Title: Lee Qing to Lim Jia Qing
Description: If countries were human before they were nations, then how did they become countries? This is my OC Singapore's story.
Lee Qing loved her secret garden dearly. It had many different types of flowers and fruits and vegetables, and a lot of insects. She covered the small garden with a dark green plastic sheet to protect it from strong winds and heavy rain.
Whenever there was a storm, she would protect her mini garden. The flowers she was most proud of were here beautiful orchids.
Her favorite animal- a lion. It was proud, and gold, and majestic, just like what she wanted to be. She like the Chinese Martial Arts. No, she loved it. She wanted to win gold medals, be proud of her winnings, and be majestic, like the lion.
The lion was also very strong and powerful. She wanted to be strong and powerful and able to protect her family. She would start by protecting her garden.
She found the garden when she was five, and had been returning there ever since.
ѕнє ωαѕ тнιятєєη ωнєη тнє נαραηєѕє ¢αмє.
It was a fairly peaceful day- her father was repairing a table Qing's four-year-old sister had damaged in one of her tantrums, her mother was mending the year on one of her dresses and Ying, Qing's sister, was playing with a wooden toy.
Suddenly there was a loud BOOM! and loud, ear-splitting sounds of guns firing were heard, and many screams of terror as well. The house of the Lee family shook violently and a loud thump was heard as Qing's mother fell off her chair.
"QING!" The girl heard her father bellow. "快点！你们要躲起来，听到了没有？！"
"QING! YING! 跟我来！" her mother called, dropping the half-mended dress and grabbing her two daughters' arms, nails digging into their skin.
Qing winced as pain shot through her, but she obediently followed her mother, trying to stop her sister from crying.
"Shh... Ying, 不要哭了啦，" she said in a soothing voice, planting her lips on the crying four-year-old's forehead. "是谁啊？" she asked her mother who was the cause of the gunshot sounds.
She hoped it was some boys playing a stupid trick.
ησ ѕυ¢н ℓυ¢к.
Her mother peeked out from behind the house- the place where they had hidden. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was shaking. She pulled both Qing and Ying into a tight hug. "是日本人，" Lee Qian Sheng said, her voice trembling. The Japanese.
The gunshots seemed to get louder and louder and suddenly, the three females heard a loud, rough voice that spoke in Japanese. He was giving orders. The three peered at the scene through a window.
A Japanese man was talking to Qing's father.
There was an ear splitting crack and the Chinese man dropped dead. Just like that.
"爸爸！" both Ying and Qing screamed, both crying. Then, Qing clapped a hand over her mouth and stifled her screams. Calling to her dad was no use. He was gone.
But still!
"Ying, shh... 他们会听到你的！" Qian Sheng warned as the Japanese men started searching the house. For a few death-defying minutes, the Japanese men were silent as they tried to see if anyone was in the house. The three females held their breath.
Suddenly, Qing gave a sharp gasp. "妈妈！我的武术刀还在里面！" she whispered fiercely. She had left her martial-arts sword inside! What if the Japanese found it? They would have another weapon!
Qian Sheng shook her head. She knew that Qing wanted to go back to get it, but Qing might get killed in the process.
But Qing wouldn't take no for an answer. She struggled out of her mother's grasp and silently snuck into the house using the back door. She hoped that her mother and sister would be alright. Being careful to not get noticed, she slipped up a hidden staircase into her room just as the Japanese exited her house.
She got her sword and silently went back. She was about to reach the place where her family had been hiding when she heard a high-pitched scream.
She silently tip-toed and the sight she saw horrified her.
тнє נαραηєѕє ωєяє тαкιηg нєя мσтнєя.
Qian Sheng was struggling with all her might, crying and being bound together, but she didn't have any muscle- it was either become a prisoner or die.
But the worst part- the blood that covered the grass, now stained a brilliant shade of red. Qian Sheng was thrown into a truck-like automobile and the Japanese men were looking at a crying Ying, definitely trying to see if they wanted to keep her as a prisoner.
The answer was no.
There was a loud crack! as one lifted his gun and shot the crying girl, silencing her immediately. Ying's blood spilled and stained the grass even redder than before, and
Qian Sheng was forced to watch the blood seeping through the grass.
"Ying!" Qing blurted out, and, instantly, the Japanese men were searching for her.
"Qing!" Qian Sheng screamed for her eldest daughter to run.
Qing obeyed, gripping her sword tightly and running to the only place she could think of- the small garden she protected. As soon as they could see her, the Japanese started a chase. Qing had a head start and was quite fast but she was trying to outrun /grown men/.
ѕнє ηєє∂є∂ тσ ℓσѕє тнєм ιη тнє ƒσяєѕт!
Her feet hit the ground painfully, the rocks digging into her skin, the branches snagging in her hair as she surged forward and into the Forest, trying to find her hidden garden. There!
She burst into the clearing and hid behind one bush. Her garden was covered with the green plastic sheet, yet it still looked beautiful.
Qing hoped she wouldn't die. She hoped that the Japanese would give up on her.
No such luck.
They found her almost immediately, yanking her up and grabbing her hair, making her scalp sear with pain. Qing wasn't crying- she was too scared to cry. 'My garden! Who will be here to protect my garden?' She though desperately as they bound her feet and arms together tightly.
The Japanese looked like they were discussing whether to take her as a prisoner.
'Prisoner, please, please!' Qing thought as she was held back by a muscled Japanese. 'Please, I don't want to die, who will take care of my garden when I'm dead?'
As if they had read her mind, the man who was holding her threw her onto the green plastic sheet that covered her garden and Qing felt her head knock onto the floor. Her vision went blurry, but not through tears. She tasted blood in her mouth but forced herself to ignore it.
She had to get up!
But one man was holding her down as she struggled, fighting with all her might. She had no training, none at all. And the man was a very well-muscled soldier. She had no hope.
She was going to die.
As another Japanese man pointed his gun at her, the only thing Qing could think of was not her mother, not her father, not her sister, not even her garden.
She was thinking about the lion.
qιηg ωαѕ ѕтιℓℓ тнιηкιηg σƒ ιт ωнєη α ℓσυ∂ ¢яα¢к ƒιℓℓє∂ тнє αιя αη∂ тнє вυℓℓєт нιт тнє тαяgєт.
Her eyes slowly opened, her vision blurry. She was almost blinded by the hot sun. She couldn't feel anything. She couldn't remember anything except one image...
The lion.
What was her name?
The-girl-with-no-name stared up at a pair of emerald green eyes. She looked up and her eyes landed on the man's thick eyebrows. He wasn't Japanese. No Japanese man would have green eyes and yellow hair.
Then who was he?
The man said something in a language she didn't speak fluently. He said something in English. The nameless girl looked at him in confusion, then registered her surroundings.
She was in a garden, and there was a crumpled green plastic sheet thrown to one side. The green plastic sheet was stained with blood. Was it her blood? Was she injured? But she felt like she didn't even had a scratch on her!
She was lying on a cluster of orchids. They were wet, but it hadn't been raining. The rest of her surroundings were completely dry.
The green-eyed man asked her something in English again.
"I sorry," she spoke in her broken English. "I say Chinese. No English. "
The green-eyes man beckoned for someone to come. The 'someone' was a young man with sleek brown hair and wise gold eyes. He was Asian, but he didn't look Japanese.
"你好。你可以讲话吗？" the man spoke in fluent Chinese, asking her if she was well enough to talk. The girl nodded. "我可以，" she responded. "你是谁？"
"我叫中国。"
What? This man's name was China! But somehow she wasn't surprised, not a bit.
"这个笨蛋是英国，" he pointed to the man with green eyes, naming him England.
"他是美国，" he called a brunette with blue eyes 'America'.
The he introduced a long-haired man, "他是法国。"
Finally, he pointed to a tall man with a scarf. "他是俄罗斯。"
England interrupted China, speaking in English. He spoke slowly, hoping that the nameless girl could understand him at least a little. "Do... You... Want... To... Learn.. English?"
China translated it for the girl, and the girl-with-no-name-yet nodded.
"What is your name?"
The girl didn't know. The first name that came to her mind was 'Lee Qing' but that didn't seem right. She wanted another name. She looked at the trees around her, looking for inspiration. She found it. "林佳晴，" she blurted. "Lim Jia Qing. "
林 meant 'forest' in Chinese.
England shook his head, saying something in English. China translated it to: No, your country name.
The girl smiled wide, understanding, and she sat up, taking a good look at the five people. They seemed to be waiting for her answer. Her once-brown-now-blue eyes lit up. She knew the answer to that.
"新加坡，" ѕнє ѕαι∂. "яєρυвℓιкα ѕιηgαρυяα."
『Ｅｎｄ』