They rode. The mountains got swamped with a thick, dark multitude of warriors as Shan Yu led his men to the great wall, ignoring storm and snow. Countless men froze to death before they'd ended half of their journey, died from dehydration or exhaustion, or fell from the slick, icy snow down into the abyss of the mountainsides. They rode, impelled by the prospect of friendlier weather and warm meals. And life.
Mulan rode next to her father and most of the time tried not to fall from Khan for nobody, not even her father, would've stopped to help her up again and onto her horse. She was alone, so very alone with her fear of dying when they rode along a narrow mountain pass, with her hunger that kept her awake every single night in her draughty tent.
The tears froze on her cheeks immediately, her fingers hurt though she wrapped them into rags and she felt the meat melt from her flesh with everyday.
But she suffered without any complaints and endured. For her father. Oh, how proud she'd been when he took her with him, cried of joy though her grandmother clamoured like a hurricane. The leader of the Huns did not listen, anyway.
And now Mulan was with him, many hundred miles away from their camp and she didn't regret a thing.
She was riding next to her father as they reached the wall, the leader pale and reduced to a slimmer form of his usual impressive muscles. It was late in the night, when suddenly out of nowhere the wall appeared in front of them and forced the army to stop abruptly; horses ran into each other and men screamed and for a second Mulan feared that the front would be squeezed to death against these merciless stone's which wouldn't flinch an inch to save their lives.
But one sharp cry from Shan Yu was enough to ensure discipline and leave the front without harm.
He jumped from his stallion, throwing the reins over to one of his guards, then he lifted his daughter from Khan's back.
She blushed in joy. "Gather the men.", he ordered her, pushing her softly in the right direction as she nodded and moved out to fulfil the task. "You two", she pointed at two old guards, "come with me." With wrapping her cloak tighter around her shoulders, Mulan left with the men at her heels and walked along the monstrosity length of the great wall. The monument was too so high, its` top disappeared within the thick mist and the girl could only suppose the overall size.
She touched the stones for a second, not sure what she'd expected, but it was made of simple stones, fixed together in a great mesh. Mulan had heard horrible stories about the wall, that the emperors had forced their prisoners and sentenced criminals, who'd build the wall essentially, to work day and night until they dropped dead. But their cruelty had not ended with the horrible death: instead of burying the poor souls properly, the wardens had ignored the motionless bodies of both, dead and exhausted but living people, and simply got them immured with the stones.
A shiver ran down her spine and she pulled her hand back, yelling: "Cavalry of the left flank, to me!" The two guards behind her mixed with the soldiers, repeating her orders impatiently. "Archers align and wait for my command! Where's the assigned armourer, he shall send his ladders to me! Bring the hooks!" Her voice felt rough in her throat as she yelled frowning at the soldiers as they formed, following her orders immediately.
They may did not trust in her strength as woman but her knowledge of military profession since her father took care of her education. Strategy, politics and diplomacy, now she would need them all as much as her sword.
A messenger ran over to her, delivering her father's orders not to climb the wall before an inflamed arrow was send. She nodded shortly, yelling the orders to her men. "So shut up and wait as I say thus we will conquer the beast!"
Her men raised their swords in a short greeting, showing they'd understood.
The old armourer XangXang appeared next to her with his helmet in his hand and followed by the soldiers with the ladders and hooks. "On your spots!", Mulan ordered harshly and the soldiers did as she said, leaving her and XangXang alone. They exchanged an eager glance.
"Is everything prepared, the men followed the orders?", Mulan asked silently and tried to suppress the excited shiver in her voice. XangXang nodded. "Everything has been done as you ordered, milady. The men trust you." Mulan answered with a content nod. The armourer sighed and he grabbed his helmet a bit tighter as he stared up the wall dreamily, his white, long hair shimmered in the faint light.
"How many years I've waited to see it again.", he whispered and Mulan looked at him with wide eyes.
"You've been here before?"
The old man nodded. "It was long ago, when I was young. I saw the emperor's cruelty with my own eyes. And the magnificence of human skills."
Said eyes grew hard as XangXang's look roamed the huge beast of stone, caugh up in his memories.
"What happened?", Mulan asked quietly, staring at her armourer.
"My family belonged to a small tribe, peaceful fellows considering our blood but way too weak to protect their women and children when the emperor's soldiers came and took everything we had. I was only a lad back then, hardly fifteen years old." He stepped closer to the wall, touching it and a shiver ran through him. "XangXang, you're alright?"
"I was tall for my age and steeled by hard work and I did not understand their words when they said I'd make good food for the stone giant. Well, the morning they pushed me down the ladders to the stone pits I finally understood what they meant."
Mulan watched XanXang's hand caress the wall like an old friend, like he was greeting the horrible calamity where so many people had suffered and died. He was far away, his eyes did not see the finished building but the construction area it once had been, Mulan was sure of that when she asked: "How did you escape?"
But there was no time left to answer when a bright light cut through the air, rising up into the sky and fell like a shooting star.
"Ladders and hooks!", she yelled and rose her sword, a gesture which send her men forwards. The soldiers clung to the wooden construction as it was lifted up into the air, reaching hardly halfway up the wall.
"Hooks!", she yelled and the hooks were thrown as she ordered. She'd taken care of her soldiers being trained properly, they could not forgive a mistake right know when the further success of their undertaking was on a knife's edge.
We've come this far, oh gods, don't let me fail., Mulan prayed and held her breath. Silence covered the land, nobody dared to speak a word. The soldiers on top of the ladders pulled on the strings, testing the hook's grasp and Mulan could've cried in triumph when they all seemed set.
XangXang sighed and raised the dimmed torch he held, giving the signal to start climbing and the soldiers obeyed immediately. "Now we're at the gods` mercy.", he whispered and Mulan could only nod, whole body tensed to the point of physical pain. "They have to be with us, they simply have to!", she pressed out. The whole army was silent as a grave for everybody knew of the current step's importance. The wall got watched night and day by countless soldiers of the emperor and all they could do was hoping and praying that they'd not notice the hooks until enough of their own soldiers had climbed the stone giant to get rid of the watch.
Men who vow to watch the wall give up their lives., her father had explained. The watch became a part of the wall, literally melted with it and got demobbed by death only. She didn't even want to imagine what the enemy would do to her if her soldiers would ever get defeated; she knew what her father's men did to women from clans with whom they were at enmity and furthermore she was not only a woman but a soldier, too, a treason which was punished with death by the men behind the wall.
Nothing happened. Currently, more and more soldiers climbed the ladders and the ropes. Soundlessly. Mulan shifted in impatience, hand on her sword, trying to see something through the fog.
Then, without any warning, a single body was flying soundlessly through the air and it was almost embarrassing how slowly it seemed to approach the ground. Said thing which had been a human being seconds ago was now only a bundle of lifeless flesh as it landed on the rocky ground with a silent 'thud'.
XangXang drew his sword, nudging the corpse so it rolled on its back; the throat was cut to prevent any sound, eyes widened in shock, mouth open to warn his comrades.
Thus, as if the single corpse of a soldier had opened the clouds above, a rain of dead bodies, cut limbs and weapons began to shower down onto the waiting Huns. Mulan needed to take several steps back for she felt no desire to be hit by a helmet or a corpse as she watched motionlessly the rain of murder as it poured down on her people in an obscene silence.
And so the Huns had taken the wall. Mulan was one of the last to climb the ladders and grab one the thick ropes which swung around in the air freely and made her stomach churn. Gulping down bitter bile, she had to close her eyes for a moment to prevent making a fool of herself and throw up infront of all her men. The smell of blood was in the air, thick and dark and it almost seemed all oxygen had become the smell for Mulan could also taste it on her tongue.
Slowly but steadily, she forced her body to move though her hands were shaking and she constantly told herself: "Don't look down, don't look down!", for she'd climbed so high a fall would certainly kill her. Dim lights led the way as she found herself surrounded by mist and almost panicked although she knew that there was nothing she had to fear from the moist clouds surrounding her – as long as she did not let go of the rope.
Hands reached out for her as she breached the layer of clouds like the water surface, pulling her by the shoulders. Usually, her men were not allowed to approach her closer than five feet but war was a different matter.
"Milady Mulan!", one of them addressed her, helping her to calm when she finally felt the solid stone of the wall under her feet. "General, are you hurt in any ways?"
Inhaling a deep breath of thin air, Mulan shook her head, straightening herself. The three soldiers around her took a step back, bowing deeply. "I am alright.", she responded harshly. "Where's the armourer, where my father? Secure the ascents, extinguish the fires and take care of the wounded. We have only a few hours to prepare and leave so hurry up!"
Two of them bowed again and left in a hurried manner, the other one walked behind Mulan and explained as she walked along the top of the wall. "Milady, the leader and Master XangXang are well and awaiting you at the northern tower, they wish to speak to you. The healers are already here and I must say we have not experienced great losses."
Mulan nodded and was half way gone when she stopped one more. "Oh, captain, before I forget: the dead, burn them and provide the funeral rites."
The soldier, a young man, bowed again. "Of course, Milady. Immediately, Milady." With that he scurried away and Mulan went to search for her father. Dead soldiers covered the floor, enemies and allies, the stones smeared with blood, bowels and cut off limbs; bloody-sprayed faces covered by helmets nodded to her while they searched the dead bodies for useful items, weapons and food. Mulan knew that most other people despised and punished looting amongst the own fallen but the Huns lived a hard life and could not dare to waste anything.
"The dead have no use for weapons and food.", she thought to herself and nodded back at her soldiers. Her father came in sight, next to him XangXang. Everybody was covered in cold ashes from the fires on the wall, dirt and blood and Mulan felt her stomach churn again.
"Father.", she greeted him, bowing slightly. "Obviously they were fast enough to light their famous fires."
Shan Yu nodded, dismissing the old armourer. Mulan stepped closer as he said: "They were fast, but not fast enough to keep us from killing them. We know that, although the fires were lit, the news will take some time to reach the emperor, long enough for us to take the soldier settlement below and move on." That was when Mulan noticed the bundle on the floor, a man. He was half-naked and his torso was covered in horrible burns, some of them so deep the white of bones shone through. She mustered him indifferently. Two soldiers grabbed the dead body and threw it off the wall as Shan Yu bid them. "A nice message for his waiting fellows.", she commented unmovedly.
Shan Yu gave a shot snort and pointed to the east where a slim streak of dawn arose and embraced the dark silhouettes of a massive mountain chain. "We will take the mountain pass, take care of the left flank, its` provision and weapons for every loss will reflect on you, do you understand? They're your responsibility now." Mulan nodded.
"Our friend told us that there are several ways through the mountain so we shall part and take different Routes to meet up again when we reach the emperor's settlement."
"The soldiers nearby should store enough food, cotton and horses to keep our men and more. Furthermore, I've heard that there's a big river on our way to the mountains and a river means villages, fields and woman. If it's true what one hears about the emperor he will already have gathered all the men far away from their homes so it will be easy to raise our provisions."
Shan Yu mustered his daughter thoroughly. Mulan stared back.
"What will happen to the men left? Will they stay?", she asked when her father did not respond. Shan Yu shook his head. "No, they will soon follow after they've butchered and corned the meat."
"Meat?"
"The horses, for we have no use for them on this side of the wall, not anymore."
Mulan's heart turned to ice. Butchering the..."But father, Khan-"
"Is just another horse which will provide your men from starving on their duty to fight for you!", her father snapped with a cold warning in his eyes. She could not breath for a moment, tears blurring her vision but she fought her feelings down as fast as they came and put on an emotionless mask.
"Of course, forgive me, father.", she said calmly, bowing to him. Shan Yu mustered his daughter, his eyes as cold as snow. "We all must sacrifice, my child. And a horse is a small price for the lives of good men."
Mulan nodded without responding and Shan Yu turned his attention back to the mountains. "How do you know about the river.?"
"We've found that map.", she said, pulling the piece of paper which one of the soldiers had handed her out of her pocket. Shan Yu flipped it open and mustered the drawings, then he rolled it up again and handed it back to his daughter. She rose a brow.
"My child, when you were born, everybody expressed their condolences that I had no son and for some time I believed in their words." He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it slightly. "Today, I am glad it was you the gods sent me for there's no one more loyal to me than you. No son would take care like you do." A smile pulled on the corner of his mouth and vanished so fast that Mulan thought she'd might imagined it. "Now go, daughter! Take care of your men!"
And with that Mulan bowed once more and turned to leave, her strength renewed by her fathers words. She could do this, she was the daughter of Shan Yu and she could lead an army.
He feet barely touched the ground.
The sun was about to rise when they attacked the huge settlement of soldiers at the root of the wall. The sun was up in the sky when Mulan had killed her first dozen of men and stared at her hands which dripped of blood and felt...nothing.
They'd slaughtered the emperor's men and nobody was left. She felt no heart beat inside her chest.
But she had no time to process what was happening, find out what she'd lost besides her feelings
Mulan had to take care of her men and taking care she did.
She sent out soldiers to gather as much food, cotton, weapons and other items as they could find, prepared lists of available material and fair division amongst her men. Mulan was a ruthless and icy leader, providing for everybody as much as possible, her voice harsh and unrelentingly; nobody dared to bargain with her for extra treatment.
The sun was almost setting when they lay down to sleep for a while before they'd depart in the middle of the night.
Mulan had wrapped up nearby her soldiers, protected by a tarpaulin and three of her soldiers as guards.
Although she'd had to order about a dozen of punishments for robbing comrades of their food and weapons, she had noticed the appreciative and intended glances; maybe, finally, her men acknowledged her as what she was: their leader.
Currently, she was shivering with cold and dry sobs that wrung from her throat for she felt like the world was crashing around her. She could not sleep though she was hardly conscious from exhaustion and she felt dizzy, unable to focus on anything. Luckily, her weakened body took a toll on her and made her rest in a deep slumber. Mulan dreamed of her mother; in her sleep she cried desperately.
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Sorry, for taking so long!