"What's that Chien Po?" Ling asked as he looked over the large man's shoulder. Chien Po was reading a letter, which he was now trying to hide from Ling's curious eyes.
"It's just a letter from a friend," he shyly said, fumbling nervously with his fingers and looking at the ground.
"A friend? What kind of friend?" Ling said, a mischievous glimmer in his eye. He motioned Yao over to join him in his interrogation. The short man joined him willingly.
"Who is she?" Yao questioned, a Cheshire grin on his face.
The large man could do nothing but look shyly at his feet while his friends continued to banter him.
"The big guy has been lusting after a lovely lady at Chang Ban. One with large, luminous eyes!" Ling teased. Chien Po turned another few shades of red from embarrassment.
"Don't forget, she must be a great cook, too!" Yao encouraged.
Overlooking from a hillside, General Fa Mulan watched her three friends' easy camaraderie. It had been over three months since Shang's disappearance, and the smiles came more often to her friends than to her. 'How easily they joke and carry on,' Mulan thought, quickly recognizing the dull pain of mourning flowing through her veins. 'Back in the good ol' days I used to be with them and Shang, practical jokes and laughter at every turn... It is all bitterness now.'
Mulan turned her face towards the sky, the sun high above, the skies clear with the promise of summer and the middle of spring. Birds had begun to sing, flittering with color in the sunshine. Flowers were beginning to bloom, the first buds open and inviting in their sweet fragrances. Crikee enjoyed a grass blade hammock, and hummed a soft melody. A gentle wind blew her hair away from her face, bringing a brief reminder of the winter China had just endured. She lay back on a large stone, willing her mind to stop thinking about Shang and to just enjoy the warm spring day.
Instead, she thought of Chui Wei, the army's nurse who had recently found herself with child. Mulan allowed a soft smile for the woman's excitement, and congratulated her with forgotten happiness. The pregnancy brought back memories as a child when her Aunt Mei had visited with a large belly and a constant smile on her face. How she had glowed with joy and pride! Mulan's smile remained a shade longer before fading with her memories.
No man would want her to bear his child. Too skinny. Narrow hips that weren't good for bearing sons, the matchmaker had said. But that was not the only factor now. Mulan was a woman playing a man's role, who excelled at a woman's taboo role: thinking for herself. What man wanted a woman matching or even exceeding him in any way? Men wanted docile creatures whose lives centered on them. Men did not know what women wanted, she thought. And she would want no man, especially one to make her with child. Not now. Because he wouldn't be Shang...
And there he was again, tormenting her mind. Shang, and the army, and her friends, and her life; all of it was jumbled together, couldn't be extricated, couldn't be separated in her head. It wasn't going to go away. He wasn't going to go away. Mulan hung her head again in another psychological defeat.
"We have to do something about her," one shadow said.
"She grows despondent and distant. This is the time to act!" A different voice replied.
"She is off her guard; she will be easy to catch," a third added.
"Whatever happened to the other general?" Another asked cautiously.
"Never mind that! We are to do as planned. Any more questions?" The impulsive voice ordered. "Good, then we leave at sunset."
General Fa Mulan never had a chance.
They had ambushed her right after supper. Yao, Ling and Chien Po, along with half of the camp, drenched their general with buckets of water in a surprise attack. A flicker of a smile lit Mulan's face, a bit of her old camaraderie returning as she faked outrage and defended herself. Then, arming herself with plums used in archery practice, Mulan put the adage 'A good offense is a good defense' to use, and retaliated with a vengeance. By the end of the evening, everyone was in high spirits.
That is, until a message from the north arrived.
"Urgent. Japanese attacked coastline at Wu Ting three days ago. Declared war. Need assistance."
A hushed moment fell over the camp. General Fa broke the silence.
"Pack up tonight and gather provisions. We head out in the morning."
Mushu paced the floor of Mulan's tent while Crikee prepared to leave a note, dipping his feet in ink.
"Mulan? Crikee and me... no, that's not right. Mulan, Crikee and I have to leave... no, are being called to duty. No, that sounds like I'm being recruited. Here we go: Mulan, remember those guardians? Well, they sent a big spirit goat guy to fetch us because there's trouble in our home village..."
Crikee shrugged, splattering ink on Mushu, waiting for him to make up his mind.
"Hey! Watch it! I've only got the only patented red dragon suit on this side of the Imperial City. Now we have to get this message done before Mulan comes back." Mushu toweled off the ink splotches with a towel stolen from Chi Fu and continued to pace.
Crikee trilled a few notes in response.
"Officers' meeting? Something urgent? Action! Well, c'mon, we better finish this up and check it out."
When General Fa's division of the Imperial Army arrived at the Wu Ting a week later, a deep tension ran through the area. No enemy troops were visible, yet the small Chinese military force and the villagers stayed behind fortifications.
Then, a cry of pain stabbed the air as the first Chinese soldier went down. 'That was Mah,' Mulan noted numbly before she began barking orders. She saw the dense wooding that the enemy had hid in, and realized that her troops were surrounded, although evenly matched in numbers.
Enemies were attacking through the center, separating the group into two, then four, then eight. She saw too late what they were doing. Now she was surrounded and separated from her soldiers. 'Divide and conquer,' she thought bitterly as she used a spear to mow through enemy forces towards Ling's group, but felt the weapon break in her hands before she could reach him. Picking up a sword of a fallen soldier, she continued on, sustaining little damage but gaining little ground.
Suddenly a hand came over her nose and mouth, cutting off her air supply. Before she could elbow her attacker between the ribs for release, his other hand restrained it and her world faded away.
When Mulan awoke, she didn't move. First instinct told her to shake her head clear and rub her eyes but she forced herself still. 'Keep my options open,' she thought. Subconsciously, she wondered if she would be tortured or ransomed... or both.
Slowly, Mulan opened slitted eyes and surveyed her surroundings inconspicuously. 'Four guards, one entrance, a skylight, beams that are within jumping ranging hanging overhead, I'm tied by my wrists behind me to the chair I'm sitting on, my ankles are free. Is it possible for me to...'
A sudden crash broke Mulan's train of thought. She forced herself to relax and watch, but all that she could see was that each of her guards dropped swiftly to the ground with no apparent cause. Then she saw a tiny dart sticking out of the neck of the guard closest to her. 'Poison,' she thought, involuntarily shuddering. When she was younger, her father had a brush with poison in an assassination attempt.
"I'm here to rescue you, Fa Mulan," a woman's voice whispered in Mulan's ear a moment later.
'A woman?' Mulan thought incredulously. But then again, she herself was a woman general.
Mulan felt something smooth and cold between her bound wrists, then freedom from her restraints. Rubbing her wrists, she turned to get a better look at her savior, but was disappointed by the mask that hid everything but her eyes. Almond-shaped brown eyes, perfect in their shape and framed by beautiful curved lashes so long that they touched her cheeks when she blinked. 'She must be very beautiful,' Mulan thought, shaken out of her daze when her rescuer spoke. She didn't notice the cold, ruthless glint that was in those liquid pools.
"You are Fa Mulan, aren't you? I would hate to have saved the wrong person," the woman said clinically as she used rope to secured an escape on an overhead beam. Mulan nodded, and the stranger motioned for Mulan to follow her as she shimmied up the rope and pulled herself up from beam to skylight.
Mulan followed slowly because her arms were sore and her hands numb from being tied. She pulled herself to the rooftop and following the woman into the moonless night, hardly knowing which direction she was going. After several moments, assuming they had put distance between themselves and her captivity, Mulan felt compelled to know her savior.
"Who are you?" She questioned aloud. 'And why would you save me?' she added to herself.
"Many call me the Cat of Two Colors," the stranger finally replied, her voice now smooth and deep.
'Her voice almost sounds like a purr,' Mulan thought with a smile, noting the accent was of the eastern coastal region of China.
"And what should I call you?" Mulan asked, studying what little she could see of the woman. Noticing Mulan's appraisal, Cat of Two Colors removed her mask, revealing classic, flawless features. 'Yes, she is very beautiful indeed,' Mulan thought with a twinge of envy.
"Sui Fu," the woman answered, "Yes, call me Sui Fu."