Titanite hesitated, then pushed back up. He was still ankle-deep or so in the water, which for a digitigrade creature implied a foot or so of stream. But he waded out, pulling up roots, and to the shore. He didn't want, after all, to put out the little fire (such as it was) with the water of the brook.

After a moment of studying it--in which he tried to gauge if it would be hot, and burn him (a primal tree instinct warning him from it, with fear)--he offered a brief and reluctant push to the wisp in an attempt to knock it back to James. His wooden forelimb missed it, and he stepped back, uncertainly.

Was it cold fire, or was it hot-? He didn't particularly want to find out.

"It is... fire?" he queried, uncertainly. And then, with the infinite wisdom of the ages: "Fire burns.

@James

"This fire doesn't,", James said, and picked it up on his nose again, "It's magic fire. Doesn't burn, promise."

James offered a smile, only for the orb to roll off and... flicker out. James made a noise of frustration and inhaled, before straining to try to make a new will o' wisp.

(After roll.)

James whinnied in disappointment and spun around in a circle, staring down at the spot where his magical flame had disappeared. He dropped onto his haunches and pouted, lower lip jutting out.

"... I'm awful at magic,", he booed, and slid to the ground, legs splayed out as he huffed, ears down, "Sorry..."

James got up after a minute of sulking and looked up at the other, "Um... can you make one? I didn't know it would go out after a while."

@Titanite

"I cannot make... fire," Titanite responded, lurching into motion, on all fours, to lean down and sniff where the wisp had disappeared.

It didn't smell scorched, at least, and it hadn't felt hot in passing, anyway. Strange. It wasn't sure what to make of this; its instincts told it one thing, its new experience (and new friend) another. Titanite turned, and passed one hand over the dirt, rumbling in thought. A small carpet of tiny mushrooms sprouted up, there, barely visible, at first, without close inspection. "I can... do this?" it offered, turning half-hopefully to James; "Is this... fun?"

@James

James found his jaw dropping in awe, "That's amazing! You're like... So cool. Like some sort of life-bringer."

James flopped down on his belly, eyes level with the mushrooms as he stared at their multicolored caps, and looked up at Titanite, "You're right! This is fun!"

The foal sat up and looked down at the mushrooms, analyzing their colors and patterns carefully. He then narrowed his eyes and trotted off, grabbing a stick, before coming back.

He started carving a path towards the stream, and once it connected, water started to flow. After some digging, James had made a tiny lake, and ran off to get some plants. He set them down and planted them carefully, making trees among the mushrooms, and used twigs to make a sort of forest.

"Look!", he said, putting his head down again, "It's a tiny little clearing. We can make all sorts of things with the stuff here. Us-sized stuff, too!"

@Titanite

Like a dog watching its child at play, Titanite observed: not fully understanding, but content enough at being involved. James was manipulating the flow of water, though Titanite was unsure why. He was shoving sticks, with his soft muzzle and blunt teeth--or gums?--into the ground.

"...Us-sized..?" Titanite queried, at length. He trudged forward, and then paused rocked back on his haunches, one forelimb hanging loosely over a knee. The other he reached forward with, a long index-talon trailing lightly through the little cluster of fungus and sticks without actually touching any of them. Only faintly did his imagination actually stir, brief imagining of tiny forests fluttering at his mind, and even then only for a moment. Then he was back to staring, wondering is this fun?

After a very long moment of silence, Titanite raised its hand. A banana appeared within it--the magical sort, the sort that made you gleam and sparkle after you ate it.

This he placed, planting it peel and all--and no seeds--into the center of the bizarre little garden.

In no way whatsoever was this helpful, but he looked to James afterward nonetheless, almost expectantly. "Is this... good?" he asked, uncertain.

@James

"Us-sized!", James repeated, "Like those big leaves over there, we could turn it into a little house to play around in."

He stood up and galloped off, grabbing one that had fallen on the ground. He dug a hole with his hooves and planted it, and went to get more until he had a little leaf shack. He wiggled inside and sat down, poking his head out and smiling.

"See? Building's fun,", he said, and trotted over when the banana appeared, "Ooo... that can be like a meteor! Now the forest has a story! It grew around this giant yellow meteor and flourished because of it's weird alien radiation!"

James sat down next to Titanite and beamed, "That's awesome! It's really good!"

He sprung up and went to the water again, awkwardly bending down as he grabbed a rock from the bank and set it down next to the banana, "Now there's too! But that one's more special because it's yellow. Legends say that if you eat a bit of it, you sparkle!"

@Titanite

Titanite stared, mind struggling to keep up. The child was fast, not only in movement but in activity in general. Where Titanite often spent days barely moving at all, James was darting between this activity and that, this idea and that--and the tree-beast half-struggled to keep up with it all.

Leaf-shacks, and meteors. Rocks and bananas.

For a long moment Titanite merely stared, unable to quite decide which thing to comment on, or interact with. Banana, or rock? Would he ask what 'radioactive' was, or...

Ahh, plants. He knew plants, at least.

Titanite shambled forward, moving to the leaf-shack, inspecting carefully the way that James had set it all up. The stone, after a moment, within Titanite's chest began to glow green, again illuminating the mostly-hollow cavity. Then slenders vines--hardly more than brown threads, really--rose up from the forest floor, even as Titanite raised his branch-taloned hands skyward. He seemed to weave, without touching, each vine slipping through the edges of the leaves, carefully strengthening the little shack and binding it all together.

After a moment, the shack was more firmly in place: less flimsy and more permanent, at least until the leaves decayed. It had a roof, now, too, and Titanite turned, peering at James.

"This... is building? Is this--good?" It paused, glancing back at James, and at the litttle 'town' of plants and rock. It struggled, plant-like mind churning, to get into the spirit of things. Plants, to Titanite, were 'safe;' all this other stuff was unknown and so this factored into its limited attempt at imagination. "Perhapss... this place..." (and taloned fingers gestured at the plant-shack), "isss... a safe place... for when the stick-place... is dangerouss?"

Titanite looked at James, uncertainly--was he doing it right..?

@James

James watched as Titanite made the shack stronger and more secure, and trotted inside to check it out, his little tail flicking back and forth, "Woah... you're right! This could be like... a temple!"

James turned around to face Titanite and sat down again, "It's dry, too... a shelter."

He lay down and grinned happily, "This is... really good! Like... this is awesome!"

James tucked his legs in and startled a bit at the yawn that escaped him, "Today's been really fun... thank you, Titanite."

He settled down and curled up a bit, nibbling idly at some grass before looking up as the lights in the caves began to dim. Like stars going out. He knew it meant bedtime, but he honestly didn't want to sleep. Not with how much fun he was having.

"... What kind of things do you do here?", he asked, like a child begging for a bedtime story.

@Titanite

...Now this might be where Titanite shined. Activity, energy--those weren't his traits, but a slow, meandering, boring narrative to tell a child falling asleep? That was exactly his sphere of usefulness.

The tree-beast slowly folded branching limbs, collapsing down in a gradual, deliberate, cross-legged sit beside the foal-inhabited leaf-shack. He looked at James, and considered.

"I..." (a long moment's thought, here--hard questions, apparently) "I stand. The light... comes down, through the leaves. They... russstle... shift. They whisper, but... they do not speak... There is wind. The birds call. I can hear... the water, far--here, in the streams--but I am fa. The birds are loud... The grass moves, too. I feel... the worms in the soil. The ants. There is life in the dirt. I watch the seeds... sprout. And grow... "

"I watch the lights... go dim. And it is dark... and then light again. The water falls... rain. Fog. And then it is clear..." Titanite went on, lost in the reverie of a plant-beast's perspective of the world: the slow changing of day to night and back again, of weather, of light and minerals and insects. And for him, that seemed fascinating.

For James... perhaps not so much?

@James

James yawned and set his head down, fighting to keep his eyes open as he listened to Titanite carefully. He found it fascinating as the other talked, describing how he saw the world. The plants, animals, the dirt itself. Even as he tried to stay awake, his eyes closed and he fought to keep listening.

His attempts were futile, and he slowly drifted off, curled up safely in the shelter Titanite and he had made. His breaths slowed and he fell silent, lulled to sleep by Titanite's words.

Maybe when he woke up, he could ask more, but for now, he'd rest and regain his energy.

(Exit James to sleep.)

@Titanite