Rey took several deep breaths to slow her rapid heartbeat; it wasn't fear that she was feeling, it was exhilaration; she was about to embark on her very first adventure, and wanted to dive right in.
After taking one last look behind her, Rey stepped forward, leaving the familiarity of home, and entering the unknown of the woods. The sun had long disappeared, but Rey was surprised to find that her eyes still had to adjust to the darkness as she progressed deeper into the forest; fortunately her night vision had always been exceptional, and she quickly identified a path to follow.
As she became more comfortable following the path she found, Rey was impressed by the almost complete silence of the place; she could make out no animal sounds, and saw no evidence of wildlife, she reasoned that the animals here had to have some kind of sleep cycle, just like the ones outside the forest, it was also possible that they had fled at the sound of her coming. Rey frowned at the latter possibility; the creatures that inhabited the woods surrounding her village were friendly and unafraid of her, she had spent countless hours of her childhood playing with the foxes, rabbits, deer, and other animals that lived nearby, she wasn't pleased at the idea of being feared by any living creature.
After a while, it struck Rey that she had no idea what exactly she was looking for, she had no real plan beyond getting into the deep woods, once there, she had no idea what to do. She quickly shrugged off those uncomfortable thoughts and chose to believe that whatever or whoever she was supposed to find would come to her sooner or later.
Rey couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that she first felt it, but as soon as she was sure of what she felt, she knew that it had been going on longer than she had been aware of it: someone or something was watching her. She had tried to explain away the prickle she felt at the back of her neck as the cool breeze that swept through the trees at irregular intervals, but she was soon sure that she felt it even when there was no breeze. At that moment, she caught a glint of golden yellow light out of the corner of her eye; it was only a sliver, but Rey felt that if she could only get to it, she might be able to get some shelter.
As she made her way toward the light, Rey couldn't help but feel uneasy; normally, she would expect such a light to be comforting, but there was something she didn't trust about it. For one thing, the light wasn't appearing to get any larger as she approached, it just remained a small sliver in the night. Another thing that bothered her was that the light seemed alive somehow; firelight had a cheerful aura about it, it let off warmth and reminded her of her mother. This light had a green hue to it, and Rey had the strange feeling that it was looking back at her. The suspicion in the back of her mind nagged and nagged at her until she was about a yard away from the mysterious light. If she took three more steps closer, she felt that she could reach out and touch it, but she still couldn't make out its form or origin.
While she stood there staring at it, trying to decide what to do, Rey was shocked when the light began to move. It had started to rise, and as it reached her eye level, it began to move the right, out from behind a tree, revealing its true shape; Rey was struck with horror and dread as she realized what she was seeing: the sliver of yellow light tinged with green and gold had become a huge glowing eye with a vertical black pupil which stared unblinking at her, as another eye, its twin, was revealed. Rey felt the urge to scream welling up in her throat as the head of an enormous black adder reared itself, weaving back and forth as it approached her, never breaking eye contact.
Rey had never encountered such a creature before; there were snakes that lived in the areas surrounding her village, but they were all harmless and kept to themselves. This monster was almost as big as she was, and was bearing down on her in a manner that was anything but friendly. Rey made the snap decision that she didn't care to find out if the reptile had sinister motives, and, just as it had come within arm's length, she whirled around and fled. With no thought to the direction she was heading in, Rey ran for what felt like hours, leaping over fallen trees, and trampling through streams and mud until she was wet through, and every ragged breath she drew felt like it was tearing itself from her chest.
By this time, she was desperately looking for some kind of shelter, somewhere she could take refuge to rest and figure out what to do next. She had just torn herself free from the thousandth thicket, and was rounding the curve of a small hill when she collided with something tall, solid, and unyielding, hooded and wrapped in long black robes. It's stalwart nature refused to absorb her momentum, and she fell to the ground. The responding "Oof" told her it was a person; a conclusion that was immediately confirmed when two large, strong hands grasped her by the shoulders and hauled her up from where she was sprawled ungracefully on the forest floor, and a deep voice drawled out "Well now, what do we have here?"
Rey scrambled away a few paces, babbling apologies, while desperately trying to dust herself off. In her confusion, she hadn't even glanced at the man's face, all she had sensed so far was that he was exceptionally tall, and that he towered over her; now, having composed herself a bit, she turned to thank him for helping her up, and maybe ask him for help figuring out where she was. Rey lifted her gaze to his face, and her heart froze.
He'd pulled back his hood, revealing a long, pale face with a prominent nose and sensitive lips; the expression he wore was one of equal parts aggressive curiosity, and intense hunger. These were all secondary realizations for Rey, however, as the first thing she noticed as she returned his gaze were his eyes; golden yellow with a slight tinge of green, they stared into her soul hypnotically, their vertical, snakelike pupils seemed to expand and dilate as they gazed at her. They were the same pair of eyes that she had just been fleeing from, but how could they now be looking at her out of the face of a human? Rey could feel her breath hitch and heartbeat pound in her head; her flight instincts were taking over, but she was transfixed by the mesmerizing quality of his gaze.
The man bent his head slightly, still fixing Rey with his compelling stare, a smile that was terrifyingly similar to a predator animal bearing it's teeth at its intended victim, growing slowly across his face. Rey was still frozen in place, unable to move or cry out, her feeling of dread almost choking her as he revealed perfect rows of glistening white teeth and (here Rey's inner voice was shrieking in her ears to run, run as far and as fast as she could), two long, wicked-looking razor sharp fangs. He spoke again, and now that Rey was looking at him as he did it, she saw his forked tongue slithering out slightly as he spoke; in her horrified fascination, she almost didn't catch his next words, though they chilled her to the bone when their meaning hit her "By all the gods, you smell delicious," She could almost feel his hot breath caress her cheek "I should just devour you right here and now." He took a sudden step toward her, teeth bared, and something deep inside Rey came roaring to life; with all the strength she could musters, she broke free from his hypnotic gaze and leapt backwards, throwing her hands out in front of her in a shielding motion. An opalescent light flashed out between them and Rey felt herself flying backward, propelled by an unknown force, before everything went black.