TIAN GUAN CI FU Fan fic stories

EVERY FLOWER ON YOUR EARTH WITHERS

A CROWN FOR THE IMMORTAL FLOWERS OF YOUR BONES

(XIE LIAN POV)

There is a house on the edge of an ancient forest.

Miles of rolling hills and green pastures stretch out towards it, coming to a sharp and sudden stop along a boundary filled with the thick heavy trunks of conifers and their weighted, drooping limbs. They form a tangled barrier of foliage, rich and green and inviting in a terrifying, mysterious way.

There is a house on the edge of an ancient forest, that faces away from the dirt road and stands stalwart against the encroaching greenery. The boundary wall creates a perfect square around the three-bay building, creating a large rear garden that looks out on to the fields, and a shorter front garden that stops at the forest line like an invitation into a gothic mystery. There is no gate between the walls, only two young rowan trees that have grown to form a perfect arch, red berries dangling from beneath the leaves like an offering waiting to be plucked.

There is a house with a door made from mountain ash, carved with flowers and with a grate and handle made of iron. It has sat empty for years, wear and tear and decades of misuse clear in the bowing of the wooden beams, the holes in the thatching and the overgrown gardens. Children's laughter has faded into the tinkling laugh of something darker, that curls around the building but cannot climb through.

There is a house that has been forgotten to time, until the moment comes when the lost, almost forgotten sound of life travels down the dirt road.

Xie Lian arrives late in the day, sweat on his brow and his hair messed up beneath his hat, red under his chin from the rubbing of the strap. He stumbles through the overgrown rear garden, down an obscured stone path that winds around to the front of the building. The keys are heavy in his pack, cool against his fingers when he pulls them out from where they nestle against the deed to the house.

He takes a moment to lean against a rowan tree, looking up at his new home with a mix of satisfaction and apprehension. Maybe, just maybe, this place will start to heal the part of his heart that feels like he's spent his whole life missing something.

"Perfect." It feels a bold statement, given the rundown state of the place, but it is his.

There is a house on the edge of an ancient forest, and Xie Lian is determined to make it a home.

It does not take long to transfer his belongings from the cart to the house.

It would have taken around ten minutes, had he not caught his legs in a thorny bush that bordered the path up to the front door, and then spent another ten minutes tying bandages to all the cuts on his ankles, followed by fifteen minutes of reluctant brush clearing. He briefly considers tearing off the jammed shutters on the rear windows of the house and hauling everything in through there, before he remembers the whole miles away from the nearest village and decides sleeping with an obvious security risk breaks his promise to look after himself.

Not that there's anyone out here in the first place. The fields directly behind the house are flat, stretching as far the eye can see, and the approach of any visitors is quite easy to see. The forest out the front, however, gives him no such reassurance. From what he's been told, it travels flat for a mile before it hits the hills, though he's been promised some spectacular walking routes if he only dares to enter it.

It is dark, ominous, thick and seemingly impenetrable from the start of the tree line. Xie Lian has been in other forests, where the trees are sparse and dotted around for a mile or so before reaching the true depths of the forest. There is none of that here, only dense foliage in a perfect line. Xie Lian is tempted to think it serves as a warning, wonders who the forest is trying to keep out.