Our migration had to be delayed since everyone's focus was aimed at the goats. Thus we spent our time studying and experimenting on them. Since we had so little of the livestock, I forbade their slaughter. We would only eat goat meat once they gave birth to more goats. Until then, we would subsist on the massive quantities of milk they produced.

The oddly coloured moss stored in crates perplexed us. Voglo had found out that sticking some of the moss on rocks would cause the rock to slowly become enveloped by the moss. This process only took a week to happen. The moss was extremely bitter to the point of inedibility, and it had a foul aftertaste that left one's mouth smelling awful. Goblin's had little care for smell or cleanliness, but even they had their limits. Cultivating the moss seemed very easy, but it would take too much effort to breed out the horrible flavour nor would it be nutritious. The goats did not seem to mind the taste, so it could provide a steady supply of food for the goats during the winter.

Keeping animals in one’s home would inevitably result in a mess needing to be cleaned up. The goat droppings had an extremely unpleasant and pungent smell, it was the goats' only flaw. But critiquing the faeces of an animal for its smell was the definition of nonsensical. The goblins had to draw straws on who would do the cleaning. One of the few perks of being chief was I expected myself from this lottery. I felt bad for the poor sap who drew the short straw, so I gifted him a simply decorated stone bracelet, as a sign of appreciation for the work being put in for the tribe.

All the droppings were gathered and dumped away far away from the cave. Much to our surprise, after a few days one could note a significant growth in the vegetation around the waste site. Despite it being almost winter, the manure had an incredible, practically magical effect on the flora surrounding it. This must be the reason why the bandits were keeping the goats. But what use would fertiliser be for a bandit?

There was one male in the group, which was slightly larger than the other males, and his horns were completely transparent, fuller and curvier. The goat also had an arrogant gaze to it, as if nothing in the world could phase it. Its prideful demeanour was irritating, it was as if I was staring at a goat version of myself. I ordered for a saddle and reigns were fashioned. I mounted the goat and sat fairly comfortably on top of it, it felt as if I was on horseback.

Interface You have unlocked a new skill: [Ride (Beginner)] This skill is a passive skill that improves your riding capability upon being mounted upon a creature.

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I wouldn’t have called sitting on a goat "Riding", but the ultimate decision was not up to me. The skill itself was nothing worth mentioning, it was one that simply acknowledged your actual skill and did not provide any tangible effect. “Forward,” I commanded the goat, to no reaction. I tried fiddling with the reigns, leaning forward, squeezing its body, even trying to entice it with food. Anger boiled within me, but before I could exert it on this stupid animal, I put that energy into patting its head with vigour. My [Command] skill did not work on the goat, either due to it not understanding my words, or it not acknowledging me as its ruler.

“You stupid goat, why do you have to be so stubborn?” I said while stroking its chin. “From now on, your name will be Dodge. You will be my personal mount.” I stroked its head and gave it some moss. Dodge accepted the moss and slowly trotted away. Some days, I would walk around alongside Dodge, I would walk him around the forest and the camp. Sometimes I gave him orders, such as to stand still or to come, he would only listen around a quarter of the time, but when he did, I would reward him.

Interface You have unlocked a new skill: [Animal Training (Beginner)] This skill is a passive skill that improves your capability to train domesticated animals to perform instructions and commands.

The skill was also just another indicator like the [Ride] skill. It was similar to Zotnik's [Beast Tamer] skill. But the operative word was "domesticated" since a goat couldn't be really described as a tamed beast. I supposed that taming a wild animal, and training essentially farm animals required different skill sets, thus the separate skills.

The male goats would sometimes get into scuffles with each other. They would rise onto their hind legs and ram their heads into each other, their horns clashing together. They would repeat this until their curved horns interlocked and then it turned battle of tug-of-war. In cases where they were completely stuck, they would have to be separated by us, the goats would bow down to each other as if declaring a tie. After the fights were done, the winning males and females would pair up and copulate with each other.

One goblin had an idea of feeding some goats only the moss and seeing what happens. The result was that the goats that ate nothing but moss, suffered from excessive diarrhoea, while the goats that didn’t eat any, suffered from constipation. The mystery of the moss was solved, it appeared to be some sort of natural laxative for these animals. Now it was important to figure out in what proportions to give the moss, to avoid anything unnecessary. To note, the diarrhoea produced by the goats did not seem to have a great fertilising effect as compared to the previous droppings. The moss would have to experiment on even more.

Time passed quickly, the trees eventually became naked, it was time to move to a new location. Luckily, these goats were extremely strong and sturdy, so they would make our journey far easier.