Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long, but I had a bit of writer's block. But then, I read this article in Writer's Digest and it helped me, so here's the 11th chapter!
Disclaimer: Neither Writer's Digest nor Mulan belong to me!
Last time:
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.
Mulan refused to look back at the camp as the tears finally fell. The increasingly harsh wind tore them away as they fell as little droplets of ice away from her face. Khan, sensing danger, kept trying to turn back towards the camp. Suddenly, he dug his hooves into the snow and gave a snort of protest. In return, Mulan moved her hands forward, to give him more reign, and gave him a sharp kick. This only caused him to back up instead of going where she wanted him to.
"KHAN!" Mulan screeched, frustrated. She pulled his right reign and he moved awkwardly in a tight circle, which he didn't like at all. He tossed his head around and whinnied. "Just go!" Mulan yelled, again giving him a sharp kick. This time he complied. Lowering his head, he began again to trudge through the snow.
By now, the snow was swirling around the two and the wind was beginning to howl. Mulan ignored the piercing cold, though, and kept pushing forward. Soon, Mulan found that she couldn't feel her toes. She tried to move them, but she couldn't tell if it was having any effect.
Sighing, she pulled lightly on Khan's reigns and he gladly came to a halt. Mulan sat sideways on his back with her own back to the wind. She pulled one foot up and took off her thin training boot. After she began rubbing her foot vigorously, she was relieved when it began to hurt because it meant that the nerves had not frozen. She repeated the process on her other foot. When she had regained feeling in both, she urged Khan forward again.
"Mulan WHAT?!" Shang yelled. Deng had just told him about Mulan running off. Shang jumped up, ran out of his tent, and burst into Mulan's. He found it deserted. Right as he was about to leave, a glint caught his eye. 'I wonder what...' his thoughts trailed off as he bent over and lifted the blankets slightly. Barely sticking out from under the blankets was a small gold-edged green comb with a magnolia flower on it. He sunk to his knees. 'What have I done?' Shang thought as he cradled the comb in his hands.
Mulan had no idea how much time had passed. The swirling wind and snow blocked out any hope of telling by the sun. She merely guessed. In reality, hours had passed, but she wasn't moving as quickly as she would have liked.
Every once in a while, Mulan would have to jump off Khan and hold her hands over his muzzle because his breath was freezing there. Having to get off caused the snow to soak through her training boots to her already cold feet. Her hands, too, began to feel very cold. She had pulled them into her sleeves to try to prevent them from getting too cold too quickly. Now, they were getting colder by the minute. She rubbed them together, but soon found that she lacked the coordination to do that and hold the reigns and the same time.
Now, her arms and legs were beginning to ache with cold. She was feeling very tired as well. Her eyelids began to droop and she fell forward slightly before snapping awake. She knew that if she didn't make a fire soon, she would freeze.
Shang had informed Sung of what had happened because the cook was wondering who had stolen food. Sung agreed to help Deng in keeping control over the troops. There weren't going to be any training exercises because the snow and wind made it too cold. As soon as the snow let up, Shang was going to go and look for Mulan. The General sat for hours in his tent, hoping the snow would slacken soon.
"Shang?" Deng entered the tent hesitantly, letting in a blast of cold air. "It doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. In fact, it seems to be getting worse." Shang knew what Deng was telling him was true. He could hear the howling of the wind becoming more of a shriek. He sighed and, nodding at Deng, stood up to exit the tent.
The wind and snow prevented much line of sight. Mulan squinted around her, trying to penetrate the white walls that seemed to enclose her. Suddenly, Khan turned to the right, causing her to feel off-balance, leaning to the left. Something brushed against her head and she lethargically noticed that it was a tree branch. The wind dropped drastically, blocked by the trees, as did the snow. When she was able to see, Mulan looked around at snow-covered trees. She had reached the forest!
Again, she pulled Khan to a stop. She slid off rather unceremoniously and landed in the knee-deep snow. She numbly walked over to a cluster of trees to shelter herself from the wind. Khan followed her. When she got in the middle, she reached to untie her bag, but her fingers were too numb to untie it from the blanket. Instead, she reached inside and pulled out her flint. Holding it in one hand, she used her free hand to break thin branches off the trees and laid them in a pile. Now came the hard part- lighting the fire.
"What I wouldn't give for Mushu..." Mulan muttered absently. Finally, when she was about to give up, a small spark landed on one of the branches. The fire soon spread and she added more and more branches. Really, her fire was a rather small one, but it gave off a little heat. Khan lay in the snow next to her and she fell asleep leaning against him.
Shang put on nearly every article of clothing he had brought with him to the camp, including his armor. Even through all this, he could still feel the cold, but only slightly as he walked out of his tent to the medical tent. There were extra blankets and bags there. He grabbed all the blankets he could find and shoved them into bags. Next, he fought his was through the wind to the food tent. Sung had already packed some food and handed Shang the bags. In all, Shang had about five bags.
When Shang walked to the corral, the wind pushed him along from behind, as though urging him forward. He tied all the bags together as he walked and then tied them to the fence so they wouldn't blow away while he was saddling his stallion. After tying the bags to the saddle, he jumped on.
The stallion, like Khan, did not want to leave the camp. Shang was more forceful with his horse, reaching behind and giving him a slap on the hindquarters. The stallion jumped forward and began at a brisk trot. Since Shang knew that this is the most efficient gait, he allowed him to keep it.
There were no tracks for Shang to follow; they were all blown over. He could only guess the direction that Mulan had left in was that of her home. He made only a little better time than Mulan. His stallion was in a little better shape than Khan and he was smaller. However, the bags caught the wind, slowing him down a little.
By the time Shang had guessed it was nightfall, he, too had reached the forest. However, Mulan had not stayed in a straight line and she had entered the forest about a mile away from where Shang had. Shang also found a close group of trees for a camp and build a fire before falling asleep.
Mulan woke up shivering. The wind was still howling just as much as the day before, but she was more aware of her surroundings. Khan sensed that she was awake and stood up, shaking the snow off his body. When Mulan stood, she found that her feet were numb. It took much longer to get the feeling back in them than the day before because her fire had gone out during the night.
After the feeling returned, she had to eat a cold breakfast, which only chilled her insides more. Figuring that riding would warm her up a little, she put her flint back in her bag and climbed onto Khan's back. She squeezed his sides and he started to walk out of the little circle of trees. The wind suddenly beat at them both, stinging Mulan's exposed face and hands. She bent her head into the wind and pulled her hands again into her sleeves.
Shang also woke up slightly cold, but he had many more layers of clothing, so just walking around warmed him up. He took a little time to make a small fire and heat his breakfast, which also helped him to be warm. He then climbed into his horse and they, too, entered the harsh wind. Having no idea where Mulan could be, he began towards where she had actually made her camp.
Mulan's feet and hands were numb. Again having to jump off of Khan to thaw out his nose soaked her boots through. Soon, the water froze and her boots were frozen solid with it.
She also found herself daydreaming of home. She was thinking of the magnolia tree in the family garden and of Mushu, who was again a statue with the guardians. To her family's amazement, a cricket statue now held their incense burner.
She was also daydreaming about seeing her family again. She laughed to herself about the looks on their faces at seeing the new incense burner. It was as if she was back in the shrine with them. Utter shock was written clearly on all their faces.
Suddenly, she snapped out of her thoughts and realized that her arms were now numb and that the reigns were barely in her hands. She moved haphazardly and managed to get them back into the palms of her hands.
With both legs and arms numb, balancing was very hard. Her eyes hung half-open and she was hunched over, shivering uncontrollably. Her lips were starting to turn blue and her face white. For a few seconds, she could see only black then the white abyss around her would return. For a split second, she thought she had seen Deng, but the image was gone.
"Shang..." She choked, falling forward even more. "Help....me..." She fell into unconsciousness, leaning forward and dropping off Khan's back face-first into the snow.
Okay! I know it was short again, but I really wanted to update! I should have asked you all to guess what had fallen out of Mulan's bag, but it's too late now! Why would Mulan beg Shang, of all people, for help? Review!