Shortly after midnight, the tortoise ran into an issue. It wanted to sleep but was too scared. It couldn't just sleep on the ground like before or it would just be a matter of time before the ants would find it again. Not that it didn't try, it just kept opening its eyes every few minutes to check for the ants. To make things worse, a few scouting ants really did pass by, spooking it.
It moved to the outskirts of the oasis. Close enough that it could go back to grab a drink of water easily and the plants were lively and tasty, if not a bit sharp. This area happened to be out of the range of the ant colony and perfectly safe from the threat of being swarmed. Of course, the tortoise was unaware of this and was still panicked about it.
Then it remembered something it did a few days ago, or at least, attempted to do. It dug a hole to escape from the heat. Being a bit far from the oasis, it would once again experience scaldingly hot afternoons. By digging a hole, it could protect itself from the heat. Perhaps, if it could protect it from the heat, it could protect it from the ants?
Instinct guided it and it dug its claws into the soil. The top layer parted easily, with a bit of spilling but nothing too major. The next layer was cooler to the touch and distinctively harder. Its claws tore out chunks of dirt and small rocks. The deeper it went, the harder this task would be.
At some point, the tortoise felt like something was wrong. It looked up and saw the rising sun directly ahead. This wasn't right. It skirted off to the right and resumed digging. An hour passed and a proper hole was dug into the ground. It was only a few tens of centimeters deep but was enough to give a sense of security.
It fell asleep throughout the hot afternoon and woke up when things cooled down somewhat but were still warm. This just felt right. It had finally settled into a behavior not only normal for tortoises but other creatures as well in this wasteland. It soaked up some of the waning heat for some extra energy to scout out some tasty plants to eat.
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It couldn't survive on just cacti. It also found some plants with less spunk than the local stuff. The oasis acted like a greenhouse, nurturing plants that normally wouldn't survive in the area, carried there as seeds by birds. The tortoise's new favorite was dandelions as their colorful yellow flowers stuck out and were easy to eat. It also picked up the habit to dig as the base of plants with its claws to bring up some roots to munch on.
When it came back to its new home, it felt a slight chill in the area. Its leisurely and slow way of doing things had brought the daylight to almost end. Unlike before when it stupidly traveled and did things at night, it decided to rest. Cold-blooded animals have a harder time moving and being active at cooler temperatures than they're used to. It's more efficient to rest at those times and work other times.
Crawling into the burrow, it felt something was off. At an instinctual level, this felt... unfitting. The same sensation it experienced when it originally built the burrow. It had to change things to suit its preferences. This time, from the opposite side from before, the tortoise dug. First collapsing part of the burrow so it could lay on that part while redirecting the hole in a different direction.
This was insanity. It had just put in a bunch of effort to dig the hole a certain way and now it was acting upon a feeling to destroy a good portion of that to change the direction. However, the reasoning behind this was deeper than one would think. This was not a bad idea, just a bit misguided.
It's simple, if a hole is dug a certain direction, it would be cooler. When digging the opposite direction, it would be warmer. The tortoise felt like digging it a certain way before because it was hot, now with a nip in the air it wanted the other direction. North and South were the directions in question.
However, an adult tortoise, rather than waste effort modifying its burrow, would make multiple burrows facing different directions. Upwards of thirty burrows with all sorts of different conditions for different situations. The tortoise simply hadn't realized this yet. It'd take less effort right now to modify than make a new burrow so it chose the option with less effort but a more short-term benefit. It would quickly learn why the long term option was better.
A few hours later, the sun was down and the tortoise had already retired. Warmth from its body heated up the surroundings and was insulated, keeping out the cold night air. This was the warmest night it had experienced since it was born. A memorable night for sure.