Leo woke with a start the next night; it was his first night alone with the children. He wracked his brain for what Ravi had taught him, his energy was up, through the sleep, so he could make enough Sand for the kids.

He saw the elder Sandmen slowly waking up in turn and leave the cloud.

We’re over the China… someone thought muttered, apparently the cloud had drifted west ward during the day, not a problem for the Sandmen. They hopped out one by one and drifted down to earth and their respective regions.
Leo got nervous this was the first time he had to travel such a distance, last night with Ravi the cloud had stayed mainly over Seoul so it hadn’t been a problem.

As it was his turn to exit the cloud and he looked down, worried, suddenly he felt a hand behind him roughly push him out.

In shock he fell a bit before he gathered enough energy to keep himself afloat. The Sandman that had pushed him just scoffed and elegantly drifted away.

Leo sighed, the elder Sandmen weren’t famous for being kind to the younglings but deep down Leo had hoped they would simply ignore him. Anyway, back to business.

He drifted down and to the area he felt drawn to, Seoul,

This was how the Sandmen always could find their area even if their cloud drifted off to the other side of the world. They would always feel a pull towards where they had to work.

As he landed and melted into the first shadow everything was quiet, save the few noises of some people chatting, adults, so they weren’t of his concern.

The first child he found was a little girl, he stared in awe at her room, pink, unicorns everywhere. Some with wings, some with rainbow colored manes. He reached out to touch a really fluffy one. His hand seemed tiny in comparison to the unicorn. But it looked so soft.

Don’t touch anything! He jumped in fright and whirled to the window, instinctively fading into the shadow of the girl’s room. At the window was another Sandman, she was larger than Leo so she was older.

Did your predecessor teach you nothing? She hissed and scowled at him, Do your job properly, youngling!

In fright he nodded and with large eyes watched as she disappeared. He stood there, pressed against the wall for a while, eyes still on the spot the elder Sandman had been. Man, they were scary.

He shook himself and went over to the girl, with some concentration he held oout his hand and created some Sand for her, ponies and rainbows. Just like the boy yesterday, only this time it was apparent she wanted it.

As the Sand fell gently on her face, she giggled and smile brightly in her sleep. And silently Leo felt very proud of himself.

The rest of the evening went really well, but every time Leo entered a new room he would always look at what he could find there.
Barbies, lego, pencils, colouring pencils and paper.
Sure, he knew what all those things were, but since Sandmen weren’t allowed to leave traced it was absolutely forbidden to touch them, he had no idea what one could do with them.

All the Sandmen were allowed to do was look at the items and give the dream according to them, Leo had never seen the children actually play with them, but how he longed for it.

The smiles the children showed as he gave them their dreams, maybe they wore those smiles when they played with their toys?

He smiled sadly as he gave the last child his dream. He would never know.

Sandmen were creatures of night and dreams, not a chance of ever seeing the children play with their toys. The rowdy children that tried to stay awake long were always put out with some well aimed Sand. But he only heard of that by eaves dropping on the elder Sandmen.

As he headed up to the cloud, he gazed back down on Seoul, smiling as the lights grew smaller and smaller and turned into an ocean of little sparkles. Almost like the starry night sky.

However as he entered he was greeted by the head Sandman.

You touched a toy?! Was blasted into his mind, the thought speech as soft and melodic but if wanted to could be loud and patronizing like a drum.

He shook his head violently.

Don’t you lie to me, you were seen touching a toy! Minho was fuming, towering over the smaller Sandman.

Jessica saw you! And she isn’t a liar! Leo saw the other lady Sandman he had seen that night disappear into the cloud just behind the head Sandman.

She isn’t a liar... but she saw me just before I touched it and then warned me… Leo whispered softly.

Minho eyed the younger one, Jessica had said something similar but all he had heard was: newbie – touching – toy.

 I don’t care what happened but if you are seen again even thinking of touching a toy you will be stripped of your powers and exiled! Leo was shaking like a leaf as the elder turned and left.

Exile… possibly the worst thing that could happen to a Sandman.

Exile meant you were forced to leave the cloud and live on earth. Not as humans, but as Nightmares, dark Sandmen.

 They lived in the shadows of the cities, feeding of Sand that careless Sandmen dropped, or they put themselves in groups and tried attacking Sandmen, for their Sand.

They were called Nightmares because they would sneak into the human’s rooms and eat the Sand that had been left for them, and through that the happiness out of their dreams.

Head up, newbie! It gets better the longer you are here! Leo heard a familiar voice echo in his head, Ravi had returned, and smiled fondly at the other. The younger returned the smile.

Maybe it will get better.

But shortly after seperating from Ravi, another older Sandman chased the poor smaller one away from the place he had chosen to sleep on, he was then forcedcurled up in a ball in the farthest most uncomfortable  corner of the cloud and wished hard for that at least his dream may be pleasant.

Secretly, he was looking forwards to seeing the children the next night.