A Nightmare's Point of View

Prologue

                                 The Beginning?

Hmmm...Where to begin...Where to begin...From the beginning?

There are a lot of those...How did this all start? How did my species come to be? That is a good place to start. The Teyrathayn created my species...How? You ask. Humph. It is quite a story, a sad one, but quite a story nonetheless.

Teyrathayn, during their time, were an incredible species in advance technology, space travel, and a vast array of sciences. They were a highly intelligent species. They were peaceful, benevolent, compassionate, altruistic, and loved by just about everyone in the known galaxies. Creatures from all walks of life knew of their greatness and called upon them for their guidance and their help. They kept their own codes and philosophies of ethics and propriety. They never turned away a creature in need.

Their species was considered by many to be magnificently beautiful. They stood between seven and eight feet tall and had a thin build. Their build was not considered to be sickly, but athletically toned. Their skin had a beautiful bluish gray pallor about it. They were humanoid. Some of them had black hair with streaks of silver in it, while some had hair as white as the frozen water that fell on some planets...No, water didn't fall on the planet I was from; there was no change in the weather there.

Most Teyrathayn, male or female, had long hair. Males usually pinned it back, fastening it with a small symbol of which family they came from. Females, on the other hand, depending on their age or occupation, wore it in a series of braids and intricate knots. Some displayed intricately with combs and pins, with the rest of their hair resting off their shoulders. The irises of their eyes were like looking into brightly colored prisms like the facets of a perfectly cut diamond. They were almost like something that some humans called rainbow topaz. Their irises collapsed into the center, where their pupils were. The colors were ever changing and moved with whatever light was reflected in them.

Yes, most either liked or loved them, but others were most likely jealous or even obsessed with them. Some called them delicious. I had heard them called delicious as well. Me? No, not me. Never had been, never would. Why? Well, I have my reasons. Anyway, the Teyrathayn, they had it all! They lived for hundreds of millions of years peacefully. Their long lives were filled with love and adoration,

but slowly concern and uncertainty began to worm their way in. Some became concerned with those who made unsuccessful attempts to destroy either the Teyrathayn or their planet. They were unsuccessful attempts, but attempts nonetheless. As the attempts became more elaborate at finally cracking their defenses and deaths started to occur, concern grew into fear.

At first, these attacks were seen as a misunderstanding. Envoys were sent, meetings were made, and treaties were signed. These held up for some time. Unfortunately, some things never changed with some species. Not everyone lived the near eternal that the Teyrathayn lived. Soon, the treaties fell away, and the aggressors and their allies fell back into their old habits, and some of their habits grew worse. A group of Teyrathayn scientists, desperate to fix the situation in their own way, came up with a plan to stop all of the attempts against their people and their planet. They planned to create something that would protect them, no matter where they were in the universe. They utilized all their knowledge in biology, chemistry, technology, and natural forces to biologically engineer creatures that would act as guardians. These guardians could, and would, do anything that was needed to protect their people.

These guardians that they created worked for a long time. The "creatures" did their jobs well, very well. Unfortunately, even this proved to be too good to be true. There had been stories, theories, unfounded speculations, and ideas by many species about what happened to the Teyrathayn people, but none of them knew the full story. Many believed that they went too far with their creations and accidentally created something that destroyed their world. Whatever happened to the Teyrathayn, their species and their planet just disappeared. They were replaced with creatures far worse than anyone could imagine. The Teyrathayn who were off-world when it disappeared fading into history and

legend...

So what really happened to them? I don't fully know, but what I do know was that they tried to stop my kind from spreading to other worlds by isolating them all on a single planet. They planned to trap them forever, but, heh...they made the situation much worse! The Teyrathayn created a portal, a doorway, that swallowed the entire planet, sealing it away to protect the rest of the galaxy and the universe from that which they had created. Heh...poor things. What they had created was the ultimate Nightmare species: the Atheireyn...

What happened to the Teyrathayn that remained on the planet?

Let's just say that the ones who were viscously torn apart and eaten...

were the lucky ones...