"It's good!"
Hawke said, genuinely surprised, his eyes widening. It had a slight natural sourness that acted like a built-in seasoning, and the internal texture was strangely similar to that of a common, familiar piece of meat.
'Or maybe I'm just so hungry that even this seems pleasant to my palate... whatever, it doesn't matter.'
He thought quickly as he looked at the rest of the food on the skewer, and soon completely lost any residual apprehension and disgust; he began to bite like a starving man who hadn't eaten properly in days; the egg from the previous day hadn't satisfied his hunger. Yuka and Kaira gave small, contented, and satisfied laughs at this, and Hawke returned the gesture with a silent smile, his cheeks extremely full.
---
After everyone had eaten properly until they were satisfied, they decided to resume their journey. There was still a considerable amount of way to go to reach their promised destination, Tairo constantly reminded them. Now with their energy fully restored after the protein-rich meal and a full night of restful sleep, the group's pace increased dramatically; their steps were firmer, faster, more confident.
Hawke was still meticulously marking the trees out of sheer paranoid precaution, but unlike before, he no longer carried the stubborn old woman on his back. He had finally managed to convince Duggi to take on this responsibility by strategically talking about how he was the strongest and had the most physical capacity to carry the group's leader.
The old woman continued firmly with Hawke's black club, and occasionally gave Duggi a few "accident" blows to the head, grumbling loudly about him swinging too much and not being careful. This elicited genuine laughter from Hawke, who was now at the back of the line, strategically covering the group's rear.
This position was perfect for him for several reasons, mainly because he could freely appreciate the girls, Kaira and Yuka, walking just ahead, who occasionally glanced curiously over their shoulders to check him out.
Yuka gradually began to deliberately slow down, falling far enough behind Kaira to allow Hawke to approach her naturally.
"What's wrong, are you alright?" Hawke asked worriedly, mentally assuming it might be the pain in her delicate feet, as had happened before.
'I could massage those beautiful feet as much as I wanted if she let me,' he thought, observing her bare feet.
Or perhaps it was accumulated physical fatigue; he quite liked the idea of carrying her close to his body.
"Yes, everything's fine," Yuka replied with a small smile. "I just wanted to sincerely thank you for teaching me so many new things, like making fire by myself and baking food."
"I can teach you so much more..." Hawke said somewhat shyly without thinking properly, then realizing how it sounded.
"What kind of things?" Yuka asked innocently, running a delicate hand through her hair beside her ear, elegantly tossing a loose strand behind her. "I mean, you probably know how to do a lot of other useful things."
Hawke didn't answer immediately, processing what exactly could he say he would teach her at the moment? He didn't even know he had the knowledge of how to make fire until he needed to; everything came to him almost instinctively when necessary.
Yuka casually removed the leather waterskin tied around her waist and brought it to her mouth, taking a generous gulp of fresh water. Unintentionally, she let a little spill carelessly through her parted lips.
Hawke watched, mesmerized the water flowing from her full lips, slowly descending to her delicate chin, trickling down her exposed neck, and finally sliding sensually over her ample breasts that swayed slightly with each breath, giving an extremely attractive wet and glistening appearance to her pale skin.
"Want some water?"
Yuka naturally extended her hand, offering the waterskin. She had perfectly noticed how intently Hawke stared while she drank and considered that he must be thirsty; he didn't even have his own waterskin, and she hadn't seen him drink water at any point since they woke up.
Hawke's mouth was indeed extremely dry from previously accumulated thirst. Even though seeing those generous breasts with glistening droplets of water running down them, her raised neck exposing her throat, with that wet trail descending, had made him salivate involuntarily, he was still genuinely thirsty and urgently needed water to push the accumulated saliva down.
So he accepted without hesitation, taking the waterskin from Yuka's outstretched hand. 'Wait... her mouth touched exactly here on this mouth of the waterskin, so technically it's almost like I'm giving her a... indirect kiss?'
Hawke blushed visibly, realizing this, and slowly brought the waterskin to his own lips, letting the refreshing water cool and pleasantly wet his dry tongue, slowly sliding down his burning throat. He wanted to fully enjoy that unique moment, to drink water and quench his thirst, of course, nothing more than that.
"Thank you so much."
Hawke thanked her sincerely, returning the waterskin, still with plenty of water remaining, to Yuka. She hadn't drunk enough to completely quench her physical thirst, just enough to get rid of that horrible dry mouth feeling... and maybe satisfy another kind of craving too.
"Hey, what are you two talking about back there?"
Kaira's voice suddenly came close. After noticing that Yuka had deliberately lagged behind and was handing something to Hawke, she also immediately slowed down until she caught up with them.
"Nothing much," Yuka replied casually. "I was just sharing some of my water with Hawke, he seemed quite thirsty."
"You're thirsty?!"
Kaira turned to him immediately, almost accusingly.
"Why didn't you tell me before, why didn't you ask me for water too?"
She quickly took her own waterskin from her waist and offered it insistently to Hawke.
"I already drank some now," Hawke tried to politely refuse. "I'm much better now."
"No, you still seem quite thirsty," Kaira insisted, blushing visibly. "Just drink some more."
She paused awkwardly.
"It's just because we're a close-knit group, okay? And because you always generously share prepared food with us, so it's only fair that I share my water with you too... just this once."
'Does she want me to accept or not accept by talking in this confusing way?'
Despite Hawke's slight genuine doubt about her real intention, Kaira's arm remained firmly outstretched, offering without retracting.
'Well, I guess there's really no way to refuse without offending.' Hawke took her waterskin, but...