Chapter Twenty-Six

What Lies Beneath

Pitch moved down the hall quickly toward the workshop where he'd painted the train. He was excited at the thought of seeing Toothiana's face once he gave her his gift. Of course he would have to give her an apology as North had stated. A humorous idea came to him while he was setting up the easel and canvas to write 'I'm sorry' in the teeth as cavities, but he doubted she'd like an apology like that although it did have him cracking himself up hysterically to think about it.

It was fifteen minutes later when North finally arrived. He held up the book. "Here it is. It was on bottom shelf in back" He handed it to Pitch when he neared the Boogeyman's workstation.

Pitch had already gotten the background for his canvas painted in rose tinted pinks and purples when North had arrived. He smiled, "You found it! Good! Just in time!" Pitch clapped his hands before reaching over to clean the paint off of his fingers and grasp the book.

North grabbed a chair and set it to the side and sat down. He was excited about watching Pitch work. This new found hobby of his made North very interested. "I hope you do not mind if I watch." he said.

"Not at all!" Pitch beamed liking the attention as he turned back towards the canvas. He flipped through the book studying the shapes and colorations until he felt he had them down well enough. He then prepared the palette with the mixtures of paint he'd need and got to work. His mind focused on the canvas as he imagined what he wanted to see. Pitch started with a crown in the center and then began to flower out in symmetric circles from the middle of the canvas with the teeth he painted all tilting as they worked their way around in a spiral. He placed them meticulously to look like falling dominos leaving barely any gaps of space in the canvas. Pitch seemed caught in a heated enthusiasm, painting without stopping for more than enough time to replenish the paint he needed and to glance at the page of teeth he'd set up for a reference. It took him nearly three hours, even working non-stop, due to the amount of detail he put in to each tooth. He wanted it to be perfect, Toothiana would be impressed he assured himself. North had remained quiet throughout the entirety of the time leaving Pitch to fall completely into the task. When he was finally finished he turned a winning smile to North brimming with pride, "Well? What do you think?"

North sat back and studied the piece, stroking his beard. Finally he nodded. "It looks good. You have a surprising talent for this, Pitch. I am proud."

Pitch's chest swelled enjoying the praise, "Thank you North! I just hope she likes it." His eyes shifted down the piece with a small frown. What if his effort didn't matter, and she still remained mad at him? No, she would forgive him; she always did after all. Well, no, that wasn't true either. She obviously hadn't forgiven him for her fairies from so long ago, but then, this was a minor infraction comparatively. He would sit down and write her a note to go with the painting, and hopefully it would be enough, "North? Can I get a blank card and an envelope? I want to write a little something to Toothiana to go with the painting."

"Sure," said North. "But don't you think it would be better to tell her in person yourself when you give her painting?"

"Well... yes. I planned to say something in person, but I thought that maybe a little more on the side... where my own mouth couldn't... ruin the sentiment behind the gift might be advisable," Pitch blushed.

"Ah!" North nodded, giving him a smile. "Yes, understandable. I will hunt up a card for you later. Right now I wish to examine this piece of work closer." he said, getting up from his chair to move over next to the painting. He was still puzzled by the fact that Pitch had now painted two pictures, and not once did they come out looking morbid in any way or dark as the toy train had. He pondered this.

Pitch watched on curiously as North examined his work wondering why the man seemed to study it so intently, not that it wasn't pleasing to see him doing so. He decided that out of all the painting he'd done, canvas painting pleased him the most. "I think I really like painting, it's like weaving a dream instead of a nightmare... which technically isn't my forte, but I suppose is as close as I'll get to weaving something without fear since with this I have full control of the outcome." Pitch didn't say what he'd liked most about painting was the way he saw it pleased North and Toothiana.

"I am glad, Pitch," North said at last, turning from the painting to give the Boogeyman a smile, "I hope you keep it up. I will be sure to supply you with whatever you need."

Pitch found himself smiling even wider at North's generosity, "I appreciate your kindness; I suppose I'll need to paint you something fittingly Christmas as payment for the supplies," he smirked tilting his head playfully.

North laughed. "You do not have to pay for supplies. But I would appreciate painting."

"Done! Besides, it gives me a direction to focus on when creating my next piece. I think I'll try to make one for each of you guardians just to see what I come up with… specifically with your themes in mind of course. Then maybe I can paint and decorate my own room with paintings to… That's not asking too much is it?" Pitch was amassing all of these ideas for paintings in his mind that he had to take a mental step back wondering if that might be a bit too greedy.

"No, I don't think so." North beamed at Pitch. "As long as ideas flow, paint as much as you like."

"Well alright, I will!" Pitch exclaimed happily.

The next few days saw to Pitch finishing his chores with the reindeer and setting them in the fields to run while he set up to paint. He had an occasional visit from North who watched him work on the pieces he'd produced, but the other guardians seemed to be busy, and Toothiana much to Pitch's dismay had not come by.

He had written an apology card for her, and since the whole card was blank, he'd decorated the front with a myriad of the phrase 'I'm sorry' scrawled across it in arching waves haphazardly placed all over the front of the card with the font changing sizes and shapes to make it more fun for Pitch to write it. He chuckled thinking that she couldn't say he didn't apologize to her. Inside the card he'd written:

'Toothiana-

I wanted to make an attempt to give you a formal apology where words tend to fail me. I never meant to lose my temper with you, and I hope that you can accept this gift that I have made with you in mind as a sign of sincere regret for upsetting you.

I am truly sorry,

-Pitch Black'

He'd hoped that she'd come back again within the next day, but as a whole week had gone by, and Pitch had created twelve paintings all of differing styles. The first ones, as stated to North were guardian themed, Jack's had snowflake patterns and happy children playing in the snow throwing snowballs, building snowmen, and sledding.

Bunnymund's was a depiction of spring, and the canvas had been covered in spring flowers and butterflies along with a detailed rendition of the colored river complete with googies dancing all around the river, some of them hanging precariously off branches and bobbing down the river mainly to make the painting amusing for Pitch.

North's painting had the big Christmas tree detailed in as much beauty as Pitch could take in and replicate. Under the tree he painted in an array of Christmas gifts and of course there were bothersome elves running amuck as he'd seen at his party and even yetis carrying toys depicting the hustle and bustle that was the North Pole. Pitch had gone to the main hub to paint it. Much to his annoyance he'd had many of the Pole's denizens stopping to look and garble or chitter something at him about it. Once he'd finished that one, he'd decided never again would he paint in the vicinity of that rabble! Still, Pitch wouldn't admit it, but the attention from the crowd had thrilled some small part of him that ate it up greedily even if the creatures tended to annoy him greatly, praise was praise.

Sandy's was probably the most difficult to decide what to paint for Pitch because it went completely against his grain to paint anything dream that he didn't want to taint into a nightmare, but then it hit him, and he knew exactly what he would paint for the little golden man. He thought back to the nightmare Sandy had turned into a good dream for him when Pitch had felt he was drowning in it. He painted magnificent mountain peaks, the island cove that Sandy had created for him, and golden dolphins racing through the waters. This was all just a backdrop though as most of the canvas was taken up with an expansive depiction of the star systems that he knew well the star man missed as much as he did. They were from a different time and space, and these constellations were long gone. Still, these stars had been burned into Pitch's mind with the regularity he had traversed through space, and this painting was a silent apologetic mourning for their loss.

He had done one more painting that he kept for himself where Pitch made an array of snow globes that portrayed a small window into all of the different aspects realms in the center for Jack, Pitch had painted the town of Burgess because the boy was a free spirit and had no established realm. Burgess was where he'd met Jack, and where he'd become a guardian, so Pitch associated this place as being the closest to a realm for Jack. The rest of the paintings tailored more to Pitch's personal taste since they were meant for him, and he made many nightmarish scenes that he fancied. Many of them ideas he'd claimed from North's Christmas ghost story book.

After a week of painting though, Pitch's interests were waning slightly, and he went back to studying the magic pages after he'd retired for the night as North rarely bothered to visit him after a certain hour. Pitch was starting to fully learn the man's routines. He'd practiced the cleaning page again after studying it far longer this time. He still had the original page he'd realized guiltily. That was something he was going to need to take care of, and deciding he needed to return the ghost story book as well, he made his way to the library to deposit both the book and the page back where they belonged. To Pitch's dismay, the roll top desk was now locked tightly, and he wasn't able to get the page to slide under the lip of the locked top. Wanting to get rid of it, Pitch grabbed a random book off of the shelf, folded the page in half, and placed it in between one of the books pages before slapping it back on the shelf. Breathing a sigh of relief, Pitch quickly retreated from the library.

Over the course of the next few days, Pitch practiced and practiced. Several dust cloths later (He'd gotten a trash can to dispose of the ruined ones, and he'd deposited them in the kitchen's waste bin promptly to get rid of the evidence. Of course the first creature he'd absently created had been thrown away into the landfill out behind the fortress without notice, but now there were close to thirty making their way through the landfill and growing in size slowly.)

Finally Pitch mastered the technique, and he gleefully watched the dust rag move about and dust the miscellaneous objects in his room. Feeling he'd perfected the spell, he moved to use the spell at the stable first doing small tasks, and over the course of the next week, he was using it to practically do all of his chores successfully. He watched on in admiration as his spell scrubbed away at Blitzen's fur, directing the scrub brush carefully with his hand. He was definitely proud of his progress!

Jack Frost flew into the stables and up into the rafters, his eyes growing wide when he saw the inanimate objects moving about on their own. "Wow!" he said. "How are you doing that?"

Pitch practically jumped out of his skin not expecting any visitors at this time in the morning. Pitch had been getting down to the stables especially early to avoid any run ins with any of the guardians since they tended to visit him in the later morning to early afternoon, and for the past two weeks, other than North and occasionally Sandy and Bunnymund, Pitch was mostly by himself. He hadn't seen Jack or Toothiana since the day he'd given Bunnymund the nightmare nearly two weeks prior. That had been a sore subject, and Pitch had asked to withhold from the practice for a while for everyone's sake. North seemed pleased enough with this as well as Sandy whereas Bunnymund had seemed a bit disappointed since it had been his idea and all. Either way, visits had been scarce.

As the week had drawn into the next week, Pitch had become bolder with his usage of the spell he'd mastered. He had originally been quite careful only using it in his room, and then in the depths of the stables where he was sure no one could see, and it wasn't until today that he'd decided to use them out in the open. Figures one of the guardians would show up now!

He spun around to face Frost, "Jack!" he grabbed at his chest, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" The scrub brush of course no longer having his full attention thudded to the ground lifelessly. Looking around nervously and assessing there was no one else around Pitch strained a smile, "Oh that! Do you like it? It's magic!"

"Sorry I startled you." said Jack. He nodded to the object that had stopped. "I figured it was magic. How are you doing it?"

"It's uh… a well-practiced spell! I could teach you if you'd like?" Pitch thought if he did teach Frost, and the boy would likely jump at the chance, he might also in turn be able to keep the fact he was practicing North's magic under wraps.

"No, thanks," Jack lifted an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that you were versed in magic."

Of course not, Pitch thought disdainfully. He frowned, "I'm not well versed… this is a simple spell. Just for small bits of cleaning here and there. I don't usually use it, and I thought it best to keep it to myself especially since I wasn't sure what you guardians might think of it… it does help with the chores though. Do you mind keeping it to yourself? I don't know if North would find using it as a breach of doing my chores myself," Pitch was wringing his hands nervously now realizing this could go very badly for him if Jack decided to bring it up.

Jack wasn't sure what to say. Seeing the inanimate object moving around on its own had amused him, but at the same time he heard faint alarm bells going off in the back of his mind. Some part of him had to wonder how and why Pitch was suddenly using a spell. He finally sat down on the ceiling beam. "I guess I can keep it to myself for now."

Pitch remembering the painting he'd made for the winter sprite snapped his fingers and perked brightly, "Oh! I have something for you Frost! Let me finish up here with Blitzen, and I'll show you." Pitch went about hurrying to finish the reindeer and placed him into the fields with the rest of the reindeer to romp.

Curious now, Jack floated down to wait for Pitch. "Oh? What is it?" He smiled.

"Ah, ah, ah," Pitch wagged a finger impishly at Jack, "It's a surprise!" He grinned broadly in barely contained glee, "But… you'll see soon enough." Pitch sauntered towards the main building looking over his shoulder at Jack mischievously, "Are you coming?"

Jack raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Sure," he said, following.

Pitch practically skipped back towards his room with Jack in tow, and when they made it back to his room, Pitch popped the door open gracefully. He motioned for Jack to go inside, "One of them was made for you, I'm sure when you see it, you'll know which one it is," Pitch beamed.

Jack blinked when he walked into the bedroom and saw the paintings. It was unexpected, and the paintings Pitch made for himself were a bit disturbing. Jack's brow furrowed as he slowly walked around and looked at each painting. He turned to look at Pitch.

"Did you paint these?" he asked in awe.

Pitch delightedly nodded, "I did! Now then, were you able to discern which one of them I made for you specifically?" Pitch watched him keenly now excited to see his reaction when he'd discovered which one was meant for him.

Jack looked around and finally spotted the one Pitch had painted for him. He walked over to it, smiling and admiring the kids and snow. "This one," He turned back to Pitch. "These are beautiful, Pitch. Since when did you start painting?"

Pitch's smile grew as the boy recognized the painting meant for him and even more so at the compliment. He did so very much adore the attention he got from this newfound skill. It was a nice feeling to have the others look at him with approval for something he could do well in their eyes that was also pleasing to them and himself. He acted nonchalant as he made his way over to Jack, "Why thank you Jack! I actually just started a couple weeks ago. And yes, you choose wisely, I gather that means you get to keep it." He gave Jack a winning smile.

"Thanks," Jack said, grinning. He looked back at the painting. "You're actually very good at this. I would have never guessed." He walked on to examine the rest of them closer. Finally, he got around to the snow globe picture. He studied it a few minutes, then pointed at the snow globe in the middle. "This place is familiar to me."

Pitch chuckled gliding over to where Jack was, "It should be, it's the sleepy little town of Burgess… where it all started. Of course it's been a long time, but I thought you'd recognize it immediately since we had quite a battle there. But… that was the past, and not the reason I chose it here for this painting. As you can see all the guardians are represented by the place they call home… their realm. Eh… you don't really have a realm, so when I went to paint this, I thought it was where you became a guardian, so it was as close as I was going to get to a representation of a place you belonged in that regard."

"Ah, I see," Jack nodded, smirking. "Well, you did a really great job on all of it."

"Thank you," Pitch smiled lightly thinking back to the reindeer still cavorting in the fields. He turned back to Jack as his smile turned mischievous, "It's been a while, maybe you'd enjoy a bit of a ride with the reindeer? I have to go back to the stalls to put them back in their pens regardless; it could be fun if you're up for it."

Jack took the painting that was his and tucked it under his arm. "Are you sure you want to do that again? I mean... after what happened the last time?"

Pitch frowned, "No racing this time; let's just keep it casual." Pitch had to fight the want to snap at the boy whenever he would remind him of instances he'd just as soon forget. He hadn't wanted to ride after that fiasco (including the days that followed at the warren) for almost a week. There was no way Pitch planned to put himself in a situation like that again! Not that he wasn't sure he couldn't give Jack a run for his money. Outside of painting, Pitch had spent a couple hours each day training the reindeer after his return from the warren. (Mostly Donner since he'd decided he was the fastest and would be the one to win any future races should Frost challenge him again; Pitch was still quite competitive after all.) Even on days he wasn't riding, Pitch could still spend time with the animals to get them more pliable to his instructions. It wasn't like he had much else to do with his days at the Pole.

Jack smiled. "Sounds good. Let's go ride, then."

Perking at Jack's ready compliance, Pitch's lips curled into a toothy grin, "Excellent!"

It didn't take long for the two to make it back down to the reindeer that seemed more than pleased to have been left unattended. Pitch growled a curse under his breath, Dasher was no longer in the pen. In fact the deer was nowhere in sight. Pitch darted into the stables hoping that the reindeer may have found its way to the grain stores, but there was no such luck. Pitch's face grew ashen as realization that he'd lost one of the reindeer fully registered. Turning a worried look to Frost, Pitch announced, "Well... maybe not so casual after all. I hope you're up for a little search and rescue mission."

"Has this ever happened before?" Jack questioned as he set his painting down and helped Pitch search the stables.

Pitch shook his head, "No. But I have to get it back before North notices it's missing! I don't want to look incompetent," Pitch groused.

"I'm sure he wouldn't think of you as incompetent. You aren't perfect." said Jack. "Everyone loses things sometimes."

Pitch huffed, "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather him not have to know at all. Besides, this just makes our ride a little more interesting right?"

"Whatever you say," Jack shrugged. "Where do you think it went off to?"

Pitch sighed, "I haven't the faintest idea, but I want to corral the rest of them outside of Donner and whichever reindeer you plan to ride. It won't do to have more come up missing while we're looking for Dasher." Pitch's mood had soured quite a bit from the sudden bad news as he stormed off towards the gate to start hauling in the other reindeer.

Jack nodded in agreement, following Pitch. "I'll take Vixen again."

Pitch nodded acknowledgment grimly as he and Jack worked to get the remaining reindeer quickly penned in their stalls so that they could commence their search for Dasher. Once the other reindeer were secured, Pitch moved along the gate line looking for any clues. Seeing tracks in the snow at the far end of the field, Pitch pointed to them, "It looks like he jumped over the fence here. Let's hope he kept trotting and didn't decide to fly," Pitch grumbled as he looped some rope over Donner's neck and climbed up on his back giving the reindeer a swift kick to the sides to send it vaulting over the fence. Pitch didn't wait for Jack as he jetted across the arctic plain following the tracks.

Jack looked back toward the main part of the Pole, briefly wondering if he shouldn't tell North what was going on. He shook his head and mounted Vixen spurring her forward to follow after Pitch. Halfway there, he whipped out his staff and kept it ready.

The tracks headed along the fortified wall and over a hilltop crest, off in the distance Pitch saw the silhouette of the missing reindeer. He breathed a sigh of relief as he yelled to Jack, "There he is! Quick! Circle left, and I'll cut him off from the back!"

Without saying a word, Jack nodded and spurred Vixen in the direction Pitch ordered.

The two worked in tandem arching across the snow towards Dasher whose head rose with a start to hear the galloping hooves heading his way. Pitch swung around to the back as Jack cut expertly around to stagger the deer in its tracks. Dasher backed away from Pitch snorting in defiance before turning and running towards Jack. Pitch smiled knowing the winter spirit would be able to hop on his back, and Pitch would be able to collect Vixen and make their way back to the stables without further trouble.

As if sensing Pitch's plan, Jack waited until Dasher got close enough to him. Then he took a flying leap from Vixen's back and landed perfectly on Dasher, gently pulling back on the deer's antlers to stop him and get him under control. All the time, Jack made his unusual noises to the deer to help soothe him. Once he felt the animal was in control, Jack waved to Pitch. "I think he's ready to go back home!" he shouted.

Pitch whooped joyously, "Fantastic! Great job Frost! That was a bit of unexpected fun wasn't it?" He laughed riding up beside Jack a huge cheese eating grin plastered on his face.

"Yeah! It was." Jack laughed.

Pitch chuckled noticing Vixen was lumbering off in the opposite direction. He tutted, "Vixen is trying to make a break for it to, I'd better go grab her before we've got another reindeer to chase down. Go ahead and take Dasher back to the stables, I'll meet up with you in a minute."

"Will do," Jack said as he turned Dasher around and pushed him in the direction of the stables and the Pole.

Pitch turned Donner around lazily trotting towards Vixen whom seemed to sense she was about to be pulled back to the stables and rebelliously picked up her pace to move away from him, much to Pitch's annoyance.

His lip curled as the smell came up to him from downwind, "Disgusting," Pitch complained wrinkling his nose at the rank smell of garbage wafting up to his nose, and something else… what was that? Sulfur? Rotten eggs? It was wretched! Of course Vixen continued to trot in the direction of what could be seen now as a huge landfill where a chute high up attached to the main building of the Pole emptied the trash into the landfill in an intricate mechanized manner that chopped up the garbage to condense it in even spreads across the pit. Hundreds of years of garbage had been accumulated within the hole, and if it weren't for the fact that no insects were found in the temperatures of the North Pole, Pitch was sure it would have been infested with bugs.

Vixen continued on oblivious of the smell, and Pitch sighed kicking Donner's sides to spur the animal on and catch up to Vixen. He didn't want to spend any more time here than he needed to! As Pitch neared the cusp of the hole though, what he saw made him gasp in horror. Within the garbage pit, something writhed, and slurped in amorphous form. It looked like an over bloated slug, and Pitch recognized immediately the carapace of the creature had interwoven fibers that were colored in the mixture of the dish cloth he'd used the very first time he'd practiced the cleaning spell. The creature now turned a bloodshot thoughtless set of six eyes in the direction of Vixen (whom had moved far too close to the creature.) The organism bubbled and began to lurch towards the unsuspecting deer. Beside the slug creature were several other similar squirming mirror images of the beast, but they were just much smaller in size. They gathered around the bigger creature and all turned towards Vixen in what would seem was a hive mentality.

Jumping into action Pitch pulled the rope off of Donner's neck and spurred the reindeer on with another quick kick. He jetted towards Vixen who nibbled carelessly at a patch of grass sticking through the snow. Pitch was quick to wrap the rope around the unsuspecting deer's antlers and yank it as hard as he could startling the reindeer to burst forward just as the creature slapped a tentacle down where Vixen had been. The tentacle oozed back into the depths of the murky trash, and the dull eyes of the creature stupidly gazed at the spot where the reindeer had been thankfully not quite registering the reindeer was no longer there.

Pitch had squalled with a high pitch yell at the near miss racing both reindeer up the hillside panting in terror, wide eyes staring in shock behind him. That was way too close! Oh stars! What had he done! Pitch blanched looking back at the creature with a mixture of panic and wonder. The thing would definitely be made a vision of some poor child's nightmares that was for sure, but right now, this thing was Pitch's personally made nightmare. He had to get rid of it! How? More magic? Stars no! North? No! No! No! Any of the other guardians? No… he was in deep trouble. He had to find a way to eliminate this creature discretely. It was already in the landfill, which was keeping it contained, but for how long?

This was too much! He wanted to cry from the level of dread he was feeling; the stress had his stomach in knots. Pitch ran a hand through his hair; think dang it! Okay, didn't North say he had something dangerous in that secret hold of his? Maybe he could find something in there to defeat this monster he'd created! He needed to do something, and he needed to do it fast!

His heart was in his throat as he spurred Donner and Vixen back to the stables doing his best to regain his composure. The last thing he wanted was for Frost to have any inkling of something amiss. So Pitch sucked in deep breaths closing his eyes and doing his best to put on a calm façade as he rode back up to the stables where Frost was standing outside waiting on his return.