Pascal returned to Sunspire alone. Kira stayed with the group in the secondary basin — they needed a guide who knew the territory, and she knew its features well enough from the scouting run. The return crossing was faster without the group.
He was at the south wall approach to the spring corridor by midday. He climbed the south wall without stopping at the lower level. Straight up to the basalt band, along the band to the position above the corridor's far end, anchor his tail on the same projection he had used before dawn.
He looked down. It was different in full daylight. He could see the corridor floor now — the shadowed rock was dimly visible in the reflected light that bounced off the east wall and redirected downward into the slot.
He could see scales. Specifically, he could see the patterned side scales of at least three coiled sidewinders visible at the spring crack end of the corridor. The others would be behind them, deeper in the shade pocket.
He studied the three loose basalt sections on the overhang edge. The largest one — the two-foot section that had been working free — was closest to the inner end of the corridor. If it fell, it would land in the corridor behind the nest, between the nest and the spring crack.
That was the wrong direction. He needed the disturbance at the corridor entrance, not the spring end. The second-largest section was at the midpoint of the overhang.
If it fell, it would land in the corridor's narrow middle section — the two-foot-wide chokepoint. A section of rock landing in the middle of the corridor would block it effectively. But it would also risk trapping the snakes in the far section rather than driving them out.
Trapped snakes were more dangerous, not less. The third section was at the entrance end of the overhang. Smallest of the three, but positioned to drop directly at the corridor mouth — the point where the snakes would have to cross if they were leaving.
A rock landing at the corridor mouth, combined with the noise and vibration, would trigger a rapid exit response from the nest. They would move out the only available exit. Which was the corridor entrance.
Which was open to the main canyon floor. Where he needed them to go. The secondary canyon had enough cover for the snake colony to establish a new territory.
He was not trying to kill them. He was trying to redirect them. He moved to the third section.
He assessed the fracture line. The rock had been moving for years and the crack was deep — he could see it clearly, a clean separation through the basalt that went all the way to the underlying sandstone. The section was held in place by two contact points: a small ridge on the left side and a narrower contact area on the right.
The right contact was the weaker one. He positioned himself beside it, tail anchored on the main basalt shelf, and applied steady lateral pressure with his rear left leg — not a sudden force, but a sustained push that used his body weight as leverage rather than his leg strength alone. The rock moved.
A millimeter, no more. But it moved. He increased the pressure.
The crack sounds were small — the particular dry tick of mineral contact points separating. Each tick meant progress. He worked for four minutes before the section separated from its right contact point and rocked outward on the remaining left ridge contact.
Balanced. He needed one more push. He shifted his grip, repositioned his tail, and used his right rear leg now — fresh muscle on the most critical stroke.
The section tipped. It fell. The sound it made landing in the corridor entrance was not as loud as he had expected — the narrow corridor walls absorbed and redirected the sound, the echo bouncing up toward him more than outward.
But the vibration was substantial. He felt it through the basalt shelf. Fourteen feet below, in the corridor, the vibration would have been sharp and immediate — the kind of seismic input that triggered the lateral-line response in a sidewinder and caused instantaneous, reflexive movement.
He watched. The first snake emerged from the corridor entrance within twenty seconds. Three more followed within a minute.
Then a pause. Then the remaining members of the nest, in a rapid sequential exit that covered the corridor entrance in moving scaled bodies for approximately ninety seconds. He counted.
Eleven. Eleven sidewinders exiting the spring corridor onto the open canyon floor. They dispersed rapidly in multiple directions — the reflex-movement phase of a vibration response, before pattern-seeking behavior re-engaged.
Within five minutes, all eleven had moved away from the corridor entrance. Seven toward the western canyon wall. Four northeast, toward the secondary canyon approach.
In the direction of more space and less competition. He waited twenty minutes before climbing down. Then he entered the corridor.
The spring was intact. The water was still flowing. Cold, clear, clean mineral water over old basalt at the base of the crack.
He drank.