Love in War

Love in War - Chapter 30: A Girl Worth Fighting For

Mulan's pained screams echoed through the halls of the large house, sending haunting chills through Shang each time they struck him. It had been early in the morning, before the sun had begun its climb, when Mulan went into labor, and now the stars were beginning to paint the night sky.

How slowly the day had passed.

He'd wanted to be in the room at her side to support her but had been shooed away by a midwife and forced to wait outside the room. His mother was close by and had spent the day with him, but her support wasn't exactly... helpful. It mainly consisted of dismissals of how seriously he was taking the matter with repeats of the same backhanded comments about Mulan he'd come to expect from her. He didn't like her assessments in the slightest, but considering it was something she had gone through that he never would, it didn't feel right to object or argue with her. He didn't have the strength to anyway - he was too worried.

He'd found himself in one of the moments his heart usually fought fervently to stave off for the sake of his sanity: he was missing his father. If he were there, he would know exactly what to say right now to calm him, or call him to some kind of noble action to take so he could feel less useless. To regain any semblance of control of the situation - and himself... but he wasn't. The only other person he longed to speak with instead was actually Mulan's father, Fa Zhou. While he was nothing like his own, he brought a kind of profound wisdom to situations and spoke with a soothing tone that put things in perspective. He had mentioned calling for Mulan's family earlier in the day to his mother who had sent out a servant to fetch them, but they'd yet to arrive... so here he was left waiting.

Some servants had offered him food throughout the day, but he couldn't bring himself to eat. At their insistence, he finally just settled for a cup of tea. The sensation of the warm object in his hands offered some relief to the tingling of his fingers and grounded him in reality when his head just him to spin out of control.

Suddenly, a sound sent the small porcelain object to the floor to shatter and the liquid inside flying. 

A shrill cry.

Mulan exhaled and fell back into the pillows behind her; she was exhausted. Her mother had warned her about the pain and roughly how long the delivery would last, but she'd still underestimated it. She'd spent the whole day thinking she was going to die. Minutes had stretched into hours and those hours into what felt like an eternity. If the concoction one of the midwives fed her early on to ease the pain had worked, she couldn't begin to imagine how much more grueling an experience it was for anyone without.

But it was done.

It was over.

And it was worth it.

A midwife finally walked over to hand her the warm bundle she'd been waiting for. A smile grew on her face as she extended her arms out and felt the weight transfer into her hold. In an instant, all the worry and doubt she had manifested over the past months subsided and was replaced with a new feeling of love she'd never known.

"Hello, Jin Na."

Mushu and ShiShi had been watching the situation closely from their place in the rafters, as they had for the past few months. A rush of joy filled the dragon as he rested his head in his hand to observe them, not noticing the concern that had washed over ShiShi's face.