Ever since Abu met Aladdin, although life was hard, they always seemed to get by through the day, even at their toughest moments.
And now that he was living like a prince to the extent that he slowly became bored with it, he didn't know how to explain his emotions to Aladdin except with those three simple words.
"I love you too," Aladdin said, raising his hand and bumping his fist against Abu's own.
Abu lay down on the carpet and happily ate the bananas.
Aladdin guided Carpet through the very detailed coordinates he had received from the Oracle as they soared towards China. Since they had already been to China before, the first phase of the journey was relatively stress-free.
Aladdin hoped that he would make it in time before anything bad could happen to stray the plot too far from its original story.
***
Mulan had a dream—to bring honour to her family and to make her father proud.
It was because of this that she put all of her effort into getting married, even though her visits to the matchmaker never went as planned, and she never bore the desire to get married.
She had another dream—to join the army, bring honour to her family, and make her father proud.
It was because of this that she stole her father's draft notice, his suit of armour, and ran away from home disguised as a man to join the army as a member of the Fa family, after she had watched him collapse to the ground in pain from merely wielding a sword and realised that he was unfit for war.
"Mushu...!" Mulan cried out with a heavy cough as she struggled to pull her body through the collapsed, burning wood against her back.
The flames licked against her skin, penetrating deeper into her body. Her clothes were burnt and torn, revealing the darkened bandages underneath that she had used to hide her breasts.
Blood dripped from her mouth as she tried to gather whatever strength she could harness from within, but she was unable to move an inch from her current position.
She didn't know how it happened. She did not know where the enemies had come from.
One minute, she was preparing herself to head out of the camp for training, and the next moment, the barbarians attacked. She could not fight. She barely knew how to fight. Her training in the army had only commenced a few weeks ago.
So she had hidden and watched as the barbarians raided their camp, reaped away her comrades' lives, and took others as prisoners.
Even the military encampments were not spared and were set ablaze to burn to ashes.
She had a dream—to join the army, bring honour to her family, and make her father proud.
So she could not afford to die here. That would break their hearts and bring shame and dishonour to her family.
"PLEASE... ANYONE, PLEASE... HELP ME...?" she screamed out once more.
Mushu had gone out to help her scout outside and hadn't returned since then. She feared that the worst had happened to him, yet still hoped that he would return and try his best to save her.
She slowly began to lose sensation throughout her body except for the fiery burning heat. Her eyes slowly grew drowsy as the smoke choked her lungs.
Suddenly, the tent door opened, and a figure entered the room.
The flames raging around her began to slowly extinguish and part like a river.
"Mushu..." Mulan muttered, stretching her hand out to show that she was still alive. "…please... help me..." She collapsed, unable to summon any more strength to remain conscious.
***
Twenty minutes earlier,
"Fly into the clouds; we can monitor the situation from above first," Aladdin said, spotting the familiar enormous mountains, which he recognised from the Mulan movie. He quickly spotted several military grounds and knew that they were close to the military encampment.
Carpet's edges nodded, and he swiftly soared high up into the skies.
Once they were above the clouds, Carpet slowed down his speed but continued to slowly move forward.
Aladdin took out a pocket telescope from one of his pocket pouches and zoomed in on the scenes below.
Abu dropped a half-eaten banana and took out a pocket telescope from his pocket pouch and did the same.
They both froze. They removed the pocket telescopes and cleaned the surfaces with their scarves, then looked through them once more.
Through the telescopes, they saw a burning forest, and at the centre of it were numerous dead bodies within a military encampment, with thousands of tents set ablaze. Some had even been reduced to ashes.
It was as though a fierce battle had broken out here not too long ago.
Abu removed the telescope and looked at Aladdin. He wanted to speak, but swallowed back his words upon noticing Aladdin's trembling figure.
The telescope fell out of Aladdin's grasp and rolled down to Abu. He caught it before it could fall off the Carpet.
"CARPET, FULL DIVE!!" Aladdin ordered with a loud shout.
Carpet turned and soared down below at full throttle.
His voice startled Abu, who quickly approached him and grasped his clothes.
"Al," he tried to call to him, but Aladdin paid no attention to him.
At this moment, his emotions surged violently, but he suppressed them as an iron lid pressed down against a boiling pot, afraid that he wouldn't be able to handle the current situation in such a state.
For now, he had only one thought in mind.
…And that was finding Mulan.
They soon reached the military encampment.
Aladdin raised his scarf over his nose. He got down from Carpet and turned to Abu. "Stay with Carpet and search the outer perimeter for Mulan or survivors. I will take a look around here."
He had shown them the image of Mulan before they arrived there, so they wouldn't miss her if they spotted her first, and would behave themselves in front of her.
Abu and Carpet nodded.
Carpet quickly soared to the outer perimeter of the camp.
The air was thick with smoke and ashes. Burnt wood and weapons crumbled under his feet as he stepped forward.
Aladdin shielded his eyes to look through the smoke. He bent down and scrutinised a dead body. It was just as he feared; it was one of the Chinese soldiers.
With everything burnt, he could no longer follow the Oracle's directions.
Aladdin stood up and spread out his magical power to scan for the presence of any survivors nearby.
Initially, Aladdin didn't want to do anything that might attract attention in case those who had started the fire were still around. But after several minutes of finding only dead bodies, he channelled his magical energy to suppress the flames around him and extinguish them.
As it slowly spread out, he could see better, but still, he couldn't find any presence of life.
Could it be...?
No!
Aladdin quickly shook the thought out of his mind. He wanted to ask the Oracle a question at this moment, but quickly realised that he had left the sceptre with Jasmine so she could handle their nations and check on his situation whenever she desired.
Aladdin didn't care anymore. He opened his mouth and yelled.
"MULAN!!"
"MUSHU!!"
"CRICKET!!"
There was no response.
His heart raced, beating fiercely within his chest.
Suddenly, Aladdin picked up a voice. He didn't wait to confirm the voice. He took flight into the air and quickly arrived in front of a large tent.
It resembled a storage tent. And like several other tents in the camp, it was crushed under several large stones and set ablaze.
"PLEASE… ANYONE PLEASE… HELP MEE…?"
Aladdin mobilised his magical energy and pushed away the rocks. He suppressed the flames, extinguishing them as he entered the tent.
He saw a young soldier crushed under rows of thick wooden shelves.
Long black hair strands peeked out from around the soot-covered face.
Aladdin's heart stopped, his eyes widened.
Mulan!
The moment their eyes met, she stretched out her hand towards him with a pleading expression.
"Mushu... Please... Help me…!"
Aladdin teleported to her position.
He lifted the shelves with his magical power and threw them aside.
He removed his cloak and wrapped it around her as the remnants of her clothes peeled away from her body.
He carried her in his arms.
"Mulan," Aladdin called out to her.
She didn't respond.
Aladdin quickly cast a healing spell on her.
"Mulan."
She still wasn't responding.
No!! No!! No!! Aladdin's mind was in chaos.
He had made the preparations.
He had made it in time.
He had to have made it in time.
This wasn't how the story was supposed to end.
The fires slowly died around them.
Aladdin teleported outside the tent and soared into the skies.
Aladdin whistled loudly into the air.
Carpet swiftly soared out of nowhere, arriving before him. The moment they saw the figure in his arms, Carpet covered his edges with his tassels.
Abu covered his mouth with his hand.
////////
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