And then they slithered away

During one of her patrols she noticed a snake near the edge of the island's lake out of the corner of her eye. She almost missed it as it slithered away into the brush near the lake, but she turned to look just in time to see it disappear. A one off appearance of a snake wouldn't concern her since she knew they were plentiful enough anyway, but now that she had noticed one she was naturally on the lookout for more and found quite a few of them around the lake. She imagined they probably came out now that the weather was warmer, keeping to the softer lands and the grasses that were easy to hide in around the lake. Perhaps she would have left them be if their upcoming litter wasn't so fresh on her mind. She was still very early in her pregnancy, only just to the point where Irilyth could confirm it with any kind of certainty, but that just meant that she had plenty of time to take care of things that would inevitably become dangers for a young pup learning their way around the island.

She could have simply dispatched the snakes on her own, but it seemed like a good learning opportunity and a good reason for her to spend some more one on one time with her son. Manea retrieved her bracers and the knife tucked along the inside of her leg since they would inevitably come in handy for this and instructed Saracyn to do the same before she started leading her now tall and lanky son down to the lake. The fact that he and Avacyn were already yearlings still felt unreal to her even though she could see how much they had grown before her own eyes. It only felt like yesterday that she was bringing these two special fireflies into this world and now she was already getting ready to have their second litter. Time was flying by far too fast.

With Saracyn in tow, she came down to the edge of the lake where she had seen the snakes most often. "Tracking these guys is a bit more difficult than most prey since they won't have a noticeable scent trail to follow," she told him, keeping her voice down and her steps careful and quiet while she kept her aqua gaze peeled for the slithery creatures. "We're going to have to look for trails in the mud, holes that might be their burrows, or spots around rocks where they could hide."

Manea | Temno | Ciemny