Mushu reluctantly followed Mulan down to the lake where she was going to bathe. He remembered all too well what had happened last time, and had nagged her incessantly on the way to the water. She had reassured him that she had found a more private spot surrounded by tall reeds that would hide her from view. It was a bit further down the shore, but it protected her privacy in a camp full of men. Mulan had even considered bathing fully clothed, then changing, but had decided against it when she remembered wet clothes became transparent.
Mulan whistled for her horse Khan, who doubled as a towel rack and shield from prying eyes. He neighed his reluctance, warning her of that incident long ago. Although she had bathed several times since she had arrived to train troops, this was the first time that she had not chosen to wait for the dark hours right before dawn when no one was awake. Most of the men swam in the afternoon anyway. She was risking being caught, but she didn't care tonight. She wanted to swim out to the rock in the center of the lake, with a towel wrapped around her at all times of course, and think.
Why had Shang held her for so long? He had never resorted to pinning her before, he had always managed to knock her down or trip her. What had happened?
Mulan dipped a reed into the cold water, watching the little ripples it made. A contented Crikee floated by on a lily pad wearing his sunglasses. He glanced at an imaginary watch and flipped onto his stomach. Mulan smiled as the cricket caught a moontan and secured the towel around herself a bit. She let her fingers trail through the water as her focus turned to the stars above.
'So many, so small, some bright, some faint...all beautiful...' she thought, looking for the North Star her father had shown her when she was younger. Her father had been proud of her when she could find the North Star no matter what season, no matter where she was. The other girls in the village thought it odd, pretty stars having some sort of function, but Mulan thought it only natural. The North Star had always comforted her whenever she was away from her family, especially her father. Now, when she found it, she also saw a still figure sitting on an outcropping of rock on the opposite side of camp. Standing up to get a better view, she almost slipped off of the rock when she saw who it was. 'Shang!'
Shang had long ago stopped the flood of tears slowly trailing down his face. He had not wiped them away; he knew they needed to come. He still reverently watched the moon, asking for guidance, willing the wound in his heart to heal.
General Li's sad reminisce was shattered by a scream.
"Mulan! What's wrong? Where's the snake? I'll eat him. Well, maybe not eat the brother, but I could just..."
"Mushu! I'm fine, and it was a frog," a drenched and shaken Mulan replied. She had slipped off the rock when a frog had landed on her foot. Upon feeling the slimy creature, she had shrieked (like a girl) and fallen into the water. Now her hair hung over her eyes, and for a moment, she was afraid that her towel was gone. She was right. "Mushu?"
"Still here. Frog? Do you have better choice of cuisine? Now, didn't your mother ever tell you not to pull stunts like that young lady! You coulda given me a heart attack missy!"
"Mushu, I can't find my towel."
"Well why didn't you say so. You didn't have to make a scene with that scream that woke up half of the camp. And now you don't even know where your towel is, girl, what am I supposed to do with you?"
"Mushu! Please just get it for me," Mulan pleaded, her patience wearing thin.
When he made no move to do so, she picked him up by his tail, knowing he disliked that. "Now!"
"Since you asked so nicely...," he muttered as he dove underwater, searching the bottom of the lake for Mulan's towel. Little did he know that it had drifted ashore.
On the shore, Khan was grazing happily having a conversation with Crikee. Well, maybe not happily, but chirps and snorts were exchanged without Crikee being launched from Khan's back. Crikee began to frantically jump, attempting to get Khan's attention towards the yellow towel that lay on the bank of the lake. Khan noticed his upset human mistress in the water, whistling for him to bring her the spare towel. Khan took one disdainful look at the water, and snorted in a horsy laugh. Him? Khan? Whose name meant ruler? Go in the water for what reason? He neighed his refusal and continued to graze.
"Khan! Come here!" Mulan pleaded with her horse. She could have sworn that he laughed at her! Sighing, she figured if she could find Mushu, from wherever he was at the bottom of the lake, he could retrieve her towel for her.
Mulan spotted the yellow cloth on the shore. 'This is just great,' she thought sarcastically. Both towels on the shore, and Mulan in chest deep water. There would be approximately ten seconds of where she would be exposed to the world. Could she make it? Should she risk it?
Mulan, heroine of China weighed her options of how to get out of a lake, and deciding more out of being cold than bravery that she would have to run now. At the last moment, she stopped herself when she saw a human form on the shore.
The form became more detailed as it stepped out of the shadows of a tree. It was...Chi Fu. Slipper clad and holding too many towels, the scrawny middle-aged man started to wade in the water. Mulan shuddered from disgust and quickly hid herself, and her eyes, behind the rock. She tried to control her breathing and conserve energy. Imagine, dying of hypothermia because you don't have a towel.
Mulan closed her eyes and started counting in her head back from one hundred. Before she reached eighty, a familiar voice rang across the water.
"Mulan!"
It was Shang.
Shang had rushed down to the water where he had heard the scream originate. He found Chi Fu bathing, and asked him if he had heard a scream. Chi Fu denied it, and Shang resisted asking him if it was him who had screamed. The scream had been high pitched, distinctly feminine (something Chi Fu could pull off) and coming from the water. That left only one person...
More concerned with her safety than her state of dress, Shang called her name over the water.
"Ancestors, how did I ever get into this mess?" Mulan muttered. She felt so ashamed, and she hadn't even been exposed yet.
"May I remind you, that I told you so!"
"Shut up Mushu, help me out here!" She surreptitiously glanced around the rock, hoping that Shang would go away. How did he know it was her anyway? That scream could have passed for one by Chi Fu. But Chi Fu was right at the shore where Shang could see him, and ask him about screaming. Of course, and she was the only one who could scream like a girl because, well, she was a girl.
"Mulan! Are you all right?" Shang called out again, feeling a bit ridiculous. He was not used to addressing her as a friend (or what appeared to be an empty lake), and this was not the best of circumstances. However, if she had been kidnapped by Huns or had simply slipped on a mossy rock and knocked herself out, he was obligated as her commanding officer, and friend, he reminded himself, to find and aide her.
Shang spotted Mulan's black horse with a broad white nose stripe further down the bank. Two towels lay on the shore, and her clothes were in a bundle on Khan's back. 'Uh oh...'
The general forced his gaze slowly onto the water, prepared to look away at any moment. From the looks of her horse, Mulan was all right, but not coming out of the water. Khan was always defensive of Mulan, although he seemed to have his own sense of humor at times. This was probably one of those times. Now all he had to do was find her, make her aware of Chi Fu's and his presence, and try not to make the situation any more uncomfortable.
Shang had been raised in the army since he was a boy, and rarely saw girls his own age. He was completely business, and had never considered anyone outside of his father, mother and friends in his life. The only female he had known for the first ten years of his life was his mother. He never learned how to deal with people equal to him, because everyone was either categorized into above or below in status. Soldiers had told him that females were a distraction for an aspiring young man like him, and that he should just ignore them and continue training.
And he had done just that, for he could never harbor interest in a girl who couldn't understand his talk of military strategies or fighting techniques because it was his whole life. Now there was a girl in his life, and a friend at that, who could understand him, and knew him as a superior and as a friend. It was difficult to approach her, especially when she represented Mulan more than Ping, but he had grown accustomed to it. Still, now and again, he would be caught off guard by her longer hair or her feminine voice.
'Just go away, go away, go away...' Mulan chanted in her head. She refused to come out from her hiding spot, let alone the water. She stole another peek at the shore. Shang was still there.
"Mulan! Are you all right?" She heard him call in her general direction.
"Yeah, I'm just great, sitting out here in freezing water late at night, naked, with two men in viewing distance, one of whom knows I'm here, with my towel just twenty paces away. Yes, I am doing just fabulous!"
Too late Mulan realized she had muttered too loudly. She wished she knew some profanity to use right about now.
Shang almost laughed at Mulan's predicament. He had heard her muttering to herself and took pity on her and picked up a towel. She didn't need to know that Chi Fu had just left. Now all he needed was her location.
"Mulan! I'll throw your towel to you!"
No answer.
"Major Fa! State your location. That's an order!"
Ever so slowly, a small dark form poked its head out from behind a rock. "Here. Third rock on the right." She cursed herself, still bewildered at the ridiculous situation.
Shang threw the wet towel to the rock, hearing it splat on the surface. A hand darted out and quickly grabbed the yellow cloth. Several moments later, a decently covered Mulan ran out of the water, almost running Shang over, past him and Khan, all the way to her tent.
Shang knew not whether to be ashamed or amused. He opted for utter shock, unable to remove his eyes from the closed flap of Mulan's tent. He had never expected her to just come charging out of the water like that, nor did he expect her to slowly climb out of the water and start a conversation. No, he never knew what to expect from that woman.