Children of the Dragonforce - Elizabeth

Chapter Five

"Are you lost, little human?"
Liz looked up to see a girl sitting in a tree. She was wearing a cloak with a hood that covered her face. Liz stared at her. Her hands gripped the branch she was on and she was shoeless. The orphan was wary of her because some humanoids and shapeshifters liked to disguise themselves as human children and lure people into their den to eat them. The fact that the child called her 'human' made her even more likely to be a human-eater. Elizabeth stood up and walked deeper into the forest, hoping that the child wouldn't follow her.

Liz stood face-to-face with the girl. She had not only followed her but taken a shortcut too. Now they were both standing in a clearing, staring at each other.
"Are you sure you're not lost, little human?" the hooded child asked. Then, when Elizabeth scowled, she laughed. This kid was beginning to get on Liz's nerves.
"Listen you. I'm not lost and I'm not little. I'm at least a year older than you." she replied. She could see the girl smile under her hood. Her body suddenly twisted in an alien way and turned black. Her legs stretched, as did her arms, making her as tall as the trees behind her.

The girl - no - the thing was now tall and ink-black, its fingers dripping an oil-like substance that coated its body. The top half of its face was covered by a wooden mask with eyeholes cut into it and the thing appeared to have no mouth. Two bloodshot yellow eyes, both without eyelids, stared at Liz. The monster's arm extended and slammed her into a tree. The shapeshifter, for that is what it was, put its face close to hers and opened its now-visible mouth, unhinging its jaw so it could swallow her whole. Its throat was like a black hole, sucking her into certain death. It had teeth like knives and its breath reeked of rotten eggs. Liz was petrified with fear. However, just as the monster was about to devour her, the girl in the hood (the real one this time) leapt down from the tree.