{So here is Chapter one :) I plan on trying to post maybe once or twice a week and new chapter, though this week I may have more because unfortunately I'm sick. Good for writing, terrible for school work. So anyways, I'm taking slight liberties in my writing. Following the movie in being a bit less than historically accurate and differing from the movie in my time period placement (this will be loosely based on a period of civil unrest during the Han dynasty) I hope everyone is enjoying everything so far and thanks for the reviews!}
I was a child thrust into an adult world when I came to live with my husband's family. Until then I'd relied on others excepting my very opinionated personality and intelligence, being lenient with me because they'd either watched me grow up or had come to respect me through my military endeavors. Even Shang, who'd grown up surrounded by women taught to be restricted by class and social expectations, had done nothing to prepare me for the judgements placed by his world. In those early days I clung to him for fear I'd be swallowed up by situations I just couldn't control.
Sunlight leaked into the decorated wooden room from beneath the bamboo slats that covered the simple paper window. The beads of yellow and red morning light gathered into pools, growing large and pregnant with an almost tangible ere. In turn those pools ran together into a mighty river, spilling over the side of the windowsill and down onto the floor below.
The creeping light made its way across the room, illuminating first a large bronze and leather case. Intricate designs branded into the stretched and tanned hide created dragon patterns, painted gold as to add an extra 'expensive' look to it; a gift from a wealthy family friend. The light continued on, touching countless fine chairs, a carved table situated in the corner of the room with many books atop it and an uncountable array of rugs and fine tapestries strewn this way and that in a hasty, disheveled manner. A mirror reflected the rays of dawn back at the window from it's place hanging above the only old piece in the room: a bed. This particular bed, decorated with wilted flowers and good-luck banners, all wishing similar things from 'Hope for a happy home' to 'Blessings of fertility', had been apart of a long family line for so long no one living could remember its origin, or why they bothered to keep it around. Tradition, most likely.
The once bright and flashy banners hung across the ancient family bed had gone much the way of the flowers, now limp and dulled by days passed and yet still remaining, a reminder of celebrations not so long before.
A groan and a shuffling from beneath a pile of embroidered blankets atop the bed indicated that the light had finally found it's primary target. Tousled black hair, dark blood-shot eyes and foul breath emerged from within the mountain.
"Go back to sleep." A tanned arm slid out from beneath the covers and snaked around the bulk of the morning-creature, dragging it back down into the warmth from whence it came. There, in the sweltering darkness under the sheets, comforters and who knew what else, two beings struggled against one another. One, the woman who had been roused by the sunlight, wriggled against the second, a man who kept his eyes firmly clamped shut and arms stretched around her sweat-drenched body.
"Shang..." She protested meekly, trying in vain to untangle herself from his mess of limbs.
"Just a few more minutes." He murmured, his lips pressed against her ear. "We've barley slept..."
Mulan finally managed to pull an arm free, smacking her husband flat across the nose and ascertaining a yelp of surprise from him. The man reeled back, releasing her as he grasped at his throbbing face.
"Was that really necessary?" Shang groaned in a nasally voice as he nursed his nose and settled back down, this time laying mostly above the ocean of blankets.
"Absolutely." His wife hid a small grin as she swung her bare legs over the side of the bed and onto the cool floor. The sudden shift from hot to cold shocked her body, resulting in a visible shudder and the rise of goose-bumps across her dark skin.
Strong arms wrapped around her naked shoulders and a warm chest pressed against her shivering back. Before Mulan could work up the words to protest another round of fighting, her husband squeezed her tight and planted a kiss on the back of her head. "I seem to recall a feisty young women who wouldn't wake even for the gods. What happened to her?" He was playing.
"She got a mother-in-law."
Shang let out a deep, hearty laugh and let her go, falling back into the bed once again as he continued to crack up. Mulan did not find her comment as funny. Instead, she stood and made her way across the room to where a pile of clothing jutted out from opened suitcases. We really need to unpack... She sighed, forcing away the sudden pain of homesickness that aroused deep within her gut, and grasped at a long green underskirt.
Three weeks ago the single, wily girl 'Fa Mulan' had ceased to exist, in her place now stood a married woman, 'Li Mulan' who had sworn a sacred duty to her husband's home and family. Gone was the irresponsible child-
She tripped. A chicken cawed in outrage at her blunder over the hen and her brood, the tiny chicks now scattered across the yard crying and peeping in confusion. "Sorry." Mulan apologized to the mother chicken, feeling the heated gaze of family servants who bustled around the farm yard. The hen gave her a narrow-eyed glare before turning tail and rushing off to collect her babies from their diaspora.
Three weeks ago Mulan had changed nothing but her name. And home.
Mulan rubbed at the dirt smudges on her skirt, trying to ignore those stares and whispers going on behind her back. She was the newest addition to the Li family household, the wife of the up and rising military Captain Li Shang. Yet, since she'd come to live with her husband's family, she'd been less helpful than the youngest hand on staff. This would have been fine if not for the youngest person on staff being a seven year old girl who watched after the goats with her mother in between playing dress-up and chasing after the many lap dogs the lady of the house enjoyed.
"Mulan." Mulan's body stiffened. For a moment she racked her mind for some excuse, some reason as to why she'd been late. Again. "Don't just stand there, we're going to be late." Relaxation hit her muscles before her conscious mind even made the connection.
She looked up into the eyes of Li Na, Shang's eldest sister. Their voices are almost hauntingly similar. Na gestured wildly for her to follow, the same tense kind of frustration bending her face that her younger brother seemed to always show when he was trying to be serious. The family resemblance's were all almost uncanny.
"Coming, coming!"
Na waited for her, leaning against the railing of one of the open hallways. Mulan finished wiping dust and dirt from her garbs before making her way up and under the rail of the hallway. Not lady-like in the least, and if anyone other than the staff or Na had seen it they'd have had a heart attack. This was the home of a respectable family, a family Mulan had married into. Still, she was Mulan, a woman who had broken all social code and saved China in the process. Old habits died hard.
Na chuckled, covering her face with an oversized and finely decorated sleeve. Mulan rolled her eyes in response and finished pulling her hair back with a ribbon. Not exactly the traditional hair of a lady but it would be overlooked at the least. "Weren't you the one who said we needed to hurry up?"
The older woman stifled her giggles and pulled the sleeve away from her face. Mulan took in a short breath, forcing her eyes to focus on something over her sister-in-law's shoulder. Na, the unmarried twenty-eight year old woman and eldest child of four was probably the kindest, most honest and accepting person Mulan had ever met. That coupled with thin shoulders, pale skin and hip lengthen shiny black hair normally pulled up into intricate hairstyles would have made her incredibly desirable if not for the burns that covered the right side of her lower face, neck and shoulder and blind milk-blue right eye. Na should have been married off in a heart-beat. Instead she remained like the ghost of the Li family home, never venturing too far away with only the occasional visit from an old friend from a childhood long passed. Was she jealous of those friends who had gone on to become wives and mothers? Mulan didn't know her well enough to tell but from how Shang spoke of her, it seemed she masked whatever sadness she bore quite well.
Na stood there for a moment, the mood of the meeting suddenly much more awkward and then, as swiftly as a lady could move in a formal dress, she turned away. "Yes." She murmured in response and then started off down the hallway. They were going to be scolded.
The Li family home itself was a testament to the sheer amount of wealth they'd accumulated over the many generations. The North face held the main entrance and courtyard to the building. Gates painted a bright red with the seal of a golden pheasant, the family animal, kept the outside world away while inside the outer walls were colored variations of blacks, reds and yellows. Statues on either side of the main door, one a stone lion and the other a terra-cotta dragon, faced ominously towards the entrance. Any visitors or townsfolk that came snooping around would have to meet the cold stares of the home guardians before they continued on with whatever had brought them to the home in the first place.
Further on, past the stately court yard and many formal front sitting rooms, halls open on one side to the southern facing gardens zig-zaged across one another leading to the Li family personal rooms in the east and to the servants homes, courtyard and farm yards in the west. The only exception to the housing seemed, as far as Mulan could tell, to be where her personal home with Shang was situated past the servants homes in the very west. Almost pressed to the outer most wall, the couple had a freshly constructed three room home to themselves complete with a bedroom, tea room and small kitchen. In the back a small plot indicated that the matriarch of the family, Shang's mother, expected her daughter-in-law to be a gardener though to her own dismay, Mulan knew very little about planting and maintaining even a potted plant. Therefore the plot had remained untilled, unweeded and pretty much wild. This had not fared well with her mother-in-law, who saw Mulan as a woman with no particular femenine skills and half the manners to pull off being a dead-weight on the family. Having a mind of her own and intelligence to match it did nothing for her case.
"A lady," Mulan's stomach plummeted. She came to a stop, Na replicating her actions only a few steps ahead though she performed an added bow with great grace, Mulan's bow was... less fluid. Li Qiao, Shang and Na's strict mother and Mulan's disapproving mother-in-law stood rigid-backed before them. Her lips ever so slightly pursed and eyes only barley narrowed. Mulan shuddered and bowed again as to hide from the wrathful look. The entire Hun army had nothing on this woman. "Never keeps others waiting." Li Qiao finished her words slowly, over enunciating until each word sat like rocks on Mulan's bent back.
"Yes mother." Na replied calmly, letting no emotion show through in her words. "I am very sorry."
Silence hung over the gathering. No noise could be heard beyond the shifting of papers and clearing of throats by servant men, most likely scribes and taxers, who had followed their employer from the room at the end of the hallway. One of the numerous sitting rooms. This one, Mulan assumed, was meant for business though there were so many all with various different purposes that she couldn't be one hundred percent certain. Na breathed, "Apologize."
With wide-eyes, Mulan suddenly was bolt upright again, knowing painfully well that an embarrassed and frustrated blush painted her tanned cheeks. "Yes, I'm sorry as well. It won't happen again." She rushed her words as she tried to get it all out. Another moment of heavy silence and then Li Qiao finally looked to one of the men over her shoulder, "Now where were we?"
"We were speaking of the budget for grains this year, madam."
"Ah, yes." Her words were short, but still rang with the emotionless hum of a lady of great power and wealth. The little party walked past the two girls, leaving them both frozen in place on the raised wooden walk way.
"I guess we have a morning to ourselves then." Na was the first of the duo to unthaw herself, casually moving each limb ever so slightly as if to make sure they all still worked. Or were even attached for that matter...
"That's it?" Mulan asked, risking a quick look over her shoulder at the swiftly departing group.
Na let a tiny smile brighten her face, "Oh not by a long shot. She won't forget this, we're just released from our morning responsibilities." For a second Mulan almost thought she saw disappointment in her sister-in-laws one working eye. "Come, let's get something to eat."
It would take me nearly a decade and another earth-shattering war to fully understand the strength of the women I had been placed amongst.