Chapter Text
As she creeps away from her little hovel at the edge of town, Rey hears the music coming from the town bonfire. Tomorrow was All Souls' Day and her town lit the fire so that the spirits of loved ones, dearly departed, could find a way back. She pulls her threadbare cloak around her a little tighter. The town folks were fools, she thinks. Lost souls were not the only spirits out this night. Pushing the thought from her mind, she continues on her path.
Rey knows better than to be in the woods at night. She also knows it is even more foolish to be there on Samhain, when the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest. But she hasn’t eaten in almost four days. No one else will be out on this night so there would be no competition for game. They were all at the blasted bonfire, no doubt getting drunk off of ale and mead. She sends a silent blessing up to the gods and spirits for the hunters moon tonight, its lighting shining down through the tree branches as she enters the forest.
The roots of the ancient trees crisscross under her feet as she pushes deeper in. Rey strains to hear anything besides the occasional crunch of leaves or crack of twig. It was the kind of quiet that your brain cannot comprehend, so it makes up noises to fill in the silence. A strange buzzing fills her ears. She shakes her head, trying to clear the sound, the action making her feel just a little light-headed. She is so hungry. She just wants to catch something, anything. She will worry about her next meal after she finds this one.
A few feet away she hears the rustling of bushes and she slowly slides the knife out of it sheath on her belt. Slowly, she inches her way into the direction of the disturbance. As she gets closer she can see the bush shake. Rey crouches down, ready to grab and stab any animal that comes out. She carefully picks up a stick, and throws it into the bush to scare the animal out.
The response is instant, out of the bush comes a large, black owl. It's flying straight for her, claws outstretched and open. Rey throws herself forward, so that she is laying flat on the ground. She hears the bird let out a loud screech and the rustle of wings as it flies away. Slowly she picks herself up and hurries away, lest the creature decides to return.
She drains the last of waterskin after walking for what must be hours now. The full moon is directly overhead. Now her ears strain for the sound of rushing water, hoping she isn’t too far away from the stream. As long as she can get some water, Rey thinks that she will be able to make it back to the village when dawn breaks. But as it is now, she has been in the forest for hours, more hungry than she was before and now without water.
Rey can feel her body growing weak and sleepy. She keeps her eye out now not just for small animals but also for fairy circles. These woods belong to the fae, and the fairy circles are the doorways between the two worlds. Trespassing into one was bad enough, but if you were quick enough, the fae may not notice you there. The longer you stay in one however…
Rey thinks back to the stories that Maz used to tell her. About how she had found Rey as a small child at the edge of the woods.
“You're lucky I found you before sundown, child. You had been standing in a Fairy circle.” Rey can almost hear the old woman's warm voice, as she remembers what counted as bedtime stories for them, “If you had fallen asleep there, the Fae King would have taken you away.”
But Maz had been gone for almost five winters now. Plutt, the local lord, had wasted no time coming and taking over the little plot of land that Maz and Rey called home. At first he had let Rey stay there, demanding half of what the little farm produced. But then that summer had come with drought, and the next spring the last of the two milking cows died because she could no longer feed them. Plutt took what little yield Rey produced that year and then promptly threw her off the land.
Rey staggers around the forest looking for a safe place to stop and rest. There is no good wallowing in the events of the last few years. She’s learned how to take care of herself. She is a decent hunter, but her only bow had broken a month ago. She doesn’t have any money to buy or make a new one.
Normally her friend, Finn, would have gladly made her a new one, but he left six months ago to go work as a weaponsmith for Sir Damaron. He offered to take her with him, away from their small village and to a new, more comfortable life. But Rey couldn’t leave. She had lived in Jakku her whole life. Besides if she left...What if they came looking for her? What if they, her parents , finally came back to take her home?
The sound of a soft bubbling breaks her out of her thoughts. The trees in this part of the forest are tall and thick, severely limiting the moonlight. Rey moves carefully in the direction of what she hopes is a stream. She reaches out in front of her and feels for a tree, moving from one to the next. Her legs are starting to feel wobbly after walking for hours. Rey pushes herself to take step after step. The bubbling sound turns more babbling, and she feels her legs start to move faster, rushing as much as her aching muscles could.
The trees start to part and there in the clearing she sees a little stream, rushing over rocks and pebbles. She starts to rush to it when something catches her attention out of the corner of her eye. Rey is not the only one who is seeking midnight refreshment. Just a few feet down, she sees a young stag. It's small, its horns still new, but not a baby. If she is quiet enough she may be able to sneak and stab it. She retreats slightly into the tree line and slowly, silently, makes her way to her prey.
She manages to get behind it without it noticing her approach. Crouching, she stalks toward it, pulling her knife forward and gripping it tight. She can almost reach it. She draws her arm back, ready to plunge it into the animal's flesh. She takes another step, ready to strike, when a twig breaks under foot. The stag jumps, just out of reach. Rey's arm, already in motion, swings forward and sinks into the deer. The wound is not deep, not the killing blow that she had intended, but it's enough to get the knife lodged in the skin and when the stag takes off in a run, it pulls Rey down to the ground.
She’s up in a snap, rushing off in the direction the stag ran off in. It goes back into the thickest part of the wood and Rey struggles to keep up. For a moment all the hunger and exhaustion that she had felt disappears as she surges forward, hoping that the animal may be injured enough that it will slow down and she can finish it off.
They come to a clearing, the moon light streaming down so Rey sees her prey take off into the darkest part of the wood. She takes a steadying breath and takes off after it again. She never saw the raised tree root.
She stumbles forward and feels her ankle twist. She tries to get up, taking a few steps forward before she falls again. She would cry, but all the energy she had is gone. Rey lays there, the soft moss of the forest floor cradling her body. She decides that she may as well as try to rest and move again in the morning. She hugs her cloak around her body and falls asleep as soon as her eyelids flutter shut.
When she wakes, it's to the sun peeking through the trees...And a tall, masked figure dressed all in black standing over here. Rey sits bolt upright and scoots backwards, colliding with what feels like a solid wall. She turns her head to see what she has hit, only to see thin air. The figure speaks.
“Don’t worry, you're my guest now.”
She looks down to the forest floor and sees a bright red toadstool. And then another. And another. Her eyes follow them, making a circle all around her. Slowly, she turns her eyes back to the dark figure, realization making a chill go down her spine. He is the Fae King.
“My name is Kylo Ren and this forest is the domain of my court. Tell me human, why have you wandered here." At that moment, Rey's stomach releases a growl, and she looks up at him.
"I see.” He says dryly. “Where are your weapons?"
She reaches for her sheath where her knife is usually hidden, but finds it empty. Then she remembers the events of the night before.
”I had a knife, but I lost it in the stag.”
He is quiet for a moment before saying, “You were hunting a stag...with a knife?”
"My bow broke a month ago," she offers as an explanation.
He nods, then waves his hand and Rey feels the wall behind her fade away. He extends his hand to her. "Since you have stepped into a fae circle, a doorway between our worlds, therefore, by the rights of the wood, it is at my leisure when to release you. Since you were hunting game in my wood, you are free to go, but only once you have learned how to hunt-”
"But I already-"
"-until I am satisfied with your progress." She can feel the smirk even if it is hidden by the mask.
"I don't need your help."
"Who said anything about help?"
He walked forward, crouching down in front of her. Rey can't see his eyes, but she can feel them. She can feel The Fae King look over her and she feels frozen to the spot. It's not fear, her fate is already sealed; the fae can't lie. No, there is another emotion that is causing her blood to pound in her ear and she has no idea its name.
"What you need..." Kylo Ren’s voice under the helmet is cold and metallic. “Is a teacher.”