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Last time:

"Yes, sir." The messenger stood, gave a short bow, and left the tent.

Shang sighed, trying to release some of his frustration. Suddenly, the rumbling he had been hearing stopped. At first, he had merely dismissed it in his anger as cannon fire. Now, however, he started to wonder what it was. Suddenly, Sung burst into the tent.

"Sir!" He bowed quickly. "There's been an avalanche in the valley! The troops are there!" Shang jumped up and ran past Sung. He went straight to the pasture and grabbed his bridle from the shed. He quickly put it on his horse and jumped on his back. He had left the gate open and he urged his stallion to cantor through the snow.

"Tell Deng that there may be injuries!" He ordered Sung as he went past him. When he entered the valley, he came from the east side. He could see where the snow had come from, which was from the North to the South. On the South end of the valley, he could see a few men climbing up a ledge. He urged his horse to gallop to them.

"Sir!" The first man bowed and turned to help his comrades up the small cliff. The two older men were pulled up first, followed by the rest of the recruits. Shang ran a list of them through his head. The first person he noticed missing was, of course, Mulan. The second was a man by the name a Peng.

"What happened?" Shang demanded.

"A cannon was fired to high." One of the older men answered. "It hit one of the mountains over there, causing an avalanche. Mulan and Peng were dragged over the cliff by the snow. They are down there somewhere." He gestured over the cliff. There was another, smaller valley there. The snow had hit another mountain that rose up and that's where it had stopped.

"Start searching for them!" Shang ordered. The men obeyed and began searching at the near side. They walked in a line, trying not to miss any sign of life. It was hard to find someone who was buried in the snow, though. Suddenly, Khan took off like a shot towards the other end of the small valley.

Mulan found herself regaining consciousness. The first thing she noticed was that all she could see was white. It surrounded her. She wondered idly about where she was for a few seconds before it came back to her. The fog that seemed to be surrounding her mind cleared slightly and she began to struggle to free herself.

She tried to move her legs, but they were packed tightly in the snow. Her arms, however, were able to move freely. She began pushing the snow away from her legs, packing it tighter together to create more space. When her legs were more or less free, she started digging upwards. She would dig a little above her head and then push herself upward with her feet. Mulan kept doing this for what seemed to her like hours.

With out warning, a hole seemed to open up above her and fresh air began pouring in. It was then covered by something dark and velvety. Still in a daze, she reached her bare had up to touch it, wondering what it could possibly be.

"Khan?" She murmured. "Is that you?" He neighed quietly and began digging with his front hooves. It attracted the attention of the other recruits. The finally got to where Khan was digging and Shang bent down to see what he had found.

"Mulan!" Shang reached down into the hole Khan had made and pulled her out. She was still in a state of bewilderment and the bright sun seemed to make it worse. She looked at Shang as through she was only half there. "Mulan? Where's Peng?" She pointed at the hole. She shook her head, trying clear the haze away. "Are you sure he's here?" Shang asked after looking in the hole.

"Yes," Mulan answered. "If I survived, he probably did, too." She finally managed to clear her head. Suddenly, Khan began smelling the snow a few feet away. Again, he began digging. This time, though, his head jerked up and he backed away. Mulan crawled over to the hole. She dug in the snow a little and what she found shocked her.

She stood up and backed away. Her eyes were as wide as saucers when she turned to run. She gave a quick whistle and Khan turned and followed her. When he was right next to her, she swung herself unto his back and they took off to the camp. The rest of the recruits and Shang watched her go, wondering what she had found.

"General?" One man said hesitantly. "I think you should see this." Shang looked down into the hole. There certainly was a man there, however, he was dead. His neck was bent at an odd angle and his skin was turning blue. Just in case, though, Shang felt for a pulse but found none. Shang sighed and looked in the direction Mulan had ridden off in.

The man's death bothered him a little. Sure, he was used to death, but this was the first on in his camp. In angered him a little that he was not here, but he also didn't know the whole story. He sighed again and stood from his kneeling position, still looking in Mulan's direction.

"You two," he pointed at two of the young recruits. "Take this man's body to Deng. He will deal with it. You," he pointed at the largest man, "go to the village and find a messenger to take a letter to his family. They will need to know. The rest of you have the remainder of the day off." The three men nodded and began their tasks. Shang began to walk back to the camp, followed by the men whom he didn't give a job.

When they got back to the camp, Shang was beyond angry. The first death in his camp and he was not there to prevent it! He knew exactly what he had to do. As he was walking down row of tents to his own, it began to snow lightly. He paused for a second, before entering his tent, and looked at the sky. It was dark and ominous. He shook his head and walked into his tent.

Mulan was sitting near the horse pasture. Khan was on the other side of the fence facing her. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her chin was resting on them. He body shook slightly as she tried not to cry. She knew that it was her fault and she couldn't decide what to do next. She sighed as it started to snow a little more and pulled her legs in tighter.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Sung, who walked up next to her. It took her a few seconds to notice that he was there, but when she did, she wished she hadn't. He had a nervous look on his face and she wondered what could be making him nervous. He still had his apron on and he was wringing his hands through it as he spoke.

"The General wished to speak with you, Mulan." Sung was talking in nearly a whisper.

"Okay," Mulan answered. She gave him a strange look as she stood from her spot against the fence post. She followed him to Shang's tent and he opened one of the flaps for her. Mulan watched his hand shake as she stepped carefully into Shang's tent.

"Mulan." Shang said shortly. "Sit down." Mulan moved automatically and took the place in front of his desk. He sat behind it, as usual. His hands were clasped, squeezing together as though pure anger flowed through the veins within them. His arms were also rigid, shaking slightly. His neck was stiff and his jaw set.

"I'm sorry, Shang-" Mulan began. However, Shang silenced her. She lowered her head as he started.

"Mulan, I was not at all happy when the Emperor informed me that you would be accompanying me to this camp. Not only were you injured at the time, slowing me down, but I felt that a woman would only be a distraction in a military camp. You used up medical supplies that we may have needed!" Mulan cringed as his voice grew louder. "You also pulled me away from my training duties with your little trip to the village!" She could feel tears starting to form in her eyes as his voice grew louder yet. "I had hoped that you could make up for that today, but you have proven otherwise. What you have also proven is that my initial thoughts were right-"

He stopped abruptly when she jumped up, her eyes full of tears that had yet to fall. It was the first time he had actually seen the tears.

"Shang, I'm sorry!" She held her tears back. "I'm sorry I've been such a bother! All I've tried to do was help!" And with that, she ran out of the then. Shang stood up from his cushion as the tent flap closed again. He was in a bit of a shock from seeing her tears.

The first place Mulan ran was to Sung's tent. She grabbed a little of the food he had left from lunch and put it in bags that were stored there. She then ran from the tent before he found her there, to her own tent. She quickly began throwing her belongings into a bag.

'He'll never understand!' She thought, while pulling her clothes away from the fire she had built which had since gone out. 'He'll never change…' The thought made her tears come back. She had failed! She had failed a mission for the emperor! But, had she really done it for the emperor…? 'No!' Mulan corrected herself. 'No thoughts like that!'

Mulan walked back into her tent to see if there was anything she may have forgotten. She saw nothing there except for the pillow, and the mat that had been loaned to her. Mulan took a few steps to where the mat was and shifted her bag from one had to the other so that she could get the blankets that had been over the fire out of her grasp. As she shifted the bag, an object fell out of it and was covered by the blankets.

Mulan grabbed her armor that was lying at the entrance and pulled it on. Then, she started running towards the horse pasture. She didn't even notice when she pushed past Deng who was on his way to Shang's tent. She didn't even realize that she ran into several more people. Even the increasing snow and wind didn't faze her. The only thing she could think of was getting out of there. The tears returned to her eyes once again as she thought about failing.

'No!' She thought, once again pushing the thoughts out of her head. She took a deep breath and slowed her pace when she reached the gate. Khan was a bit startled at seeing her armor but nevertheless, he trotted over to her as she opened the gate. She grabbed his bridle from a rack near the gate and put it over his head. After shutting the gate, she tied her bag to his blanket and jumped on his back. Mulan urged Khan into as fast a pace as he could go. He wasn't able to go very fast, though, because of the snow. He was in a cantor and Mulan didn't stop him when Deng yelled at her to stop. She merely kept going in the direction of her home.

Woo-hoo! I'm finally done with another chapter! Sorry it took a little longer than last time, but school has started for me and I didn't get a whole lot of time to write! Please review and tell me what you think!