I lied I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional. I did honestly think I would be able to post this the next day, but that was before I discovered the day-before-school-starts stack of homework hiding in the mountain of junk that is my desk. Then my evil teachers gave me homework for every single lesson the first day back, then they gave me even more the day after and… I think you get the picture. It's no excuse I know, but thankyou all for being patient, and thankyou very much to everyone who reviewed; Angel 452, MiniEllie, Dragon Spirit Fighter and Little Birdie.
Mulan flopped down onto the bed again but out of pure tiredness this time rather than frustration. Persuading herself that it wouldn't be a good idea to fall asleep fully dressed she managed to pull herself up and attempt getting changed. Her room seemed a lot smaller with the extra bed in it. She had offered Chien one of the spare rooms, and if she insisted on being with her than at least the best bed, but Chien would have none of it.
Chien appeared through a door leading to the other rooms that made up Mulan's suite.
'You know, I'm wide awake.' She said sitting down on the spare bed, 'It doesn't really feel like night-time at all does it?'
'Speak for yourself.' Mulan grumbled 'I'm shattered.' But the younger girl was relentless, she wanted to stay up and talk. After much protesting Mulan eventually agreed, on the condition that she just let her finish what she had tried to start 10 minutes ago, that is getting changed, first. The two got in to their respective beds and settled down for a good natter.
'So how's your stay been so far?'
'Great thankyou, Miss Hostess. It's a shame that we don't get to come more often, but with Shang away so much…' Chien looked thoughtful for a moment, 'hey, why don't you come over to our house sometime?'
'I couldn't, I'm sorry.'
'Why not?'
'How would I be able to get there? It's three days ride at least, and my family would never let me go that far on my own.'
'Er hello here, you defeated Shan-Yu, youcan look after yourself!'
'Yeah, I know, but you know what parents are like.' She gave a shrug 'I wouldn't really want to leave them for so long anyway, none of them are getting any younger. They rely on me.'
Chien went back to thinking again.
'You know, It's only two weeks to my birthday. It sounds strange, the idea of me being sixteen. It sounds really old.'
'What does that make me then?' exclaimed Mulan.
'Positively ancient.' Chien replied with a grin.
'Huh! You're supposed to show respect for your elders you know.'
'Yes O venerable one!' She turned a little serious again. 'Sixteen, you know what that means?
'Er, you're allowed to go join the army?'
Chien gave her a strange look. 'No. I'll have to go see the matchmaker soon.
'What do you think of that?' Mulan wanted to know.
'I don't really know. I mean I want to be married sometime of course, but does it really have to be now? I'm still a girl, how can I suddenly change into a women just because I turn sixteen? I mean what about, like, children, and stuff. I've got friends who were pregnant when they were a little older than me. I couldn't cope with that, I'm only a child myself, I'm not about to give birth to one!' Chien had speeded up, the words spilling out over each other, and she sounded almost scared. Mulan listened very intently, it seemed like Chien had been worrying about this for a long time.
'And what about my husband, what if he doesn't like me, or I don't like him. I won't know anything about him except his name. I don't want to leave home and go to live with a complete stranger for the rest of my life!' There were tears in her eyes now 'Mulan, how did you cope with all this?'
Mulan got up and went to put her arms round her friend. Chien started to cry, just a little. What am I supposed to say? Mulan thought, everything she's saying is true. So she just sat there, rocking her gently, waiting for the tears to stop. She had a flash of inspiration.
'Who's responsible for you now, now that your father's gone.' She asked.
'Shang, I think,' came the wavering reply, 'he's my nearest male relative.'
'Well,' said Mulan, in a conspiring sort of voice,' why don't you go up to him tomorrow and explain to him that you don't feel you're ready to get married yet, and ask him if he can delay anything like that until you think you can cope with it.'
'Do you think he'll agree?'
Mulan gave her a playful shove 'Have you hit your head? Of course he'll agree, what do you think he is, a monster? And despite teasing you all the time you know as well as I do that your brother loves you and wouldn't want to loose you so soon anyway.'
'Thankyou Mulan.' Chien said tearfully, giving her a hug
'It's nothing. Hey,' she said, trying to lighten the mood a bit, 'did I ever tell you what happened when I went to see the matchmaker?'
A while later Mulan was back in her own bed listening to the sounds of Chien sleeping. She had forgotten what it was like to be waiting for that day to come, that day that would define the rest of your life. Poor Chien. She'd obviously been mulling things over for weeks, all the possibilities running through her head, no way of knowing or of stopping what was going to take place. Most girls were excited about their matchmaker visit, wondering what clothes they were going to wear, and what their betrothed would be like. Chien seemed to have a different outlook, where as most girls wanted to grow up and act the part of a lady, Chien didn't want to give up her childhood before she was ready. It didn't surprise Mulan; Chien was never just a giggling bride-to-be. Mulan had never met her mother but if she ever did she intended to go and shake her by the hand for the obvious effect she had on her daughter, bringing her up to be thoughtful and sensitive, not to just keep quiet about things but to do something to change them, and most of all to respect herself. Yes, she had a lot of respect for Mrs. Li.
She was sure Shang would understand when Chien asked him about it. It wasn't as if there was any need for her to marry soon, the Li's were very well off she knew, with their father being a general. She also knew that Shang wouldn't leave his sister unhappy if there was anything he could do about it.
She turned over, unable to sleep. Chien's thoughts on marriage had triggered off her own worries on the subject, of which she had many. She probably should have made another trip to the matchmaker's already, but as no one had mentioned it she wasn't going to hurry the unwanted event. If public disgrace at her last appointment wasn't bad enough, there was now the fact that in joining the army she had gone against everything that the matchmaker stood for. Mulan wasn't expecting a pleasant meeting. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get married anyway, at least not through the conventional channels. If a man wanted her hand because of any abilities that impressed the matchmaker than he wasn't going to be a man she could be happy with.
But what else could she do? She was already quite an oddity, 17 with no attachment or any plans to be so. Not that she didn't like living with her parents, but she'd always expected to have her own home one day, and now it seemed likely that she was going to stuck there until she was an old maid. Of course love matches did sometimes happen, but what were the possibilities of that? The only non-related guy she knew well was Shang, and though she often daydreamed along those lines she couldn't really imagine Shang seeing her as anything but a friend, she wasn't all together sure that he'd managed to merge Mulan and 'Ping' into one person yet.
She realised that her cheek was damp and dried it off angrily. Don't you start, she told herself, it's not like there's anything to cry about. Sitting up she stared at the room around her, trying to think of something else. It didn't work, she knew it wouldn't have done, it never did. With the vague idea that it'd be better to be doing something rather than nothing, she quietly slid out of bed and, careful not to wake Chien, slipped out of the room. At camp she'd been trained to move quickly and stealthily and she soon made it into the garden
The stone dragon, where she used to sit at times like these, had been taken away ages ago, at least the remains of it had. She went to sit down by the pond. The stars were reflected in it as in a mirror, looking like someone had carelessly thrown some priceless jewels into it's murky waters, and a silver moon hung low in the sky. It was all so still, so quiet.
She didn't know why but suddenly she felt tears run down her face, and this time she didn't try to stop them. 'Crying is just your emotions flowing out' she remembered someone saying, which made sense because it seemed impossible to keep what she was feeling stuck inside, even if she wasn't sure what she was feeling. What is wrong with me today? she asked herself, I look forward to this visit for weeks and when it finally comes I spend all night moping. Finding no answer she sat there and let her muffled sobs fade into the darkness. All around her seemed so still, so peaceful.
Shang woke up early, as he always did. As the general quiet told him that the others were still sleeping, and as the guestrooms were right next to the garden, he decided he might as well get up and go for a walk rather than sit in his room waiting. As he reached the garden he realised that he wasn't the only one there, someone was over by the water. As he came closer he could see that it was Mulan, she wasn't moving. His mind jumping to all sorts of conclusions he rushed over in time to see her head turn slightly, and realised that she was only sleeping.
He breathed a sigh of relief, then tried to figure out what was going on here. Mulan always had been offbeat, but this was bordering on the strange. He knew that she had at least started out in her own room with Chien, he'd heard them talking once as he went past. (A/N Don't worry he wasn't listening to their conversation or nothing) Which begged the question of why on earth she was out here, asleep, just before seven in the morning. For all his military training he wasn't going to come up with the soluion for this, the only way he'd find out was to ask.
He reached over to the sleeping figure and shook her shoulder. 'Mulan, Mulan, wake up.' She moaned something unintelligible and tried to roll over before wincing and thinking better of it. Her eyes opened blearily
'What?' she said groggily, looking about her.
'I think it'd be better if you sat up. You're going to have terrible cramp you know.' Shang said, shaking his head with an amused look on his face. Mulan learned very quickly that he was right; a night on the cold, hard ground had not been the most comfortable of experiences. She took his advice and sat up. She was feeling really cold.
'What am I doing out here?' she asked, eyes roaming over herself in her night-clothes, Shang and their surroundings.
'I was about to ask you the same question.'
She blinked hard, trying to clear her head. 'Aw, my back' she said, wincing again. Memory returned to her.
'Oh yeah, I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come out here for a while. I didn't mean to drop off though!' she added, annoyed with herself. He couldn't help laughing at the face she made.
'If it wasn't for the fact that my best arm has been rendered useless after being crushed all night you'd be in for it, Captain Li. Waking a girl from her beauty sleep,' she sniffed, 'shocking behaviour!'
'It's still pretty early, you know,' he commented, completely ignoring her banter, 'you could probably catch up on a few hours before you need to be up.'
'That sounds like a good idea.' She agreed, stifling a yawn. Shang helped her up and they set off to the house, Mulan muttering occasionally about the cramp in her legs. They went in quietly so as not to disturb the others. When they reached Mulan's room Shang turned to her.
'Try and stay in there this time.' He whispered. She gave a smile.
'I'll try. Thanks for helping.'
He just grinned and she silently entered the room. Chien was still there, fast asleep. As quietly as she could manage she made it to her bed, and had soon drifted off again.
I'm not quite sure about this chapter, I might have to come back to it later on. I know vaguely where this story's going but only the major plotline and I need to fill to it out a bit. I know it's been pretty thin on the action/adventure side so far, but it'll be coming soon I promise. As to the whole Mulan/Shang issue, it's all uncertain at the moment, I'll just have to wait and see where the story ends up. You can tell this is the first time I've done this can't you? Please R&R, it's great when I know what people are thinking of this. One last thanks to Little Birdie for the 'wonderful' comment, that really encouraged me. Later everyone!