Luz let out a strangled cry when she saw the Titan's huge shadow. The creature was so immense and imposing that it instilled fear without even showing itself physically. Even though it was only a shadow she was looking at, Luz still felt like the Titan was staring at her, which sent a shiver down her spine; sure, it was nothing compared to Belos' icy and evil gaze, but it was intimidating nonetheless. After all, it still came from a creature at least thirty meters tall. "Um... I-I'm sorry, Mr. Titan, I didn't mean to insult you! I just had a bad day!"
"Tsk! And because you had a bad day you start insulting me for no reason? What a bad girl" the Titan's thundering voice was heard again. "Normally I wouldn't hesitate to crush you under my claws! Luckily for you today I have a bit of a cough and I don't want to get up from my sublime throne, so get out of here and never come back!"
"Uh, of course, Mr. Titan! I'll be leaving right now!" Luz exclaimed in a cold sweat, ready to run away as fast as she can, but she hadn't even raised her foot when a doubt struck her: "Um... sorry for the question, but shouldn't you be a spiritual creature generated by a superior being? Really can you get sick?"
To her surprise, the Titan remained silent, as if it wasn't expecting that question, and only after a few moments did he start speaking again, but its voice, although still thundering, had some hesitations as if it were stammering. "Well, yours is a legitimate question, young lady! You must know that this cough of mine is not the cough typical of you short-lived beings, but a powerful ancient magical disease. In fact, you better leave immediately: if you, weak human, were to come infected, you would surely die!"
"I'm not a human, I'm a puppet" Luz corrected him. "And right now I'm soaking wet. Shouldn't a creature your size immediately smell wet wood from this distance?"
The Titan was silent again, and Luz noticed that its shadow had moved strangely: for an instant the creature had lowered its head, but when it did so the shadow had shrunk a little, and then returned to its original size as soon as it lifted it up. "What insolence, to try to test a supreme being like me! If you must know, in addition to the cough I also have the magical cold! We call it common mold, and if it were to infect you, your mind would go into a state of madness and mushrooms and lichens would sprout all over your head..."
But despite the threatening words, Luz now felt less and less afraid and more and more suspicious. There was clearly something wrong. She picked up Matt and whispered something in his ears; the crab nodded and climbed up to a nearby rock, right where the sun's rays reached diagonally, and in doing so he cast a large shadow on the cliff next to the Titan's, and he also waved his claws to appear more threatening.
At that point a comical scene occurred, to say the least: a shrill scream was heard and the Titan's shadow made a leap, and then it retreated, decreasing in size until it vanished, and a voice that was no longer thunderous but rather shrill screamed: "Agh! An invader! Quick Francois, we must protect ourselves! Prepare the defenses!"
Luz raised an eyebrow, and now forgetting any fear she walked quickly towards the other side of the cliff. This was how she discovered that there wasn't a thirty meter tall Titan at all, but rather a large cone that acted as a megaphone resting on a rock and next to it a small candle that gave off a strong light, through which anyone could project an enormous shadow on the cliff; and behind those two objects there was a sort of makeshift hut built with pieces of wood and sheets clearly the remains of some ship and probably collected on the beach, and in front of it also a good number of puppets. And next to those puppets, especially one that resembled a rabbit, there was the most adorable creature Luz could have ever imagined.
From the voice it was undoubtedly a male, but other than that there were no other obvious signs of his gender; he was very short in stature, so much so that he barely reached the height of Luz's leg. He had slightly purplish dark gray fur, with the exception of his belly and the tip of his tail, which were instead mauve. His limbs were short, his body and stomach were round, and behind his back stretched a bushy tail, similar to that of a fox; each of his hands possessed two triangular bone-like claws with flat inner sides and short, pointed thumbs. His feet were a bit stubby and had mauve metatarsal pads, with two more claws on the front of both. His eyes were large and protruding with orchid irises and yellow sclerae, as well as black eyelids rimmed with yellow; he also had slightly longer, shaggy fur around his cheeks, neck, and nape, which further accentuated the size of his eyes. Nearly the entire top portion of his head beyond the lower jaw and neck regions was a horned dog-like skull set above his eyes and eyelids, also serving as his upper jaw; behind it there were two horns that pointed backwards, curving slightly inwards. The snout of his skull had two large canines pointing outward and two small molars on either side near the base. Although the skull was completely stationary, the exception to this rule were the eyebrow arches, which could instead change position with his expression like normal eyebrows.
The final result was something so adorable that Luz couldn't help but smile and her eyes sparkled. "Oooh... you're so cute!"
The creature turned on her furiously and exclaimed in a shrill voice: "What? You dared to trespass into my territory? You have made a mistake, you inferior being! Prepare yourself to face the wrath of the Titan!" and having said that he opened his mouth wide and emitted a very strong sound wave that made Luz fall to the ground.
The puppet was surprised by the fact that such a small being possessed such power, but despite this she didn't feel the slightest fear: "You... are you really the Titan?"
The creature opened his eyes wide, realizing only at that moment that he had been unmasked, but this confusion didn't last long and he went back to behaving like a little monarch: "Well yes, inferior being! You have in front of you King, the mighty Titan who has made this place his home! Bow and prostrate, and admire me as befits a superior entity like me!"
"King, huh? Is that your name?" Luz asked getting back on her feet. "Sorry to ask, but shouldn't a Titan be... well... big?"
King looked somewhat ashamed. "It's just... that I'm still young! When I'll grow up no one will have any doubts about my ever magnificence!"
Luz looked at the crumpled dolls behind him, and a realization hit her: "Are you a child?"
"I'm not a child! I'm already... eight years old!" King exclaimed. "And in any case, don't think you can defeat me just because I'm young! You made a mistake by coming to challenge me alone!"
The creature's fur began to tremble slightly and his shoulders seemed to become broader; Luz didn't know what powers that little Titan possessed, but they were certainly no small feat since he had knocked her to the ground with one blow, so she quickly said: "Hey, hey, calm down! I certainly didn't come here to challenge you!"
King stopped and raised an eyebrow. "Really? But from what I understood while listening to you, you came here looking for me..."
"Yes, but I just wanted to meet you to find out if you were real! I never meant to hurt you, I'm not a bad person!" Luz explained.
King was silent for a moment, then his mood changed completely: "Oh, I understand now! You are a worshiper of mine! Forgive me, you are the first I have ever met! In this case, allow me to welcome you to my royal house! You can come here whenever you want, on condition that you bow down and kiss the ground on which I walk!"
"Couldn't I just bring you another stuffed animal?" Luz asked him pointing to the puppets. "Those look a little beat up. I can get you a better one"
"Are you offering to find me some new recruits? You're already proving yourself to be efficient! Continue like this and I'll make you general of my army!" King exclaimed with satisfaction. "Although I fear that you will never be able to find soldiers as strong and trained as these. All of them survived the cruel perils of the sea and swam all the way here to serve me. They are tough men! Especially Francois!" he said, pointing proudly at the stuffed bunny.
Luz thought that the way King just behave was adorable, but also very sad. Those puppets were probably nothing more than simple objects brought there by the tide, which probably belonged to some passengers of a sunken ship. If King had started talking to them and even made up such stories about them, he must have been a very lonely person indeed. "I suppose that you don't get many visitors"
The young Titan looked sorry for a moment, but then he shrugged. "This is just because humans are pusillanimous. The first time I met one I had the sun behind me and so I cast a large shadow, and when he saw only that faint trace of my magnificence he abandoned the fish he had caught like an offering. Since then I decided to give all humans what they wanted and so I built these little objects to cast my shadow at any time, and they still made offers to me. Unfortunately, however, more and more people came here, and I'm not a very party person, you know... I don't like having too many worshipers around. Just think that they didn't even kneel down, but actually kept asking loudly to see me! Filthy plebeians... in the end I chose to don't show me and so they finally left. I decided that to be left alone it was better to remain in the legend, so from that moment on I only showed myself when someone got too close to my territory and disturbed me"
Luz bit her lip. It was clear that King had constructed that story to make himself feel important when in reality he wasn't at all. The offerings that had been left for him were surely the fish that the fishermen who had landed on that beach had left behind as they fled, and the crowd of worshipers were none other than the people of Bonesborough who came to look for the Titan... and King hadn't avoided showing himself on a whim, but because he knew that despite he already had powers in his current state anyone armed with good weapons could harm him. He hid out of fear. "So all this time you were eating those people's offerings?"
"Oh, no, those are just a small part of my food. Most of what I eat is provided by Jean-Luc and I keep it here" King replied as he walked around the back of the house, where he revealed the fragments of a huge egg, with some solidified yolk still in the middle which perfectly preserved an immense number of fish as if it were ice. "It's the egg I was born from, a Titan egg! Its yolk is magical and preserves food better than anything else! Here I have food to eat for at least the next ten years!"
"Wow… I see" Luz murmured. "Who is Jean-Luc?"
"That one over there. He was my nanny; he was the one who provided me with food before the magic that powered him ran out" King replied pointing to a stone nearby. Luz frowned and realized that it was actually a golem-like creature with a triangular head and a very thin body.
"Well, you sure have organized yourself very well here" Luz commented; in fact for an eight year old child all that organization was a sign of a fair intelligence, even if still of an immature mentality. The puppet then heard a light pop in her ear and turning her gaze slightly she saw Matt gesturing to her that they should go. "Um… your majesty, it was really nice meeting you, but now I have to go home"
"Huh? No, wait!" King exclaimed. "Wouldn't you like to stay a little longer? It doesn't happen often to receive the visit of an interested worshiper like you! Stay, I'll make you a minister!"
Luz didn't have the heart to leave; King was practically begging her to stay. Clearly she was the only real person he had been able to talk to in several years, perhaps the first ever. So she ignored Matt's requests and sat on the floor. "Okay. What do you want us to do, Your Majesty?"
King made a sound of pure joy and his eyes sparkled. "Uh... er... well, get ready young admirer! I will fully show you how a true Titan lives!"
As Luz had expected, what King asked her to do were childish games with the puppets, which he obviously passed off as epic battles or noble and extraordinary deeds. Luz played along and had fun with him; the look of pure gratitude in King's eyes was enough to make her happy that she had agreed to keep him company. She was so busy playing with him that she almost didn't notice that the sun was starting to set, and if it hadn't been for Matt warning her she probably would have stayed there until the stars appeared in the sky. "Oh no, it's so late! Oh, now Eda will have one more reason to be furious with me... I have to go home immediately!"
"Wait! Are you leaving already? If you have an enemy to face in your home, then I can host you in my royal territory! It is good custom to take care of such a diligent worshiper!" King told her.
Luz knew that the young Titan was only asking her to stay with him. "Why don't you come with me instead? There are a lot of rooms in my house, and I'm sure Eda would welcome you with open arms"
King hesitated for a moment, then he turned away and crossed his arms. "Tsk! I certainly can't stoop to sleeping in a plebeian house. As much as I appreciate your offer, it doesn't meet my standards!"
Luz suspected that King was simply afraid to leave what he thought was a safe haven. "In this case... I promise you that I'll return! Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, but I'll return one day!"
"Really? Well, in that case you will be welcomed with all the honors due to a faithful servant of the Titan!" King announced to her. "Know that I will long remember that promise. You better keep it, or you will suffer the wrath of the Titan!"
Luz didn't even need to think about it to understand that he was very happy with that promise and was also very grateful to her. "Well, I'll go then! See you again, Your Majesty!" and with that last farewell she ran away, heading towards the Owl House.
Sorry for the late posting, but for some reason the site has been down in the area where I live for hours. If anyone can't find the new chapter of the A Christmas Carol fanfic, don't worry, I posted that too. If there is anyone among you who knows who runs this site, please provide me with their address, because I want to invite them to take a trip here to my city, and above all let them visit the bay with a pair of concrete shoes