"Mulan?" Shang was on his feet and facing her before Mulan had even realized he'd heard her.

Mulan grinned, "Who else were you expecting? Ping?"

"Or Captain Fa, I wasn't sure," Shang laughed. He looked torn between whether or not to hug her. On the one hand it was hardly proper, but on the other they were good friends and it wasn't as though Mulan weren't always hugging Yao, Ling or Chien Po. In the end he just settled on a friendly handshake. "Welcome to camp."

It wasn't long before Shang was down to business; after all they were, presumably, on the brink of another war. First of all he explained to her what she would be doing at the camp. He would have a class, the same as the last time they had gone through this, but it would only be of half the men. Mulan would be in charge of the other half. Second he described to her the classified situation. A single scout, badly injured, had returned from an assignment as a messenger. The injured scout, and three other men he had been on assignment with, discovered, or rather were discovered by, the Hun army. He was so badly injured, though, that all they got from him before he died was that the Hun army had been recuperating their strength with the men they had left, those that survived and men from a small alliance they had made. Anything else was guesswork. The location of the Hun army was still unknown and so were their intentions.

Mulan sighed heavily. "And they - nobody - knows anything else? At all?"

"Nothing except that it happened a month ago and nothing else has happened as of yet," he replied. "The Emperor doesn't want this to become public officially until he's sure what's going on."

"So, what happens after we've trained all these men?" she asked.

"We have to wait until that time comes," he replied. "Men are still out there scouting so all we can do is prepare for whatever they might come back with."

They continued to bat the subject around for a while longer before changing it completely, back to the training that Mulan would both go through and instruct. Eventually they were just talking like old friends about 'back home,' their families and any other news they could come up with, instead of officers preparing for war.

"Here, I better show you around before it gets dark," Shang offered.

"Right," Mulan agreed, getting to her feet. "Thanks."