Another chapter submitted for your viewing pleasure. Things will be getting exciting in the coming chapters. In fact, this chapter will end with the start of a fairly violent fight. Oh, in case you didn't guess… I do not own "Mulan" or any of their characters. I did invent Gang, Tseng Zheng, Du Heng, Wei, and Liu Shing, so if you wish to borrow them, please ask me. I have no problem loaning them to others. Just give me credit.
I'll try to insert some of Mushu's old proud and selfishness attitude in his flashbacks too.
Twenty rockets, stolen from the camp and carefully aimed, now lay hidden in the shrubbery. Some were targeting the tents, others pointed at areas the soldiers tended to gather. But none would hit Du Heng's tent. Mushu intended to deal with him, face to face. A length of fuse unwound behind the crimson dragon. With a little work, he tied the short fuses together with one long fuse. One quick little spark, and the fireworks would begin.
Between getting here with Kahn, scouting, moving the stupid rockets, and grabbing food in between trips, most of the day was already gone. Soon, the sun would begin to set and all these soldiers (big guys, built like the Great Wall and as small minded as Chi Fu after a head injury) would hopefully be tired and less alert after a day of training. They wouldn't see this coming. Of course, who in their right mind would expect an awesome creature of his magnitude to appear?
"You're… uh…" began Mulan, her face demonstrating her unease with current events.
Mushu scurried up a bamboo shoot to be at eye level. This girl was his ticket back to the family shrine. And her plan may not be the smartest, but it gave the crimson dragon a unique situation. A war hero in the family is an honor. If he helped create a war hero, then the ancestors would doubtlessly give him back his old job. Still, the impossibility of her mission to join the army and now the strange arrival of such an awesome creature would be stressful to her. But that was no reason for her to have just called him a lizard after her cow trampled him. She was probably just overwhelmed by him.
"Intimidating?" he suggested. "Awe-inspiring?"
"Tiny," answered the disguised girl.
Okay, he was a small dragon. Not exactly the most terrifying thing in the world, admittedly. But the size came in handy at times. Remaining close to his charge while out of sight and his various stealth activities wouldn't be that easy if he was Stoney's size. And while carrying rockets would be easier if he was larger, sneaking them out would have been harder.
Still, he could be intimidating if he planned it out and caught someone unaware. Surprises tend to unnerve people. For some, a giant, fiery, talking shadow appearing at the point they intend to join the army is enough to startle them. Others react badly to… smaller surprises.
Swooping through the air on the darkly-colored kite, the crimson dragon and insect were on a mission. The insanely aggressive Shan Yu was after Mulan. She'd ticked off the Hun by taking out his army and, from what Mushu had heard, just cost him his chance to kill the emperor. And she was making up her plan as she went. If that wasn't a recipe for disaster, then Mushu was a talking donkey. So he was doing his part to help her. He may no longer be an official guardian, but she was his responsibility.
His target was the platform housing the fireworks. Two men were in charge there and seemed rather pathetic. But they were still people and the dragon wasn't supposed to be spotted by humans other than members of the Fa family (and more specifically, his charge). The only person supposed to know of his existence was Mulan. Sure, Ling saw him that once (after the biting incident that he refused to talk about or remember), but he'd thought that he was a snake. That kind of loophole was handy, but could he find one now?
Well, if he made a dramatic enough entrance, maybe they wouldn't actually notice exactlywhat they saw. If they didn't stand around thinking "Hey, is that handsome, good-looking creature a dragon who may or may not be a family guardian of some kind?", did it count as breaking the rules? Mulan already broke a ton of rules and his record wasn't exactly clean on the "obeying direct orders of the ancestors" thing. Time to bend another rule.
After all, it was for a good cause: to help protect Mulan. And if he got her home safe in the end, then technically he would be obeying the order that was given to Stoney (or rather, Mushu pretending to be Stoney, which wouldn't have counted anyway because of that little detail) to bring her home. He just took the scenic route to bring her back. He was under no orders himself, but he decided to be her guardian and he was going to do it right. Besides, she and Cri-Kee were his best friends and she needed help.
"Citizens, I need firepower," he announced in a commanding voice as he landed on the railing.
"Gah…" yelped one of the poor individuals. "What are you?"
Extending the kite behind him like a pair of dark, bat wings, he must have looked like some kind of evil spirit. Beside him, Cri-Kee struck a similar pose. Granted, they were both fairly small. But they tried to look menacing and dangerous. From the men's expressions, they were succeeding at that.
In a deeper, threatening voice, Mushu answered, "Your worst nightmare."
The pair responded to this statement in a rational, reasonable fashion: they leapt off the platform in fear.
Glaring at the camp, the reptilian guardian hissed angrily. In the case of the poor palace workers, it was nothing personal. In this case, it was beyond personal. This camp, the man Heng, and everything they represented was the reason why he wasn't with Mulan. In the dragon's mind, the girl was already dead. Doubtless, the ancestors would send someone to drag him back to the shrine. But everything that had gone wrong since yesterday stemmed from a single source. And the dragon wanted to make them pay for it.
"She was my charge," he growled softly. "She was my friend. You took her away. That was a big mistake. And now, I'm going to be your worst nightmare."
With a short breath, he lit the fuse.
Tired and still in pain, Mulan once more felt herself waking up once more. Shifting slightly, she pushed her head off the pillow. Looking around her room, the young woman felt relieved that the crowd of concerned friends and family members were gone. Something caught her eye.
A scroll lay near her, as if placed for her to find specifically. As she scanned across the page, it became clear that it wasn't addressed to her. But the names kept her attention. It was addressed Shang, but mentioned both Kahn and Mushu. When she finished, the female warrior had come to two conclusions. One, her guardian was going to do something insane and dangerous. Two, her husband, and likely her friends Yao, Ling, and Chien Po, were undoubtedly following.
Pushing against her bed, Mulan moved into a sitting position. As her back protested her movements, a small sound erupted from her shoulder. She smiled over at where Cri-Kee perched, his light body's weight nearly imperceptible to her unless the insect let her know of his presence. The cricket repeated his earlier chirp, his tone inquisitive.
Even if she could not understand him, she could guess what he wanted to know, "I can't just stay here while they fight my battles. I'm going after them." The woman pushed herself to her feet uneasily. Her head swam for a moment, threatening to force her to sit back down. As her vision cleared, she heard an agreeing chirp. "If you want to help me, why don't you get Kahn to meet me outside?"
The insect hopped out the window, chirping excitedly. Mulan made her way across the room. The sword once wielded by her father, and now her weapon, waited for her near the door. She leaned over and grasped the blade, her wound screaming at her that this was a bad idea. Now armed, she worked her way slowly through her house. She felt rather proud that no one had tried to stop her yet. She'd managed to avoid alerting anyone in the household.
Outside, the sky was just beginning to gain a slightly orange tinge. Kahn walked over to her and knelt down so she could climb on. She smiled at the dependable horse and the bluish-purple cricket sitting on Kahn's head. Mulan then tried to pull herself onto his back. For some reason, finding the energy for this simple task seemed to be so hard.
A pair of gentle hands suddenly was there and helped her into position. When she looked, the female warrior was shocked to find Mei there. The middle princess smiled warmly at the injured young woman.
"You were the one who said your duty is to your heart," explained Mei. "If your heart tells you to go, I won't stop you, Fa Mulan. Just be careful and come back safe."
"Thank you, Mei," she replied to one of her few female friends.
Kahn stood up and they galloped away. Mulan's last view was of the pink-dressed princess standing by the house as she rode away.
"Be on guard, men," ordered Shang. "Our target should be nearby."
The four men left their horses at the edge of the forest. The reasoning behind this was that even though a horse could travel through the undergrowth, they would be hindered by the plants in their maneuverability. Thus, they were moving through the shadowy woods by foot. Chien Po was making a special effort to move carefully through the forest without knocking into closely-spaced saplings.
"Yes, sir," mumbled Ling, scanning the ground for serpents. Ever since one, painful incident, the thin soldier possessed a deep paranoia of snakes being too close to him. "Do you know how close?"
Suddenly, a series of deafening explosions erupted from the still forest. In the same direction, bright flashes of light and shouts of confusion and fear accompanied the original, destructive noise. A few moments after the initial interruption, crashing footsteps fleeing the source began to be heard and seemed to be approaching them.
"Never mind," he sighed, drawing his sword. "I think I figured it out on my own."
Chaos erupted as the first rocket launched into the camp. The men glanced around frantically, trying to locate where the unexpected attack had come from. By the time the third was in the air, most of them were making a run for cover. Others seemed to be trying to attack whatever was launching the explosives. Those brave (or stupid) individuals seemed to subscribe to the classic "the best defense is a strong offense" theory and figured that direct force would be the perfect answer. How they intended to combat explosives with swords, Mushu didn't know. But he didn't intend to remain to find out.
By the fifth rocket, the serpentine guardian had worked his way across the camp. All the panic meant no one noticed his movements. His progress was far quicker than his earlier trips transporting rockets. The crimson dragon stood outside Du Heng's tent. Surprisingly, the man had not fled the cloth shelter at the sounds of destruction. Before he entered, Mushu paused. Facing Heng directly would break the "stay hidden from the world" rule. But if the human didn't survive the encounter (like the late Shan Yu), he wouldn't get in trouble with the ancestors. Well, he was in trouble with them probably anyway. Might as well go ahead with his plan.
Intent on going in style, the dragon shouted, "Du Heng, I have come for you. Your crimes speak of your evil nature. For your crimes, you will suffer. Despair in the knowledge of the dishonor you bring to your name and the pain delivered to the innocents by your actions."
The voice inside was surprisingly calm and simply asked, "Who are you?"
His shadow stretched upwards, extended by the flames coaxed by the cricket. The dark shape, surrounded by fire, seemed rather impressive. The girl, out of sight from his current position, had asked who he was. Which meant it was time for Mushu to finish off his dramatic introduction.
"Who am I? Who am I? I am the guardian of lost souls," he claimed. She didn't need to know he'd lost the job as guardian about five hundred years ago. After all, he was going to get it back. "I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Mushu!" he finished, stepping into view and truly meeting Mulan for the first time.
This time, he chose a more direct and less flowery introduction, his hate for the man getting the better of him. The dragon hissed angrily.
"I'm the one who's going to make you wish you'd never existed!" he snapped.
With that statement, the crimson guardian stepped through the slit opening of the tent. Dressed in armor, Du Heng stood with sword in hand. His face was still visible. His lumpy, asymmetrical nose vaguely resembled an uncooked dumpling. And his clean-shaved face meant his scar across his chin was very clear. Nothing about him was particularly handsome and some features were just plain ugly. The most surprising thing was his expression. Rather than shock at the arrival of a dragon, even if it was only a small one, he only seemed mildly surprised.
"You're kind of small, aren't you?" commented the homely man.
Okay, the last time he didn't receive at least some kind of reaction was with Shang. He, however, had been informed of Mushu's existence before that point. So if Heng wasn't freaking out, did that mean…?
"I didn't originally expect someone like her to have a guardian," Heng continued. "But since my camp is under attack less than a day after she was dealt with, I knew something important was happening. She was such a disgraceful creature, but I suppose you were supposed to keep her from being an even greater threat to her family's honor."
Growling, the dragon felt his eyes shift to a more reptilian form. Normally, his pupils were round. But if he focused on them for effect or he grew too angry and aggressive, they would narrow into thin, vertical slits like a snake's or cat's would. It was similar to the hackles rising on a dog. Making dragons mad is not generally considered a smart move and the eyes changing was a warning of that event.
"You're going to pay," the guardian snarled.
"No, he isn't," a new voice announced. "You will be leaving, lizard."
"Dragon, not lizard," Mushu snapped before realizing that there was a third individual in the tent. "Come out where I can see you, Chicken-boy."
The silken voice chuckled and a shape moved out of the shadows. Bright orange fur was interrupted by ink black streaks. Golden-yellow eyes studied the serpentine dragon boredly. Claws extended and retracted lazily as he stepped forward. Powerful shoulder muscles and large fangs declared their owner as dangerous. His proportions were equal to those of a full grown tiger in prime condition, but his actual size was that of dog slightly larger than Little Brother. This feline was smaller than regular tigers, but still larger than Mushu in size and mass.
"There are rules," grinned the tiger guardian, for guardian he must be since he could speak so that humans could understand and to be that size. "Even if your charge was killed by mine, you still have to obey the rules."
"Which one would that be, Hairball?" growled Mushu. "Because this job seems to have so many useless ones."
Sighing patronizingly, the feline remarked, "Let's be civil about this and not resort to childish name-calling, shall we? My name is Wei and I am charged with the task of guarding Du Heng and ensuring he does not dishonor his family. And, you are…?"
"Mushu. And I'd say murdering war heroes in cold blood is not honorable. Now, I intend to deal with this little problem. Stay out of my way," glared the red dragon, feeling slightly uneasy at the presence of another guardian. There was a rule about what to do if he encountered another guardian, but there were too many rules anyway. "What do you say?"
"We both know you can't, Mushu," purred the black-striped creature. "Guardians can't interfere with other guardians and their duties. You can't bother me or my charge. If the humans decided to kill each other, fine. But we can't do that. So you're wasting your time here. The unnatural girl is dead. Deal with it."
The stupid tiger was right about that rule. Now, Mushu could remember it. While Du Heng could do whatever he wanted to Mulan, neither Mushu nor Wei could hinder or help the man's actions because it dealt with another guardian's charge. These little conditions were for preventing things like wars between family guardians.
But honestly, the crimson guardian was through with the stupid rules. Heng deserved what was coming to him and the dragon would deliver it.
Every guardian possessed a particular trait or talent to aid in their responsibilities. Monkeys had wisdom, rabbits had incredible speed, and tigers had deadly cunning. But dragons, such as Mushu, possessed real "firepower." Summoning up flames of significant size took effort, however. In fact, it was nearly impossible when he first awakens from his statue/incense burner form. And creating fire of any real size was hard to manage on the spur of the moment. But, if he prepared ahead of time and hadn't been using his firebreath too much recently, he could create a fireball that could engulf someone.
"You know," sighed the dragon, "Mulan was never one who followed the rules. I'm not that big on them either since I usually bend them slightly. But now, I couldn't care less about those stupid rules!"
Taking a deep breath, Mushu released a flame similar to the one produced during his impersonation of the Golden Dragon of Unity. And the target of his attack was the source of his hatred. Unfortunately, the tiger took his job as guardian seriously. Wei knocked the man out of the way and was hit himself. The fur singed and his skin crisped. Sadly, his status as a guardian meant that he'd be completely unharmed in a matter of a few minutes and would be seriously ticked off.
Explosions and panic continued outside, but the real fight was inside. The crimson dragon didn't waste any more time. Dashing across the tent, Mushu made his way towards Heng. The soldier didn't just stand there waiting, however. The scaly guardian was forced to dodge a swinging blade as the man tried to hack the serpentine creature in half.
"You know, I think I know why you're doing all this, Heng," Mushu growled. "It's because you couldn't get a girl, even with a matchmaker's help. Guess with a face like that, the girl's family felt your 'charming' personality wasn't quite enough. So this is actually revenge for the fact you couldn't get a date."
The homely man's reaction was priceless. With a guttural battle cry, he swung his sword down in a fit of temper and nearly diced the dragon near his feet. But the crimson guardian yanked his serpentine body out of the way and released another flame at Heng. The soldier caught the blast of fire in the left shoulder. He screamed in outrage and mild pain, but the flame was far smaller than the earlier one and did little damage through the armor.
"And you are better?" snarled Heng. "If I recall, you are the one who has failed in their duties. The girl is dead, as it should be. And you have tossed rules and laws that guide your actions aside for some personal vendetta that will ultimately fail. You are no guardian."
"But I am," Wei growled, his pelt uneven as it grew back in. "And you have attempted to harm my charge. My duty clearly states I must protect him, so I must destroy you!"
With that, the tiger guardian pounced.
Cliffhanger! Fight scenes ahead, and those take more time to craft. One dragon versus a tiger and a guy with a sword. That should be interesting. I've rather enjoyed this piece and the action is only going to pick up from here. Let me know what you think.