I was perched upon the ancient Aloka tree, as I always had been, its branches cradling me like a silent guardian. Around me, the world moved in restless haste, villagers bustling, voices rising and fading like waves but I remained still, as though carved into stone, a statue at the heart of the tree. My small frame seemed insignificant against its vast roots, yet it was the only place where I felt a semblance of belonging.
I was a curious, perplexed maiden, a tiny girl adrift in the currents of existence, belonging to nowhere and no one. My roots were invisible, severed from the soil of lineage, and I had no name to trace back to a family tree. Adopted by the kind priest of the mysterious Dhorbarahi temple, I was given shelter and love, as though I were his own child. His arms carried warmth, but his household carried coldness. His family never accepted me; their eyes were sharp, their words heavy with disdain. To them, I was an intruder, a shadow, a reminder of something unclean.
The villagers mirrored this cruelty. Their whispers followed me like smoke, their laughter stung like nettles. I never understood what sin I had committed to deserve such hatred. Perhaps, I thought, I was a soul reincarnated into this society to cleanse the curse of my past life. Perhaps the punishment was to wander unloved, rootless, a perpetual outsider.
Yet even as their scorn pressed upon me, I never allowed bitterness to take root in my heart. I did not wish them harm. I did not curse their names. I simply endured, carrying the silence of unanswered questions. There are countless truths about me that remain hidden, locked away in shadows I cannot reach. Who was I before this life? From which root did I spring? Why was I chosen to be cast adrift in this world of belonging and rejection?
The Aloka tree seemed to know. Its branches whispered secrets in the wind, its roots dug deep into mysteries I could not fathom. And there I sat, a perplexed maiden, suspended between the earth and the heavens, waiting for the day when the answers would finally find me.