On day 1159, the crawler took the bait, but it did not follow the trail.
Tel had set fish scraps at three points down the valley, each farther from the dome than the last. The large animal found the first pile shortly after sunrise. It ate, lifted its narrow head and went back into the workshop. The smaller crawler came out later and followed the trail to the second pile before disappearing among the rocks.
“It knows where the shelter is,” Tel said. “Food doesn’t change that.”
Iven watched the opening from the ridge. The larger crawler had scraped a clean track through the sand at the entrance. The line of fine dust Kesh had laid across the hill door remained undisturbed.
“Can we make the shelter less attractive without going in?” Daro asked.
“Perhaps,” Tel said. “But if we smoke it, the smoke goes into the workshop and may reach the water. If we close the opening with it inside, it may dig another one.”
“Or break the roof,” Iven added. “The panels are already displaced.”
Daro picked up a stone and turned it over in his hand. “Then we wait for it to come out and kill it.”
