()-()-()

Ling drops his roll of canvas next to Mulan and him with the others plop down on the grass.

"Hi, Yin. Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot," Ling says. "No hard feelings."

"Yeah, so much for bein' subtle," Mushu mutters. Mulan grabs down the back of her tunic and covers his mouth.

"Um...yeah," she mumbles. Mulan knows that her best interest is to stay quiet, but she can't help but be curious.

"I heard, uh, you three went on a mission with the general recently. And Fa Mulan," she remarks.

"Oh yes," says Chien-Po. "We were supposed to escort the Emperor's daughters to Qui Gong to be married, but...I'm sure you heard what happened."

"We," interrupts Yao, "ended up marrying those princesses, and now we got all sorts of things going for us."

Mulan widens her eyes. "You're already married?"

Mushu pokes her in the neck. She forgot her man voice for a second. But they seem unaware.

"My girl Ting-Ting could hardly keep her hands off me," Ling brags. Yao smacks him upside the head.

"I...heard a rumor that Fa Mulan was going to marry a prince in Qui Gong," Mulan says, trying to sound nonchalant. "But...I thought she was with the general."

Mulan is curious as to what they think happened.

"There was an accident. We thought the general was dead," says Chien Po.

"Yeah, I think it really messed up her head," Ling continues. "Cried all night, left us behind, almost got married..."

"She thought he was dead!" Mulan interrupts, harshly. "You can't even imagine how she felt."

She feels Mushu's claws bite into her neck and almost covers her mouth.

"I mean, uh, I can't imagine either."

The men look at her very peculiarly but don't comment. She hears herself swallow hard, and goes back to wrapping the cannons.

Meanwhile, Shang sits in his tent and stares blankly at a map. He's trying to figure out the quickest route to the border, but he can't concentrate. No matter how he tries to focus, Shang's mind always ends up trailing back to Mulan.

If Mulan were here, she would know what to do, he thinks. I wonder what she's doing right now.

Shang is starting to feel remorse for leaving her behind. She is a very talented soldier, not to mention an intelligent one too. He can only imagine how belittled she felt being told to stay home, like the common housewife. Then again, if she was killed in battle, Shang couldn't live with himself.

The flap of the tent flutters open and much to his dismay Chi-Fu comes through it.

"General Li," he says nasally, "for once I actually approve your decision. I am much more suited for this job than that woman, and I can tell it will be only a matter of time before the emperor restores my position in place of her."

Shang glares at him from his seat on the floor.

"That woman," he spits, "is the hero of China. The only reason you are substituting her is because I didn't want her to be killed."

Chi-Fu looks surprised but immediately replaces his expression with a scowl.

"This is the finest company in China. We won't be killed," he sputters.

"Well it certainly looks bleak," Shang returns.

Chi-Fu airily sits on the cushion facing him. "Well if Li Mulan is the so-called hero of China, why isn't she here if it's so bleak?

"Because," Shang says irritably, "I didn't want to risk her dying. Even if she did set off another war-winning avalanche, if she got hurt I couldn't live with myself."

Chi-Fu raises an eyebrow. "Oh, so you're putting your wife's safety above China's?"

Shang is about to protest, but then he remembers that Chi-Fu isn't the emperor's council anymore. So before he leaves the tent, he stops beside him and flashes a sadistic smile.

"Exactly."

Shang doesn't bother sticking around to see his flabbergast expression. He needs to get away from that stuffy tent and distract himself from feeling guilty.

Looking around, he sees that everyone seems to be in order. Shang wonders if the trio has made up with Yin because they sit beside him and talk. He smiles. Sometimes Shang forgets that the three are his friends aside from his soldiers.

He decides to join them.

"-the mountains are, uh...really tall," Mulan describes her 'homeland' to Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po. "Lots of magnolias and-"

She stops, pulse quickening, as she watches Shang sit down in the grass beside Ling.

"Aw naw," Mushu whispers.

Shang nods in her direction. "Go on, Yin, you don't have to be too afraid of me. I like making friends believe it or not," he chuckles.

The other three laugh contentedly, but Mulan looks wide-eyed and feels the color drain from her face.

"Um, I have to go actually," she quickly says, "I have to go...feed my horse."

She motions with her arm to where Khan is grazing and Shang looks at her curiously. But he nods.

"You have a good horse for a mountain man, Yin. My wife's looks a lot like it."

Mulan feels the panicked look on her face. She hadn't thought about him recognizing the horse. But before she can say anything else stupid, she runs off clumsily into the valley.

"Dang, we shoulda asked ol' Grandma to give the cow some face paint too," mutters Mushu.

"I forgot about that part," she returns, grabbing Khan's reins.

Mulan pauses for a moment, sharpening her hearing. Was that a twig snapping?

"Girl, I thought the whole point of this was to avoid Shang," he continues. "If you get all buddy-buddy with him, it'll just mess all this up."

"I know, Mushu, I just-"

Then suddenly, two giant burly men run out of the forest and toward her.

()-()-()