I apologize for the 7 month delay in updating this story. Writer's block has hit me rather fiercely, especially with this story. I almost ended it, but then got some inspiration just within the last month. I would love any ideas or prompts anyone has, especially ideas about the antics of Shang and Mulan's 5 children. I love all the reviews, and give many thanks to everyone who has favorited or followed or reviewed this. I love reviews more than Chien Po loves food!
If any of you are following The Road To Qui Gong, I am considering quitting that story, since I have zero inspiration left for it. I'd leave it up, but just would leave it as is.
If any of you are following Straight To The Train, I do intend to finish that one. I'm a little stuck at the moment as how to get from where it's at now to the point where Coin and Snow are dealt with. It's like I have the destinations all laid out, but need to build the train tracks to get there.
Anyway... on to the story.
Mei and Liu helped out with Chen whenever they could. When he cried, one or the other would bring him to Mulan, Shang or Fa Li.
Kang seemed curious about the baby, but maybe also a little jealous. When one of the adults was holding Chen, he would try to climb up into their lap, too.
The five children kept the adults busy, particularly Mulan and Fa Li. Shang began teaching Mei and Liu how to shoot an arrow and ride a horse. He also started teaching them basic martial arts. These were unconventional lessons for Chinese girls, but the family had long ago left tradition behind.
When the twins were turning five, they decided they wanted to pick cherries for their birthday dinner, which was the next day. Most of the fruit was up out of their reach. If there was anything they had learned from Mulan and her mother and grandmother, it was to never give up. There had to be a way to get the cherries themselves, without asking the busy adults for help.
They sat at the base of the tree and devised a plan. They'd get up earlier than everyone else, even before Baba and Zufu (grandfather) who rose at the crack of dawn. The cherry tree was at the back of the Fa estate. They'd lead Khan out of his stall and tie him to the cherry tree and climb on him to get to the cherries.
That night, they could hardly sleep in anticipation of their plan. Late into the night, Mulan heard them giggling and started handing out extra chores for them to do the next day. It started with helping to wash the horses and eventually included shoveling horse poop out of the stalls and washing Little Brother. The twins were undeterred. Mulan even gave them her most hated chore of all time: cleaning out the chicken's coop. She felt a twinge of guilt that the girls would be spending their entire birthday doing chores, but only a twinge.
Long after it got dark, the girls took turns looking out the window. When they heard the very first chirps from the birds greeting the dawn, they quietly crept out of bed and pulled dresses on. Then they led Khan out of his stall and took him to the cherry tree. After tying him to the branches hanging lowest, both climbed onto his back. They'd forgotten sacks to put the cherries into, but used their sashes and Khan's saddlebag.
It was all going beautifully until a loud crack of thunder sounded and startled Khan. He took off running, breaking the branches he'd been tied to and throwing the girls off of his back. Mei was thrown against the trunk of the tree and then landed on the ground face down. Liu landed on her back in a thorny bush. The cherries they'd worked so hard to pick flew everywhere.
Shang had just been getting out of bed when he heard screams and saw Khan run by the window, dragging tree branches. Despite the sudden pouring rain, he shook Mulan awake and bolted outside towards the sound of the screams in just his training clothes.
Mei was still face down on the wet ground, and he gently turned her over. She was unconscious, with a cut on the back of her head and her arm was bent in an unnatural way, obviously broken. His training in the army kicked in and he quickly looked around for a way to splint her arm. After setting it and immobilizing the bones in place with bamboo sticks and fabric straps from his tunic, he carried her out of the rain, thankful she had still been unconscious while he'd set her arm.
Mulan immediately tended to Liu, who was awake but covered with thorns and crying loudly. She gently lifted her out of the bush and carried her in the house where she could ease her dress off and start removing the thorns.
Fa Li took over with Mei so Shang could tend to Khan. He found the horse just outside his stall, unable to go in because of the broken branches. He unfastened them and tended to the horse, mystified as to what his daughters had been up to.
Mei was awake when he returned, but was disoriented and crying in pain. Now wasn't the time for scolding. Fa Li had laid a cool cloth on her forehead and given her herbs for the inflammation and pain. Only once before, at Wu Zhong during hand-to-hand combat training, had he seen a bone broken as badly as her arm was. Her fingers were pink and warm, so he knew circulation was ok.
It took Mulan three hours to pull the thorns out of Liu's back and clean the wounds. During that time, the story spilled out. The girls had really wanted to pick cherries for their birthday, but couldn't reach most of the fruit. They'd gotten up early and tied Khan to the branches to stand on his back and pick them, but a loud thunderclap startled him. That's when he bolted, sending both girls flying.
In spite of herself, Mulan smiled. The twins may not have been her flesh and blood, but she saw herself in their antics. She had always been stubborn and determined to achieve the seemingly impossible, especially at Wu Zhong. Asking for help was also not something she did easily.
Despite their injuries, the girls had a good birthday. However, there was no cherries with supper, but Mulan and Fa Li fixed their favorites. A little while after they ate, Shang went outside and came back with a sack of cherries for everyone to eat. He'd gathered up the cherries they'd dropped and picked the ones they hadn't gotten to yet.
Later, laying in bed that night, Shang and Mulan reflected on the day. Both had done similar antics as young children, and laughed that their adopted children had so many personality similarities to both of them.
One week later, Shang was called to duty. The Huns had once again crossed the northern border. He carried out delivery of conscription notices in his village and several neighboring ones.
One of the villages he had to visit was in the mountains, near where he had found the three children and their murdered parents. When he read off the name on a particular scroll, the Su family, only an elderly man stepped forward to enlist. He bravely saluted and accepted the assignment with honor and dignity, much how Shang imagined Fa Zhou must have done the same years before.
On the way to Wu Zhong, Su Kang rode with Shang. The general took the opportunity to ask how he came to be the only living male in his family. The elder told him how his only son and daughter in law had traveled with their three children to the Imperial City, only to never return. The bodies of the parents had been found, but never the children. He shared how he had petitioned the ancestors daily for the wellbeing of the three children and that he hoped they were living a good life somewhere. His wife had died a year prior and he had no other living relatives now.
Shang marveled at the twist of fate that he was traveling with the grandfather of his three adopted children.
"What if I told you your grandchildren are alive and safe and living with me since the day their family was attacked?"
The elderly man stared at him in stunned silence, so Shang continued.
"Years ago, I was on my way home from Wu Zhong and came upon a family being attacked by bandits. The parents were both dead, but I managed to kill the bandits and save the children. It was two twin girls and an infant boy. I didn't know where they were from because the girls couldn't tell me, so I brought them to my own home. We took them in as our own and they have thrived and grown."
Tears ran down Su Kang's cheeks. "Thank you." He saluted the general. "Thank you for caring for my grandchildren. If I survive this war, may I see them?"
"Yes, you must see your only surviving family. You are alone in your estate and should come live with us. Then you can live out the rest of your days with them."
"Thank you. I will do that."
They rode the rest of the way in silence. Su Kang was grieving his lost son and daughter in law and simultaneously rejoicing that their children had been cared for all these years.
Shang was quietly formulating a plan to excuse the grandfather from his conscription notice so that he may go right to his new home. After their arrival, he consulted with the other general, who agreed to allow Su Kang to be excused from the draft. He knew that with the man's advanced age, the likelihood of him surviving battle was little to none. Shang wondered if his father would have excused Fa Zhou in a similar manner, had Mulan not taken his place. Given his father in law's severe injuries and prior years of service, he was sure the late general would have done so, but then he would never have met Mulan.
Shang delivered the news, and the man left promptly. He planned to return to his own estate to retrieve personal belongings and family heirlooms and then go to the Fa estate. Shang penned a letter to Mulan, Fa Li and Fa Zhou explaining who their visitor was and sent it with him.
Su Kang arrived the following day. He was accepted with open arms by Fa Li, Fa Zhou and Mulan. He was able to hold his grandchildren close again, and was pleasantly surprised that the girls remembered him.
He was given Grandma Fa's rooms and quickly acclimated to life at the Fa estate. His grandchildren called him Grandpa Su and soon the other two children did as well.
Meanwhile, Shang met back up with Yao, Ling and Chien Po and told them about his life with Mulan and their five children. All three had married since the previous Hun invasion and had children of their own. Shang smiled as he remembered their marching song, A Girl Worth Fighting For, and realized that all four of them had just that.
The three were sad that Mulan wasn't joining them for this battle, but understood that as a mother of five now, she couldn't just leave home again to join the army. Even so, they reminisced about her ability to strategize and her tenacity in the face of certain defeat. If it hadn't been for her, China would have fallen to the Huns.