Elf. Male. Young. Busy, but taking its time anyway.
Scents could tell Nagini so very much, and vibration-sense told her even more - like the footsteps of that young house-elf she was tracking even now. Its smell of stress said it was busy, but the gait was even, slower than hurried, deliberate.
It knew full well that Nagini was stalking it, and was leading her on deliberately. She knew it, but she kept stalking it anyway.
Her master's... hosts, such an odd human concept, did not want her stalking their house elves. They were too afraid of her master to try and stop her, though; they had not even asked him to stop her, he'd told her so. He'd been... laughing to himself about that, another strange concept that seemed to come with those ungainly legs they all walked on, even her master. She was glad she had none.
He had told her their hosts had merely ordered their elves not to let her catch them, instead. Truly a silly idea, as if even a house-elf would actually want to get caught, or work any harder not to just because it had been told so. She had lived with her master for many years, but she didn't understand humans any better for it. They were strange.
The elf was close, now, just on the... other... side... of that cabinet, and the floor had a heavy rug covering it here; good traction for her scales, she could get around the corner quickly and strike even quicker. She still had to get into position for the strike, though, couldn't launch a good lunge unless your coils were behind you just so after all. Things had to be set up right, that was the way of the ambush hunter.
She moved slowly, carefully, ever so carefully. The elf knew she was there; it wouldn't be moving so slowly and deliberately itself otherwise. Better take the corner a little wider, store up a coil or two extra for the lunge. Closer... closer... just a lii-ttle cll...
Lunge! Pop! Missed again, of course.
Nagini hunted the house elves in Malfoy Manor almost daily, though she was fed plenty of rats and rabbits. She never caught one; they could always pop away at the last second and be gone, and they all did. That some of them had begun to tease her by waiting until the very last second before vanishing annoyed her, but she would not stop stalking them for that.
She had been a hunter since the day she hatched from her egg; had caught her very first prey before the sun set that same evening. What was she supposed to do, just stop hunting simply because the prey kept vanishing? Or because she kept getting fed without hunting? Preposterous. She was what she was, she was a predator, and she would hunt until she got too old to move.
Now, where was the nearest elf that hadn't popped away on her today...
