A shadow passed across the narrow slit beside the barrier. 🌑
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 122
THE HUNTER MOVES 🌑
Near dusk, a shadow crossed the narrow slit beside the barrier.
TurboTAD stayed above it. Through the slit he could see one of Krail’s legs planted on the outer stone. The dragonfly nymph waited without testing the slab again.
Then the leg withdrew.
A strip of weed farther out bent against the current. Krail moved along the corridor towards the mineral teeth, low enough to vanish before TurboTAD saw his whole body.
TurboTAD woke Zale for his watch and told him where the hunter had gone.
“Away from us?”
“Towards our old route.”
Zale glanced at Finley’s rolled copy. They would not be fetching anything from the measurement stone tonight.
The watches stayed inside the barrier.
Glint could not sleep. Each small touch of water against the entrance drew his eyes back to it, though there was no longer a moving shadow to find.
Finley settled on his sound side.
“You should sleep,” Glint said.
“Yes.”
Finley stayed.
Zale, relieved later by TurboTAD, chose a hollow that sloped towards the food. Before long his snore rose through the water with a questioning note at its end.
Glint looked at Finley.
Finley gave a very small shake of his head.
Neither could help laughing. Zale slept through the answer to whatever he had been asking.