A man stood before me. He was quite tall, had a beard and a slight tan. His hair was brown, with a couple of gray streaks. We were in a forest, hunting. I held a spear in my hand, a one little too long for me. My clothes were made of leather, from the hide of various animals we had caught. I was fifteen years old at the time, considered as an adult in Athosian standards. I was short and had reddish-brown hair. The man, who was standing before me, had a bow and arrows on his back. He was listening. Besides my own breath I could only hear the whistle of the wind. Carefully I moved my head to look to my left side. Nothing there, then I looked in the right. Nothing there either.
My father and I had been hunting together for ages. Since my mother was caught by the wraith we only had each other. I had no siblings. Wraith, the remotely human looking greenish creatures with a hand that could suck life out of a person. We, humans, were their cattle. They ate us, our life force. Every now and then the wraith arrived in their pointy little ships to collect humans from our village. We call that culling. They did the same thing to the other worlds too. I had never met a person who hadn't heard of the wraith. The wraith would arrive trough the ring of the ancestors, a ring that allowed us to travel to other planets in this galaxy. At the age of fifteen I had already seen many worlds, I was usually sent to trade with other people on other planets. Still we tried to be as self-sufficient as possible by growing our own food.
Suddenly I heard something step on a twig. My father had heard the same. He took an arrow from his quiver and placed it on his bow. Clearly he had seen something that I had not. He took aim and shot the arrow. It flew almost without a sound between the trees and apparently hit the target if I interpreted his expression right.
"Come, Teyla!" He said and ran forward to the place where his kill was.
I ran after him. Jumping over roots sticking from the ground trying not to trip.
There it was. A light brown, large animal with two horns sticking from it's forehead. It was big enough to keep us fed for days.
It was still alive, but seriously wounded. The arrow my father shot was sticking in it's side.
"You must finish it, Teyla." my father said and pointed at my spear.
I took a deep breath and walked next to the animal. I raised my spear and plunged the blade to the animals troath. Blood was gushing out of it's mouth. It didn't affect me. Not anymore. I had been hunting for so long that hunting didn't cause me to feel any pity or remorse. It did, though, when I was younger.
My father grapped the bloody animal and threw it on his shoulder. Then we headed back to the village, it wasn't too long a distance.
It was late evening by the time we arrived to our village. Few people were still outside of their tents, washing clothes and warming up next to campfires.
We walked next to out tent. My father threw the killed animal to the ground.
"I'll deal with that tomorrow, it's already so late," he said and covered the animal with a spread made of leather.
I went inside our tent. I lit the candles for light and sat down to my bed. It was covered with many blankets. On the walls of our tent hung many furs, the floor was covered in hides. I slipped into my bed between the blankets. I fell asleep before my father had entered the tent.
My dreams were restless. I felt a great pressure in my mind. I had nightmares, nightmares of the wraith. As if I was one of them and in their ship. Countless wraith walked past me without a second look. I heard thousands of voices, whispers. They belonged to the wraith.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Teyla. Teyla!" Someone whispered next to me.
My eyes flew open and I sat up. My heart raced and I was sweaty.
I looked beside me, and there was Kanaan.
He looked frightened as well.
"Do you feel it too?" Kanaan asked, trying not to look straight at me.
I gave him a careful nod. I squinted my eyes to see into my fathers bed.
He was clearly sleeping, snoring loudly, as always.
Kanaan walked silently to the exit and beckoned.
I rose from my bed and snuck out of the tent.
The night was cold and dark. The only light came from the stars in the sky.
Kanaan stood before me.
"Is it going to happen again?" He asked with a careful tone.
Kanaan and I had a strange ability. We could sense the wraith coming, or at least we thought we could. We felt the pressure, the weird closing presence.
Some of the athosians feared the ability greatly. Others, like my father, perceived it as a gift.
The feeling that occured was strange to describe. It was like a knot inside me. A freezing cold feeling emerging from within. The nightmares were also a part of it.
"I do not know... Have we ever been wrong?" I said and hugged myself tightly, as the cold feeling grew stronger.
"Should we wake up an adult?" Kanaan asked carefully, he was clearly shivering.
Suddenly a high pitch screech filled the air.
The wraith were coming.
In heartbeat I ran into my tent and went to wake up my father.
"Father, father! Wake up! The wraith are upon us!" I was scared, it was hard to breathe because of the presence of the wraith.
Father rose up immediately and grabbed his bow and arrows from the wall.
"Teyla, you stay here," he said and ran outside.
I was in shock.
I grabbed a knife under my bed and ran outsid too.
It was pure chaos.
People were running into the forest screaming. The wraith's pointy little spaceships flew around the village, shooting nearly invicible beams to the ground. As the beams hit people, they vanished.
There were already a couple of wraith on the ground, already feeding on their prey.
I sprinted to help the athosian who was fed upon. I was quickly behind the wraith. It was a male. Tall and muscular, his face was covered by a thick mask. He didn't even me
The moment I arrived behind him I rose my knife and hit it quickly to his right arm, the one he was feeding with. The wraith let out a loud grunt. Quickly he turned around and tried to slam me with his arm. I ducked and kicked him in his knee. The bone broke, and the wraith fell on his knees before me. Quickly I slit his throat open.
The wraith fell dead to the ground, blood gushing out of his body.
I hurried to help the person who was fed upon. Not many years were taken from him. He had lost consciousness.
'If I just had said something to my father straight away when I felt the wraith coming' I thought to myself.
I felt guilty. This was all my fault.
The screeching and screaming had not ceased. It was clear that many athosians were already caught.
I needed to find my father. I hurried into the forest.
Many beams searched the forest, many athosians were hiding under trees, trying to be as quiet as possible.
"Teyla! Come here. It's not safe to be out in the open!" a woman whispered to me from a tree. Apparently she had climbed there to avoid the beams.
"I need to find my father first." I said and hurried past the tree she was in.
I ran a long time. Everything that happened around me didn't matter anymore. I just had to find my father. He had to be okay. He could not have been caught. Never. I couldn't have believed it.
It was nearly dawn and only a couple of spaceships were left. The other ones had left through the ring of the ancestors.
Up ahead I heard sounds of a battle. I sprinted there, past the large trees. I heard yelling, clashing of metal and the sounds of the wraith's stunners.
As I arrived to the scene I immediately recognized my father. There were three men fighting against two wraith soldiers.
"Father!" I bellowed and started to run at his position. He turned his head and looked at me. It was enough of a distraction for the wraith to hit him to the ground.
Rage filled me and fear stepped aside. Tears started to drip from my eyes as I hurried to aid my father. He was down, and the wraith was already upon him. His hand was already placed on my fathers chest. The wraith was sucking the very life force out of him. Other two men were killed. I was alone. I had to help my father.
I jumped on the back of the wraith who was feeding on my father. The other wraith grabbed me and threw me to the ground. He was already targeting me with his stunner. He could never miss at that distance.
Before I realized what happened, I had gotten up and jumped on the wraith who was about to shoot me. I didn't even realize what I was doing. Couple of seconds past that wraith was dead.
The other one was still upon my father. I slashed the back of the wraith with my knife. It didn't have any effect. I had never been that angry, I stabbed the wraith all over again, the wounds just kept healing.
As the last resort I tackled the wraith. It did fall to the ground, but rose up almost immediately.
Suddenly a wraith spaceship was over us, shooting a beam at the wraith who was before me. It vanished.
Fatigued, I dropped to the ground on my knees next to my father.
He had aged terribly. He now had clearly a thin frail body and completely white hair. Wrinkels had taken over his face. He had to use all his strenght just to breath.
He stared at me. He was powerless.
"T..ey...la" he whispered between his deep inhales.
I nodded, tears pouring from my eyes. I was sobbing. Crying, frankly.
Before he could even begin his sentence he had some kind of a seizure.
He was shaking all over. I had never seen him in such a weak condition.
Before I even realized it he was gone. I was left all alone.
My father was dead.