Because I felt there needed to be an explanation for how Canada learned Pitch's name.
It was the height of the Dark Ages and Pitch was fully into his power, bringing fear and nightmares to a world full of children, and the occasional adult. As such he was very interested in spreading his fearlings to all corners of the globe. He found certain cultures to be more attuned to helping him with this than others. One such culture was the Vikings. They were feared throughout Europe and had begun setting their sights further to the west, expanding their reach and his. And so it was that when one of these ships brought back news of a vast land to the far west, with untold riches and savage natives, that Pitch soon found himself 'tagging along' on the return voyage.
Arriving on the shores of what was slowly becoming a small settlement, Pitch began to explore. He noticed that even though there were several young men and women in the new settlement, there was only one child. He seemed to be in the care of the Viking that was organizing the settlement, but despite that he seemed outright hostile to those around him. He would fight, snarl and bite at anyone that tried to get close to him. Pitch found it oddly endearing that the child was the source of so much fear, though he himself had none.
It wasn't long after they arrived though that many of the settlers began to yearn for their homes. The hostility of this new land was far worse than the benefits of its resources could counter. As such they soon left. Pitch watched them from the shore, knowing he could use his shadows to travel back across the sea when he was ready, and watched them leave.
Turning back to the settlement he thought about how to find the natives. They had attacked the settlers a few times since Pitch's arrival but he had not been able to find their home. Wandering the now empty buildings her heard scuffling inside one of them and brushed it off as being an animal searching for something left behind that it could eat. So he was quite surprised when the small child that had been such a terror came out from the house instead.
The child seemed to lock eyes with Pitch, glaring at him, challenging him in some unspoken way.
"Why didn't you leave with the others? You are not wanted here. Go away."
Pitch chuckles as the child continues to glare at him.
"Do you even know who I am child?"
"No, and I don't really care either. Leave."
Pitch noticed the child still showed no fear of him despite the advantage of size he had over the smaller male.
"Did they leave you behind because you are so difficult?"
"No, I told them to leave, this is my land and they were never welcome here."
The answer was not what Pitch was expecting and so he narrows his eyes at the child, trying to see why he still was not afraid. He had been left
behind by his people to die in this strange foreign land and yet he seemed more upset that Pitch was still there.
Pitch grins at the child before him, thinking that if the indirect will not scare him then perhaps the direct approach will bear fruit. With that in mind he commands his shadows to reach for the boy, circling him as they reached out, not quite touching him. The boy seems to tense up at the display, cautiously watching the shadows and showing the first sign of fear that Pitch had ever seen in him.
"I would have you know who I am before my dear pets have their way with you child. I am Pitch Black, the Boogeyman and King of Nightmares."
Pitch's triumphant grin stalls though as he watches the boy grab one of his fearlings and tear it apart, with his bare hands. The other shadows recoil in fear at one of their own being destroyed by the hands of one they should be devouring.
The boy sends Pitch a grin, so terrifying it sends him reeling back. This boy could not be human, but a demon perhaps. That grin as he held the dissolving body of the fearling, so hungry and full of malice that it was like looking into the face of death.
Pitch jerks awake, breathing heavily as the dream fades from his mind. No, not a dream, a memory. And that grin, that smile. It was the same one he had seen on that hunter in Canada, the one that had shot at him. Suddenly Pitch realized something about the child from his memories and the hunter. They were the same. Despite the centuries that had past that demon child had grown into the demon that had asked a favor of him in exchange for his life, well pain-free life at least.
Groaning he vowed to stay out of Canada at all costs in the future. No amount of fear was worth risking running into that living nightmare child ever again.
