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Shan-Yu's Victory	By : lightbird Category: +M through R > Mulan (Disney) > Mulan (Disney) Views: 16642 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoons of Disney Studios, nor any of the characters from them. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Mulan called out in response to the knock on the door. Bi opened it and stepped into the room.

“Good, you’re awake. You look much better.”

“I’m feeling better. Thank you for everything. You’ve been very kind.”

“It was nothing. There are three soldiers downstairs who say that they know you. They want to see you. Ling, Yao…”

“They’re here now?”

Bi nodded. “I’ll go and let them know you’re on your way down.”

She exited the room and Mulan eased herself out of bed, still a bit too spent from her illness to jump for joy as she felt like doing. She put the dress that Bi had given her on and hastily ran a comb through her hair, noticing in the mirror how unkempt and ragged she appeared.

She grinned as her three friends leaped up out of their chairs and rushed over when they saw her. Ling caught her up in a hug. As Yao stood by and waited his turn, Chien-Po grabbed all three of them, embracing them in one big bear hug. Mulan giggled for the first time in what seemed a long while.

The embrace was released and they stood back from each other.

“Ping, you clean up nice,” Ling teased in surprise, winking at her.

“Mulan,” Yao growled, elbowing him.

“I know,” Ling retorted, shoving his friend in return. “I was joking with her.”

Mulan beamed at them, delighted that they still considered her a friend despite her recently discovered masquerade. "I'm so glad to see you guys!"

The three soldiers were suddenly speaking at once, and she gazed from one to the other, trying to take in everything they were saying.

“We’re glad to see you, too...”

“We’ve been looking for you...”

“We heard that you’re sick. You look a little pale still...”

“Shan-Yu survived.”

“What?” she exclaimed with a start.

Ling nodded. “And a bunch of his men. They have the palace under siege and they're holding the Emperor.”

“Yeah, and they captured Pretty Boy and the rest of ‘em.”

It had always amused Mulan when Yao called Shang ‘Pretty Boy’, but she didn’t laugh now. She feared for his life, and the mere reference to him stirred the same faint ache in her heart.

“He just ran in and got himself captured,” Chien-Po was saying. “He had no plan, and he didn’t even try to ask for anyone’s help.”

“Damn fool,” Yao muttered.

Mulan frowned, puzzled. It didn’t sound like Shang. Not that she knew him so well, but she knew he was smarter than that. He wasn’t someone who acted recklessly or foolishly.

“How many Hun soldiers are there?”

“Ten besides Shan-Yu.”

“What about our troops?”

“Less without the three of us.”

“We fell behind and hid in one of the rooms so we could get away and come up with a plan.”

“Yeah, no sense in all of us getting captured.”

“Is the Emperor still alive?”

The three of them shrugged.

“He was when we left the palace.”

“You came looking for me…” she began, questioningly. “I’m not part of the troop anymore.”

“We think you are,” said Ling.

“Yeah, you saved all of our hides.”

“Especially the captain’s.”

“You’re our comrade in arms. And we figured if anyone could help us come up with a plan it would be you,” Ling added.

Mulan felt her face flush with pride at their confidence and trust in her.

They sat down together at the table. Bi was behind the bar, watching the four of them, her expression a mixture of bewilderment and suspicion.

Mulan glanced at her, realizing that she was wondering at the fact that she, a woman, was being referred to by these men as part of their troop and was now discussing military strategy with them. She brushed it off. Bi certainly seemed to be the nosiest person she had ever met. But she would deal with her later.

Right now, they had to come up with a plan to infiltrate the palace and rescue their Emperor.

~~~

Shan-Yu frowned as he stood on the balcony, body taut, feet firmly planted, watching the sky for his falcon and ignoring his highly valuable prisoner for now. The wind had picked up and dark clouds had begun to swirl in the sky overhead. As he sniffed the air the scent of the oncoming rain hit his nostrils. Depending on how severe the storm was, that would affect the speed at which Boke made it there. He cursed under his breath. He hated delays.

The grey falcon swooped down to the balcony several minutes later, coming to rest on the ledge in front of his master. Shan-Yu patted the sleek grey head of his bird then untied the message from Boke and grinned as he read it, his confidence in his pending victory confirmed. The storm would slow them down; but the rest of the Hun army had made it past the Great Wall. They knew how to handle themselves against any of the elements and by this time they would be on higher ground and not at risk from any flooding that might occur from heavy rains.

He turned to his prisoner. The old man stared straight ahead, his face calm and serene despite his predicament. It infuriated Shan-Yu that the man was still so arrogant; but he had to admire what a tough old bird the Emperor was. He decided against gloating over the fact that his army was on the way. The old man would find out soon enough, as would his people.

~~~

The tavern was still empty a couple of hours later because of the heavy, monsoon-like rains that had started pouring down. The sound of the water beating on the roof was fearsome.

Mulan sat with her three friends at the table still, all four of them greatly worried about the delay in getting to the Emperor and the others. They knew that traveling in this weather, especially at night, would be a foolish move, but feared the consequences of tarrying there for too long as well.

“It looks like the monsoon rains are starting early this year,” Bi commented from her stool behind the bar. “Even if you hadn’t been sick, Mulan, you should stay here until the weather calms down. We’ll try to make arrangements for your three friends, too.”

“Thank you. You’re very kind,” Mulan answered, her voice strained as she thought about how much time they would lose if they stayed overnight.

Her three friends uttered their own soft thanks.

A few of the girls that worked for Bi had come into the tavern now and they began flirting with the three soldiers. Mulan stood up and left the table, feeling uncomfortable. She noticed Bi beckoning to her from behind the bar and went over to her.

“Wait here for a minute. I need to talk to my girls for a minute, then we can go back into the kitchen and talk.”

Mulan was fascinated as she watched Bi’s pleasure girls in action. She knew that’s what they were. Her mother had taught her about the two types of girls. There were proper, honorable young ladies who did not engage in such behavior until they were with their husbands. Pleasure girls or concubines were a different type of girl than that and their sole purpose was to pleasure men, any men. She was taught that those girls were not considered honorable.

But then again, neither was she, especially now. The only difference Mulan saw between her and these girls, other than the fact that she hadn’t been with any man, was that she had always been somewhat clumsy, not delicate and graceful like them. She never had any need, or desire, to work her feminine wiles the way they did.

Being a warrior seemed to fit her more than being a woman. The fates must have made a mistake that she had been born one.

Bi gestured to the three girls at the table and Mulan somehow guessed instinctively that she was letting her workers know that these three men didn’t have much money.

She returned to the bar and led Mulan back into the kitchen. Bi gestured for her to sit at the table and began to move around the kitchen, taking out pots and pans.

“Can I help you?” Mulan asked, feeling awkward just sitting there with Bi waiting on her.

“That’s alright. I already have water from the well. I went and got it as soon as I saw it was going to rain.”

She lit a fire to begin boiling water for rice, then sat at the table across from her.

“I hope you don’t mind me prying, but I take it that somehow you were a soldier,” Bi began. “You were part of their troop?”

Mulan nodded.

“How is that possible? Were you someone’s…never mind…”

“My father received a conscription notice when the Huns attacked. He can no longer walk without a cane, and even with the cane, he has difficulty. There was no way he could fight. So I took his conscription notice, made myself look like a man and went in his place.”

Bi was staring at her in astonishment.

“I love my father. He would have been killed for sure if he had reported. Or he would have been sent home in dishonor. He was a great warrior, and one of the Emperor’s best generals. He served the Emperor for many years and he paid his due. He shouldn’t have been made to go this time.”

She was almost in tears as she spoke nearly the same words that she had said to her father that last night at home when they argued at the dinner table.

“That’s…unbelievable,” Bi murmured. “Then, you were wounded in battle.”

“Yes.”

Bi stood up and went to check on the water. Seeing that it was boiling she poured the rice into the kettle to cook, then returned to the table to sit with Mulan.

“You must be of the age to appear before the matchmaker, Mulan.”

“I went already,” she answered, blushing. “I went the day the notice came. I didn’t pass the test.”

Bi laughed. “You think any of us here did?”

She stopped laughing when she saw how embarrassed Mulan looked.

“My mother gave me a lucky cricket to take with me when I went,” Bi began. “It escaped and I got so distracted with it hopping around I ended up pouring the tea all over the table instead of into the teacup.”

She laughed at the memory and Mulan began to laugh too.

“The matchmaker told me I was the clumsiest girl she’d ever known,” Bi continued. “I was really embarrassed at the time. She told me I was a dishonorable woman. But now I can laugh at it. I know I don’t have the life that other women have, being taken care of by a man. But I do all right. I have money. My uncle owned this place and I took it over after he died.”

“I think I have you beat,” Mulan told her, laughing still. “As far as being clumsy, I mean.”

Mulan recounted her own matchmaker story. Bi was in hysterics.

“You set the matchmaker on fire? Oh, that is rich!”

“You don’t care that I am a dishonorable woman.”

“We’re all friends here. No one’s better than anyone else. Some of the girls that work for me are dishonored for no other reason than they were born. Jia was the only child of her father’s first wife. Jia’s mother wasn’t able to have any more children after her so her father took a second wife. She gave him a son and he made her first wife. Jia’s mother committed suicide after that and her father kicked her out, telling her that she was dishonorable. I found her wandering the streets in rags, begging for food. She was only eleven years old and had already been raped at least once. I took her in and trained her. I know it’s not the ideal way for a young lady to have to live, but at least she can fend for herself now and she’s not on the streets.”

Mulan sat in stunned silence, realizing suddenly how lucky she was that her father was the sort of man he was. She could have easily ended up like Jia otherwise.

Bi suddenly changed the subject back to Mulan’s stint in the army.

“Were you on your way home when you stopped here?”

She nodded.

“Your hair was down, though. When you came, I mean. You didn’t look like a man. You looked like a woman dressed like a man.”

“I was discovered when I was wounded. One of the men…tore the tie out of my hair. There didn’t seem to be any point to making myself look like a man again. I was left behind when the others went to the Imperial City to tell the Emperor of our victory.

“Only there is no victory,” she continued, the panic rising inside of her. “That’s why we need to leave as soon as possible. Shan-Yu, the Hun leader, survived and he is in the city with some of his men that survived. They have the Emperor. That’s why my friends were looking for me.”

“Do you all know what you’re going to do?”

“Not exactly yet. We need to get back to the Imperial City and find out exactly what the situation is. We don't know where they’re holding the Emperor – or if he is even still alive.”

“You really shouldn’t travel in this weather, though.”

“I know,” Mulan answered, listening to the sound of the rain still beating down outside. The streets were probably flooded and muddy by now. “We all know that. But we’re concerned about the delay.”
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Shan-Yu's Victory