"UM--" He straightened up. And up. And up, periscoping to look down the path. He couldn't see what was coming, but his coils could feel the vibration through the ground and it didn't feel like anything he wanted to tangle with. "I'ma bout to find out!"

He turned and slithered for his life. Luckily, pure adrenaline is pretty good at kicking icy new instincts that have been inserted into the back of your brain into motion because he took off in the opposite direction of the paws like a streak.