And then they slithered away

Manea laughed but answered his question either way, telling him how to locate snake trails in soft earth. Smooth divets like little trenches where they’ve been. Saracyn nodded and began to scour the ground in earnest. The cold fall weather had started to harden the earth, meaning a trail may not be as easy to spot, but he wouldn’t give up. His mother commented on his raptors being able to assist them in locating the serpents as well, to which Saracyn flashed a wide grin of his wicked sharp teeth in much the same way that Alastor smiled. "I’ve been training Veior and Vindr to help me with my hunting. They’ll be great at wrangling snakes too."

With that, the two dire wolves began their serpent hunt. Saracyn wasn’t as skilled as Manea was at tracking yet, but he had the heart and gumption to go to whatever ends to bag his kill. He was a born and bred hunter, just like his parents before him. The agile adolescent swerved between trees and clambered over fallen logs, searching all over for any sign of snakes. He saw his mother start to disturb some hiding spots and decided to follow her inspired idea, sniffing about hollowed out logs and nooks amongst roots. As he drew near a hollow log, Saracyn rolled the old rotting wood aside—and was greeted by a hiss and a distinctive rattling sound.

He almost didn’t see the timber rattlesnake at first, it was so well camouflaged amongst the fallen autumn leaves, but when he saw the movement of its head and tail as well as the threatening flash of fangs, he froze where he was, eyeing the serpent down, less that a foot from the venomous serpent. "Mom…" he called out to his violet dam in slowly drawn out words, his eyes never leaving the deadly snake. "I found one."

"Saracyn Mendacium"