Well here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. Own nothing. But a few names. Disclaimer's finished.. This chapter's a lil better than the others to me. I think it's rolling along.
Chapter 4: Training and a plan.
"Well, Here it is." Shang opened the door to Mulan's room. Mulan looked in astonishment. The room was lavish. Almost like royalty. Mulan walked in carefully, and touched the bed as if she were afraid she'd break it.
"It's wonderful, Shang, I love it." Mulan kept walking around looking at the books on the shelves and the parchment on the desk.
"My father was big on showing off his riches." Shang looked around with Mulan in the fancy room. " Well, how about you get dressed and come on down and help my brother with some training when your ready. Just let me know when." Mulan nodded. Training, got it. she thought.
It took Mulan about an hour to get there but she was standing out in the fields waiting for Shang and Jaing.
"I hope I am in the right field." She mumbled, looking around.Finally she spotted Shang, dressed like her and Jaing wearing a newer version of their training clothes.
"Sorry we're late, Jaing wanted NEW training clothes. He couldn't live with just the slightly older ones I wore when I was his age." Shang looked at Mulan and rolled his eyes. "Okay, Jaing, First. I want to see if you can even climb a tree." Shang said scouring the area for an easy tree to climb. He spotted one not too far off. "Try to climb that tree there." He pointed at the tree. "Okay?" Jaing nodded and started to walk off towards the tree. "RUN JAING RUN!" Shang barked, which scared Jaing and he started jogging. Jaing started off. Shang and Mulan were left to talk. " Maybe I should explain Jaing." Shang said motioning to the kid jogging slowly towards his tree. " When I was born, my father claimed me as his next heir and child that would learn the martial training. He worked me hard since before I could even remember." Shang laughed at the memory. "well my mother never really got to see me, So when Jaing was born my mother didn't want him being in the army. The doctors said she wished it so hard that Jaing was born early. He was so little and sickly for so long that father never thought he'd be able to fight, so he trained me harder. Once Jaing got better, father still kind of ignored him." Mulan took it all in slowly.
"Why did he ignore him? Jaing's probably good at a lot of things." Mulan said defensivly.
"That's what my mother couldn't understand. There was only one way to get to my father's heart, and it was through the army. He didn't care about farmer's or those type of children so he didn't even consiter Jaing his kid. So my mother babied him and he never had to excercise or train. that's why he's out of shape, and slightly lazy. When father died, I guess, Jaing wanted to be like him so he has begged me to help him be great in martial arts." Shang looked over to Jaing who couldn't pull himself up onto the first limb. Shang sighed
"This is where you come in. Come on let's help him." Mulan and Shang ran to Jaing's assistance.
"Jaing, pull yourself up!" Shang yelled. "Use some strength." Jaing let go of the limb and looked over at Shang.
"I Tried." He whined. "But it's too hard, I can't do it." Shang glared at him. Mulan stood in between the two guys.
"Here Let me help." she offered.
"You can't help! I bet you can't even do it either!" Jaing Snapped.
"Jaing!" Shang yelled grabbing and spinning his brother to face him. "Don't yell at her like that. I'm warning you, she is a higher rank than you. Show her some respect."
"There Jaing, Happy?" Shang and Jaing turned to see Mulan not only on the first brance but the third sitting down. smiling at them. Jaing walked up to the tree.
"How'd you do that?" He asked in amazement. Mulan smiled
"Okay, Idea number one. Grab the limb. Then put your foot against the trunk of the tree it helps you walk your way up the tree kind of helping you get a grabbing." Jaing followed Mulan's advice and was soon on the branch.
"Look, Shang, look! I did it!" Jaing beamed. Shang smiled. He actually did it.
"Okay. Now on to the second task." Jaing Sighed and crawled down, Mulan followed him.
"Thank you Mulan." Shang smiled and blushed.
"It's all right, you're welcome." Mulan followed the two to a pole. No ledges and straight up and down. She knew what was next.
"Shang, are you sure he's ready for this?" Everyone had a hard time with this activity and it was nothing like tree climbing. Mulan could climb trees, it was the pole she had issues with.
"If you guys could learn, so can he." Shang walked over towards the pole and pulled out a bow and arrow. he must have been here early Mulan thought. Shang aimed and shot the arrow up near the top of the pole. "Jaing, retrieve the arrow." Mulan shivered, de ja vous again. Shang walked behind the pole to get the weights.
"I can hardly climb a tree how do you expect me to shimmy up a pole?!" Jaing cried. Shang tried hard not to yell at him.
"Use these." He added wrapping the tight weights around his wrists.
" One's strength and one's discipline." Mulan added casually. Jaing could hardly pull the weights up. "Shang, This isn't a good idea, I mean, he's just a kid." Mulan said trying to avoid watching Jaing jump up to pole and hit himself with the weights.
"I did this when I was his age." Shang watched Jaing try again, this time the weights slipped and went flying knocking Jaing to the ground.
"Shang, You were trained, hard. The men that did this excercise in camp were older, more strong. Let him work his way up to it." Shang looked at her, she cared about the little kid's safety.
"Okay, Jaing. Let's call it good. You'll get that arrow later." Jaing stopped trying to jump up to the pole and sighed. he drug his feet back following Mulan and Shang. It was truly a tiring day.
Jaing was told to report outside tomorrow around noon, and dismissed, the kid slowly made his way to his room, exhausted. He trudged past his mother and looked up at her as she made her way towards Shang. He smiled. His mother nodded at him and continued towards Shang.
"Dinner will be ready soon, you two need to freshen up. Nothing fancy just dinner." his mother directed this at Mulan, who nodded. Shang led Mulan back to her room.(Seeing as how his room is on the same floor and down the hall) Mulan found a simple dress that she had brought. Not extravigant but pretty. She brushed her hair till she was satisfied. She looked at the makeup. Should she wear it? Mulan shook her head and went by the mirror to check her reflection. She was her. Her reflection finally showed someone she was proud to be. She left her room and found Shang who had just finished changing. His outfit was the same manner as hers.
"Thought you'd need help down to the dining area." Shang mumbled. Mulan smiled and followed him to the dining area. In the dining area there was Shang's mother and his grandparents. The servent's ate in a different area, so Mulan had guessed. Shang's place was at the end of the table, where the head male sat. His mother was to be on one side, then his brother on the other, with his grandparents on the other end.
"We brought up extra places for our guests." His mother began. They'll sit near me. Jaing was too tired to eat so he went straight to bed. Mulan you may sit at his seat, since you were down here first." They sat there a few minutes waiting for the two other guests.
"Mother, did you tell them how to get here?" Shang asked obviously showing his hunger.
"I'm sure I did, Their room isn't that far from here." Just then the matchmaker and Sui-Yen walked in. The matchmaker was wearing a fancy dress outfit and Sui-yen was extravagantly dressed and her makeup was white and perfect, and her hair was propperly up. She bowed and gracefully followed the matchmaker and sat beside Shang's mother.
"Uhm. Excuse me," Mei began. "I thought I had told everyone this wasn't a fancy dinner." She looked at the matchmaker.
"Well, A lady must always look her best." She added sweetly then she looked over at Mulan and cringed. "A proper lady must always look her best." Mei Li noticed the tension between the matchmaker and Mulan.
"Now, that everyone's here I would like to introduce everyone. Fa Mulan, Juin Wei, and Juin Sui-yen, this is Zhong Li and Ming Li, Shang's grandparents." They looked at the people Mei indicated and nodded.
"I'm glad to meet you." Mulan smiled sweetly at them and bowed her head. The matchmaker's eyes widened and almost popped out of her head. No lady was supposed to talk till spoken to.
"Well, It's very nice to meet you too, Mulan." Zhong added and smiled at her. "So, are you girl's both out to marry my grandson?" His grandfather got straight to the point .The servants began bringing food out.
"No, grandpa, Mulan's here to help me traing Jaing in the art of war." Shang replied taking some food and putting it on his plate.
"Now, don't be silly boy, that's a pretty bad excuse to use to spend some time with the girl. What would she know about war?" His grandmother started.
"Grandma, didn't you ask me about the famous warrior woman that you started hearing so much about in the market place?" his grandmother nodded. "Well, This is her." Shang added pointing to Mulan. Mulan smiled and looked slightly uneasy.
"Well, well." Zhong smiled. He then turned his attention to Sui-Yen and The matchmaker. "What do you think of this?" The matchmaker didn't even give Sui-Yen a chance to answer.
"I think it's horrible. A woman dressing up to be like a man." Zhong looked at Sui-yen.
"Yeah, why would anyone want to join the men in fighting." she giggled.
"I did it to save my father. He was too old to fight, He would have died, and I have no brother." Mulan replied. The matchmaker could stand it no longer.
"You are speaking without being spoken to." Ming looked over at the matchmaker.
"My dear, so are you." The matchmaker became deathly quiet as did everyone else, There was a minute of silence while everyone ate.
"Fa Mulan, is that your name?" Zhong asked. Mulan looked up and nodded. "Well, that's how I knew you. Your family fought along with the Li's forever. I think my sister even consitered marrying one of your relates once but he died in war, beheaded, the poor thing."
"So Juin Wei, how did you become matchmaker and how did you get such a lovely girl like Sui-yen?" Mei began trying to change the subject.
Soon dinner was finished, and it was close to time for bed. Shang left for his room after showing the ladies where the bathing rooms were. ( a room for quickly cleaning up) Mulan was in and out leaving before Sui-yen or The dreaded matchmaker could say anything against her. Mulan was half way to her room when she noticed that she had left a brush in there. She ran back to the room, before she entered she heard the matchmaker. '
"I'll run in and no matter what happened it'd be too taboo for him not to propose.." Mulan felt her heart turn to ice. What was she planning? No matter what it was she needed to warn Shang, But he was asleep. She wasn't allowed in his room. While she was thinking to herself she had walked back to her room. She couldn't really do anything.. She prayed the matchmaker wasn't planning anything too bad. and if she was. She prayed it wouldn't be carried out till tomorrow.
Yay another chapter finished. This one's kinda longer. and I think it's getting better. Let me know.. I have to start working soon so this won't be as quick to write as I thought. but it's getting there. thank you for the reviews and continue reviewing. you guys rock!
Chapter 4: Training and a plan.
"Well, Here it is." Shang opened the door to Mulan's room. Mulan looked in astonishment. The room was lavish. Almost like royalty. Mulan walked in carefully, and touched the bed as if she were afraid she'd break it.
"It's wonderful, Shang, I love it." Mulan kept walking around looking at the books on the shelves and the parchment on the desk.
"My father was big on showing off his riches." Shang looked around with Mulan in the fancy room. " Well, how about you get dressed and come on down and help my brother with some training when your ready. Just let me know when." Mulan nodded. Training, got it. she thought.
It took Mulan about an hour to get there but she was standing out in the fields waiting for Shang and Jaing.
"I hope I am in the right field." She mumbled, looking around.Finally she spotted Shang, dressed like her and Jaing wearing a newer version of their training clothes.
"Sorry we're late, Jaing wanted NEW training clothes. He couldn't live with just the slightly older ones I wore when I was his age." Shang looked at Mulan and rolled his eyes. "Okay, Jaing, First. I want to see if you can even climb a tree." Shang said scouring the area for an easy tree to climb. He spotted one not too far off. "Try to climb that tree there." He pointed at the tree. "Okay?" Jaing nodded and started to walk off towards the tree. "RUN JAING RUN!" Shang barked, which scared Jaing and he started jogging. Jaing started off. Shang and Mulan were left to talk. " Maybe I should explain Jaing." Shang said motioning to the kid jogging slowly towards his tree. " When I was born, my father claimed me as his next heir and child that would learn the martial training. He worked me hard since before I could even remember." Shang laughed at the memory. "well my mother never really got to see me, So when Jaing was born my mother didn't want him being in the army. The doctors said she wished it so hard that Jaing was born early. He was so little and sickly for so long that father never thought he'd be able to fight, so he trained me harder. Once Jaing got better, father still kind of ignored him." Mulan took it all in slowly.
"Why did he ignore him? Jaing's probably good at a lot of things." Mulan said defensivly.
"That's what my mother couldn't understand. There was only one way to get to my father's heart, and it was through the army. He didn't care about farmer's or those type of children so he didn't even consiter Jaing his kid. So my mother babied him and he never had to excercise or train. that's why he's out of shape, and slightly lazy. When father died, I guess, Jaing wanted to be like him so he has begged me to help him be great in martial arts." Shang looked over to Jaing who couldn't pull himself up onto the first limb. Shang sighed
"This is where you come in. Come on let's help him." Mulan and Shang ran to Jaing's assistance.
"Jaing, pull yourself up!" Shang yelled. "Use some strength." Jaing let go of the limb and looked over at Shang.
"I Tried." He whined. "But it's too hard, I can't do it." Shang glared at him. Mulan stood in between the two guys.
"Here Let me help." she offered.
"You can't help! I bet you can't even do it either!" Jaing Snapped.
"Jaing!" Shang yelled grabbing and spinning his brother to face him. "Don't yell at her like that. I'm warning you, she is a higher rank than you. Show her some respect."
"There Jaing, Happy?" Shang and Jaing turned to see Mulan not only on the first brance but the third sitting down. smiling at them. Jaing walked up to the tree.
"How'd you do that?" He asked in amazement. Mulan smiled
"Okay, Idea number one. Grab the limb. Then put your foot against the trunk of the tree it helps you walk your way up the tree kind of helping you get a grabbing." Jaing followed Mulan's advice and was soon on the branch.
"Look, Shang, look! I did it!" Jaing beamed. Shang smiled. He actually did it.
"Okay. Now on to the second task." Jaing Sighed and crawled down, Mulan followed him.
"Thank you Mulan." Shang smiled and blushed.
"It's all right, you're welcome." Mulan followed the two to a pole. No ledges and straight up and down. She knew what was next.
"Shang, are you sure he's ready for this?" Everyone had a hard time with this activity and it was nothing like tree climbing. Mulan could climb trees, it was the pole she had issues with.
"If you guys could learn, so can he." Shang walked over towards the pole and pulled out a bow and arrow. he must have been here early Mulan thought. Shang aimed and shot the arrow up near the top of the pole. "Jaing, retrieve the arrow." Mulan shivered, de ja vous again. Shang walked behind the pole to get the weights.
"I can hardly climb a tree how do you expect me to shimmy up a pole?!" Jaing cried. Shang tried hard not to yell at him.
"Use these." He added wrapping the tight weights around his wrists.
" One's strength and one's discipline." Mulan added casually. Jaing could hardly pull the weights up. "Shang, This isn't a good idea, I mean, he's just a kid." Mulan said trying to avoid watching Jaing jump up to pole and hit himself with the weights.
"I did this when I was his age." Shang watched Jaing try again, this time the weights slipped and went flying knocking Jaing to the ground.
"Shang, You were trained, hard. The men that did this excercise in camp were older, more strong. Let him work his way up to it." Shang looked at her, she cared about the little kid's safety.
"Okay, Jaing. Let's call it good. You'll get that arrow later." Jaing stopped trying to jump up to the pole and sighed. he drug his feet back following Mulan and Shang. It was truly a tiring day.
Jaing was told to report outside tomorrow around noon, and dismissed, the kid slowly made his way to his room, exhausted. He trudged past his mother and looked up at her as she made her way towards Shang. He smiled. His mother nodded at him and continued towards Shang.
"Dinner will be ready soon, you two need to freshen up. Nothing fancy just dinner." his mother directed this at Mulan, who nodded. Shang led Mulan back to her room.(Seeing as how his room is on the same floor and down the hall) Mulan found a simple dress that she had brought. Not extravigant but pretty. She brushed her hair till she was satisfied. She looked at the makeup. Should she wear it? Mulan shook her head and went by the mirror to check her reflection. She was her. Her reflection finally showed someone she was proud to be. She left her room and found Shang who had just finished changing. His outfit was the same manner as hers.
"Thought you'd need help down to the dining area." Shang mumbled. Mulan smiled and followed him to the dining area. In the dining area there was Shang's mother and his grandparents. The servent's ate in a different area, so Mulan had guessed. Shang's place was at the end of the table, where the head male sat. His mother was to be on one side, then his brother on the other, with his grandparents on the other end.
"We brought up extra places for our guests." His mother began. They'll sit near me. Jaing was too tired to eat so he went straight to bed. Mulan you may sit at his seat, since you were down here first." They sat there a few minutes waiting for the two other guests.
"Mother, did you tell them how to get here?" Shang asked obviously showing his hunger.
"I'm sure I did, Their room isn't that far from here." Just then the matchmaker and Sui-Yen walked in. The matchmaker was wearing a fancy dress outfit and Sui-yen was extravagantly dressed and her makeup was white and perfect, and her hair was propperly up. She bowed and gracefully followed the matchmaker and sat beside Shang's mother.
"Uhm. Excuse me," Mei began. "I thought I had told everyone this wasn't a fancy dinner." She looked at the matchmaker.
"Well, A lady must always look her best." She added sweetly then she looked over at Mulan and cringed. "A proper lady must always look her best." Mei Li noticed the tension between the matchmaker and Mulan.
"Now, that everyone's here I would like to introduce everyone. Fa Mulan, Juin Wei, and Juin Sui-yen, this is Zhong Li and Ming Li, Shang's grandparents." They looked at the people Mei indicated and nodded.
"I'm glad to meet you." Mulan smiled sweetly at them and bowed her head. The matchmaker's eyes widened and almost popped out of her head. No lady was supposed to talk till spoken to.
"Well, It's very nice to meet you too, Mulan." Zhong added and smiled at her. "So, are you girl's both out to marry my grandson?" His grandfather got straight to the point .The servants began bringing food out.
"No, grandpa, Mulan's here to help me traing Jaing in the art of war." Shang replied taking some food and putting it on his plate.
"Now, don't be silly boy, that's a pretty bad excuse to use to spend some time with the girl. What would she know about war?" His grandmother started.
"Grandma, didn't you ask me about the famous warrior woman that you started hearing so much about in the market place?" his grandmother nodded. "Well, This is her." Shang added pointing to Mulan. Mulan smiled and looked slightly uneasy.
"Well, well." Zhong smiled. He then turned his attention to Sui-Yen and The matchmaker. "What do you think of this?" The matchmaker didn't even give Sui-Yen a chance to answer.
"I think it's horrible. A woman dressing up to be like a man." Zhong looked at Sui-yen.
"Yeah, why would anyone want to join the men in fighting." she giggled.
"I did it to save my father. He was too old to fight, He would have died, and I have no brother." Mulan replied. The matchmaker could stand it no longer.
"You are speaking without being spoken to." Ming looked over at the matchmaker.
"My dear, so are you." The matchmaker became deathly quiet as did everyone else, There was a minute of silence while everyone ate.
"Fa Mulan, is that your name?" Zhong asked. Mulan looked up and nodded. "Well, that's how I knew you. Your family fought along with the Li's forever. I think my sister even consitered marrying one of your relates once but he died in war, beheaded, the poor thing."
"So Juin Wei, how did you become matchmaker and how did you get such a lovely girl like Sui-yen?" Mei began trying to change the subject.
Soon dinner was finished, and it was close to time for bed. Shang left for his room after showing the ladies where the bathing rooms were. ( a room for quickly cleaning up) Mulan was in and out leaving before Sui-yen or The dreaded matchmaker could say anything against her. Mulan was half way to her room when she noticed that she had left a brush in there. She ran back to the room, before she entered she heard the matchmaker. '
"I'll run in and no matter what happened it'd be too taboo for him not to propose.." Mulan felt her heart turn to ice. What was she planning? No matter what it was she needed to warn Shang, But he was asleep. She wasn't allowed in his room. While she was thinking to herself she had walked back to her room. She couldn't really do anything.. She prayed the matchmaker wasn't planning anything too bad. and if she was. She prayed it wouldn't be carried out till tomorrow.
Yay another chapter finished. This one's kinda longer. and I think it's getting better. Let me know.. I have to start working soon so this won't be as quick to write as I thought. but it's getting there. thank you for the reviews and continue reviewing. you guys rock!