Worn paths traverse the lowlands Hungry. Hungrians survey their lands, mark their borders, and map their landmarks. Their stomachs growl as they walk the perimeter again. The hills brown in the dry season. The surveyors eat from bushes, dig roots from the ground, and drink from ponds as they go. At night they take the mats from their backs, roll them out and sleep on the ground. They shiver and pull their wraps tight. Lean lions prowl. Ground squirrels cache what they can find. The surveyors record how many steps they took and send their data by tablet to the capitol, Cruel. Tomorrow, someone else behind them will double check their work. Visitors to Hungry hope for a feast, but they misunderstood the tourist promotion. Food must be gathered and they’ll never find enough to be sated.
Few may enter the capitol Cruel except servants. The masters of the city track the measurements of Hungry and they receive data daily on the steps each citizen has taken.
“Our borders are shrinking,” Master Li Zard says.
“Hungry must not disappear,” says Master Hu Gree.
In Cruel, silos hold stores of rotting grain. Other lands give these gifts to aid the Hungarians, but Cruel never distributes it so the scavengers remain on the brink of starvation. Alone in Cruel, the number and size of the gifts never gets recorded.
Any animal able to move, fly, or swim away departs from Cruel and leaves Hungry. Those that stay know no other choice. Long ago, an inventor, no one remembers who, fitted the Hungry Nomads with data collection devices. The devices routinely collect the data which the Masters record in the Annuls of Cruel.
What is this? Emotion 365: Every Day a New Emotion
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