Love or Law

The River

"Okay fellas, here's what we're going to do."

Yao and Po groaned wearily. Ling had been saying that sentence at least four times, every day, for the five days that they had been traveling across China. Every single time he uttered that sentence it was quickly followed by a plan to oust Ping and his dragon mark and every single time the plan got more and more ridiculous.

They had tried catching Ping while he was bathing, except the kid had a habit of never bathing at the same time. He would switch it up constantly every time they stopped, sometimes staying up until the moon began to set in the sky. When he did finally make an appearance, he would find himself an extremely secluded location that was impossible to sneak up on without making a ton of noise. Which, in turn, caused the trio to accidentally give their presence away.

They had tried catching him while he was sleeping but Ping was always awake in his tent when they tried to sneak up on him. Did the kid ever sleep?

They had also tried sneaking up on him while he was walking to lift his shirt up but that usually resulted in at least one black eye.

They had even tried setting up traps, like jumping on him from rocks and from behind trees or setting up a trip wire. For some reason, though, he was always one step ahead of them and managed to thwart all of their best efforts. Once they had even gone far enough ahead the night before to dig a pitfall to try and trap him that way. Unfortunately they had just caught a very angry Captain Li Shang who was not at all amused over their "practical joke".

"Oh, come on guys! One last time and then I promise we'll give up. Besides, this time it's sure to work! I've come up with a very simple, fool-proof plan that can't possibly fail!"

"Ok, fine! What's your brilliant plan this time?" Yao grumbled, biting the bait.

"Alright! So here's what we're going to do..."

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Mulan wasn't sure what kind of curse Mushu had placed on Yao, Po and Ling but it appeared to be working all too well. All three of them had been acting extremely bizarre over the last few days. Yao was picking fights by jumping on people when they least expected it and trying to pull their clothes off. Ling was much, much clumsier than he usually was, tripping people up and falling on top of them or stumbling and grabbing people to keep from falling. Then there was Po, who seemed to be having sleeping problems. He would stay up all night to practice his "sneaking skills", as he put it, or just visit people's tents in the middle of the night. Rumor had it, he also went ahead on their path and laid traps as practical jokes for the fun of it. Even digging a pitfall one night!

Mulan didn't know what to do to help her friends. She thought maybe Mushu had gone too far but when she had asked him about it, he had just vaguely answered that they just had to let the curse run its course. What the heck was that supposed to mean, anyway?

"Company, Halt!" The command came echoing through their ranks and Mulan brought Khan to a stop. Pulling out his grain bag, she looped it over his head so it hung in front of his nose within easy reach for him to eat. It was something Mulan had created to make traveling easier for both of them. As Khan munched happily, she edged forward through the ranks, trying to figure out what had caused them to stop.

Mulan gaped in amazement at the sight before her. They were on the banks of the widest river she had ever seen. It had to be at least thirty feet across and Mulan could see, even from where she was standing, that the current was moving fast. Captain Li and one of his commanders were edging their horses further and further out into the current, carefully testing the depth and swiftness of the water. After a few minutes of this, they retreated back onto dry land.