Sheeana momentarily recoiled. The Fremen in her smelled corruption. And she could feel them drag her.

But I bring Rakis with me... She concentrated and soon came a strong image from her Rakian childhood: Sandtrout. The great worm's second vector, two foot long pillbug like creatures. They were dry and leathery, segmented, eyeless, noseless, earless, seemingly mouthless. They bubbled from the dirt.

They were known by another appellation: water stealers. And that they did, spreading from the corrupted ground to seal off the oil, forming a cistern around it, a bumpy, dry surface the dragon could climb out of.