NEW: the secret.

 

There was a movement behind me, a patter of small feet, one I chose to ignore. They had seen me as soon as I had touched the moor, and now they followed me closely - curious but cautious. Let them, I thought. Let them.

My naked feet moved swiftly through the wind-burnt heather, my hips swayed through dead, broken bracken, all signs of the end of the year. A gnarled, stunted hawthorn shivered angrily as I passed, a fairy tree. I paused, but there was nothing more than a shiver.

I looked up, rolled my eyes across the moor. The rains had been hard and persistent for days, and even though the morning was dry, the sky itself sat low and sullen, and even now mists were rolling in - one after the other. Everything around me was still soaked through, still seemed on the cusp of mould and mulch. Yet still I walked the path, and still small feet followed me closely.

What was I doing up here in bare feet, tracking through the muck of an autumn morning? Looking for gold. Like all men, looking for gold. But not the precious metal, though that would have helped. No, my gold was that of a secret never told - the most precious of all. A secret that was held firmly and securely by the patter of feet that followed me. A secret that wouldn't be given up lightly. It would need a bargain, a gift, before there would even be a thought of giving me anywhere near a hint, and even then I would be tricked on any deal. But I was prepared - this time. Not like before. This time I had something I knew that they wouldn't, couldn't resist. Something that was more precious than gold or silver, more precious than themselves or their secret - my life.