one-twoohlookbananas:

Jane heard the sound of horse hooves behind her and she whipped around, glad that she wasn’t alone in this seemingly empty and vast area. In the distance, she saw a young man astride a sleek horse and she hurried - though not so quickly as to disturb the gentle beast - towards him. 

“Oh, thank goodness!” she began, as soon as they were within hearing distance of one another. “Can you help me? I was supposed to be going to my inn, but I think the driver got a little bit mixed up, and I ended up here. I don’t even know where here is, actually. But there definitely doesn’t seem to be any sign of a building nearby. I’m so terribly lost and I just don’t know what to do." She wiped at her forehead, the heat causing her bangs to stick to her face and cause her discomfort.

Ping pursed his lips.  There seemed to be so many people lost near Wu Zhong lately, although the voice in his head that had pointed it out sounded far more like one of his suspicious superiors than like Ping himself, or for that matter Mulan.  Getting lost was so easy to do - not that Ping had a bad sense of direction, not at all, but being lost was a mistake, and of mistakes Ping was full to the brim.  Besides, this fluttering woman couldn’t possibly be a Hun spy, could she?  She was clearly from much further west than that.

"You’re near Dàzhú,” he told her, omitting any mention of an army encampment - Ping might be new to warfare, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to blurt out things like that to just anybody who passed by.  He scratched the side of his neck thoughtfully.  "Out in the country, which is why it’s easy to get lost.  Where are you headed?“