The Deer and Sheep Tribes at a Loss
Compared to the restlessness of the Bison Tribe and the shrewd calculations of the White Pig Tribe, the Deer Tribe and the Green Sheep Tribe, located in the more remote mountainous areas, felt more of a cold despair and a sense of being trapped in Nitan this winter. The storm unleashed by the Fire Tribe had a more direct and cruel impact on these two relatively weak tribes.
Deep within the dense primeval forest of the Deer Tribe, the tribespeople, like their domesticated deer, are Minjie, gentle, and peaceful. Their leader, Lu Ming, a middle-aged man whose brow always carried a hint of melancholy, stood at the edge of the tribe, gazing at the eerily silent forest covered in snow, and let out a long sigh.
In the tribe, the atmosphere was as somber as the gloomy winter day. The granaries were empty, and the few remaining withered wild fruits and a small amount of dried meat had to be allocated with the precision of counting grains of sand just to barely keep the tribe from starving. The children no longer ran and played, but huddled in their huts to conserve their energy. Their once bright eyes had lost their liveliness, leaving only a longing for food.
Not long ago, the hunter Qingti, who had been sent to escort the Fire Tribe, returned. He brought back linen clothes, pottery bowls, and dried fish, gifts from the Fire Tribe. This brief joy was like a pebble thrown into an icy lake, creating only a faint ripple before being quickly submerged by a deeper chill.
The scene described by the Qingti is more like an unattainable myth to the Deer Tribe.
"Chief, the Fire Tribe... no one goes hungry there." Qingti's voice carried an incredulous daze. "I heard their food is piled up like Little Mountain, everyone is wearing new clothes, their dwellings are being expanded, and they're even building high earthen walls for protection... They even have surplus food, constantly taking in people who come seeking refuge."
Every word pierced Lu Ming's heart like a needle. He remembered that just over a month ago, he had personally sent ten of the most beautiful and hardworking girls in the tribe to the Fire Tribe in exchange for life-saving salt and dried fish. At the time, he thought that it was to find a way out for the children and to buy the tribe a chance to breathe.
But now, he is consumed by immense pain and self-blame.
"Did I... did I do something wrong?" Lu Ming the eldest shaman in the tribe, who was also his uncle, with a pained expression. "I sent our daughters to such a powerful and wealthy place. They must be doing very well now, a hundred times better off than here. But... what about us?"
"The Fire Tribe is growing like a snowball, now numbering over six hundred! They still need to build walls, train their troops, and clear land... What do they want? Next year, the year after, when they need more land and more prey, will this forest where our ancestors lived still belong to us?"
"Did sending our daughter there create a positive connection, or... did we inadvertently raise an insurmountable giant as a neighbor?"
A fear of "inviting a wolf into the house" and the humiliation of "selling one's daughter to survive" intertwined in Lu Ming's heart. He couldn't see where the tribe's future lay. Should they learn from the Fire Tribe to absorb people? They couldn't even feed themselves. Should they learn from the Fire Tribe to cultivate the land? They lacked the technology and good seeds. It seemed they only had one path left—waiting, waiting for their fate in hunger and fear, and perhaps ultimately, they would have to walk the path that countless small tribes had already trod: abandoning everything to join the Fire Tribe, which they had helped grow stronger.
The Green Sheep Tribe is located in an even more barren mountainous region, and their domesticated goats are their most important asset. Chief Wenshi, a gentle and caring elder, now had a face full of worry, as if he had aged considerably overnight.
The tribe's situation was not much better than that of the Deer Tribe. The mountain pastures were covered by snow, the goats were bleating from hunger, and milk production had decreased significantly. The stored milk and dried meat were also running low. A sense of despair pervaded the entire tribe.
The news brought back by Changjiao, who escorted the Fire Tribe, brought no comfort but instead intensified the despair.
"Chief Wenshi, the Fire Tribe... they are terrifyingly powerful," Changjiao described the Warrior Team he had witnessed. "Moreover, their tribe's fire element has a new counting method, as if everything is under their control. They have now absorbed so many small tribes nearby, and now they have over six hundred men..."
Wenshi listened silently, unconsciously rubbing a piece of animal hide in his hand. He thought of the ten girls who had married into the Fire Tribe, including his own brother's daughter. How difficult and helpless it had been to make that decision back then. Trading his daughters' future for the chance for the tribe to survive. But now, he felt a deeper regret.
"Have we... have we single-handedly ruined the future of our tribe?" Wenshi asked in a hoarse voice at the tribal council meeting, expressing everyone's concerns. "The Fire Tribe is so powerful and so close. We're barely surviving the winter on the food we get from marrying off our daughters, but what about next year? The year after? What will we do when the Fire Tribe no longer needs us, their weak 'in-laws,' or when they need our mountains and pastures?"
"To become dependent on them? To abandon our ancestral lands and freedom like those tiny tribes, and become their vassals?"
"Or... resist?" The thought had barely crossed Wenshi's mind when he extinguished it. What could they possibly use to resist? Starving tribesmen and emaciated goats to fight against hundreds of well-fed warriors?
The Green Sheep Tribe was plunged into unprecedented confusion. They lacked both the courage of the Bison Tribe to fight to the death and the wisdom of the White Pig Tribe to maneuver flexibly. Like a flock of sheep isolated and helpless in a blizzard, they could only huddle together and wait for their unknown fate. The force that would determine their fate was none other than the Fire Tribe, which they themselves had once "helped" and which was now so powerful as to be suffocating.
This winter, the sighs of the Deer Tribe and the lamentations of the Green Sheep Tribe echoed eerily through the mountains and forests. The rise of the Fire Tribe was not an opportunity for them, but an irresistible torrent. They were swept up in it, powerless to struggle, and could only watch helplessly as their familiar world collapsed. In their bewilderment and regret, they struggled to contemplate the perhaps predetermined final path leading to the Fire Tribe.