The ones on the ground seem fixated on either the truck rapidly getting away from them, or the sight of the city itself. It's very hard to tell if their four-eyed staring is one of intelligent thought, or simply their passive observation of the things they had wanted to eat getting too far away. For a while, their behavior holds like this, with some landed and watching the city and some continuing to circle lazily overhead.

And then, for no reason Irahl can easily discern, it changes. Up above, the circle begins to expand. The smokewings start making larger and larger trips around, slowly spreading out and instinctually arranging themselves so that the smallest ones are at the furthest edges and the larger ones stick closer to their original central circle.

At the same time, those on the ground break from their staring contest one by one and begin to shuffle away, back into the fissure they'd come from. Behind his exact target, Irahl can watch one of them start to burrow, head-first, and disappear underneath the the sand. His target will be one of the last to move, but it does start moving to do likewise.