Where The Wild Goats Roams

WHERE THE WILD GOATS ROAM

BY LUTHIEL Fog was slowly lifting as we began our hike barely moments before daybreak, on the third day of our journey after we left Aldebaran. As the sun rose, we lifted our heads and looked around. In the changing lights of dawn, everything looked bluish at first, before slowly covered in golden shimmer.

Around us were miles of dry land of the El Mes plateau, its landscape dominated by rocky ledges as well as trees red and yellow. It looked almost like the scene of a crisp autumn day, except that it was early summer.

The El Mes Plateau consists of the arid highland that stretch from the border of the Kingdom of Rune Midgard toward the city of Juno in the Republic of Schwardzvald, connecting the independent town of Aldebaran to the city of Juno and Einbech. It is home to many creatures great and small, from Metalings to Grand Pecos. Its proximity to the entrance of the Magma Dungeon was for a long while said to be the cause of the natural dryness of the area. Yet, was it truly the entire reason of the unusual arid condition?

As we walked that morning, our guide suddenly raised her hand to signal us to stop.

Not far from us we saw the chief subject of our expedition, a wild Goat that could be found roaming exclusively the El Mes plateau.

Further down the valley, a few dozens more were grazing. Quietly we watched the majestic beast in admiration as it looked back at us indomitably.

A creature commanding attention, peaceful yet would rally in a split second to help a wounded member of their

herd if this latter happened to be attacked in their vicinity.

This behaviour of assisting the member of their own herd is a mean of survival, developed due to their basic instinct that is sadly needed due to the rise of excessive hunting of this species for the very valuable and relatively fresh blue herbs often contained in their bellies.

As native creature that roams the highland, the wild goats of El Mes Plateau are equipped with nose capable of finding many different herbs often hidden between the bushes and under the crisp yellow grass of the highland, as well as digestive system capable to store the herbs in relative freshness for prolonged period.

Due to this very ability, goats are chased daily and hunted by the thousands by those who wish to obtain the valuable herbs often stored within, often abandoning other parts of the carcasses for the crows.

As primary ingredients for healing potions as well as sustenance during long travel, herbs are precious items. Among all different kind of herbs, the blue herbs are the one often considered most valuable and well-sought for due to its unique ability to heal the tired spirit.

A sip of potions brewed from this herb has never failed to uplift morale and allows exhausted warriors to raise their blade once again to fight. Due to its rarity and difficulty in

obtaining this particular type of herb, its price is often skyrocketed, making any successful operation to amass this vital resources quite profitable for most.

However, only few of such attempts ever succeed. For centuries, many generation of farmers all over the Midgardian continent had tried to cultivate this type of herbs to no avail, for reason yet unknown to men. Indeed, all attempts to cultivate any type of herbs had so far proven to be utter failures.

Currently, most of the blue herbs available in Midgardian markets come from blue plant foraging operations in the wilderness, as well as recovered from the bellies of wild goats.

While red and yellow herbs are easier to obtain due to its large presence in many different regions in the Midgardian continent, blue herbs are rarer and the only few known spots where it grows naturally are often kept as wellguarded secrets. Foraging blue herbs is also a very time-consuming process, for the herbs need to be let alone for a prolonged period of time before its leaves are ready to be harvested.

All of these reasons make goat-hunting to often be the primary choice to obtain large quantity of herbs in short time as well as allowing fighters to gain experience in fighting against large number of creatures considered as savage brute.

However, this intensive hunting does not come without a hefty price.

That morning as we slowly hiked on the highland of El Mes Plateau, we found the place to be littered by hundreds even thousands of carcass of goats, their bellies opened, the herbs within recovered, and the remains left to rot under the sun, circled by the crows. The remain of systematic daily massacre toward a species generally peaceful.

The stench of the place might be overwhelming, although the Goat hunters we met along the way only shrugged it off, their nose trained by long experiences to ignore the smell. Whether the rotting smell comes from the rotting carcasses or the industrial complex located on the valley below the ledges, we could only guess.

As the morning wane, we could note dozens of industrial facility in the surrounding area belonging to the Renkenber Corporation. Each of these facility dumped tons of waste without any form of treatment to the environment, as well as untreated hazardous smoke. This very same industrial waste smoke was often pointed out by Human Right and Environment Protection associations as the main cause of smog pollution that caused hundreds of indirect death each year in the city of Einbroch and its surrounding.

For centuries, the Renkenber Company had dumped thousands of tons of hazardous waste materials to the El Mes Plateau notably around Einbech without any treatment. Many attempts of protest by the local citizen of Einbech were often ended in queer silence, where the protesters simply disappeared without trace. Hence the pollution dumping continue, staining everything that grow around the land, and every creature that feed from those plants.

Many environmental activists believe that centuries of waste dumping in the area has caused the place to be arid and dry, although all scientists affiliated with the Renkenber

Corporation had stated that the place was naturally dry and dumping more hazardous waste would not have any impact neither on the environment, neither on human’s health, and that any voice of concern are systematically Fake News. Indeed, for centuries the corporation’s lawyer had long sought to undo all feeble attempt of any environment regulation, promoting the “Free Spirit of Industry and Make the Republic of Schwardzvald Great Again”.

That day, as I finally mustered the courage to come near to one of the majestic wild Goat, I was surprised by their poise and grace, watching me intently and warily but not unkindly. A few feet from us, the tips of a wellhidden blue leaves peeked from beneath the crisp yellow grass. I would not have seen it if the goat did not walk toward it first while keeping an eye to me. In the end, I could see only intelligence behind the fierce red eyes with no malicious intention.

As the herbs will continue to grow on these arid land, the Wild Goats of the Plateau would continue to do their best to survive despite the constant massacre imposed by human being on a land increasingly arid and polluted.

As denizen of Midgard, we need to think once again about our place in this world we live in.

Many would argue that human welfare came first, that the environment came only second, that poison had been dumped to the environment for centuries anyway, and that nature would find a way to resist. Yet we must never forget that pollution had cost the life of many of our kin, that the resource gathered from destroying the environment is enjoyed only by few to the expense of others, and that the environment may not be as sturdy as we want to believe in order to justify our destroying it. We may have stood at the precipice of destruction of our own continent and would continue to dump poison to our own home for a few more coins in our pocket.

We are the only species that participate actively in the destruction of our own home.