This is an excerpt from my short story, The Forests Whisper a Secret, published in the TMYS Review of June, 2023. The journal is available on both Amazon and Kindle. 

Diangsuk scoured the universe for answers every night; she was always greeted by the same yawning silence. She could never forget how the entire Tamlang family and tribe had showered her with the monikers of a witch, an evil spirit, an unholy force, and so many more! Add to that, her innate appetite to question people and customs. Questions that made them squirm and look away. With the result that she was promptly banished from her matrilineal clan, lest she became a threat later. At twenty, Diangsuk was resigned to a life of seclusion and rejection. But as they say, the universe conspired — and the young girl rose from the ashes of her dreams and resurrected herself away from her tribe. Nestled in the lap of nature, Diangsuk calmed the storm raging in her mind. The benevolence of the elements injected a trickle of liveliness into her woebegone veins. The neighbouring forest gave her all means of sustenance – food, water, medicinal herbs, wood, and honey. Her twin goats provided her with milk that occasionally fetched her a paltry sum of money at the town market.