By Yi-jung Chen
In the moonless woods of the mountain, Ajay dragged his shattered soul along the rusting wire fence, the hum of concrete mixers from the valley still ringing in his ears. He had built his city career on silent concessions, selling out the old sanctuaries of his childhood. A single, piercing call shattered the suffocating dark.
High above in the ancient bamboo canopy, a Fairy Pitta perversely transformed. Its nine-coloured plumage drained into stark, luminescent shades, and its right eye gleamed with an unnerving, golden radiance — the unblinking Eye of Horus, judging his buried guilt. As the phantom bird fanned its wings, the feathers shifted shape, lengthening into the snow-white ostrich plumes of Ma’at, the delicate scales of cosmic truth.
Around his trembling feet, white roses — the flowers of secrecy — burst through the cracked earth. But as the river water touched their roots, the petals dissolved into glowing, electric-blue runes drifting in the current. He knelt in the mud, staring at the illuminated water. Rearranging the floating anagram, his trembling fingers deciphered the glowing script: "A-M-E-N-D."
As the final letter locked into place, the white roses violently erupted into blood-red blossoms of undeniable reality. The phantom bird shrieked from the canopy, a sound like tearing metal that vibrated through his ribcage: “Pay the debt.”
About the Author
Yi-jung Chen is a Taiwanese writer and poet whose work explores the intricate intersections of environmental memory, cultural heritage, and sensory storytelling.
Drawing inspiration from Taiwan’s local ecology, traditional crafts, and domestic human bonds, her writings weave together rich visual imagery and poignant emotional truths.
Her poems and fiction have been recognized in Taiwanese literary awards and published across various international and local venues.
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