Lin tried to reason calmly. "Listen, I'll leave, but I just want to understand. Why am I being treated like this? What did I do wrong? What's up with this outsider title?"
The cold stares from the young goats told him all he needed to know: they weren't interested in listening. Instead, they stepped forward as one, hostility clear. The lead goat, the one who had shouted first, snorted and stomped its hooves in frustration.
"You don't know? You don't know what you've done, outsider?" Its tone dripped with venom, as if Lin's very existence insulted nature itself. It kept going. "You don't belong here."
Lin listened carefully; he tried to think of any reason behind their aggressiveness. He thought of what the previous owner could have done to be treated like this. "Did he mate with someone this yearling liked, or did he eat grass, or did he eat bark from their favourite tree? Or could it be he pushed these yearlings into water?" He didn't know why all these weird thoughts came into his mind, probably because he was a goat now—or maybe because these goats could talk.
My head is a mess
The tension in the air was almost unbearable. From the back of the herd, a smaller goat snickered and turned to the leader. "What's taking so long? Why are we wasting time talking? Why don't we deal with this outsider already?"
"Yeah," another goat grunted, "the faster we finish this, the faster I get my reward. The old man is always stingy. I don't want him to say we are late."
"Reward? Someone actually hired these goats to beat him up!" Lin thought to himself. This is not the goat he knows. Goats on earth are peace-loving animals—not always, but they do like peace. They also have another side to them, but that's a side that can only be seen when they're just kids. They are playful, mischievous, balls of destruction, and would hit anything as soon as their legs could stand.
The behaviours that are common to all types of goats are: they love to challenge for no reason at all, they love to jump around, and they love to climb trees. They have a high sex drive, they love to headbutt one another, and they love to dominate other males or females.
But here, this wasn't just about being bullied; someone clearly wanted him gone. "That was just perfect. Day one, and I am already on someone's hit list."
Damn it.
But before Lin could say another word, a yearling suddenly snapped and charged at him. Lin, who had become a goat just yesterday and had no fighting experience, tried to move to the side. The yearling's horns crashed into his ribs with savage force, forcing him to take a few steps back as a sudden pain shot through him.
The yearlings paused, exchanging surprised glances as if they couldn't understand what they'd just witnessed. "What just happened?" "Why did the outsider try to move away?" "Is he doing something?"
There were many thoughts in the yearlings' heads. A few thought Lin, the outsider, was thinking something bad; a few goats even took a step back; a few became more cautious, ready to engage at any moment.
However, the situation with the yearling leader was different. There was a disbelieving expression on his face. "Isn't the outsider supposed to be strong? Why did he take a step back? Is he weak? Is he injured?"
On the other hand, he looked around himself. The yearlings were circled around him; there was no way out. Besides, there was a high chance he wouldn't even run far with those wavy legs of his. There wasn't much choice left for him: fight or die. At this moment, one of the yearlings charged at him, its head lowered. Goats head in three ways. First, western style: they take a few steps back and rush at each other. The second one was that they lifted up their front row of legs in the air, and they headbutted their enemies.
Right now, for Lin, the only option was to fight back, defeat a few, and prove his dominance. He already thought that maybe the previous owner of this body was also a powerful goat—that's why all the goats were a little surprised when he was attacked the first time.
Seeing the yearling coming at him, Lin also rushed forward. There was only a distance of a few steps between them. With a bam, both of them crashed into each other. Both of them were evenly matched. But little did Lin know that he would be attacked from the side; there was no time for him to dodge. When he realized it, he had only a few milliseconds to act. The horn of the goat slammed on his belly, and he felt as if his internal organs were being hit with a baseball bat.
"Argh!" he cried, stumbling back, the pain fogging his senses. Before he could recover, another goat charged and hit him brutally. Its headbutt threw him backwards; he landed hard, his vision blurring from the impact as his heart pounded in his chest.
"Is that everything you've got, outsider? You're pitiful," the lead goat said, pacing before Lin with a glare of pure contempt. Its voice was heavy with scorn as its hooves thudded on the ground impatiently. "Finish him."
With that, other yearlings rushed at Lin. He weakly stood up but couldn't stand still. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, with one of his ears and two of his legs being bitten by the yearlings.
However, he ignored all of that and focused on the notification in front of him:
[Warning: The user sustained a serious injury. The user is bleeding.]
"So this is how it ends. Being killed by a group of yearling goats," he thought to himself as blood slowly trickled down and his vision slowly blurred, his senses gradually diminishing, as the feeling of pain slowly vanished.