A/N: I'm not going to wirte down the reviews anymore, like I did before. But have know fear! I'll still reply to your lovely reveiws!

To blackmail bomer: Everybody has bad idea's sometimes. I know I have! LoL! I can't really picture Mulan and Ling together, kinda scary... But it'd make an excellent humor story! Muahahaha!

To Dragon Spirit Fighter: I got your review twice, you must REALLY love me! LoL! J/K! I know it is hard to imagine, but how I picture it is that Yao is the height of a normal boy at first, a Ling(who I'm making a tad bit younger than Yao, not by much though they're still in the same age group) is again the normal size. When they get older Ling has his major growth spurt(to the surprise of his mother ) and Yao simply stops growing. Poor him!

To narfgirl: Yeah, I like how it turned out. She—I mean "he"! LoL!—sounds crazy doesn't she?! Like talking to herself! LoL(again)!

Ling woke early the next morning; his muscles were still sore from bending over all that day. With surreal agility he had got up, got dressed, and was out stretching in attempt to sooth his aching back. Yao, who set up his tent beside Ling, could still be heard snoring. Ling took a few minutes to stare at the tent. 'He sounds like a bear even when he's asleep!' Ling smiled at this thought; imagining how furious Yao would be if he could read Ling's mind. After a few moments of trying to relieve the immense stiffness of his body, he decided that Yao was "oversleeping" and needed to be awakened before he turned ninety. Silently he snuck into the sleeping man's tent, snatched up one of Yao's abandoned pillows, and whacked the still slumbering "soldier" on the head with it. Yao gave a muffled "Umph!" Before drowsily sitting up, glaring a Ling.

"What was that for?!"

Ling fought to keep an innocent air about him.

"You were oversleeping!"

Yao peered around Ling's lanky form to see the light that streamed through the tent opening.

"It looks like the sun just rose."

"Oh, it did."

"Then I wasn't oversleeping?"

"No, I was just bored."

Yao glared at Ling, "Remind me to punch you later." He lied back down and turned over ready to fall back into his little dreamland.

"No! Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

With each of the 'wake up's Ling, grabbing Yao's ankle, pulled him toward the tent flap. Yao glared at his friend once more, grumbling "All right, all right. Only if you stop pestering me!" as he got to his feet.

Rather sluggishly, at least Ling thought so, Yao donned his training robes and fixed his hair into a war bun. Ling tried to occupy himself by counting the grass blades.

"One hundred two thousand thirty-three, One hundred two thousand thirty-four... Yao! You're finally finished! What took you so long?!"

"I was going as fast as I could!" A brief pause, "Did you really count that many?"

"That many what?"

"Grass blades."

"Oh! No, I started from a random number, I was too lazy to start from one."

Yao rolled his eyes, leaving, with Ling right beside him, to go get breakfast.

Chein-Po joined them as they were leaving breakfast. Yao kept grumbling and complaining about how Ling got him up so early to the giant man. Once they reported to the training fields, Yao's complaints were stifled as Ling, making fun of what Captain Li might do, pretending to do karate poses. He was interrupted by Chi Fu; he couldn't resist but glare at that man. He had intruded on Ling's more interesting display of "fighting skills", and for that he would pay... later, though....

"Order! People, order!"

One soldier called out in response, "I'd like a pan-fried noodle!"

A large grin instant leapt onto Ling's face, watching Chein-Po as he joined in.

"Sweet and pungent shrimp."

Ling tried to resist laughing, but gave up and followed the rest of the men in laughing at the Emperor's assistant.

"That's not funny." Chi Fu scoffed.

Suddenly, Ling saw the form of a late recruit rushing to get to the appointed place, it was Ping. A mischievous smirk replaced his good-nature smile, slapping Yao to gain his attention he exclaimed.

"Looks like our new friend slept in this morning." Yao glanced at the approaching figure, a sneer identical to Ling's writhing onto his features. Ping, not paying much attention to where he was going, indulged with fixing his shirt, came to a stop right inbetween Ling and Yao.

"Why, hello Ping! Are ya Hungry?" Ling's expression, if possible, turned even more sinister. Ping thought for a moment, and was about to give a response, when Yao, who'd just finished giving a mock thoughtful "Yeah...", grabbed the boy's bandana and pulled him down to his level, ready to deliver the delayed blow.

"'Cause I owe you a knuckle sandwich!"

Ling ducked and leaned away from the two, he had learned his lesson; Ping covered his face. Yao was about to strike when that pathetic boy was saved again.

"Soldiers!"

Everyone, including the trio, got into line, intent on the Captain's words.

"You will assemble swiftly and silently, every morning. Anyone who does otherwise, will answer to me."

Shang took off his shirt, revealing nicely toned muscles. Ping, though Ling couldn't see him due to his eyes being closed, stared in awe. As Captain Li passed by, his bow and arrow ready, Yao hissed, "Oooo, tough guy." A smirk evident on his lips.

"Yao."

The line of men took a large step back in unison, leaving Yao the only one remaining in his current position. Yao's eyes widened as the Captain seemed to aim directly at him, but right before he released the arrow, his target changed to the top of a pole. He got a perfect bulls eye.

"Thank you for volunteering." That cruel amusement was back, it was obvious even though Ling didn't look at the Captain. The man's voice was tainted with it. "Retrieve the arrow."

"I'll get that arrow, pretty boy, and I'll do it with my shirt on." Yao growled through clenched teeth while cracking his knuckled menacingly. He stormed over to the pole and was about to attempt to climb it when Shang spoke up again. "One moment, you seem to be missing something."

Yao's face grew red, as it always did when he was furious about something. The Captain strode up to Yao, followed by Chi Fu, who was carrying a seemingly heavy box. Everybody leaned forward attentively, all of them wondering about the contents of the parcel. Captain Li opened the box, receiving two large medals out of it. He slipped the loop of fabric from the first medal onto Yao's right wrist, and momentarily held it high, slightly lifting Yao off his feet, for the others to see. "This represents discipline." He let go and Yao's arm dropped to the ground. As he was mustering all his strength to pull his right arm back up, Shang slipped the second medal over the opposite arm, again nearly lifting Yao off the ground. Yao looked at the first medal, then the second, and finally gave a look that clearly said "Uh oh." as Shang was explaining the second medal. "And this represents strength." He again released Yao's arm, Yao fell to the ground.

Ling laughed at his friend softly, not wanting to be the next man who climbed that pole. He'd make a fool out of himself for sure!

"You need both to reach the arrow."

Yao again readied himself, this time there were no interruptions as he scrambled as far up the pole as he could. But try as he might, he still slid down, failing to live up to his words. Each man that tried to reach the arrow failed, finally, it was Ling's turn. He tried his best to get as far up as he could. He didn't know what happened, first he was doing as good as the other men had, and the next thing he knew he'd learned how flexible he really was and he tried to restrain himself from falling, or at least lessen the impact.

As he got up, no serious damage on him what so ever, he could feel the Captain and other soldiers staring at him. Surely he should have broken his back by falling like that? Embarrassed, Ling got beside the wide eye Yao, who whispered, "I didn't know you could bend like that!"

Ling scowled at him, "I didn't either."

"You're going to be sore tomorrow."

"Mhm."

Ling watched all the following recruits up to Ping, the last one, but none had fell as oddly as he had. Shang shook his head as he watched Ping standing, rubbing his sore bottom.

"We've got a long way to go."

As the Captain trudged of to prepare the next challenge for them, Ling decided, that this indeed, was going to be a very long day.