I couldn't remember the last time that my belief in a creature had wavered. Then again, nothing had tested me quite as much as the dark hound had. I'd lost track of how many days Goud and I had spent out on the Moor, but god I was sick of this place. Bleak grey skies, creepy red liquid pooling from the earth, and skeletons everywhere. 

I glared at the pair of skeletons ahead of us as we walked in silence. Then I looked at them again. I looked at their foreheads, pressed together, and at the coin that had been respectfully laid down between the two of them. 

I stopped walking. Goud continued for a few seconds, then noted the missing hoofbeats and turned to see what was wrong. He looked at me questioningly.

"Goud. These skeletons. Either there are more than one identical pairs of skeletons lying this way with a coin between them, or..." 

Goud flinched. "Or we're lost and going in circles?"

I stared at him. "Well, are we?" 

His inability to meet my eyes told me all I needed to know. "Are you KIDDING me Goud?? I literally have a compass on my pack, if you'd told me we were lost i could have helped!!" 

Goud started to reply, tears brimming in his eyes but I heard none of it. Behind him, eyes almost glowing in the semi light of the Moor, was the beast I'd been searching for. The dark hound.