Lily of the Valley

THIS STORY IS IN ENGLISH
"And who am I, an imperfect design? Shackled by your desire."
" 애초에 당신은 도망치고 있었을 뿐, 단 한 순간도 자신의 진짜 감정을 직면하지 않았지. 적당한 대의나 정의 같은 것에 매달리면 뭔가 해결되는 것 같았어? 돌아온 건 그 개죽음인 거야."
" こうやって何度も口にしていれば、いつか本当になるんじゃないかって。そうやって、自分も周りも騙し通せるんじゃないかって。"

The jungle is alive, and it does not welcome strangers.

There are rumors in the villages near the forest's edge. Travelers speak of paths that rearrange themselves, trees that block the way, and a figure in the dark-silent, blindfolded, there one moment and gone the next. Some call her a spirit. Some call her a witch. No one has gotten close enough to find out.

Her name is Lian Hua. She's fourteen years old. And she's been hiding for four years.

When four strangers and two animals crash through her canopy, she means to drive them out. They're loud. They're reckless. One of them bends air, one bends stone, one bends water and the other none at all, and all of them are being hunted by something they won't explain. She should send them away. She should close the trees and be done with it.

But they're children. Tired, terrified, far from home. Just like she was.

So against every instinct, she lets them stay.

She doesn't know yet that this decision will drag her out of the jungle and into a war and a world she's been avoiding. She doesn't know that the people she's letting in will ask questions she's spent years burying-about her eyes, her bending, and the family she left behind. And she doesn't know that some secrets won't stay buried, no matter how deep you plant them.

An ATLA+OC fanfic
#1 on #ocinsert (18/7/2026)

TW: Childhood trauma, bleeding, some violence, depression, anxiety and mental health themes, misogyny and bullying