All rights go to Disney (who I am not)

Soaked, beaten and hurt inside as well as out, Ping trudged into his house and flung his mother's food order on the table. He continued his journey back outside and spotted his father sitting by the small pond. Words of wisdom, that's what parents were there for, right? Ping was just talking himself out of seeking an in depth chat with Li Shang when his father's keen warrior senses detected him.

"Ping, good morning!" he called pleased to see his eldest son. Shang was still a military man and had risen in rank to replace his late father as a General, he was dedicated to his work but was saddened by the often long trips he had to take away from home. Ping realised early on in life that the conflicting duties his father had meant he cherished the little time he got to spend with his family, "How are you? How was the market? You're looking a little wet son."

Right to the point, that was another characteristic Ping had noticed in his dad.

"Yeah, I, eh, had a bit of a run in with a watering trough." Ping mumbled as he approached, he slumped down beside the General, good posture was out of the question today.

"I see," replied Shang. There was a moment of silence, "And the black eye?"

Ping took to staring at the ground. He twisted a blade of grass around his finger and pulled, an almost sickening crack sounded as it was pulled into two pieces and Ping was left with half a blade held between his finger and thumb. He tossed it away and repeated the process.

"Ping. What happened?"

The boy sighed. He shouldn't be a boy getting scolded by his father anymore. He should be a grown man making manly decisions and being disgusting like all the men at his father's camps were. He wanted to be a man already! Like Gringe was, even like his younger brother was. He was sick and tired of being a runty little kid!

"Got in a fight, that's all."

"A fight! With who and over what?"

"You know that big guy Gringe, he was bothering Guang and, well, I just, stepped in to help her."

"Helping someone causes a fight nowadays. What is the world coming to?" Shang's words were weighted with sarcasm. The suggestion was clear, there was more to the story. Realising his side of the story didn't make him look very good Ping's voice continued to drop into the lower levels of mumbling.

"Okay, well, I say helped but I might have, maybe, called him a bighud-dunning-waddert."

"A what?"

"A bigheaded, drowning water rat."

Shang stared at his son. The temptation to chuckle was nearly too much, it was a lousy insult in all honesty and he knew Mulan would have been deeply disappointed. But his son needed support at the moment and this was the time together that they would truly cherish later in life.

"Do you think that was helpful?"

"Well no. But there was more- That was after-" as Ping thought he realised he hadn't really aided Guang's plight at all. He'd jumped straight into insults and fighting in a desperate and obviously vain attempt to prove himself equal to Girge. He was sensitive about his deaf ear, it made life difficult, he'd had to adapt his balance due to the damage and he couldn't hear people from certain angles. Ping flopped backwards onto the grass spreading his arms and legs wide. His father seemed to smile down at him.

"Was this anything to do with helping Guang or trying, now don't freak out, to impress her?"

Ping gaped. Then opened and closed his mouth like a fish. Then rolled onto his right side so he didn't have to look his father in the eye and in the hopes that his reddened face would go unnoticed. But for Shang the obvious closure of communication was confirmation enough of his son's feelings. Plus Ping's prominent ears never failed to turn a deep shade of red during moments of embarrassment. Shang knew Guang was a pretty girl, kind and had always helped Ping to find his feet in whatever he did. It was no surprise that he held some affection for her.

"Dad?" said Ping,

"Yes."

"When did you know… that is how did you know when you'd grown up."

Looking at the slight frame of his eldest son Shang realised what was really at the heart of the problem. He was sixteen years old, Zhou, who was a year younger, was already jumping about his great future as a military officer and Chun, who had only this recently entered the fray of teenage years, had found her place in society as a scholar and was pushing Mulan to her limits in chess. Ping was the eldest but didn't have any aspiration for the future nor did he feel he belonged in the small town they called home for he was picked on.

"Grown up huh?" Shang stared into the sky for a moment remembering the days he'd enjoyed in his youth and how much he'd grown, physically and mentally, "I suppose it must have been the day I completed my army training. We all stood to attention and speeches were read and we were honoured for having completed the first step in a great journey. But as I stood there, with all my new comrades and friends, I sort of, I dunno, had a flashback to my first day at camp, I was shorter, skinnier and didn't talk as loudly, and as I was brought back to the present I just knew, I knew that I wasn't that little boy anymore who'd said goodbye to his mother and father months ago. I was a man who would stand at the front of China's army to defend his mother and father and emperor and country and one day maybe even my own family. That's when I knew I'd grown up, when I obtained a purpose far greater than any I'd ever had before."

A purpose. Ping mulled the concept for a few minutes and his father sat in silence allowing him time to think. If I had a purpose as great as that… Ping thought and thought and finally he came to a decision.

And that's another chapter! I must honestly apologise for the... year of absence... With this story I really like the setting and the characters but my own plot line is pretty much non-existent which is annoying because I really like how it feels at the moment. So I'm hoping to get a bit more behind it now and try and figure some direction for the story itself. If you have any ideas then please say and I'll see what I think would work with the very vague plan I currently have. Thanks for reading!