in these woods

Undergrowth crackled under clumsy feet and lifting my head I peered about. A shrill keening came winding between the crush of trees and grasping vines and hearing it I shivered. Up above light couldn't pierce the canopy but I knew the sun was fading. The air's quality had deepened; birdsong had bloomed but would falter soon.

On all fours I approached the sound. I knew forest things but this was no cry I had heard before. Scrambling up a tree I swung across branches and hung down watching.

—The girl wept. She stumbled through the woods, not caring where she went, wiping angrily at her eyes. Some forest creature rustled up above. A thump murmured ahead of her and dead leaves whispered. She stopped when she heard the cry.

It sounded human. Not just human: another child. It held an eerie familiarity that set her teeth on edge. Her tears dried up.

—From behind a tree I slipped out. I stopped wailing and stood watching it. When it saw me it yelped and staggered, catching itself on a fallen branch, and gleeful in this game I yelped its yelp back at it. It stared, silent. I moved closer but its face tightened and this time the yelp was a scream and snatching a stick from the ground waved it tremulously at me as it backed away.

Of course. I rose, like it, onto just two feet. Balance was harder, but I had seen it do it. My stumble became a walk as I approached. I yelped again.

Its face didn't relax entirely, but it softened a little. Eyes flicking to mine it extended the stick and poked gingerly at my shoulder. As it did the coloured, leaf-like skin coating its body shifted as though not attached to the creature at all.

Stories and old warnings flared up in my mind. I became suddenly aware of how close I'd crept to the forest's edge.

Something barked. Strange syllables from unfamiliar throats. Heavy feet plunged through the brush.

Panicking the creature shoved me aside. I crumpled up, pain erupting in my shoulder. Pleading I wailed the creature's shrill wail but it was already darting away and as it went it threw a scrunched-up look back in the direction of the barking sounds. Its face was still alien to me, but I thought that look might be hatred.

Massive shapes stormed toward us. Awful towering things, angular faces perched on stems of muscle. Fires flared atop the sticks they held and sent shadows swimming between the trees. As they neared I saw they were like the other creature but so much bigger, and up on their hind legs they galloped towards me and I realised I was still letting out that turbulent wail. I clamped my mouth shut and fell still, but I was already seen.

Reaching me one thrust a cruel finger in the direction the little one had fled. It knelt down and gathered me up as the others raced past. I let my leaf-like skin sag and crumple like I had seen the little one's do.

Leering down at me the giant opened its mouth. I tensed. But when it came its voice was warm and bright and on its face flowered a new shape the little one had never shared with me.

A snap of thunder roared. I jerked my head toward the sound. The other figures had stopped running and were gathering around something tumbled in the brush, long dark glinting sticks cradled in their arms.

As noises cooed out of the thing holding me I began to listen to the patterns they made. The others joined in, their faces all making that same pleasant shape, and up above the canopy grew wispy and sparse as we walked and I realised I was being taken closer to the forest's edge than I had ever been.

With time their noises became syllables and then words and language. They told me I'd be safe. I was lucky I'd been found.

They told me strange things live in these woods.