Premonition?

I dreamed that I was hiking through a mountain forest, the descending fog thickening so that it was difficult to see more than perhaps ten yards ahead. The taste of the fog was slightly acrid on my tongue, its scent unnaturally sharp, its feel similar to a fine mist. Yet I trudged ever onward, turning left at the switchback to continue the upward trek.

After quite some time, I thought I heard something up ahead, to the downhill side of the well-trodden trail. I slowed to naturally soften the sound of my footfalls, my ears straining in case the sound was repeated.

I heard it: a whimper, soft and feminine, definitely to the downhill side of the trail, but still beyond the limit of my fog-inhibited vision. Shifting the backpack slightly, I slowed even more, my eyes scanning the area ahead as I stepped cautiously forward.

When I heard the sound again, it was almost directly to my left. The fog had thickened to perhaps only five yards of visibility, and I could have sworn that I saw something black and thin slither along the sparse grass into the fog.

Carefully, I stepped downhill off the trail, in the direction where I had seen the slither of black. I heard another soft, feminine whimper, this time a little louder... and not just because I was much closer now than when I had first heard that particular sound. Making my way around a thick tree trunk, I saw a small, flat mini-clearing which was somehow not affected at all by the fog, and the sight before me was, in a word, unnatural.

At the center of the small clearing was a stunning young woman, tall and lithe with long wavy blonde hair. Her eyes closed and her lips parted, she was completely nude, with chains wrapped around each ankle and wrist to hold her in a spread-eagle position on the ground, each chain somehow fused to a tall stake in the grassy clearing. Dozens of thin, black snakes of a kind I had never before seen slithered all over her, clearly tantalizing her senses from the way she writhed seductively. Her limbs inherently pulled gently against the chains as another thin black snake slithered quickly past my feet toward her.

I clamped my hand over my mouth to prevent myself from saying anything, or even from gasping in surprise. I was absolutely dumbfounded by the sight before me, and especially by the fact that this beautiful young woman was clearly enjoying this unnatural experience. Granted, I have long enjoyed seeing young women in bondage, whether they are clothed or naked or in various states of undress, but never had I considered combining bondage with snakes.

She turned her head toward me, her blue eyes opening slightly. I wondered if she could truly see me, such was the thickening cloud of unnatural passion visible in her eyes. She was panting softly between moans, her body in near-perpetual motion as still more snakes emerged from the thick fog to join the orgy upon her unblemished body.

Then a larger and longer black snake slithered between my feet, approaching her. Her eyes widened, a gasp escaping her lips, her eyes transfixed upon the apparent leader of the snakes as it approached and rounded her right foot, moving up between her legs to the base of her torso.

Turning around, the large black snake slowly backed toward the young woman's bare sex, slipping its tail inside her. She moaned softly at the initial penetration, and the snake's tail moved shallowly inside her, back and forth, back and forth. Behind my hand, my jaw dropped, my eyes riveted upon the unnatural actions taking place before my very (dream-guided) eyes.

With a sudden surge, the snake backed furiously into her. She stiffened as she screamed in pain, the smaller snakes continuing to slither all over her. A heartbeat later, I thought I saw a slight trickle of blood upon the black skin of the snake violating her body.

The larger snake began thrusting its tail harder and harder into the young woman. That unnatural action combined with the continual movement of the many smaller snakes upon her body caused her to cry out again in pleasure, her head moving from side to side. As her passion spiraled skyward, she instinctively pulled with growing force against the chains securing her to the tall stakes in the ground.

One by one, the toothless mouth of the smaller snakes grew trios of fangs, two from the roof of the mouth and one from the jaw. This perplexed me at first, then I finally realized what was about to happen. But before I could remove my hand and warn the lust-filled beauty before me, they all bit into her tender skin, and her scream was again filled with pain as her body stiffened once more, her back arched severely. The smaller snakes each bit her again and again, some even moving to and biting at her face, each trio of fangs drawing three pinpoints of blood from her body. Yet the larger snake inside her continued to pummel her sex furiously, bending itself around so that its large mouth, suddenly also sporting a trio of fangs, was aimed at her clitoris.

The bite to her sensitive bud produced a howl of pleasure mixed with extreme pain spewing forth from her lips. It was clear that the bite was the trigger for a powerful climax which assaulted my ears. Still, I was transfixed by this most unnatural display before me, uncertain whether I should rush to the young woman's aid or remain where I stood at the edge of the small clearing.

At last, the snakes all moved away from her bloody body, slithering back into the fog. The large snake was the last to leave her, vacating her body with an audible popping sound. I watched her several seconds as her body convulsed in the bonds, her chest heaving in her quest for more air, her gasping voice a raspy testament of her pain. Yet through all the bites, her eyes had remained closed, as if not seeing what was happening to her could somehow make it "not real."

I finally moved quickly toward her, kneeling beside her, the backpack suddenly seeming incredibly heavy upon me. I caressed a bloody cheek, opening my mouth to say something, but then her eyes opened.

The eyes were red - not just the formerly-blue irises... each entire eye was red, as red as the blood which now bathed her body.

I quickly scampered backward in fear, a fear which only grew as a trio of fangs suddenly grew in her mouth as her other teeth retracted within her gums. No longer did she sound like a young woman panting after a most unusual sexual experience; instead, she breathed with the tenor of a baritone, and the scent of sulfur filled the air, seeming to emanate from her own mouth.

Her muscles began to grow and bulge. Within seconds, she was transformed from lithe woman to muscle-builder woman, and it looked grotesque given her height and the blood coating her suddenly-bulging skin. With seemingly very little effort, she raised her left fist from the ground, snapping the sturdy chain around her wrist as if it were nothing more than a thin sheet of silver-colored paper. Her right wrist followed suit, and she slowly moved herself to a sitting position, her blood-red eyes glaring at me as if deciding whether I should become her breakfast.

My fear paralyzed me. Despite my instinct to flee the area as quickly as possible, my feet remained planted upon the ground. Despite consciously knowing that this was simply a dream – rather, a nightmare – I could not force myself to wake up and return to reality.

Her ankles moved, and the chains around them snapped just as easily as the others which had once secured her wrists. She was no longer truly human; she was clearly now a humanesque monster, perhaps even a humanesque demon, and she crawled slowly toward me, thin wisps of black smoke emerging from her mouth and her nostrils with every exhalation. Her hair receded before my eyes, ultimately leaving her bald with a line of bony spikes growing from her, forming a line from the bridge of her nose up and over her skull and down her neck to follow the length of her spine. Her fingernails lengthened and sharpened into nasty talons sharing the color of her eyes.

Only then did I finally awaken, finding myself sitting straight up in the tent, breathing heavily from the fear I still felt from the nightmare. It was finally daylight, with the leaf-filtered spots of sunlight illuminating the green canvas around me.

As I ate breakfast and stowed away my gear, I kept wondering what could have possibly triggered such a nightmare. Even worse, the image which was imprinted upon my mind's eye was not that of the bound young woman from when I first saw her in the dream, but the final image of her as the blood-covered humanesque monster crawling menacingly toward me.

At last, I donned my backpack, and continued my trek up the mountain. My goal was to reach the summit by midday, but looking ahead, I could see a thick fog descending the mountain.

...and I had to wonder if the nightmare was actually a premonition...