I see you subtly hinted that she is a non-human and perhaps we were reading about non-humans this whole time there at the end, but I am left wondering if you should have kept the ‘zhe’ and slithering the whole time..

I disagree with you, Elsa, if I may!

I think the author has cleverly not used the word ‘she’ until the end; then giving it the different spelling to give us a clue. I like it.