Nightmare was born in an interesting time in the Zekiran history. The planet's population was stable, for the first time in almost ten thousand years. There was still great amounts of room for everyone who could, to own land and have property. A prosperous time, really. However it was also a time of tremendous experimentation on the part of the Breeders in the age.

Most of the Breeders had begun to shift from breedings of convienence and desperation, to those of style and radical mutations. With the strangely 'natural-sixth-degree' lines popping up everywhere, mutations and power levels unknown in prior generations were apt to show up without even the slightest intervention of a real medically-induced Breeding.

So quite frankly, Nightmare isn't the weirdest thing out there.

Not by a long shot.

Her ancestry goes quickly back to the White Valley renegades. A group of Slaves, Bayaran and escaped criminals here and there, who congregated in a safe, shelted and isolated location on the edge of the deserts of Kiran. Close enough to civilization to make the hard trek to a city worth while. Close enough to cities that it slowly became known as the location to head for, if you were Renegade. However, remarkably few legal patrols or public officials knew of its existance. That is perhaps in part due to the psionics that lived there over time, and perhaps due to the fact that if you're the Owner of a very abused or disgruntled Slave, you're going to be too preoccupied with your own selfish concerns, to listen to your Slave's whispers in their quarters late at night.

Besides, those Owners couldn't raise a finger after a twenty-year period. It struck some people as odd that no one ever challenged that law - that if a Renegade, a non-criminal escapee or Bayaran who did not cause physical injury, escaped for twenty years or more, they legally were absolved of any crime and were considered Free Landholders (holding the property they doubtless put lots of effort and time into building, wherever it was they 'settled'). A fair share of escaped criminals had attempted to live in White Valley even though they had committed violent crimes.

They were, somehow, found by the authorities and didn't remember where they'd gone. After all, the desert's a big, hot place. Heatstroke can cause lots of memory loss.

Right?

By the time Nightmare was born, however, White Valley's inhabitants were full-on Membayar, Animal Masters and the like. Even considered High Holders by some - because the land they Held was practically worthless to most people they didn't care how big a plot of land these descendants of Slaves held. It was just sand, right?

Well, wrong. The place was rich in mineral deposits, an excellent location for solar and wind power collection, and had some of the most striking landscapes in the world. All of those contributed slowly to the urbanization of a once-isolated place. It would always remain small, because not that many people want to live in the heat and blinding light of the desert. White Valley was named such because of the pure white reflective sand, largely quartz crystals, and when the sun fully hit it, it blazed in every sense of the word.

So though Treason didn't remain long, he did remain long enough to produce a sort of heir to the immortal throne there. Xhiaan, another male shapeshifter, was himself born to attain a goal. That goal is one which Nightmare continues to meet - though today on Planet Twenty the point is somewhat moot. Their goal? To prevent Etan from taking over the world. Sounds simple, but it wasn't. It was never a simple thing trying to combat one of the earliest naturally-occurring immortals, hardly easy to fight him when he was one of the single most powerful psionics that the world of Zekira had ever - and possibly will ever - see.

No one really is sure which of the two males actually carried Nightmare to term - however, one of them did actually give birth to her. They're shapeshifters, and the years had changed the outlook on such matters. Hardly anyone batted an eye, though truth be told everyone is still somewhat curious as to which of the immortals it really was that gave himself a womb.

Nightmare herself knows, and hasn't said. It is possible that because she knows, other people could too - but that's where her rather powerful mind comes in. Nightmare carries a little of Xhiaan's telepathic ability to sense Etan's presence. Not a lot is needed, the range that each of the carriers of this torch needs is only about three hundred miles radius. They were a safety measure, one which was set up almost three thousand years prior.

To Nightmare it was explained, by Xhiaan when she was old enough to understand, that their 'job' had been passed on from generation to generation, spreading around every once in a while in fits and starts by those who had the Hyperfertility gene and sometimes skipping a whole generation for one reason or another. Trust issues, mostly.

Etan was a threat that just wouldn't go away. Like the other immortals, he tended to establish a base of operations and then carry himself around the world like he owned the whole thing already. However unlike many immortals, he actually intended to own it all. Some several thousand years back, someone else found about his immortality. They were immune to Etan's mental plundering, able to see through his mental mask and notice him when a room of a hundred highly Bred individuals could not. Nievehda Aplon was her name, and her descendants have worked toward the singular goal of stopping Etan at any step he tried to make.

No one questioned this goal - anyone who had met the man knew that there was more to him than he let on. So it was that a solemn vow was passed from one to the next, always only those who were intimately trusted and groomed for the time they would then take over.

The switch was, after a few dozen generations, their own immortality started showing up. Not in the least because at least once or twice, Etan's own children switched sides on him!

Nightmare was descended from one of those semi-immune, semi-immortal types. As a stopping block to Etan, Nightmare was given locations to visit and items to hold on to - both constructed of a peculiar substance which actively prevents Zekiran psionics from functioning.

As a shapeshifter, however, Nightmare never quite liked that stuff. It was fine for being private, her mind suddenly acted like a normal person's instead of a very strong telepath. But she always worried: what if it affected her body too much? It was a question that had been answered before, and would be asked again by others. So she carefully kept the black stone close when needed, fled to Heaven Tower only a few times in her long life.

Nightmare, even as a young Zekiran not past her first 'lifespan', would far rather have confronted Etan directly and physically than continually eluding him as he eluded the normal people of the world. With her ability to rend memories out of people and alter their very senses, she figured it would be fun to watch the pale-skinned yellow-haired mutant squirm. She knew she couldn't kill him - only Outsiders could really be killed (with tremendous effort), true born Immortals like herself were all but unable to die - but she could hurt him all she wanted.

She didn't much get her chance until another thirty thousand years later. The Zekiran population had swollen improbably large, but was now living shorter lives than ever before. Cities were becoming cramped, and people were less likely to seek out a new place to live, because of the risks involved. And, their fertility was still a problem. By that time almost one in three Zekirans had to have artificial means to conceive, but they seemingly had every opportunity to do so.

Etan had money beyond belief. He Held lands that were maintained by others, his camp of loyal followers and children. Etan started to work on annexing whole cities to his name - even though hardly anyone knew that could be done. Even if it were only in theory, Etan wanted it. Still. So when he reached the newer city of Dupal which rested relatively near White Valley, all the bells and whistles in Nightmare's head went off.

She slunk off to meet him, or watch him, or even confront him.

She got her wish. While Etan was having himself a party - filled with the cream of the criminal crop it looked like, as well as some of his followers, Nightmare dropped in unannounced and unnoticed. There she waited, until well after dark and after many of the partygoers were asleep.

Because in nightmares and dreams, this girl really knew her stuff.

With a faintly heard titter from the long-bodied fur covered creature, she entered the bulk of the sleeper's minds, a dozen or more of them at once. She'd been around more than long enough to be able to hold half a small town in her nightmarish thrall, so this was nothing. Two of them were even Etan's loyal and annoying followers, but they had no defense against her.

So she made them stand, groaning slightly, shambling like monsterous mindless creatures - toward Etan's room. Without skipping a beat, she made the two shifters under his flag currently under her control transform themselves into Etan's own image. If she could have, she'd have made the whole zombified bunch do the same. She walked through their slumbering forms, turned into Etan too, and helped thud against his door.

They poured into the room, arms stretched out and reaching, vainly, swiping at the air. Nightmare didn't even really recall where she'd gotten this idea from, some video or other perhaps from a thousand or ten back? Didn't matter. Etan first off didn't ever take kindly to being awakened in his private chambers by anyone. Let alone by three of himself and a load of guests!

Speaking through their mouths, while still pretending to shamble about herself, and all but losing her composure and breaking into a laughing fit while she did this, Nightmare warned Etan over and over, "stay to your rooms, stay in your mansion! stay! Inside!"

She finished this whole demonstration by piling everyone onto his wide bed, with Etan still in it. He was actually squeaking out something, perhaps trying to scream, or maybe just yell for help, or perhaps - most likely - he was cursing her for being there at all. Yes, he saw her, but no there was nothing his sleep-addled mind could do but fall to her whim.

Smothered, but far from dead of course, Nightmare drifted away from the mansion carefully. She kept her hold on her sleeping minions until she could no longer do so, about two hundred miles distant. Then, breaking their sleep with a dread fear and abrupt falling and landing

SMACK

sensation, Nightmare hurried farther away to hide in her own place for a while.

Etan wasn't much of a bother for at least another three or four thousand years. Because he wouldn't come out of his mansion...

*** (in Pharoah's Page, dragons and such!)

The offer still stands, would you like to help us bring back new dragons? Ruarth asked. The other dragons had gone back to an animated discussion about whether eating whole trees was acceptable or if merely uprooting them whole and relocating them was a better plan to make the glade a bit wider.

"I would be honored to," Pharoah said with a bow.

"Me too," said another voice, "I heard you coming through, and the dragons are always noisy down there," it was Nightmare. "If that's all right."

It is acceptable to me, we will have to see if the Mirus dragons wish it so. Ruarth told her, a bit surprised at her sudden appearance.

Pharoah smiled at his distant cousin, he was always rather enamored of her - and her ability to shapeshift was stunningly better than his own. Their powers were vaguely similar, since they shared several ancestors (who didn't) she also had a control over dreams, but she could also control shapeshifters regardless of their relationship to her. It would frequently startle any of the local Kin who had a shapeshifting gene, she would coerse their new form out of them whether they were ready for it or not. In most ways, Pharoah was overshadowed by his younger (by three hundred years!.... yeah like that matters!) far-removed cousin. But at this time, they were equals.

Ruarth offered to take Pharoah, while one of the others, Marantanth of a long-gone Starlight Hatchery line, took Nightmare.

They would know soon enough, whether they'd both be finding new friends. Pharoah noted that Nightmare's ability to block him out was strong - though not perfect. On their way through the Nexus, Pharoah wondered whether they'd finally pair up themselves after all this time... Their kids would be grand, wouldn't they?

... Those thoughts had crossed his mind many, many times regarding Nightmare. Though they shared a grandsire, and certainly many distant ancestors (many of whom were still alive with them on Planet Twenty) it hardly mattered whether immortals bred together. Their shapeshifting genes would more than accomodate whatever mutations might appear, more likely they'd be reinforcing the ones already present (like the multiplicity of limbs, the horns, tail, and more). So Pharoah allowed himself to wonder on it more deeply now that they would be off alone, on another world together...

The orange and black dragonet wove her way around a table, causing several people at once to exclaim that the cat was trying to steal their food! Laughing, Nightmare collected her bond, and scolded her lovingly (and without really meaning it). "You should ask before heaing off, I can only find you when you want to be found, Nerria."

Nerria purred, enjoying her bond's love more than any tidbit of food she might have found from the table. Mirus would be their home only as long as it took to mature a little more, and it was plain that Nerria would have a lot of fun and learning to do once they got back to Planet Twenty. All the trouble she was planning on getting into...

***

"How can she even fly?" Someone asked, and Nighmare scoffed. She rapidly turned into a flier, and joined Nerria in the air. They swirled around a tree, the very long Nerria twining two of her tails around a branch and then landing very improbably in the tree. She would normally have crushed the branches, but instead of flying, she was now merely floating and enjoyed the looks of surprise on the other Zekirans faces. They didn't really understand what she could do, and of course Nightmare would alter some of their impressions of it later on. To some folks, Nerria was green and blue. To others, she had no wings. Nightmare was adept at remembering who saw what, and altering minds while they slept, so even if they did get a good glimpse of them - it wouldn't be for long.

And that meant that pretty much, they could wreak as much havoc as they liked, and get away with it.

It looked as though Viridia saw through it, but then no one messed with Viridia's memories unless they wanted to get good and exiled from the colony.

Nerria didn't speak like her clutch mate that had befriended Pharoah did, so she had to keep funneling questions through Nightmare if she had any. When they had first arrived, those questions came in waves by the dozen. Now they were more rare, but it was still fun to watch folks as they were compelled to answer...