The Farmer’s Daughter Followed the Pig One Morning—What She Found Changed Everything

Chapter 2

She should have run. Everything her father ever taught her said run. But the man’s eyes held her the way a lantern holds a moth, and the longer she looked, the more she saw how young he was under all that blood — not much older than her brother might have been, if she’d had one.

“What happened to you?” she whispered.

He tried to sit up and collapsed against the boulder with a sound like a struck dog. “Men. Men were chasing me.” Each word cost him. “They wanted what I found. Had to hide it somewhere safe.”

Mae’s eyes drifted to the leather pouch still clutched in his trembling fingers. “What’s in there?”