The day came with glacial slowness, the slow lightening on the horizon, the gradual bleaching of the sky and dimming of the stars, shadows growing distinct from the heavy darkness. Finally, the tip of the sun crested over the horizon, and the world turned green. Snow continued to walk.
The day began to warm, and the woods grew even brighter. When the sun reached high into the sky, she came upon a river. Unwilling to cross it, Snow turned aside and walked along its bank downstream. The sun slowly fell back down from its lofty heights, and the forest began to dim once more. The sun hid behind the horizon and the gibbous moon shone on the river Snow still followed downstream.
The day dawned once again, and still Snow walked. She felt no desire to drink from the stream or eat the spring berries that dripped from nearby bushes. Water would not quench the thirst she felt, and berries would give her no nourishment, though if she could be sure they were not poisonous she may have taken some, just for something to do.
The woods had deepened, the trees growing taller and wider, the underbrush denser. The unnatural stillness of the first night seemed to return despite the bright sun. No animals chirped or scuttled, and even the river slowed and deepened and made almost no sound. Snow continued on.
The full moon was high in the sky and the unnatural stillness particularly heavy after the thunderous waterfall Snow had passed a few minutes before when she saw movement that was not her own. She stopped. Anything this deep in the woods was dangerous, and almost certainly unfriendly. She breathed slowly and deeply, tasting the scents on the air. Whatever moved before her smelled strongly of magic and salt. And blood.
Pulled forward by instinct she glided through the thick underbrush with a swift silence she had never before obtained. She paused where the trees abruptly ended. A wide, clear pool had carved out a clearing among the trees. In its center a spire of rock jutted abruptly from the dark water.
A maiden reclined against it. The moonlight shown on her, turning her long wet hair silvern and giving her bronzed skin a warm glow. Some fifteen feet from her upper body, a graceful fin flipped against the water, shimmering green, and churning up little droplets of silvery water.