Summary: "Are you afraid of the dark" prompt from Cavity week list. "Pitch can sense fear, even in spirits. What are Tooth's and how does he react to them? "
The villagers had her parents, and Toothiana wanted nothing more than to fight, but at the same time, she was paralyzed with terror. She couldn't move a muscle, not even to grab the precious pouch that had otherwise saved her before, especially when it came to getting away from the mysterious hunter.
In her mind, she was screaming at herself that he was the sultan that her father had been a slave to, that he had planned all this as revenge for the loss of his humanity. But in her dreams she was such an unbelievably dumb creature!
She was always more animal than human, and rather than obey her parents wishes, she set off towards her enemy, letting out a shrill battle cry...
And then the villagers grabbed her and yanked her down, and she screamed as they began to yank and pull in her wings, shouting and calling her names as they did so.
Monster!
Freak!
Demon!
And then the Monkey King would lean over her with his evil, gleaming eyes and his foul breath, and he would grin.
"And under your feathers you are just another slip of a girl, meant to be taken by a man." He growled, and there was a cruel glint in his eyes that made Tooth's heart go stock still out of sheer fright, as he leaned closer, reaching out to grab her...
"That is enough of that." A hard, dark voice growled. The Monkey King looked up, and then a black blade sliced through him. But rather than spraying over Tooth with guts or bloodmatter, the Monkey King dissipated into shadows that shrieked and clawed at the air...
Tooth woke with a gasp, her face wet from tears, and she jerked up, sitting and staring wildly around her, her heart hammering so hard that she felt like it was in her throat.
She was at the Tooth Palace.
She was home.
She was safe.
"Shhh..." A voice murmured soothingly, and Toothiana shivered when she felt a hand caress her gently down her back, between her wings.
Oh. And she was with Pitch.
She looked down at the Nightmare King, who regarded her with a strange, saddened expression, as he continued to caress her gently down her back.
"I am sorry..." He said quietly. "I had told them to leave us alone, but some of the Fearlings are more daring than others... or just plain stupid."
"A Fearling...? Oh." That explained the nightmare. Tooth shuddered, then laid back down. One would think that she would have wanted to get away from Pitch, after a nightmare like that. But as it was, she preferred to curl up closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder, while he pulled the sheets up further around them.
"I forgive you." She said quietly.
And she always did. Because it wasn't Pitch's fault that she had such tempting fears.
After all, they were a part of who she had become.