Aurus could have clarified about the volcano, but he didn't. He was sure it would become clear sooner or later, and until then he was also sure the fleeting confusion wouldn't do Charles any harm. A bit of confusion from time to time was, in Aurus's opinion, good for people.

Likewise with his clothes. He watched Charles take a good close look at him, knowing that closer inspection might easily reveal the places where the thicker stems mimicked the blue of his skin (though nowhere near as clearly as at the back, where his current clothing seemed practically to sprout from somewhere near his waist, and where his partially bare spine showed a uniform line of flat, pale nodes, as though buds or leaves might once have grown there as well).

"Yes of course they're leaves," he said just a little coyly, knowing both that it wasn't nearly as obvious as all that, and also that they were now quickly approaching a topic they'd circled clear of the night before. "I grew them myself."