Hey guys!
First chapter, yay! Again, happy birthday to faithcorry634!
*Disclaimer - Disney, please don't sue me. Mulan is the property of Disney, I'm just taking my creative license with it.*
That's me done.
Chapter 1:
"General Shang! General Shang!"
The man in question turned from his captain to see a messenger running towards him, tripping and falling on a root, before getting back up and planting himself in front of the general. Dirt fell from his clothes as he bowed and presented the general with a scroll. "Important message from the Emperor, General Shang."
A hand reached out to take the scroll as the other clapped the messenger on the shoulder. "Are you alright Jie? That looked like quite a fall." Jie stood straight, attempting to be subtle about brushing himself off. "I'm quite alright general. That's only my third fall this month. I have become much lighter on my toes than I once was," he stated, trying to emphasize just how much he had improved. Shang smiled at the young boy, thanked him for delivering the message and excused himself to his tent.
Unrolling the scroll, he kneeled and clutched at it frowning. Scanning his eyes over it multiple times, he finally sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking upwards, before pulling his ink pot closer to him. Unrolling a new piece of silk paper, he wrote a reply and then started to gather some things, stuffing them into a satchel as he headed out of his tent, and went to find the young messenger.
He stopped another soldier on his way out, and instructed him to go ready his horse and his selected soldiers for his journey out of the camp he was supposed to take that day. It looked like they would be leaving early. He found Jie, who took the scroll and asked Shang to pass along a message of his own. Shang chuckled and agreed, waiting till the small figure dashed out of sight, before he turned to go address his captain once again.
"Captain Chen, I am taking my leave of the camp earlier than expected to consult with Captain Ping on instructions from the Emperor. I trust you will have the camp under control while I am gone." Captain Chen nodded once. "Of course General. We will continue the search in the area for the woman." Shang sighed. "I am putting our mission on hold Captain. Until further orders, your time will not be spent searching for the woman, but training the camp's soldiers."
The hulking man lifted an eyebrow at Shang, before prompting, "May I ask why the change sir?"
"The Emperor wants us ready for war. One enemy has fallen, and his majesty fears another is already knocking at our wall again." The captain nodded and bowed. "I will begin the training immediately."
Shang smiled and put on his helmet, striding towards his horse and securing his satchel on the saddle. "I know I can count on you Chen."
Excitement climbing in his mind, he mounted his horse and took off, six of his best warriors following behind him.
It was time to see an old friend.
...
"Alright, put your back into it! C'mon, I came here to train sons, not a bunch of daughters!"
Chien-Po laughed at the familiar line, his rotund belly touching the ground as he did so. "Chien-Po, glad to see you're putting your stomach as well as your back into this! Ling, Yao, I can't say the same for you."
Chien-Po laughed again as he followed through with his push up, letting his stomach touch dirt again. Beside him, Ling and Yao groaned and attempted to look more enthusiastic about the exercise as Captain Ping walked by. Above them, the sky was slowly turning from the dusty pink that precedes a honeyed glow, casting the soldiers below into pale shadow as the sun slowly crept up. As promised, training started an hour before sunrise. And as expected, Ping was making them work for breakfast.
"Geez, who died and made him captain?", Yao grunted as he lowered himself to the ground again.
From beside him, Ling's voice piped up, reedy and coarse, as he spoke through heaving himself off the dirt. "Uh, technically, he did." He laughed as he lowered himself again. "Well he almost died, and then General Shang made him captain I guess."
Yao cast an annoyed look over at him. "I know that, moron," he said, dragging out the insult. "It's what's called, a rhetorical question," he spat, enunciating all his words perfectly. A snort bubbled up from Ling. "HA, didn't think you knew what a rheto-".
"Ling, Yao! I see a lot of mouths moving, but not enough arms moving! Fifteen extra minutes of pushups from you two before breakfast." Groans resounded from the duo as Chien-Po started to put in a little more effort, so as not to join them.
Ping took his gaze from them and looked over the rest of the soldiers. Several weeks of grueling exercise, precision training, and mastering of the arts had taken the soldiers from bellyaching boys, to soldiers who were capable of impressive feats. Exactly what Ping expected of them. They weren't trained by one of China's finest warriors for nothing. Sometimes, Ping thought, as he threw his gaze back at his trio of friends, that required some pre-breakfast personal growth. Ping had trained the group well however, and expected nothing but the best.
From herself however, that was a different story. She needed to be better than best. Not only was Ping set on undertaking the task of producing China's finest warriors, but being Ping required Mulan to hide. Always being careful to not reveal anything that did not fit with Ping's story. To have her privacy as much as possible when bathing and changing, despite the penchant of her fellow soldiers for running to the water naked. To never seem like she knew about the woman who saved the emperor. Not to mention keeping her cheeky hot-shot dragon under control. The dragon who insisted on accompanying her to camp, because 'someone has to look out for your behind and it ain't gonna be captain pretty boy!', and who gave her pieces of advice that weren't always helpful, whilst hiding about her.
"You know, I'm absolutely, positively sure that if pretty-boy had heard them mouthing off like that, he woulda had them do somethin' worse." came the little tickle by her ear.
"Mushu, it didn't require overkill, and certainly not from Shang,'' murmured Mulan. "Yeahhh, but I still think Ling coulda had maybe 10 more extra minutes." came the sour reply, as she moved the soldiers on to the next exercise.
"Mushu, you're not still upset about the butt thing, are you?"
An indignant figure popped up by her head as if to argue the point further but Mulan stuffed him back down before anyone could notice. "Mushu," she hissed, "what were you thinking?!"
"Whaaat? Oh come on, if they ain't noticed you a girl by now after that second accidental bath in that pond, then they ain't gonna notice me. And yes I am still upset about that! I told you no more bitin' butts, and then I find myself having to bite the skinny one on the behind again in order to save your behind. Now I ask you, does that sound fair, to lower my awesome fire-breathing mouth to that? No! He could at least wash himself!"
Mulan rolled her eyes. "That's why they were in the river Mushu; to bathe."
"Well, it's still vile, and don't you think missy, that-"
Mulan tuned out, as the mini dragon started on another of his whisper-shout tirades, in favour of watching the sunrise. The sun was finally peeking over the ridge, greeting the now sparring soldiers with a golden gleam. She breathed out a long breath as the warm rays of light caressed her face and took away the early morning chill. Her eyes closed shut of their own accord and she basked, enjoying the warming shivers that ran down her arms.
"Oh are you seriously thinking about pretty boy while I'm havin' a serious conversation with you?" Mulan took her attention away from the sun long enough to shoot her dragon a sideways questioning glance. "Thinkin' how you gonna cozy on up to him later when he arrives?"
Panic shot up her spine. She stopped dead in her tracks, as Mushu started chortling at her obvious forgetfulness. "Heheh heh, you forgot, didn'tcha? Forgot he was stoppi-".
His verbal dig was muffled by Mulan's hand stuffing him back down, whilst turning to the sparring men.
"Soldiers. We are to have a visit from from General Shang later today. I will be dismissing you early, as I expect the camp's cleanliness and order before and while the general is here. Regular outbursts and pranks will not be tolerated and I expect best behaviour. No baiting, no messes, no petty fights. Any such things will be rewarded with extra disciplines." A shudder ran through the neat lines of men at the assurance of Captain Ping's hand for unique punishments, followed by a shout of affirmation.
"All dismissed, except for Ling and Yao. You guys drop and do fifteen more minutes." Guffaws and chuckles could be heard from the rest of the soldiers wandering off as Ling and Yao started, under Mulan's watchful eye.
Unbeknownst to her, another watchful eye was watching from the forest, eyes trained on her every move.
A small figure slinked away, leaving not a twig broken or grass disturbed by footsteps.
