Hey everyone!

Sorry it took so long to update! This story is not on a regular updating schedule, but if I can help it, it will be. I'm thinking Wednesdays, but it depends on how Entropy progresses. I'm a little behind on it right now and damn, it's harder than I thought to stay on regular schedules for two stories!

The horse could go on no longer, so reluctantly, Mulan brought him to a stop and dismounted.

She'd done the best she could in her situation, but food and water were now a priority. Luckily, the wind was not blowing in the direction she'd ran and rain was in the air. In fact, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm seemed like a really good idea right about then.

"Oh, baby, we made it! Where to now?" Mushu asked, still invigorated from their rather dramatic escape.

"We have to lay low," Mulan mused as she tied the horse to a tree and sat down. She, like the horse, was tired, but the next few days spoke of little rest. Even though she doubted she would be pursued, she had to get as far away from Shan Yu as possible.

Upon escape and seeing how quickly the fire spread, Mulan had been worried that Ming and the other girls would be harmed. However, logic told her that they would not have traveled to so many different provinces—she'd picked up scraps of information about Shan Yu's travels from the girls—to let them die in a fire. They had been on a beaten path, so certainly that beaten path had to lead to somewhere safe.

Even so, it had been a dangerous move to make. She probably wouldn't have done it if one of the horsemen hadn't commented that there would be rain later in the day that morning before initial departure. It would have been more prudent to find another way to escape.

Nonetheless, it seemed the ancestors were smiling down upon her because everything had gone off without a hitch. Knowing that the Huns accompanying Shan Yu were no better than Shan Yu himself, it hadn't been difficult to bring herself to wound him. In her opinion, she hadn't wounded him enough, but time had given her little option. The main point was to steal his horse, not kill the man.

But it wasn't like he wouldn't deserve it.

It was over now, though. She didn't have to concern herself with their fates anymore—in fact, it was important that she focus on her own fate, now that she was a wandering…something.

No one knew of her. Without her family, she was considered nothing as a woman.

Well, she'd been a man before, hadn't she? There was no reason 'Ping' couldn't make a reappearance, although perhaps under a different name. She…she'd rally an uprising. She'd train the troops she recruited the way Shang had trained her. And then…they'd overthrow Shan Yu.

If she didn't have to fake being a man, she wouldn't have, but it was clear that as an unmarried woman she could go no further than become a part of a brothel for means of survival. That was not an option…so become a man again, it was.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the first drops of rain. She was almost relieved that the fire would clearly be put out, but more importantly, they had to find shelter.

"Mushu, can you scout ahead? We need a place to stay until the storm lets up."

"You got it! One five-star cave, coming right up! Cri-kee, you with me?"

The cricket chirped in agreement and quickly, they were off.

While she waited, she found a tree with a dense canopy to stay relatively dry in. Under the high, thick branches, she and the stolen horse were able to stay remotely safe from the storm, but when thunder boomed in the distance, she knew that shelter was going to be a major priority.

Mushu returned not too long later and under the tree, he shook himself off like a dog would.

"Dragons are not made for rain!" he complained. Then, remembering himself, he pointed in a direction southeast. "There's a cliff over there that had a decent cave. Don't know if the horse will fit, but it's better than nothing."

Mulan nodded and untethered the horse. Knowing that he wasn't rested enough to carry her, they quickly made off in a brisk run towards the cave Mushu had mentioned.

It didn't take too long to find it. The cave was small and the horse couldn't fit under it comfortably without sitting down. However, the horse was also clearly used to these situations because it settled in quickly without a problem.

"Mushu, I'm going to have to take these off," Mulan warned, motioning to her nearly-drenched clothing. "I can't afford to get sick."

"Fine, fine," he replied, wrapping his ears over his eyes and sitting down. As Mulan stripped to her bindings, he asked, "Probably too late for a fire, huh?"

Mulan glanced outside, noting the wet, muddy landscape, and then nodded in agreement. Any wood would be far too wet to start a fire, even with a dragon's help. Remembering he couldn't see her nod because he was covering his eyes to her state of nakedness, she said, "Yeah, I don't think a fire is going to happen." She couldn't help but shiver; the rainstorm had brought icy blasts of air that left her undeniably cold, but she wasn't going to complain about it. The storm had ensured her fire wouldn't reach a village.

A silence prevailed over the cave as each present contemplated their next move. Finally, Mulan decided to voice her idea about 'becoming a man' again.

"I think I need to bring back Ping," she said over the heavy pattering of rain. "I'm not going to make it anywhere as a girl."

She hadn't expected Mushu to agree so readily. "You got that right! So we find the next village and you buy them man-clothes, and then the village after than you be a man again. You got a name?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," Mulan admitted. Then cracking a wry smile, she said, "Why don't you come up with one? You're so good at it, anyway."

"You know it!" There was a pause as he thought of names. "How about Tseng?"

The young woman turned it over in her mind for a moment and then shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Fine, fine, be picky!" Another pause. "Wutan."

"No, too girly."

"Baby girl, give me a break! You pick one then!"

Cri-kee chirped brightly and Mushu's face perked up. "Hey, that's a good one! Fang?"

Mulan nodded and smiled at Cri-kee, who preened himself for the good idea. "That'll work. Mao Fang. I like it."

The unlikely trio fell silent again and all that was left was to wait out the storm.

Shan Yu wasn't bothered by a little rain, but he didn't want to wear out his horse. Unfortunately, the fire and the storm would ruin any tracking he could have done and it forced Hayabusa to return to him prematurely, but it was all of little consequence. He'd find her; there was no compromise. Fa Mulan would not best him—there was no way she could in this game that they were playing. After the rain let up, she would eventually leave a trail and then it would be an easy process of tracking her down. Even if she somehow evaded him—it was very unlikely—the falcon he had in his employ would not be fooled.

As he sat under a rocky overhang from a conveniently located cliff he'd found, he mused on his options. Obviously, his wife-to-be would have to be punished. For a long moment, he wondered if it wouldn't just be best to eliminate her once and for all, but after that moment passed he decided it was too kind of a punishment. He and only he would be the bringer of her death, but it would be long after she was broken in both spirit and mind.

The khan couldn't decide on any particular way he'd mete out his punishment, deciding that it would depend on how difficult she made it to retrieve her. He honestly doubted it would be any major feat—even if she did know how to hide her tracks, he was a master huntsman. It was unlikely she was at all skilled enough to evade him.

The Chinese farmed and harvested their food, livestock plentiful and crops bountiful. They had no use for hunting, not the way that the Huns did. The more he thought about it, the more evident it became that once the rain let up, it would only be a matter of time before he found her.

There was the small question as to how she started a fire and had she'd been able to get it to spread so easily, not to mention how she'd managed to take Caluun by surprise enough to steal his horse. Caluun was no easy battle in and of himself; he was one of the burlier Huns, nothing like Shan Yu's muscular stature but still more than strong enough to handle a girl like Mulan. It was part of the reason he'd chosen him to follow her—it had seemed quite unlikely that a woman her size could so much as survive one blow.

And yet she had somehow overcome the force that was Caluun—otherwise they would be a day and a half away from the Forbidden City by now without the irritating fire and sidetracking.

At the same time, he felt it was perhaps a good thing. Once he found Mulan, it would be much easier to get back to the palace, as there would be no useless cargo—his wives—and he would be able to move at whatever pace he wished.

And so, with bated breath and ready for a very satisfying hunt, the khan and emperor Shan Yu waited for the storm to wear out.

Even in the good old days of the army Mulan had never gone without food for too long. Yes, the training was grueling and she had worked up a rather fearsome appetite every single day, but she had always been sated in the end.

Now, however, she was not so fortunate.

Before the rain had let up, Mushu had come up with the ingenious plan of holding the two canteens attached to the stolen horse's saddle to fill them to the brim with water after draining them. Mulan was grateful she had her guardian and friend with her, especially since she'd worked up quite a thirst in her escape, and soon they had a good few pints of water to sate them when the rain had passed.

The storm ran its course and by midnight, the stars were out and the moon shone brightly in the sky. Mulan felt plenty rested after waiting in the cave all day, occasionally dozing, and it had become clear that they would need to make as much progress towards a village as they could, the faster the better. Her clothes had fully dried and were wearable again, but unfortunately Caluun, the man who'd followed her and unwittingly graced her with a horse, had not thought to carry any rations on his mount.

Her stomach protested the lack of food for the fifth time since the rain let up.

"We'd better get going," she told Mushu and Cri-kee. As usual, the cricket was agreeable, but Mushu didn't seem to feel the same way.

"I know you're hungry and all, baby girl, but we gotta lay low!"

Mulan shook her head. "Night would be the best time to travel if that's our goal. Besides, I can't let myself go too long without food…it'll just make it harder to stay alert."

Mushu seemed to give it some thought before he finally acquiesced. "Fine, fine, but don't blame me if you get caught!"

Despite his refusal to take responsibility if she was recaptured, Mulan knew her guardian would do everything in his power to stop such a thing from happening.

Leading the horse out of the small cave, she mounted him again and they took off at a brisk trot.

"Mushu, if you're so worried about traveling at night, why don't you scout for some food? There should be some berries around here…I saw a few bushes yesterday."

This, unlike traveling in the dark, was very much in Mushu's interest. "You got it, baby girl. You just leave it to me!" He grabbed one of the saddle pouches, emptied its contents into another bag, and then set off to gather food.

Cri-kee decided to stay back this time and they set a steady pace north-westward, in a generally opposite direction from the palace and the Forbidden City.

Luckily the horse seemed to have a good bit of stamina and by the time Mushu returned with a pouch filled to the brim with strawberries and nuts—which was an unexpected but wholly welcomed turn of events—they had made it a good ways. Mulan slowed the horse to a walk and ate slowly, wanting to preserve her meager rations as long as possible.

When her hunger abated well enough, they again began to trot until dawn. As the sun rose above the horizon, dispelling the previous cold rapidly with its bright rays, Mulan decided that they would continue until noon and then take a break for the hottest part of the day.

"I still don't like this traveling at night thing," Mushu complained when they stopped in a clearing around midday. The shade was welcomed by everyone in the party and they all took respective seats near the tall trees under the thick canopy.

"It's our best option," Mulan disagreed. "If anyone is following us, they won't expect it."

"I don't know if you forgot this, baby girl, but I found you and them Huns moving in the middle of the night. This ain't gonna be as much of a surprise as you think it will."

He had a point, but there was no arguing now.

"It doesn't matter. I don't want to wear out the horse too much. We might have a long way to go." She glanced over at the bay stallion, who was happily grazing on a patch of fresh green grass from the storm. He had drained a few puddles and drank from a stream along the way, keeping himself hydrated. Mulan had also taken some water from the stream for the canteen she'd drank from along the way in their travels and the clearing they'd stopped in had a singular berry bush that while it was not extremely dense with fruit, had served the purpose of refilling her pouch of berries. She was rationing the nuts carefully as Mushu had said they had been much harder to find than the berries.

They rested until just an hour before sunset and then took off again, ready to travel through the night. Mulan hoped that they were headed in the direction of a village, any village. It was then that she realized a truly unfortunate fact.

She had no money.

"Mushu," she said, slowing the horse. "We need to see if there's any money in these pouches or anything that can be sold. Otherwise a village isn't going to do us much good."

"Gotcha."

After about ten minutes, Mushu had searched the saddlebags thoroughly and had only come up with the already-known berry pouch and canteens, a spare dagger, and strangely enough, a couple of silken cloths.

"These might come in handy," he noted. "But that's all there is. Stupid Huns obviously have no eye for those precious gems we need."

Mulan, however, felt this was a blessing. The cloth was not worthy much as silk was in abundance, but it could be used to tie her hair up and begin her disguise as a man again. She swiftly used the spare dagger—the other was kept in the folds of her clothing, easily accessible—and cut one of the cloths well enough to serve as a tie to hold her hair up.

She'd been forced to let her hair grow out again since returning home, but a trim with the dagger and Mushu's help put it back at the length it had been in the war.

"Mao Fang," she said softly. "Mao Fang." She turned to Mushu and deepened her voice much like she had in the army. "Mao Fang, at your service," she repeated proudly to Mushu.

"Now that's my girl!" he said, before coughing and correcting himself. "Now that's my boy!"

The ancestors had truly smiled down on them the day, two days into their travels, when they stumbled upon a hermit's small house in the woods.

Mulan had brought the horse, who she'd renamed Nishu, to an abrupt halt at the sight of it in the distance.

"Oh yeah, baby!" Mushu had exclaimed. "Thank YOU very much, First Ancestor!"

Mulan didn't question his strange comment and nudged the horse into a slow walk so as to not alarm the person who lived there.

When they arrived on the plot of land—she noticed a vegetable garden thriving to the side of the house and a well house several yards away from that—Mulan tied her horse to a tree and then approached the house cautiously. It was a well-known fact that those who chose to be hermits were typically not too friendly, but she was hopeful that perhaps her luck would continue and this man would be hospitable enough to help her out.

She should have known that luck could only go so far.

Rapping her knuckles three times on the door after noticing a light on inside, she waited for the man to answer.

Imagine her surprise when it was a middle-aged woman, ornery as could be, who answered the door.

"I'm not interested!" the woman crowed at the sight of a young and strangely effeminate man at her doorstep. "You can go sell your wares elsewhere, you incompetent fool!"

The door was promptly shut back in Mulan's face and she could hear the woman stomping away through the house.

"We really need to work on your people skills," Mushu whispered from her shoulder.

Stubbornly, Mulan knocked again, ignoring the repeated jab that Mushu had first given her when she'd made a fool of herself on her first day in the army.

There was no answer.

Mulan knocked again.

The door slammed open. "I told you already, I'm not-"

The woman paused and then studied Mulan, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at the girl-gone-man's face and then her feminine attire.

"You're not one of Chen's sons," she commented. "You're not even a man." She paused. "But your hair is too short to be a respectable woman…"

Mulan was silent during the woman's scrutiny.

"What is your business here, man-girl?"

Mulan could hear Mushu's indignant muttering about the woman's rudeness but paid it no mind.

"My name is Mao Fang," she said, impersonating a man flawlessly if not for the clothes. "I am traveling and-"

"Cut the crap," the woman snapped. "Either tell me the truth or leave now."

Mulan cleared her throat and hesitated before deciding that this woman was her best bet for aid.

"My name is Mulan," she said, revealing her true voice. "I have…dishonored my family and…am on the run." She didn't dare reveal that she was meant to be one of the new khan's wives, although this woman probably knew nothing about the change in regime. "I was hoping for a place to rest for the night."

The woman snorted. No wonder she was a hermit—she had no manners or propriety about her whatsoever. No man in their right mind would marry her. "And you are attempting to impersonate a man…why?"

"I don't want to work in a brothel," Mulan replied honestly. "Pretending to be a man is the only other way to survive without being married."

"And because you've done it before," the woman replied, as though finishing Mulan's sentence. She laughed when she noticed Mulan's stiffened posture, her strange blue eyes lighting up in a knowing way. "I know much about you, Fa Mulan, the girl who impersonated a soldier to save her father from harm and then returned to your family in dishonor. It's your fault that damned Hun is our new emperor, you know."

At the woman's insinuation that Mulan had failed her duty as a soldier, the young woman ignored how the woman knew any of this about her and replied, "How is it my fault? The Huns were almost defeated because of me!"

The woman sniffed. "If you hadn't left so soon, you would have seen them survive the avalanche. You were the only hope for saving China and you failed."

It was then that Mulan realized the strangeness of the conversation. "How do you know this about me?" she demanded.

The woman sighed. "Come in. We have much to discuss. I thought I might meet you one day, but the spirits wouldn't be clear on the matter. You may bring the cricket, but leave your guardian outside. Dragons and I don't mix well as a general rule."

"Hey!" Mushu protested, clearly not noticing that the woman had recognized him as a dragon and not a lizard—at the very least, he wasn't taking the time to appreciate it. Apparently the situation was so surreal that no one asked how the woman knew so much—especially about the presence of a guardian. "Where Mulan goes, I go!"

"Mushu…" Mulan started. "I think you'd better wait outside."

Mushu rolled his eyes. "Oh, sure, take the psychic's side. Fine, fine, but you better bring me some dinner!" He crawled out of her shirt and leapt to the ground.

The woman ushered Mulan into the house, leaving Mushu outside.

Sitting on the ground, Mushu contemplated setting the cranky medium's vegetable garden on fire, but eventually decided not to given that it would probably ruin his chances at dinner.

"Stupid mediums and their stupid gardens…what's a dragon gotta do to get some respect around here?"

In his ranting, he didn't hear the screeching of a hawk overhead, high above the canopy of the trees.

Well isn't all that strange? Next chapter should shed some light on everything. I hope you all enjoyed, and please feed the hungry author with your reviews!