Kingdom Hearts; The Dark's Keeper

Chapter IX; Proving Worth

The world was strange, to say the least. X had seen many different landscapes in all his years traveling worlds. But very few had a forest quite like this one. In fact, X couldn't think of one that did. There were no trees, only bamboo shoots that took over the area. It wasn't something X was used to, but it wasn't unpleasant.

X only stopped walking when he nearly ran into Sora. The brown-haired boy had stopped suddenly looking ahead at a strange scene. A woman dressed in battle armor was talking to a shadow cast on a nearby rock. The shadow looked like some kind of lizard, but X couldn't be sure as to what it exactly was.

"A Heartless." Donald said. X frowned looking at the shadow. It wasn't a Heartless. Though he could understand why they guessed that. Before X could argue Sora spoke up.

"Let's get the jump on 'im!" Sora said with a grin. Donald nodded and the two of them rushed forward.

"Gawrsh, maybe better look before we leap." Goofy said, trying to reign back his two friends. X glanced at the humanoid dog thoughtfully.

"You're the smartest one in this group, aren't you?" X asked. It was no surprise he got no answer as Goofy made his way to follow Sora and Donald. X sighed heavily and followed after them. There was nothing to be gained from just watching.

The woman gasped suddenly when she noticed the group. What was creating the shadow jumped out from behind a smaller rock in fright jumping into the arms of the woman. It was a small red lizard of sorts. Or, maybe a dragon? X wasn't sure.

"Is that Mushu?" Goofy asked looking at the lizard hiding in the woman's arms. X frowned trying to get a better look at the creature that might have been Mushu. He didn't know what would identify him, but X was willing to try.

"That's right, I know you heard of me!" The lizard cried out popping up from his hiding place in the woman's arms. "I'm little, lethal, and legendary! Now ya'll scram before I get my dragon dander up!"

"Hey, Mushu! We missed you!" Sora greeted with his usual bright smile. X glanced at Mushu and the woman. He had no idea how they had encountered him, he really needed to learn a thing or two about their journey before Castle Oblivion.

"Yeah, well you better hope I miss you, or else you're-you're..." Mushu trailed off in the middle of his rant as he finally looked at who was greeting him. His face brightened as he identified the group of three. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!"

"Do you know them?" The woman asked looking at Mushu. He nodded as he dropped to the ground walking up to Sora.

"Know them? Man, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together! Yeah, you know, I helped these guys out of a lot of tight spots. 'Cause I'm a mighty dragon! Right?" Mushu asked leaning up against Sora's leg. X took note that Mushu was in fact a dragon, not a lizard. He was sure that was a sensitive topic so X would avoid a mix up.

The woman looked at Sora in disbelief. She didn't seem to want to believe Mushu had really done that much to help. Sora crossed his arms behind his head like Ventus used to and stepped back, leaving Mushu to fall over.

"Something like that." Sora said. He turned his attention away from Mushu and onto the woman. "And...you are?" Sora asked.

"I'm Mulan." The woman responded without a thought. She lowered her voice trying to sound more masculine, or something of the sort. "Um, no, I-I mean..." She backtracked to try and cover what was apparently a mistake.

"Ping!" Mushu chimed in helpfully.

"Mulan Ping?" Donald asked. The woman shook her head.

"Just Ping. I am Ping, son of Fa Zhou." She said, keeping her deep voice. X frowned, it didn't seem like a normal thing for her to do. So what was the point of it?