This world is owned by the powerful, and those who are powerless drone on endlessly without even the escapism of dreams to fall back upon. However, Ironically you could say their lives are like nightmares. Something they will never experience is the perfect embodiment of the abysmal lives they live.

The dreamless, also known by many other slanderous names; They have no power and when they rest at night all they see is the cold pitch black underside of their eyelids.

Those with a fraction of power live lives of barely more value. Most of them are used as tools in all manner of fields, ranging from medical practices to violent warfare.

Those who are truly powerful are destined to be so from birth, granted incredible abilities from their nightmare powers.

The regular nightmare is the lowest tier, and also the most common.

Regular nightmares give their wielder minor physical enhancements and an elemental ability predestined by their parents affinities, This is not always the case but it is far more likely.

The next tier up is the irregular nightmares, granting a larger boost to physical attributes and a more unique elemental ability, sometimes they have multiple powers but it is rare.

The hyper nightmare, generally regarded as the most powerful variant. Physical enhancements on another level compared to the rest, and two or three elemental abilities, this is the only nightmare type out of the three that can have multiple elements, but only if the parents of the wilder both have different elements such as air and ice. People with this type of nightmare usually come from nobility or royalty.

There is a rumour that a 4th kind exists, so powerful that it cannot even be called a nightmare.

Its known by the name of Dreamsbane.

The rumour says that every 100 years, since the dawn of nightmares, a single dreamsbane wielder is born. This person is supposedly always of royalty and the King was apparently the first ever dreamsbane, if thats true then he would be around 1,300 years old.

Supposedly of course.

***

“Trantil come quickly! theres bandits at the clearing just outside of the village”

These are the first words that i remember hearing, Trantil is my fathers name, he was the only soldier living in the village, so he was tasked with defending the village from the bandits all alone.

My mother Erantille was carrying me in her arms. Running with everyone else, she was crying and she kept looking over her shoulder, back towards my father i presume.

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A voice echoed in the chaotic chorus of screaming villagers, he was bellowing out in pain. My mother turned around to see my father, impaled through the chest, a spear clad in fire piercing through him.

He was hoisted into the air and when the bandit pulled the spear out, fathers body dropped to the ground with a wet thud.

My mother probably knew that my father was going to die, but she still ran back to try to help him. She was born dreamless so it was obviously a fruitless endeavour. Mother was marching towards her imminent death, and yet she wasn’t scared at all.

We reached the area where father was killed, the bandits were speaking to each-other but i couldn’t make out what they were saying, mother leaned over his body and closed his eyes, and they she closed her own eyes and prepared for her imminent death.

A woman prepared a giant ice crystal in the air above us. It fell, crushing us immediately.

My vision became blurry and my ‘head’ felt like it was about to explode, but that couldn’t be right? I was dead after all. But the pain was real,

It was like knowledge was flowing into my brain at an alarming rate, in only a few seconds i had received an influx of information and it was overwhelming.

I was still alive, that much was obvious although i don’t exactly know how.

After what felt like an eternity my senses began to return to me, i opened my eyes and i expected to see my village in ruins and overrun by bandits, but what i saw was completely different, all of the bandits were gone, actually everyone was gone.

The village was overgrown but not in ruins like i had expected. In my confusion i hadn’t realised but when i looked down at myself i was big, far too big to be a baby, i was also naked but that made more sense, after looking through some houses in the village i found black pants and a blue tunic that fit my new body.

I was planning a way for me to get to the nearest town when i heard voices coming from the forest, I investigated and found a scouting party, they were wearing some kind of badges.

Going off of the assumption that they were from a nearby town or village I thought about what to do next.

My best idea was to lay down further on the footpath they were walking and pretend to be asleep so i can convince them to take me with them.

***

“Sir look ahead theres a child on the floor, he appears to be uninjured”

i felt myself being lifted off of the ground and i pretended to be startled, i shook and flailed in the person’s arms until they dropped me, I got up after being dropped and i looked at the man, he was tall and thin but i could tell that he was strong, he had short brown hair, bright yellow eyes and by the look an his face i could tell that he was curious about why i was staring at him.

“Sorry mister, i didn’t know what was happening and i assumed that you were trying to take me somewhere dangerous”

“Don’t worry about it. What were you doing on the ground? this forest is full of dangerous monsters”

“I live in a village nearby, when I woke up this morning everyone was gone and so i decided to go looking in the forest for them”

A voice came from elsewhere

“A nearby village you say?”

I looked to the other big man, he had yellow hair, blue eyes and an overly serious look on his face. He was sat by a large tree.

“I would like you to tell me what you mean, as it is impossible for your statement to be true”

I walked over to the tree where Graham was sat and he stood up.

“After a bandit attack the only village near here has been surrounded by a poisonous mist for 8 years”

“I think that might have been my fault”

I paused to think about it, everything added up. The feeling that i had no physical body for an eternity, the intense pain that couldn’t exist since i had no nerves to feel it with even the fact that my father had a poison based nightmare.

“I think one of the bandits tried to kill me when i was a baby and it triggered some kind of automatic response which caused me to enter that state for 8 years”

“So you have a nightmare?”

“Its only speculation Graham, he could be innocent”

“Im not blaming the boy Lyken, i was simply intrigued”

“uhm-“

I thought about what to say, i still wasn’t sure that what i thought was true and with no way to confirm it I had to think about every word and action carefully.

“I think I do, although i’m not certain.

It’s just very coincidental that the fog faded when I awoke, and the 8 years that have passed match my new age perfectly”

Graham paused for a moment.

“Interesting”

“Come with Lyken and I, my father is the Lord of these Lands and lives in a town 3 days south of here”

“Okay”