Chapter Three

In the following days Will had gone to the Chiefs room after waking up. Chief didn't seem to mind, and kept teaching Will more words. Will was surprised at the rate he was absorbing information, it was like his brain was a sponge. Chief would also wrestle with Will sometimes and even spar with the sticks. Will was still very small, but to his surprise, only a couple of days passed and his muscles had already grown and he felt much stronger. Will could also stay awake for an entire day instead of falling asleep all the time. [Goblins seem to grow and develop much faster than humans. It's only been a week and a half and I can almost understand Chief, I can even run around half the day without getting tired.]

Will came to understand how the Goblins lived after a while longer. They didn't have any kind of tribal structure or any type of government as Will had previously thought. They were anarchists, they helped each other from time to time, mostly to hunt. They were small and weak, so to survive they had to move in groups, however there were no rules as far as Will understood. Chief wasn't really the 'Chief', the other Goblins just listened to him or avoided him because he was stronger than most. Will also realized that this behavior transferred over to him as well. [This is so confusing, the Goblins aren't greedy or competitive. Having been a Goblin for a while, I've had no biological urges except for eating. The only emotion I've seen displayed in Goblins is aggressiveness when it comes to gathering and consuming food. Well there is the Chiefs pride in his things, but from what I've seen this is very atypical behavior.] Will had been trying to understand the Goblins place in this world, but it was hard to analyze them without seeing how they interact with things or beings outside the cave.

A two more weeks passed like this, and Will was getting restless. He had grown a lot in this time, and was almost the same size as an average ȧduŀt Goblin. Chief came running into the room where Will and his brothers slept and started shouting, "Will! Come! Hunt today!" Most Goblins had no names, but those who had picked their own, so Will had chosen the obvious. Chief and the other Goblins found his name weird, because usually Goblins would name themselves based on objects or colors they had experienced, some even ended up nameless their entire lives. Will sprung up from the ground and gleefully ran towards Chief. "Get weapon!" Chief grunted while slapping Will on the back. Goblins were very direct in their speech, they had words for most things, but they just didn't use them. Most interactions between Goblins came through growls and grunts instead of words.

Will had separated from Chief to get a weapon from the domed room, and after grabbing one of the sturdier sticks, he ran out and towards the exit. Will had spent a lot of time exploring the caves in the past few weeks, but was always told to stay inside. However today was his first hunt, and once Will reached the exit, where Chief and some other Goblins greeted him with a nod. "Hunt boar! Stay close." Chief patted Will on the shoulder and they all moved out. The mine entrance was in the middle of a forest, Will saw signs of a dirt road however it was unused and almost completely covered up. However the Goblins didn't go with the old dirt road, but instead walked straight into the forest. They moved huddled together while taking in their surroundings. "How do we find Boar?" Will asked Chief who was next to him. Chief didn't say anything and scowled at Will. Will was confused for a second, but then Chief did an exaggerated sniff and Will understood, he also realized that he shouldn't have spoken since silence was key to hunting. He took a deep whiff of the air and suddenly realized a plethora of smells. This wasn't like the cave, where all he smelled was either stale air, rotting meat or shit.

Will continued to sniff the air and was able to identify a lot of the smells. [I can smell the flowers, trees and the dirt. There's another smell, kind of like the pet dog we used to have when I was a kid, it's probably not a wolf, but maybe some other kind of animal.] Will then picked up a different smell, it was different than all the other smells, a bit more pungent, quite unique compared to the others. Will looked over at Chief, and the Chief nodded back. Will guessed that almost fifteen minutes had passed since he first picked up the smell, which surprised Will because it made him realize that his sense of smell went quite far for this to be the case. However they finally reached a place where the smell was very prominent, Will noticed a lot of marks on the trees around the area. There were signs of bird carcasses and some smaller rodents. [This is definitely the boars home], just as the thought popped into Will's head, a boar came waddling out from under some exposed roots of a big tree. Will narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the sharp stick, while getting in his usual combat stance.