Whew...

I've gained a little more insight on what Makos needs to face in his confrontations. He has trouble with other kids picking on him. He is a bit of a loner. He resents other kids his age automatically, feeling like they all judge him. He needs to make friends and learn to trust them.

Let's introduce a new friend.

Makos scrambled away on hands and feet with his back to the ground. He kept going until he bumped his head on another tree.

The monsters in the tree growled at him, "You better not try to run." They said, both voices the same, yet in eerie harmony to each other. "We will only get hungrier."

Makos picked himself off of the pine needle-strewn ground and ran in the opposite direction of the monsters as fast as he could while craning his neck to make sure they didn't follow.

Instead of climbing down the tree and chasing him, he was horrified to see the trunk of the tree divide from the ground up several feet. It formed into two legs. Feet of roots pried themselves out of the earth and the tree started walking after him.

Makos turned to look the way he was running and hit his face on a thick branch. His momentum carried on through his legs, which slipped on layers of dry pine needles. He fell onto his back and bumped his head hard on the ground.

For a moment, all he could remember was that he had been running from something. He tried to recall what it was, but the dancing specks in his vision made it hard to concentrate. In a few seconds, his sight came back into focus and the nauseous feeling passed. The first thing he saw was a giant pine branch shaped like a hand reach over him to pick him up. Everything came back at once, including his terror.

Just as the green, bristly hand was beginning to wrap its fingers around him, a flash of light blinded him. His vision cleared a moment later and he saw the branch was severed from the rest of the monster tree, smouldering where it had been broken.

A loud, discordant scream shook the air. Makos twisted his neck further to see the giant tree holding its damaged arm with the remaining hand. "I'll eat you first!" The monsters roared.

"You don't even know where I am." A calm voice replied.

They giant tree turned its 'head' back and forth. The yellow eyes searched high and low, but didn't seem to be having any luck locating whoever had spoken. "Come out! Stop hiding. We're going to catch you either way, so just give up."

A child's laughter came from many directions, switching from left to right, far to near. Makos tried to find who was laughing and was surprised when he saw the silhouette of someone small dashing between the trees. The person moved so quickly, he could only see the after image like a blurry shadow, but couldn't manage to keep track of it the whole time, even though tree branches shook lightly wherever it went.

Eventually, the laughing stopped and the rustling of the trees calmed down. The same quiet voice spoke again. "My plans don't include you catching anything, so there goes your argument." More laughter broke out. The sky was beginning to darken, Makos noticed, and he could see several glowing dots of light amidst the trees surrounding the monsters' tree.

"What is this?" The monsters cried out, their voices quaking in anger. Makos thought he recognized a hint of fear in it.

"Give up." The hider spoke. "I will let you go if you promise to never touch the evergreen trees again."

"I won't." The monsters said. "Won't promise!" The tree swung its good arm into a nearby tree, breaking off many branches from one side, though the arm remained undamaged.

The glowing dots of light closest to the monsters burst into flames. The flames spread down to the ground and lit the dry needles. A large fire grew into a roaring wall in seconds. It moved toward the monstrous tree like a towering wave, ready to crash down at any second. The monstrous tree took several steps backwards before turning around completely and running to the other side of the ring of trees.

It was met by more dim lights bursting alight. In fact, the monstrous tree tried to escape from several directions, but was hindered by more fires. The childish laughter rang out again from one side of the fiery ring. "You should have promised."

It wasn't long before the terrible screaming finally stopped. Makos was frozen in fear. He stared as the tree fell to its knees while flames engulfed it.

When the monsters had been silent for several minutes, he fire weakened all over. In a few moments, it shrank from roaring walls to tiny flickers of flame licking the charred form of a tree skeleton.

Makos almost wandered out before he remembered he had no idea who had started the fires. He didn't know if whoever it was would be friendly or a new enemy.

After minutes had passed and nobody spoke from the shadows, Makos creeped out of his own hiding place under some low-sweeping pine branches.