The huns were advancing to the Imperial City, pretty swiftly. So fast, that sometimes, the chinese troops lost track of them.
They had burned out some villages by now.
One day, the Generalīs troops spotted the huns. They knew it was time for a battle.
The huns charged against the chinese soldiers all of them holding their swords up. The chinese stayed there waiting for the huns to get closer.
When the huns were only about two miles away, the chinese soldiers started to fire the cannons.
Many huns fell off their gray horses and some went back to hide somewhere. Blood was being sprinkled everywhere.
It seemed that the chinese were winning the battle, but they never expected that they never expected that there was another hun army behind them just waiting for the right moment to shoot arrows with deadly poison.
After so many hours fighting , all the smoke from the cannons kept them from having a clear view of the place in which they were.
Some soldiers had no idea which side they were, and in the middle of their confussion, they found themselves surrounded by mongolians, and before they could say their last prayers, they found themselves on the ground bleeding to death, or with this strange substance on their bodies, they could not stop from flowing quickly through their veins untill it finally reached their hearts.
Many soldiers ran away to somewhere safe to be whille the battle ended, those were the lucky ones. They took with them some cannons, so they could shoot them at the savage barbarians from a distance without them noticing.
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Shang had been very worried lately, he had not heard anything about his uncle. Maybe he needed him to give him a hand to handle the huns.
The recruits were kinda ready to go to war, but Shang didnīt know what could he do.
He was rather uncertain and insecure, if he should go to battle or wait for his uncle to send a report or something.
Chi Fu made him feel even more stressed. He would just write his stupid notes to deliver them to a person who had a higher rank than Shang; and he always said," The recruits are not mature enough to go to war." Anyway, this had happened before, since the first time Shangīs father put him in charge of the recruits that were trained at the same time Mulan was.
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Many chinese soldiers died in the most recent battle against the huns, and others were completely lost in the middle of nowhere.
The smell of fresh blood was flowing though all of the place. Hundreds of dead bodies laying on the ground scattered with red blood all over them. It was not a pretty view.
The weather was getting colder .
The General said to the surviving soldiers that were around him, " We must go to the base to tell the young soldiers to leave. My nephew must have trained them well."
With that, they headed to the Bai Tao Base. It was a quiet journey back to the training base, many of the soldiers had lost brothers, cousins, or lifetime friends. None of them could ever be replaced.
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Meanwhile, Yao and Ling were making a total disaster at the Bai Tao Base, while they were sparing with other recruits.
Mulan and Chien Po tried to stop them but the only thing they got from it was getting hurt too.
Shang was making some moves with the sword his father gave him, he felt sad each time he saw this sword; it only reminded him that his father was not with him anymore and it reminded him about the last time he saw his father. Just then, he heard noise coming outside from his room. Shang ran out of his room to see what all the fuzz was about.
"Whatīs going on in here?" he demmanded loudly. No one listened , except for Mulan and Chien Po, who walked to him. The rest of the recruits were so into fighting that they seemed to be completely deaf.
"We tried to stop them, Shang," Mulan explained,"but they wouldnīt listen."
Shang nodded and patted Mulanīs shoulder as tender as he always did. Then, he walked foward and screamed at the top of his lungs,"I asked what the hell is going on in here?"
This time, the soldiers heard him and they stopped their fighting. They all noticed Shang wasnīt very happy about their disaster, and they knew they werenīt going to escape from being punished. By the way, Shang never touched his heart when it comes to punishing the mischievious recruits after wrestling and making a complete mess at the base.
Mushu stood on Mulanīs shoulder and whispered," I feel sorry for these guys."
Both Mulan and Mushu, could hear Shang yelling at the recruits for being so wreckless in times like this, when people should only think about worries and stuff like that. It made Shang really angry when he realized some soldiers actually didnīt care about the whole hun invasion thing. The young ones had gone to training because they were forced to , and Shang had noticed that since the very day the lazy soldiers started to "work on the exercises". As a matter o fact, Ping worked much more harder her first days of training than those brats.
Shang made the recruits pick all the mess they had done, and besides, they had to do some extra exercise that day, and not just any exercise: it was a really hard and exhausting exercise. They had to lift the heaviest weights they had at the Bai Tao Base, and run around a circle Shang traced on the ground.
Shang looked over the recruits from a distance. He was sitting on the ground with his hands on his head. He wasnīt feeling good at all that day. Shang was all worried about the recruitsī behavior, how could they ever go to battle when they were such a bunch of inmature kids and they took nothing as serious as they should, they would just fool around. They had improved their battle skills, and martial arts skills, but still, they acted as if they were only five years old. Besides, Shang sensed something had gone wrong at the battlefield. In fact, he was right.
Mulan couldnīt help herself but to see what was going on with Shang, so she got out of her room to talk to her commanding officer.
"What are you doing," asked Mushu as he ran after Mulan. She was walking quickly.
Mulan turned and bent her head a bit to face the lizard-like dragon. She sighed and said," Could you please stay where you are?"
Mushu crossed his arms firmly and so did Cri-Kee. Mulan replied," I need to talk to Shang in private."
"Whatever you say so," said Mushu sarcastically. Of course he wasnīt just sitting there thinking. Mushu and Cri-kee were decided to go and find out what was the important thing Mulan wanted to tell Shang that Mushu nor Cri-kee could listen to.
Mulan got to the spot where Shang liked to supervise the recruits. There he sat, with a worried look on his features.
Mulan smiled at him and he smiled back lopsidedly. Mulan sat next to him and asked, "Whatīs wrong?" She wanted to slap herself, it was not a very good question to ask īcause the answere was simply too obvious. Mulan wanted to give him a good impression, but sometimes she felt clumpsy around Shang. All her attepts to flirt or to show just this tiny little clue to him that she was desperately in love with him turned out to be a failure.
Shang took a deep breath (not because of Mulanīs question) and answered," The recruits are not helping that much, and China needs them."
Mulan tried bit her lip and thought about some reassuring words to say. She just couldnīt find the right thing to say, she wanted to sound wise but all she could think of were simple phrases everyone could say at times like that. Mulan tried this time with a little joke," I donīt think theyīre going to do this again, not after the punishment you gave them." Mulan smiled at him, but Shang didnīt even smile back. Was it really a bad joke or was it the fact that Shang had a lack of sense of humor?
They both turned to see the recruits suffering as they kept lifting the weights over and over around the circle, sweating and complaining about the being tired or thirsty.
"Thank heavens you donīt cause that much trouble anymore," Shang said breaking the silence between them. Mulan giggled softly. Shang loved the way that mostly anything could make Mulan laugh, something he didnīt have. Simple things could make her burst into non-stopping giggles, and she looked beautiful when she laughed that way: nonchalantly, and naturally.
After she stopped laughing, Mulan excused herself," Well, it was my first time, trying to fit in here. Honestly, my intentions were never to cause so much trouble. It was Mushu the one who got me in trouble with his advice."
Shang smiled but he couldnīt just pull out just a tiny little giggle for as much as he wanted to. He wanted to show Mulan that her jokes could make him laugh, that her innocence could make him giggle, but it was useless...too much worries on his mind.
Mushu was spying them nearby hiding behind a rock, and he was not quite happy about Mulanīs last comment.
"Great! Blame poor Mushu," he muttered.
Cri-kee patted Mushuīs arm and made a sorrowful face to console his friend.
"See what happens when you want to show off, specially if you like the person."
Cri- kee started to laugh covering his mouth, and Mushu joined him a few seconds later.
"Have you heard anything about the other soldiers at the Great Wall?" asked Mulan in a shaky voice. The subject just made appear goosebumps over her skin. Mulan tried to hide her fear; but she was so worried about her father. No wonder, she might be sensing something bad going on.
"Not lately," Shang answered," Thatīs why Iīm so worried."
Mulan could feel herself trembling and she felt this strange pain in her stomach; it was not like the pleasant, little tickles she felt when she was nervous about being with Shang, it was like an ache instead.
Shang turned to Mulan and noticed she was nervous, so he tried to reassure her a bit, "Your father is going to be fine."
Mulan noticed not very convinced. She knew something was wrong and she was figuring what was it all about sooner or later.
To Shang, Mulan looked so scared and nervous. He wanted to hold her body close to him tightly and tell her that everything would be alright, although he knew he couldnīt assure such lies, and he was so damn shy to at least hug her. By the way, it wouldīve been some comfort to her just to know he would have his arms wrapped around her, showing affection at least affection good friends feel.
Shang sighed and looked at Mulan who was looking down at her feet and bitting her nails nervously. Then, he did something so unexpected: he wrapped his strong arms around Mulan and holded her tightly. "Donīt worry , your father is safe." He knew he sounded kinda stupid saying words no one could be sure about. Anyway, Mulan was a little relieved when he felt him so close to her and she found herself smiling and blushing at the very same time. She wrapped her arms around him too. Shang enjoyed the breif moment of their embrace, but as soon as he pulled away he felt as if he had done the worst thing to Mulan, he knew things werenīt alright, he could feel it flowing through his own veins.
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In the cold mountains, hundreds of mongolians were doing some kind of celebration because they had killed many chinese soldiers that got in their way just to prevent them from attacking more inocent people, and to save their country. They had advantage over the chinese since so many of them had disappeared and others were dead. It was a total chaos.
Kin Wen commanded," When they send the other troops, we have to kill that girl."
He was talking about Mulan.
"How does she look like?" asked one of the mongolians; a short man with long black, and with strong muscles.
"Well, I must say small and like a girl you idiot!" replied Kin Wen slapping the manīs head.
The rest of the huns burst into laughter as the short man rubbed his head gently with his fat heavy hands.
"I wish Shan Yu would be here to see our people is about to rule China," said Kin Wen proudly.
"If it werenīt for that girl," Fon Shui muttered with so much hater in his voice.
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Mulan went int her room and found Mushu whistling, trying to look inocent, and pretending he had stayed in there as Mulan had asked him to. But it simply was just too obvious to believe.
"I know you still went after me," said Mulan.
"Kisses come up next!" exclaimed Mushu.
"Huh?"
"Yes, I saw him hugging you, never wanting to let go off you," said Mushu.
"I would say he was just being nice," said Mulan yawning as she lied on her bed.
Mushu placed his claw on his chin and started to pull on the hairs he had on it, then he said,"In my opinion, he was comforting his best friend or secret desire."
Mulan threw a pillow at the tiny dragon and made him lose his balance. Then, she pulled on the blankets, she closed her eyes and said," Goodnight" to her guardian and her lucky bug.
Mulan coulnīt sleep when she heard the noise of horses approaching to the base, they were probably the veteran soldiers coming back from battle.
Mulan started to get ready to great her dear father. Finally, she was seeing him, after so much time waiting to see him. She missed her father so much, and during the time he had been gone Mulan was looking foward for this very moment.
Mulan ran out of her room, but then, she saw alot of men walking weakly and with blook all over their armor.
Mulan looked desperately for her fathe among the crowd, but she couldnīt see him. She saw Shangīs uncle, The General, talking to Shang. She approached to them a little more to listen to what were they talking about. Her intentions werenīt being nosy, all she wanted to know was what had happened to her father. "Thereīs so many dead people, and so many lost," said the General. Shang only nodded.
Khan made noise, Mulan ran to look for her horse. Maybe her father was with him after all. She saw her horse but her dad wasnīt with him as she expected him to.
Mulan knelt on the ground and started to cry, she covered her face so no one would see her tears.
A heavy hand gently rested on her shoulder, it belonged to Shang. He knelt next to her. She couldnīt control her tears, Mulan started to cry even more. It was the pain of being uncertain, it ached more than anything.
"You can leave this place and go home if you wish to ," said Shang.
Mulan choked her tears and replied,"I must go to uphold my familyīs honor."
Her sweet voice sounded bitter, not meaning to sound like that, but it was because she wanted to let him know she wouldnīt give up easily, and she wasnīt staying with her arms crossed sitting there doing nothing like most of the ladies her age.
Mulan went back to her room and prepared her things for the next day.
Minutes later, Shang followed Mulan."May I come in?" asked Shang rather politely.
"Sure," replied Mulan.
Shang invited her ," Would you like to have a cup of tea?"
"Ok."
He noticed that she wasnīt looking into his eyes like other times. Mulan just kept her eyes to her feet.
They walked together to Shangīs room. On their way there, Mulan and Shang saw warriors bleeding in the verge of life and death. Also, they could hear the cries of pain. So many wouldnīt last long, some where just speaking non-sence until suddenly they closed their eyes and shut their mouths.
Mulanīs eyes were still moist, even if she tried so hard to hold back the tears.
Shang prepared some tea which tasted way much more better than Mulanīs attempts to prepare tea.
While they drank their tea, Shang tried to cheer up Mulan. " Theyīre many lost soldiers Mulan, and your father is probably one of them."
Mulan half-smiled and took another sip from her cup of tea.
"Your father is a strong warriorm and a very loyal soldier," said Shang.
"Thanks."
"Just like you."
For a moment, Mulan felt relieved by Shangīs comment, she even blushed with the compliment. Shang was so right, there was still some hope after all.
When Mulan finished her tea she stood up and headed back to her room. Then, she lied on her bed and started to cry. She felt so lonely even if Mushu and Cri-kee were right there with her making sure she was safe.
"Itīs alright babe, your father is coming back," said Mushu caressing Mulanīs head.
"How can you be so sure?" Mulan asked,"Didnīt you see all those wounded men?"
"Because your father would never give up so easily, he loves you too much."
