A tiny grain of black sand. That was all that was left of Pitch. At least outside of his prison, his lair which would imprison him for the rest of eternity hopefully.
The tiny grain of sand was an odd one though. Unlike it's counterparts, it had started to develop it's own thoughts, and possibly it's own free will. Finally with it's creator buried under the cold earth, it had the freedom to do as it wished. Creating nightmares had been it's whole life, since it itself had been created.
Following it's brethren, who were controlled by the one they called Father. A cruel father he was, polluting the dreams of children everywhere. It had been quite exhausting being a minion of such a dark minded man.
Now it let the winds carry it wherever they wished. Perhaps it would land in a nice peaceful shadow.
The battle between Father and those Guardians had been noisy and unnecessary, considering Father had been doomed from the start. That Frost spirit's ice and the Sandman's golden sand had taken many of it's companions. Now it was lonely without the company of the other grains of sand.
As it went through these thoughts, the winds carried it through a human village. The Sandman had been hard at work, the dreams of children were floating above the houses with a new glow. Not wanting to taint any of the precious dreams, it made a new course, flipping to another wind stream.
Yes, a nice shadow would be comforting after all the chaos.
As it flowed along, it didn't anticipate the sudden burst of cold wind from a passing Jack Frost, throwing it off it's course, and into a dream. Immediately the dream turned black and started to change.
No. No. It didn't want this to happen. If the Guardians knew about the black speck's existence, it would be thrown into the hole with Father.
With all it's tiny might, it reined in it's destructive power and the dream turned back to it's golden state. The black speck, jostling along with the golden grains around it to form the dream, simply let itself be moved.
The girl's dream was still of her drawing, and as the grain of black sand moved with the gold, it felt a sense of peace. The more it moved with the dream, the more it could feel the child's happiness. Perhaps, the speck could stay like this, remain a part of this child's dream. . .
Only in the morning, the girl would awake, and the dream would cease to exist, much like all dreams do.
The black speck, unlike the golden grains, would remain however, it's purpose hadn't been to be a part of the girl's dream, therefore it wouldn't become a part of the girl's memory either. As a matter of fact, it never had a purpose, it had just strayed from it's brethren. So now, without a purpose to fulfill, it would remain in the world forever as a black speck.
Unless Father got loose, but what were the chances of that?
A feeling of apathy took over the black grain. What would it do then, in a world that didn't need it?
Once again, it got caught up in it's thoughts and didn't realize that morning had come, the sun had started to peak over the top of the trees surrounding the human village.
At once, the dream fell apart, the golden grains of sand swirling down into the house and into the girl's memories, leaving the black grain on it's own again. It had swirled down with the gold, and now fell from the air, landing on the girl's cheek.
The warmth from the skin of the human made the black grain want to dissolve into it. As it felt this, it could feel itself sinking into the consciousness of the girl. No, it didn't want to harm any children anymore. It had seen the consequences of hurting a child protected by the Guardians.
Only, it seemed the black speck wasn't able to harm the child. The girl seemed to be a strong willed one, and as her mind accepted the black grain's presence it blocked the nightmare's the grain had began creating.
Yes, the girl was fighting the harmful dreams the black sand made.
Hmm, perhaps, the black speck would just stay in this human's mind, protected from the Guardians, and able to enjoy the peaceful warmth the human gave, after all it was so tired and wanted very much to just rest. Yes, that was a very good idea.