about a lot of things in her life.

Growing up as a middle class farmer's daughter in rural northeast China, Mulan loved spending time outdoors and working with her hands. And she enjoyed exploring the beautiful woods surrounding her village home, too.

Unlike many other girls, Mulan even got a chance to learn skills like calligraphy, tai chi and horseback riding thanks to her doting father, and practiced whenever she could.

But now, all of that seemed like a life time ago, even at her ripe age of seventeen.

This made the young Han woman feel deeply sad and remorseful.

For Mulan knew it was unlikely she would ever see her family again. Nor was it likely she would get chance to return to the Middle Kingdom at all, either.

Far too much had happened in the past half year, Mulan simply could not just go back home and pretend everything was the same - even if the village accepted her upon return.

Even if he ever allowed her to return.

Before the fateful battle at Tung Shao - where after saving his life, her beloved former commander abandoned Mulan alone, sickly and severely injured in the mountain pass - she had been a very different person.

The old Mulan always followed what her heart believed in.

Even when she was scared or unsure of what was to come, she tried her best to stay strong and brave - not only for herself, but for the ones she loved and then later as a soldier, for her country as well.

Sadly, all Mulan could do now was try to survive amid the new and perilous world she had found herself in, a place so different than where she came from.

She greatly missed the person she used to be. But the young woman would do her best to persevere.

There were many lives depending on her, not just those whom lived along the disputed territory around the Great Wall of China, but far beyond that as well.

Being taken as a prisoner of war by one's enemy was most often a death sentence.

Yet for Mulan, by a completely unexpected and strange twist of fate, it had become a life sentence instead – one she could not escape from.

Khan Shan Yu, the fearsome leader of the savage Huns, had emerged from the massive avalanche where she buried him at Tung Shao, found her alone in the mountain pass.

Then instead of maiming or torturing her, he safely brought her back to his homeland.

And he made one thing very clear to Mulan:

She belonged to him now.

Some days, the former soldier still did not believe the situation she had found herself in. But this was now her reality.

Regardless of the kind words shared, the gentle intimacy showed, the lavish gifts her bestowed upon her – she was still the Khan's prisoner.

Mulan knew he did not love her.

This was something different – infatuation, obsession or just some type of sick delusion of reality.

Even weeks later, despite everything that had happened between them, the forsaken Imperial soldier still did not know the true reason why the enemy warlord chose to save her life.

He could have just let her perish and die in the mountain pass, if not exact revenge for his dead army and kill her himself, as she first assumed he would.

But he did not.

Yet sometimes still, Mulan wished he had.