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"Ow..." Mulan mumbled with tears streaming down her face. She looked down pitifully. Her hand was bleeding, the skin was peeling off, and her were fingers blue. Mulan wasn't one usually sensitive to pain, but there was something in that ice-Mulan didn't know what-that completely immobilized her right hand from the pain and made it throb so hard that her fingers shook uncontrollably.

Ashamed for crying over such a small "injury", Mulan hastily turned away and tried to stop the tears. She didn't understand. The stab from the war had punctured a major artery, caused excessive bleeding, and ultimately lead to her fainting, and yet she hadn't shed a tear.

At least it was my non-dominant hand, Mulan thought, trying to think of something positive. The Chinese usually tried to "correct" left handedness, since the world was designed for right-handed people, but she had been unable to, either spilling, breaking, or dropping basically anything she tried to hold and move with precision in her right hand. Her inability and dishonor, ironically, had been a blessing to her today. Mulan shuddered just thinking about how much worse it would be if her dominant hand had been injured instead.

As Mulan made an effort to wipe her eyes with a non-injured hand, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," Pocahontas assured, her voice back to it's normal calm. "You can cry in front of me."

Pocahontas knew that she, at 18, was two years older than Mulan, and it showed when she was able to comfort her-at least to some degree-compared to Mulan's feeble attempts earlier.

She did the first thing that came to mind, which was to hug Mulan, which Mulan did not resist as she caved in and let the tears run down her face. She started crying the type of cry where she really didn't know what she was feeling, just that things were tough and that she couldn't stop.

By this point Mulan didn't even bother acting strong anymore as everything she had been holding back came spilling out: her parents, Shang, haunting memories of the war, the Games...

Mulan didn't care anymore that she was sobbing like a five year old on national television, that she was probably letting her family down, or that she had embarrassed herself in front of Pocahontas.

She cried.

Pocahontas practically carried Mulan into a cave at the top of the mountain. If there was one thing Pocahontas knew, it was that Mulan had been through a lot. Even if she hadn't done her extensive research on each of the tributes, common knowledge would have still permitted her to know about the girl who had saved District 2 from the rule of a ruthless, tyrannical, and straight-out insane Mongol by dressing up as a man to fight in the war in place of her aging father.

It was strange how protective of Mulan Pocahontas felt, despite only meeting her three days earlier. If they had been living a normal life, Pocahontas felt like Mulan would be the type of friend that she would treat like a younger sister. She would let her sleep on her lap, comfort her when she cried, pull pranks together, and protect her when she needed to be. Of course, by that Pocahontas did not mean physically, because Mulan was more than capable in that regard, but rather emotionally or verbally, such as in the case that someone trash talked her.

Pocahontas asked herself why she had secretly been wanting Mulan as an ally all along. She, like everyone else, had known three things about her: 1, she was military trained; 2, she was Chinese; and 3, she fought with honor.

In other words, she was useful, smart, and loyal all at the same time.

Pocahontas knew that when Mulan fought with honor, it didn't mean that she would give her opponent an equal weapon, shake hands, and bow, but in the sense that, for example, if she made an ally, she would not betray them. Which was extremely helpful in her situation, now that she had managed to gain Mulan's trust.

"Need help?" Mulan interrupted her thoughts, gesturing to Pocahontas, who was arranging snow in front of the opening of the cave so that they would be hidden from view.

"But your hand—"

"I'm left handed." Seeming to have snapped out of her brief moment of weakness, Mulan shuffled over to pack more snow in front of the opening, leaving a small space unblocked so that they would have a flow of oxygen. Pocahontas was rather hungry, but she could tell that Mulan wasn't in the mood for eating anymore. She decided resolutely that acting considerate to her ally was more important than satisfying her hunger.

When they finished blocking the opening, Pocahontas suggested pointedly, "Let's just go to sleep early today. It's nine." She watched in quiet satisfaction as Mulan nodded and opened their bags for the blankets. They soon realized that there were two: the snug, warm one that Pocahontas had used earlier, and the flimsy, thin one that Mulan had taken up.

"I'll use that one," they said in unison, both pointing to the latter and obviously less desirable one. Pocahontas sighed, trying to think of a compromise.

"We can use it in shifts, maybe?" she suggested, but Mulan shook her head.

"I have an idea. It's a trick I learned in the army," she explained excitedly. "Okay, lie closer." They shifted until they were side by side.

"Now just put both blankets on top of both of us. Basically we share our body heat and both have two layers on top of us instead of one."

As Mulan finished speaking, the anthem started to play. The two of them watched solemnly as pictures of Ariel, Cinderella, and Jasmine flashed into the sky. Pocahontas gave each of them a small prayer in her head. They were innocent, and as far as she knew, none of them had done anything to deserve to die. By the time the lyrics finished playing, Pocahontas had finished her paying her silent respects, and Mulan was out cold.

Pocahontas's thoughts wandered aimlessly until they settled on the tributes' deaths. She knew how Cinderella and Jasmine had died, having witnessed their deaths in person, but she hadn't been there to see Ariel's. She let herself ponder what had happened. Ariel... would go immediately into the water... and all the rivers and streams were connected...

Oh, Pocahontas thought in realization. So that was why the stream had suddenly frozen into ice. Elsa must have suffocated Ariel, and unknowingly also hurt Mulan. Her lips tugged into a frown as it registered with her that Elsa had not only had lethal ice powers, but a working brain capable of thinking intelligently. Now, only Elsa had a water source; she could melt the snow she created...

Melt the snow! Rushing outside, Pocahontas quickly took in her surroundings. Just below the foot of the mountain was a lush green forest, covering the entire landscape. In the distance, Pocahontas could just make out the shimmering turrets of Elsa's ice castle, not far from the sleek black metal slabs that made up the Cornucopia. As far as she was aware, the mountain was the only place, besides Elsa's castle, where one could get snow…

Which meant that they were going to get some company.

"Mulan!"

Mulan awoke to an arm shaking her awake. Her hand still throbbed painfully from the night before, but now, instead of a sharp pain, it had weakened to a dull ache. Opening her eyes almost immediately, despite having just woken up, Mulan gazed into the face of Pocahontas standing over her.

"It's Elsa! She killed Ariel by freezing the lake, so now the only water source-if you don't want to go to Elsa's castle, that is-is the snow on the mountain!"

"Shit, that's true!" Mulan pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Pocahontas looked at her, surprised for a moment. She hadn't pegged Mulan as someone who would engage in profanity. "Exactly! I figured we'd be okay sleeping here for the night, but we need to hunt today and it's already 8."

Nodding, Mulan got up. Pocahontas already had the satchel across her shoulders, and the sword in her hand, so Mulan grabbed the backpack and bow and arrows.

"Welcome to day 3 of the Hunger Games, everyone," she muttered bitterly, stepping out of the cave and into the cold breeze.

"Well at least we made it this far," Pocahontas offered, shooting Mulan a sad smile.

A long moment passed while the two surveyed their surroundings.

"Yeah, that's something." Mulan finally said.

Then they set off.