Titanite had hardly been aware of their approach, in a state quite like sleeping. His head came down, row of emerald-green eyes flaring as they opened, a pulse of light shimmering up his body. After a long moment, the head--with its stretches of moss and vines--tilted, and a gravelly voice more wind than words rustled through him.

"Ahhhh... children," he greeted them, and then one rooted foot lurched out of the earth. "Yeesss... I am, alive," he answered. Each word was slow, drawn out, a rattle of air and twig.

Slowly he took a step, and then another--and then, perhaps unexpectedly, his towering form lowered itself to one gnarled-branch "knee." A forelimb unfurled, the palm upward, the branch fingers curling out toward Comet. A gentle twist of magic, and like a gift, it swept for Comet: a little strength, a surge of health, like the blessing of the forest.

"I am called... Titanite, and I will not harm you," he rasped, watching them, now motionless.

Thalia was impressed at how brave Comet was. She just went up and talked-! (She was also a little jealous, too.) Glancing apprehensively at the wolf pup, she herself crept forward, peering up at Titanite. One tiny hand remained clasped (feeling mighty small, now) around her spear.

"I'm Thalia. Are you a monster?" she asked, and the question was one of awe. It wasn't intended to be rude--heck, she hoped it was a monster.

That's what they were out looking for, after all!

...As long as it wasn't going to attack them!

Titanite was not that large, perhaps nine feet tall, and Comet's question threw him off. Ride his hands-? He slowly shifted his head to stare down at his branch-fingers, lifting those and turning them gradually this way and that. Light glinted off the leaves that sprouted from little vines twisted among the fingers, and eventually he looked forward, again.

The internal glow along his limbs and chest flickered, flaring, sputtering out--echoing, in a sense, his confusion.

"Do you wish... for me to carry you?" he asked, at last, puzzled. Why did they want that-? And to where..?

"He is nice," Thalia agreed, but it was a murmur, her pale eyes locked uncertainly on him. She wanted to be excited, but he was hulkingly huge, and spiky, and she was a little hesitant.

Still, she came forward at a toddle when his lights changed, when he spoke; and she held out her own soft little palm toward his branch-hands. "I can make light too," she told him softly.

Little beams of rainbow light cast out from her hand, reflecting over his bright green glow, cascading along the branches of his arms. She smiled up at him, bright and proud--and then looked to Comet, as if hoping the wolf pup shared the happiness of this moment.