Cherry's Adventures of Mulan

chapter 9

That night, Cherry, Shane, Yao, Chein-Po, and Ling were by the doctor's tent. Mulan had been inside to heal up and hopefully wake up. The tension increased. They were worried for the loss of 'Shun' too, but Mulan was still with them and they needed to make sure she was well enough to fight with them as she had successfully been stabbed, but thankfully, not mercilessly to death. 

"Could you come in with me, Zan?" Shane asked, quietly.

Cherry responded, instinctively to her new name. She then walked with Shane to go inside the tent to check out Mulan. 

The two went inside the tent. Mulan was huddled up in the blankets and stirred once she sense two presences. Mulan opened an eye to see Shane and smiled that he came for her. She then sat up to show she was bandaged, but Shane got a full view of her body, worrying Cherry. 

"I can explain..." Mulan covered herself instantly with the blanket as she had been exposed.

Chi-Fu came in and saw Mulan's true identity. "So, it's true!"

"Shane!" Mulan cried for him as he left the tent.

"Leave her alone!" Cherry hissed in defense.

Chi-Fu glanced at her, noticing her voice had gotten high and feminine. "You too!?"

"Oh, great..." Cherry grunted.

"I knew there was something wrong!" Chi-Fu dragged them both out the tent and threw them in the snow. "Two women!"

"Just so you know, despite how she feels about it, Shun's a girl too..." Cherry mumbled.

Yao, Chein-Po, and Ling gasped at them.

"Treacherous snakes!" Chi-Fu hissed at girls.

"Our names are Mulan and Cherry," the Chinese girl spoke up. "We did it to save my father!"
"High treason!" Chi-Fu yelled at them.

"We didn't mean it to go this far!" Mulan cried.

"Ultimate dishonor!"

"It was the only way! Please believe us!"

"Captain?" Chi-Fu turned to Shane.

Shane walked to his horse and withdrew his sword. Cherry cried and went toward Mulan for protection as Mushu told them the penalty was death if they were discovered. Kahn whined and backed up, but was restrained by a couple of the men. Shane walked toward Mulan and Cherry to finish them off, but threw the sword in the ground. Both girls were shocked and relieved. 

"Move out!" Shane commanded.

"But," Chi-Fu looked lost for words. "You can't just..."

"I said, 'move out'." Shane repeated, grabbing him by the collar and continued to walk along.

Cherry and Mulan were left in the snow. The men looked back at the girls then continued to walk. This had to be their worst days ever. They were abandoned in the snow and Crickey decided to make a fire. Kahn wrapped a blanket around the girls.

"I was this close!" Mushu growled, making a stick to roast food by the fire. "To impressing the ancestors, getting the top shelf, in entourage... Man, all my fine work..."

"We never should've left home." Mulan moaned.

Cherry sighed. "We shouldn't have gone with you."

"Hey, come on," Mushu looked at them. "I know you wanted to save your father's life, who knew you'd end up shaming him, disgracing your ancestors, getting one of your new friends kidnapped, and losing all your friends? Ya know, you just gotta let these things go..."

"Stop." Cherry glanced at him.

"Maybe I didn't go for my father," Mulan spoke up, looking at the helmet and dropped it in the snow. "Maybe what I really wanted was to prove that I can do what's right. So that when I looked in the mirror... But I was wrong, I see nothing!"

"Hey!" Mushu went to clean it up to cheer up the girls. "That's just because this needs a little spit, that's all." he spit on the helmet and rubbed it to shine it up with a smile. "Let me shine this up for you. I can see you, hey, look at you, you're both so pretty..." he grinned, then his grin faded, he then decided to admit something. "The truth is, I'm a fraud."

"Huh?" Cherry raised an eyebrow.

"Her ancestors didn't upset me," Mushu explained. "They don't even like me. I mean, you both risked your lives to help people you love. We risked your lives to help ourselves. At least you had good intentions."

Crickey looked at his own reflection. He then chirped and broke down crying, feeling guilty.

"What do you mean you're not lucky!?" Mushu gaped at him. "You lied to me!?"

Crickey chirped at him.

"And what are you?" Mushu looked at Kahn. "A sheep?"

Kahn snorted at him.

"Let's go home." Mulan sighed.

Cherry sighed, looking distantly. "Peach..." she really hoped her friend was okay.

"Yeah," Mushu followed. "This ain't gonna be pretty. But don't you worry, okay? Things will work out. We started this thing together and that's how we finish it."

The group packed up and decided to get back to the village. While they did, there were several Huns ambushed in the snow. Peach included. She was nearly deathly freezing and held herself. She then crawled to Shan Yu who looked knocked out cold, even his bird cawed and checked on him.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" Peach asked.

Shan Yu reached out and grabbed Peach by the throat.
"Cool!" Peach rasped, then coughed a little.

Mulan and Cherry were on their way home. They then heard some distant calling and noticed the Huns were alive and heading for the village. Mulan turned the other way as Cherry felt a little overwhelmed about this adventure.

"Home is that way." Mushu told them, pointing the other way.

"We have to do something." Mulan told him.
"We do?" Cherry moaned.

"They're going after the Emperor and your best friend has been held hostage by them, come on, Cherry!" Mulan told the younger girl.

"Did you see those Huns!?" Mushu panicked. "They popped out of the snow like DAISIES!"
"Are we in this together or not?" Mulan asked.

Mushu looked confident. He looked back at Crickey, who sounded confident too with his chirps. 

"Well then, let's go kick some Honey Bun!" Mushu called as they got onto the horse Kahn and rode through the mountain to save China.