Even the Borderlands Have People - 5
The recent drought ravaging Gansu had dealt a devastating blow to the maek. Their fodder had dwindled sharply, driving them to scour human settlements for food.
But the humans they encountered in the city had no idea what they were truly up against.
"I never imagined they had a family."
The maek hadn't come alone to sate their hunger—there were five of them in total, all desperate for sustenance. This astonishing revelation quelled the fury even in Baek Joo-il, who had been burning with rage toward the maek, and stirred pity in the Gongdongpa warriors who had been operating like beggars from the Beggar Clan.
In Song, where loyalty and filial piety, the bonds of family, were exalted, the tale of the maek's devotion to their kin was a beautiful one.
"That explains why the maek intrusions have been so frequent lately."
The commander, gazing at the maek family with sympathetic eyes, spoke up cautiously.
"There are no records of maek being such gluttons. Sure, given their size, they don't eat lightly, but not enough to turn all of Nanjou upside down like this."
"Indeed, if a single maek required that much food, it wouldn't be a spirit beast—it'd be a calamity."
Baek Joo-il nodded in agreement with the commander's words. He was right. Even accounting for a backlash from starvation, could one maek's appetite devastate an entire city? That volume was beyond what nature could sustain, and even if possible, the maek's mere existence would shatter the ecosystem.
They only just figured it out.
I let out a wry chuckle, watching the baby maek sniffing at my feet.
They'd been too rigid in their thinking. The shock of Nanjou being torn apart, the grotesquery of a cannon chomped like a snack—it had blinded them to the incongruity. They'd simply assumed one starving maek had gone berserk, and no one had questioned the excessive raids.
Embarrassing, really. Knowing maek were docile and gentle by nature, I'd brushed off their odd behavior as "bound to happen without food." I should have pondered if there was another reason.
Good thing they caught on eventually.
A chill ran through me at the thought. We'd chased and cornered them here in this abandoned mine, but what if we'd captured one back in Nanjou? The father maek couldn't return to his family, and the mother and young, waiting for their absent sire, would have starved in agony.
Horrifying just to imagine.
"But it's strange. The one sleeping over there and the babies are plump, yet the injured one on the leg is still gaunt."
"Maybe it's holding back because it's hurt? Wild animals sometimes cull the weak or injured from the herd."
"True, but a maek that ventured into the city for its family wouldn't ignore them just because it's injured."
"Fair point."
As the commander and Baek Joo-il murmured their theories, I glanced at the gaunt maek. Just as they said, it was the only one among the five still thin. It didn't seem on the brink of starvation, but the others' plumpness made the contrast stark.
Yet that too was devotion to family.
"That maek yielded its share. The mother for the young, the wife for her husband who braved danger. It can't move well with the injured leg."
"Whoa."
"Damn. The beast's heart seems purer than a human's."
The commander and Baek Joo-il, who had been whispering, exclaimed in unison at my words. I'd felt the same when Kki-ing-i relayed the maek family's plight to me.
Yielding food to children in their growth spurt, prioritizing the husband who'd returned from the human city. Logically, the optimal choice. But how many could act rationally amid hunger?
In extremis, instinct overrides reason. Yet this maek had conquered its instincts. A beast, but love for family subdued its base urges.
- Buoooo?
As eyes turned to it, the gaunt maek tilted its head with a cry.
"...Any spare iron or such we can do without?"
"We've got a few backup swords."
At the commander's word, soldiers astutely fetched reserve blades. Mass-produced spares, not famed swords, but forged of steel—their worth was ample.
"Here, eat up. How heartbroken would the young be seeing their mother so parched?"
We were feeding the maek anyway.
- Buooo...
The commander approached with a sword in his arms; the gaunt maek blinked, grasping it with its trunk.
Maek take food with their trunks too. News to me.
- Buoooo.
- Buo?
- Buo! Buooo!
- Buoooo~
Anyway, having received the food from the commander, the maek called over the nearby babies and divided the hard-won meal among them one by one.
"Whoa, look at that."
"Giving away what we handed it for the young."
A solemn pride filled the cavern, beyond words. Such maternal love made it impossible to resent the maek.
Can't be helped during growth spurts—they all eat a ton.
Surveying the clearing where the maek family had settled, I spotted metal scraps and copper lumps in the corner. Likely remnants the father had diligently farmed from Nanjou.
Amazed so little remained despite the frenzy.
In the end, we abandoned capturing them. Dragging a harmonious family into captivity wasn't human decency. Nor could Nanjou sustain all five.
"No helping it in this situation..."
Even the fuming local commander, arriving after hearing the news, sighed at the sight and departed. Family bonds had tamed him too.
Now what?
As Nanjou's soldiers and Gongdongpa warriors prepared to withdraw, I alone sat in the clearing, watching the maek family.
Capture was off the table, but problems lingered. The drought's aftermath gripped the area; the five maek needed food to survive, inevitably from Nanjou.
Now knowing their plight, Nanjou couldn't block their raids. But allowing it would exhaust the city's iron and copper.
Damned if they did, damned if they didn't. A real pickle.
Relocate them elsewhere?
The thought flickered, then faded. All Gansu was much the same. It'd just dump Nanjou's bomb on another city. Spirit beasts bond deeply to their territory. They'd clung to this mine despite drought—forcing relocation risked rebellion or depression.
To soothe that, we'd need a better home than their current one... but
Not easy.
Winning a spirit beast's heart is no simple task. Kki-ing-i and Kki-ong-i followed me from Hengshan because they owed me their lives—the odds were slim otherwise.
It's not like pampering guarantees affection.
Case in point: Nang-jung Wang's three-headed snake fled his care for mine, while the forcibly abducted humanoid tree thrived contentedly with him.
Spirit beasts' world was complex, profound. Thus, we couldn't decide their fate lightly.
Best was drought recovery letting them forage naturally—but droughts don't end overnight. Months to years.
- Buooo?
- Buo! Buo!
- Buooooo!
As I pondered watching them, the babies approached, milling about me again.
Do I smell like spirit beasts or something?
I chuckled, petting their heads. Curious pups approaching humans so casually, unchecked by the mother—odd. Maybe from handling beasts so often, I carried their scent...
... Scent?
I began the day checking the children's condition, as always. Monitoring hundreds daily wasn't easy, but these speechless young couldn't tell us their pains. We had to watch closely.
Tedious? No—joyful. Nothing beat their pleased cries at my touch.
Thus, with the elders, we examined them when
- Gu-gu-gu-guk!
A messenger pigeon arrived.
What now?
Its sudden arrival puzzled me. Baek-su-mun used messenger eagles, not pigeons; Yun'nan officials sent people over birds for business. Pigeons rarely came our way.
Still, ignoring a weary flyer was absurd. We fed and watered it, then checked the missive.
To Baek-su-mun Leader Ji Wi Pyeong,
From Left Vice Censor-in-Chief Han Un.
I trust this finds you well. I write seeking your aid in a matter requiring the sect leader's expertise.
Recently, five maek were discovered in Nanjou, Gansu. The ongoing drought has sharply reduced their fodder, driving them into human cities for food—a truly lamentable state.
I'd gladly supply them steadily for a comfortable life, but Nanjou lacks capacity for five. Thus, I beseech the finest expert I know: please bring hope to this starving maek family.
— Han Un, Left Vice Censor-in-Chief
"Left Vice Censor-in-Chief?"
The unexpected sender widened my eyes.
"Maek?"
"Maek!?"
"Sect Leader! Did you say maek!?"
My inadvertent utterance drew the lounging elders like vultures.
Five maek found in Gansu, starved by drought, scavenging cities instead of wilds. And a plea for Baek-su-mun to care for them.
Starving enough to enter cities willingly.
Tears welled. How desperate must an exalted spirit beast, a maek, be?
We had to embrace them with love, as the censor urged.
Maek staples: iron, copper, bamboo, snakes.
I quickly recalled their diet. Yun'nan and Sichuan brimmed with bamboo—fortunate.
"Sect Leader! Why the sudden maek mention—"
"Maek sighted in Gansu. Per the censor's request, we'll assemble a team. Round up ten yourself."
"Back off! I'm handling the maek!"
"Maek...! After the humanoid tree, now maek...!"
I strode off amid the elders' clamor. Bamboo alone would bore them—pack plenty of iron and copper too.