Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Mulan, Disney does.

Chapter 7

Shan Yu couldn't believe his eyes. "Idiots," he mumbled to himself, "how do they mess up the one thing I expected them to do right?" Shang walked around them men who were kneeling at his feet, thinking of ways to make them pay for what they did. He looked at what were his finest men, but now they have become nothing more than worthless cowards.

"Father, let them be," his son, Xiongnu, said as he strolled by Shan Yu, "We need every man that our empire has left. It would be too easy to just kill these five cowards; instead you should promote them to be front and center at our next and final battle."

Shan Yu looked at his son and then at the five cowards. He was pleased to see what he saw. The cowards were shaking uncontrollably, sweat glistened from their skin. If Shan Yu would have gotten any closer, he would have heard their hearts thumping quickly against their chest. He smiled inwardly, thinking about how proud he was of Xiongnu. Shan Yu stared at each and every one of them with his golden, beady eyes and smiled a smug smile. "You're free to go, "Shan Yu paused, enjoying the look of pure joy that radiated off of their faces, "but, you shall be weaponless from this moment on." He watched as the joy melted off and turned into horror. Feeling annoyed suddenly, Shan Yu dismissed them with a wave of his hand. His son stayed and the others slowly got up, hung their heads, and left. Shan Yu waited a few moments until he growled, "What are you still doing here?" He noticed that Xiongnu was shocked but he didn't care. Shan Yu wanted to be alone, and he was going to see that he was.

"Father, what did…," Xiongnu didn't even get to finish before Shan Yu punched him across his face. Xiongnu fell back, more out of disbelief than pain. Shan Yu watched as Xiongnu got up and waited for him to leave. Xiongnu didn't. Instead, he walked toward the table in the corner of the tent and when he got there, he picked up a crudely made dagger. While he was doing this, Shan Yu walked up behind him and held the knife that was tucked away under his belt in his hand. Xiongnu, not hearing Shan Yu walk up to him, suddenly turned and flung the dagger at the spot the Shan Yu was standing in. This spot was, of course, empty and the dagger embedded itself into the wooden pole in the center of the pole. Shan Yu had had enough; he swung the knife at Xiongnu, narrowly missing his neck. The knife rooted itself just above his heart.

"Insolent boy," Shang growled as he plunged the knife deeper and deeper into his son, not caring anymore, "Leave now before I decided to kill you." Shan Yu couldn't help the feeling of pleasure that came with the idea of killing someone, even if it was his own son. He even laughed a little as he watched his son stumble out of his tent.

Xiongnu couldn't believe that his father would do that to him. There were times where his father would slap him, punch him, and anything else that could have been done but he never stabbed him. Ever. Xiongnu could see the others watching him as he stumbled to the medicine man 's tent, not one of them offering him help. "What great comrades I have," he thought to himself when he finally made it to the medicine man's tent.

"Xiongnu, I would say it's a pleasure to see you, but then I would be lying," the medicine man said as he turned around. Xiongnu watched as the medicine man studied the knife that was protruding from his chest. "Few inches down it would have killed you," he remarked as he pulled it out of Xiongnu's chest. Xiongnu tried not to wince but he couldn't help it, the medicine man did his best to make it as painful as he could.

When the medicine man was finished tormenting him, he reached for a needle and thread. Before the doctor threaded the needle, he passed it through a candle's flame to sterilize it. Xiongnu noticed that the medicine man hands' were shaking as he set the needle to the edge of the wound, and began to stitch. Xiongnu had never gotten stitches, and he planned on not getting them again. He could feel the needle going in his skin slowly, but coming out quickly. The thread sometimes willing to go through just fine, but most of the time it chose to get stuck. Xiongnu could feel the thread as the medicine man yanked the knot out. Xiongnu thanked him and left.

Shang couldn't stop replaying his last moments with Mulan in his head. He was still in shock that Mulan had kissed him. Shang scolded himself, "I should have been the one to kiss her." He couldn't figure out why she told him to leave after the kiss, and why she ran away from him. Shang knew he should have gone after her but between the kiss and thinking she was in love with someone else, his mind wasn't thinking to clearly. "I'm pretty sure she don't love no one else since she kissed me," Shang thought smugly, but then thinking, "…unless…unless she was a flirt who would do that to anyone as long as they were alone." Shang knew the latter option was even close to the truth, but at that moment he felt as if it was the truth. He was lucky that Yuan, his horse, knew where the palace was for Shang wasn't paying any attention as to where they were going. He didn't even notice when they reached the palace, until three guards started running toward him, yelling, "Captain." Shang chuckled to himself as he got down from his horse. "General, not Captain," Shang said when they got close.

His favorite of the three, Chien-Po, only said, "Sorry, general," before bowing.

Ling, the "funny" one out the three said, "I generally dislike that type of humor, but this one is just too good to ignore," before falling to the ground, snorting his nose away at his attempted joke.

Yao, his least favorite, also the meanest, asked, "General, eh? How many butts you kissed to get that position?" Shang was used to Yao's comments by now, so he tried not getting upset over them.

"Everyone but yours," Shang replied before leading his horse to the stable. Behind him, he could hear Ling saying, "Do need some medicine to go with that burn?" Shang shook his head wondering when Ling would learn his jokes wasn't as funny as he thought.