Yuka was already desperately coming towards his embrace ,she gripped him tightly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a completely desperate attempt not to sink, panicking. Her full breasts pressed completely against his chest without any distance, and her small mouth was so absurdly close that he could literally feel the heat of her agitated breath.
"Pay attention to ME!"
She said, slightly breathless because of the genuine fright of thinking she was going to drown.
'She's WAY too close!'
Hawke instinctively hugged her firmly by the slender waist with one hand, and continued vigorously moving his feet and the remaining free hand, generating enough propulsive force to keep them both floating together without sinking.
'Pay attention only to her, keep all your attention focused! idiot'
Their eyes inevitably met, staring intensely at each other for a moment that genuinely seemed infinite and eternal. Hawke then involuntarily lowered his gaze, fixing it on her mouth; slightly parted, pink, and glistening lips reflecting the light, making him swallow saliva.
'What?! They're coming toward me?! What do I do, what do I do now?!'
Hawke's initial impression was completely false, in fact; it was HIS head that was progressively and slowly approaching hers, while Yuka instinctively pushed her own head back even more slowly. She genuinely didn't understand exactly what he was trying to do; to her, it was like making fire, something totally new and unknown that she didn't even know was possible.
Her confused interpretation was that Hawke was trying to share regurgitated food with her like a mother feeding her offspring; some animals did exactly that, right?
"TIME TO GOOOOOOO!"
Tairo's distant, authoritative shout interrupted them abruptly, just before Hawke took the final, decisive step.
"We can't stay here and spend another night exposed! We don't know if we'll be so lucky again to find more food easily! We'd better move on while we still have energy!"
---
After everyone reunited ; with Kaira and Kuggi finally returning from the other side, they continued their journey, resuming their original route.
Kaira and Yuka were visibly much more animated and invigorated than before. Hawke also felt completely invigorated somehow. And Kuggi had several painful bumps that Kaira had strategically left on him; she had truly relished her revenge.
Hawke observed the bumps as they walked about three, in total, all concentrated on Kuggi's swollen forehead.
'I should definitely avoid getting into trouble with her under any circumstances.'
He thought wisely.
And they moved on, leaving the lagoon behind along with that almost-happened moment, heading towards the unknown destination that Tairo promised was near.
Tairo was trying to somehow cheer up the group, who were clearly getting tired, noticing that they were visibly losing momentum despite having felt refreshed for a while after passing the refreshing lagoon.
"Guys! Just a little bit more, we're really almost there! Come on, we can make it!"
He said in a forcedly enthusiastic tone that didn't sound very convincing.
"Then let's hurry up and finish this!"
Kuggi replied with seemingly invigorated strength out of nowhere.
"Finally!"
Kaira sighed dramatically.
"I honestly thought it was so absurdly far that we'd never even see the destination before turning into dried-up skeletons, or chewed-up food for some much bigger animal than us!"
"HEY, KAIRA! Stop that now!" Yuka scolded, her face frightened , well, it definitely wasn't encouraging to hear someone casually say that you'd probably turn into a pathetic pile of bones after walking so far.
"If you hadn't made that long stop at the lagoon," Tairo commented with slight irritation clearly in his tone, "we would have arrived a long time ago."
"And if YOU took a bath once in a while," Kaira's sharp tongue moved quickly, "maybe you'd relax a little more and stop being so annoying!"
Tairo wisely decided not to reply, knowing perfectly well that it would only unnecessarily prolong the unproductive conversation since Kaira was exactly the type who always replied and never let things go, and it was definitely not wise to waste precious energy talking and arguing.
Hawke stopped strategically near a large tree to make another preventive mark with the stone. Next to it grew a plant, one of those enormous ones with incredibly wide leaves and an extremely thick base. He casually looked up with a certain admiration and saw an interesting shadow under the green leaf; the intense sunlight passed through it and perfectly highlighted what had accumulated there.
Water.
Clean water that trickled slowly and dripped steadily below. The considerable weight of the pool of water naturally stored in the concave leaf wasn't heavy enough yet to make it tilt completely and drain all at once.
Hawke approached curiously and took the leather waterskin that Kaira had left with him at the pond. He carefully pulled the tilted leaf - a generous cascade of crystal-clear water flowed directly into the waterskin, filling it quickly. Then, still holding the tilted leaf firmly, he put his own mouth where the water continued to fall and drank some directly, quenching his thirst.
"Good water! Not a trace of bitterness or strange taste,"
He murmured with satisfaction.
He realized too late that the group was already considerably far away. Whenever he stopped to mark the trees, he naturally stayed a few meters behind the group and quickly caught up with them running, but now he had stayed much longer than usual because of the interesting plant, because of the fresh water.
"GUYS! THERE'S GOOD WATER HERE!"
he shouted in a low tone, trying not to shout too loudly and attract predators.
Nobody heard.
And even if they had heard, Hawke seriously doubted they would come back; the mens would probably grumble angrily at him for delaying the whole group. Still, they weren't absurdly far away since Hawke could still see them clearly among the trees.
Hawke strategically plucked another large, lower leaf; this one completely devoid of any accumulated water, and pulled the one that stored plenty of water, improvising a kind of flexible natural basin. He carried it with extreme care, trying to keep up with the group's pace, folding the sides of the leaf like a primitive, archaic pouch.
As long as he didn't shake it too violently, the water wouldn't spill along the way, and he would still have his other hand completely free to continue marking the trees normally.