~Chapter 3~

Ember shadow traveled by herself for the first time since she had become Pitch's daughter. She traveled into hundreds of different bedrooms around the world, spreading fear a giving people nightmares. Ember even learned how to manipulate the shadows, making them cast into different shapes and scaring the people who saw them. Ember thoroughly enjoyed scaring people, some even passed out making Ember laugh so hard her ribs hurt.

But soon Ember grew tired of traveling from room to room, so she found a frozen lake in the woods and relaxed in a tree. Ember summoned the nightmare sand and created a dozen tiny dragons and sent them off to give nightmares for her. She then created her regular dragon for company. She hated being alone know, she had been alone all her life and grew tired of it. The dragon curled up in the branch next to Embers head and playfully nudged her. Ember laughed and laid a hand on the dragons head, gently scratching behind one of its ears.

Ember laid her head back and stared up at the star covered sky, the moon cascading light on the forest floor. It suddenly dawned on Ember that she used to talk to the moon, and how it was her only true friend. She wondered if that still remained true considering Pitch was his enemy, and she was now Pitch's daughter. She wanted to ask Tislar, but right as she was about to something caught her attention. Gold streams of sand started to cover the sky and head toward the town that was close to the frozen lake.

Ember recognized it as Sanderson Mansnoozie's dream sand, and knew that he was close. Curiosity took a hold of Ember and she hoped onto the dragons back and disappeared into the shadows.

Ember came back out on top of a building in the town and saw the dream sand flowing into the ones with sleeping people in it. Ember hoped off her dragon and stood on the roofs edge as a stream of golden sand passed her. It gracefully twirled around her, surrounding her with golden light. Ember reached out to touch it, but as soon as she did the strand turned black. Disappointment filled Ember, and something dark stirred inside her. Ember sighed and sent it off to a room with two sleeping children.

But Ember was too busy staring at the streams of sand to notice that someone was behind her. It was Sandy, he had felt the presence of fear and thought it was Pitch. He had his sand whips at the ready, and whipped one around Embers right hand. He yanked his whip back roughly and sent Ember flying towards him. Ember let out a tiny shriek at the sudden movement, confused as to what was going on. She had been yanked to the ground and was looking Sandy straight in the face.

Sandy's face went from rage to perplexity in less than a second. It clearly wasn't Pitch, but a teenage girl. Sandy was bewildered. 'Why does this girl resemble Pitch so much' , Sandy thought as he let the dream whips dissolve out of his hands freeing Ember.

Ember frantically scooted away from Sandy and tried to stand up. She didn't recognize Sandy at first, but after a moment she remembered who he was. Ember remembered reading about the great Sandman, Guardian of dreams. She was very fond of Sandy, and relaxed a little as she remembered who he was.

Sandy gave Ember another puzzled look, and then moved forward and offered her a helping hand. He gave Ember an apologetic look as Ember cautiously took his hand and allowed him to help her up. Once Ember was back on her feet she brushed the gravel from her dress and regained her footing.

"Thank you" Ember said nodding to the tiny man. Sandy bowed as a sign of respect and to show his apologies. It then hit Ember that Sandy was in fact a Guardian, and Pitch had warned her not to go around the Guardians. With a little hesitation Ember smiled at Sandy and quickly shrunk into the shadows before Sandy could stop her.

Ember left Sandy wondering who she was, and why she reminded him of Pitch. An idea struck Sandy that sent shivers down his spine, 'Could Pitch have blackened her soul?' The thought almost scared Sandy, he had to keep an eye on this strange girl and hope that he was wrong. With that Sandy went on with his night and sent sweet dreams to all the people in the town.

Meanwhile Ember traveled back to Pitch's lair, deciding that it would probably be better not to tell Pitch about her encounter with Sandy. She came to find that the lair was empty, not a fearling in sight. Ember let out a sigh of relief. She absolutely hated the fearlings, there screeches and the ghastly way they moved made Ember cringe just thinking about it. However, Ember wondered where Pitch was. She missed him and felt lonely without him there, but she was used to the lonely feeling. Ember guessed that Pitch was probably out finishing up some work, so she shrugged and went on to pace around the globe in the center of the cave.

As she looked at the lights she heard there dreams. Some of them were having nightmares, and recognized some of them as the ones she had caused. Others she guessed Pitch or one of the fearlings had caused. Ember was surprised though at how many lights there were though, she never thought that that many people believed in the Guardians. Ember knew Pitch would need help to get the lights back down, but how would they do that?

Ember started to devise a plan on how to take down the Guardians. She remembered reading about some of Pitch's old attempts, they had always seemed like they would work but he always seemed to fail. Pitch never seemed to take certain things into consideration, and he always assumed that he had taken them down letting down his guard. Ember ran through some of Pitch's weaknesses and what he could do better. After a moment she had a short list of things that Pitch could do differently that would ensure his success. Ember was so deep in thought that she did not hear Pitch arrive.

"Ah, your back." Pitch said as he placed a hand on Embers shoulders. Ember's thoughts were scattered and she gasped and jumped back in surprise.

"Give me a heart attack will ya!" Ember gasped as she tried to regain her composure.

"Ha ha, a little jumpy aren't we?" Pitch raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well you did just come out of nowhere and scare the crap out of me." Ember retorted as moved back to stand in front of him again. Pitch smirked and shook his head.

"Did you get any practice in?" Pitch asked as he starts to pace around the globe.

"Yes, it's becoming easier." Ember watches Pitch circle the globe and come back to face her.

"Any problems?" Ember remembered her encounter with Sandy, but she had decided it would be better not to tell him. Ember shook her head, hoping that Pitch couldn't read her mind.

Pitch looked at her curiously for a moment, trying to see if she was hiding anything. Luckily Pitch didn't notice she was lying. "Good." Pitch looked at Ember one more time before he returned back to the globe.

Ember released a breathe she didn't know she was holding, and went back to planning.