So this is my first Rise of the Guardians fanfiction. ENJOY!

I own nothing!

The Nightmare King slithered through the dark night. Sending nightmares in his wake as he passed the various houses in his last neighborhood for the night. Finally he made it to the house at the end of the street. He glanced at the seemingly normal home. It was different than the others; it was slightly bigger, and more modern than the other cookie cutter homes he sent his nightmares to.

Pitch made his way in to the two-story abode with the iron fence surrounding it, which put it more out of place in the neighborhood.

The first bedroom he came to, he simply passed by seeing as the parents gave themselves their own nightmares. He smirked as he finally made it to his intended target. He made his way into the room of a little four-year-old girl.

Pitch barely spared the pink princess themed room a glance as he looked down at the little girl, her curly tawny brown hair spread out on her pillow. Pitch observed as the small child dreamed sweet dreams of herself as a princess and flying on the back of a dragon over the countryside, courtesy of the Sandman.

"Time to get rid of those sweet dreams tiny princess."

Pitch tapped his finger on the dragon and watched in amusement as the dragon turned on its princess, but Pitch's look of amusement changed into one of confusion as he watched his nightmare sand turn back into the golden dream sand.

Pitch's curiosity was peaked. He had never seen this happen before, but instead of the dream going back to its original state, it instead shifted into an entirely new dream where the child was in a meadow and playing with fairies and other mythical creatures.

"This is most interesting." Pitch murmured to himself as he gave the girl another dose of nightmare sand, and like before his nightmare sand reverted to dream sand and the dream this time was of the child as a mermaid swimming with whales. The Nightmare King thought it would be a perfect opportunity to experiment and decided to give the small girl a continuous stream of nightmare sand, but once that happened the child wasn't able to change her dream or fight off the nightmares. She would attempt to get rid of the nightmare but it was futile as his sand swallowed the dream sand.

Pitch stopped his stream of black sand as the girl scrunched up her face and started to stir, but instead of yelling out like a normal child would. She just let a small whimper. Pitch watched in silence as the little girl opened her eyes and whispered, "Hello?"

"You are a most peculiar child indeed."

The child gasped at his voice and Pitch finally felt a spark of fear that he was so desperately after. But not only that, Pitch felt a spark of hope. Had she actually heard him?

"Who's there?" The little girl whispered into the darkness of her room.

"That would be me little one." Pitch proclaimed proudly as he stepped into the moonlight and looked down into the youthful grey eyes looking back at him.

Pitch couldn't contain his excitement. This child believed in him, he couldn't believe it.

"Who are you?" The girl asked quietly wrapping her arms around the stuffed elephant beside her.

"The boogeyman." He sneered at the girl.

Sadly Pitch didn't get the reaction he was looking for because that little speck of fear that the child held disappeared. Pitch watched in amazement as the child stood and held her hand out.

"I'm Ellie." She smiled up at him, waiting for him to take her hand.

The Nightmare King was at a lost. He wasn't expecting this. He chooses to ignore her hand. He had a plethora of questions he wanted to ask her and decided to ask her the question that was at the forefront of his mind.

"How where you able to change your nightmare back into a dream, dear child?"

Ellie dropped her hand down dejectedly, and sat back down on her bed.

"My daddy always told my that I could dream whatever I want so when it got scary I just changed it to something else." She began to frown, "But it wouldn't change in the end."

Pitch smirked, "That would have been my doing little one. I've never seen anybody, let alone a child change my nightmare sand while they're asleep."

The child's frown deepened, "Why would you give me nightmares?" Pitch looked down at the child with a look of annoyance. "Because I'm the Nightmare King of course!"

"But I thought you were the boogeyman?" Ellie stared up at him, a look of confusion on her face.

Pitch pinched the bridge of his nose, "Let me make this as simple as possible. Yes, I am the boogeyman, but that was a name given to me by others. My real name is Pitch Black, the Nightmare King." Pitch finished with gusto trying to terrify the child again, but it was another failure as Ellie wasn't even fazed.

"Pitch Black." Ellie said, trying the name out. She gave a nod. "Yes, I like that name. It's much better than the boogeyman."

Pitch just stared at the girl. He wasn't expecting this turn of events at all on his last stop of the night.

"So dear one, what made you to decide to believe in me?" Pitch inquired as he watched the girl mess with her elephant. This time instead of getting a spark of fear, he got a flame.

"My mommy said that if I wasn't good the boogeyman would come and get me and I would never see my daddy again." Pitch thanked Tsar Lunar for his good hearing or he would have never heard the child's small whisper.

Pitch let out a sigh, 'Really the lies that parents come up with.'

"Well I love to burst your mother's bubble but I have no time or the patience to be stealing children in the night."

Ellie let out a giggle, "So you're not gonna take me?"

"No dear child, I'm not here to steal you away, just to give you nightmares." Pitch finally took a seat in an armchair next to the child's bed. This was the first conversation Pitch had since the Dark Ages and he wasn't about to give it up. Even if it was with a four-year-old.

"Why do you give people nightmares?" The child spoke without thinking.

"Because my job as the Nightmare King is to make sure people don't forget about fear."

"Why?"

"Because fear is an important emotion."

"Why?"

"Because if somebody is afraid it makes them cautious."

"What does cautious mean?"

Pitch forgot he was talking to a four-year-old.

"It means that they'll remember to be careful."

"What do people need to be careful of?" Pitch was starting to regret his decision on staying, and let out a sigh before answering, "Did your mother or father ever tell you what to do if a stranger decides to talk you into going with him or her?"

"Yes, never go with them and start yelling for help." The girl said proudly, happy that she remembered what her father taught her.

"I help people remember rules like that."

Elli let out an "oh" as she let that information sink into her four-year-old mind.

"So you're a good guy then!" The child said excitedly as she smiled innocently up at him.

Pitch was startled by her statement, no one had ever thought he was "good" by any means. Maybe he was in the very far past, but not anymore. Kozmotis Pitchiner died a long time ago. The Nightmare King decided to correct the girl.

"I am not good, do not misinterpret what I do as my job as something as good will." Pitch again forgot he was talking to a child, as she got a puzzled look upon her face.

"Forget about it, we will have that discussion at another time." Pitch decided it was time for him to turn the tide and ask her a question. "If you were afraid that I was going to take you from your parents then why were you so calm?"

"Because I thought if I was nice to the boogeyman then he would see that I was a good girl and not take me away from my daddy."

He decided to indulge the girl, "Well if my job was to take misbehaving children in the night I would have to say that plan of yours might have worked." Ellie let another giggle out, "Really?"

Pitch let out a small smile that felt foreign on his face as he nodded a yes to the child. The little girl just giggled again and squeezed her elephant in happiness, glad that her little plan would have worked.

Ellie tried to giggle around a yawn and he remembered that while this was his first non-one-sided conversation, he was dealing with a mortal and not only a mortal but a child, and mortal children needed their sleep. While he the Nightmare King, an immortal didn't require a full eight hours.

"Well my dear," Pitch stood up from the armchair, "I'm afraid that it's time to take my leave."

"But you'll come back right?" The child almost screamed, remembering that her parents were in the other room.

He decided not to answer directly, "Perhaps." And with that the Nightmare King disappeared into the shadows.

Please review because I would really appreciate it! If anyone would like to be my beta please message me!