A little girl skips down the street, on her way to school, naive to the possible perils lurking in the shadows. Her innocent mind is full of sunshine and butterflies. She has no time for fears or worries. All of a sudden, she trips over her shoelaces and falls on her little bottom in the middle of the alleyway. To her left, something shifts in the shadows. But with the bright sunlight in her face, her eyes can't penetrate the darkness. Nevertheless, she senses someone is there. So she calls out in her Lilliputian voice, "Hello?... Can you help me tie my shoes?" The dark figure moves closer. As it slowly emerges from the gloom, an enormous blue head comes into view, followed by equally gargantuan shoulders and arms. The behemoth hesitates -- half in shadow and half in light -- squinting as if it dwells in a world devoid of luminance. Its colossal mouth opens and it slowly rumbles with a voice as deep as the earth, "Sure, okay." As the mammoth monster bends its massive body to pick up the shoelaces, the girl beams up into its face, unafraid of his enormity or countenance. "Thanks! What's your name, mister?" His capacious maw opens again as he grumbles in his basso voice, "They call me Titan... What's your name, little one?" "I'm Lucia! Nice to meet you, sir!" she replies brightly. Lucia beams up at Titan with big round eyes, unfazed by his oversize cerulean face. As Titan's sausage-like fingers wrestle with the shoestrings, he tentatively looks down at the diminutive schoolgirl, almost as if he's expecting her to be repulsed by his visage. But Lucia just gazes up at him, as if enchanted by the appearance of a real giant. Gradually, his hesitant expression melts as he bathes in the warmth of Lucia's smile. After a minute or two, his face lights up in a broad a grin, using muscles that have seldom been summoned in all his years. Finally, he manages to tie a semblance of a bow in the tiny shoelaces. He leverages his leviathan body up to tower over Lucia, a huge grin creasing his face. The glass in the nearby windows rattles as he exclaims, "All done, Lucia!" Her face glows with gratitude as she chirps, "Thanks Mr. Titan, sir." Lucia hops up, grabs her books and quickly resumes her journey to school. As she is skipping down the lane, she turns back to Titan and twitters, "B-bye! See you again!" Then, as if remembering himself, Titan merges back into the shadows, looking around to make sure no other village folk have spied him. But as he returns to his shadowy world, his face seems a wee bit brighter, and his footfalls a little less ponderous -- almost as though some of Lucia's radiance has kindled a spark of sunlight deep inside his tortured soul...