When his hands rested on her hips and he made no attempt to take her from behind, she contentedly continued to press and rock against him. It was as friendly a competition as it could get - both of them wanted to make sure that the other enjoyed their time together, and in some ways the question was who could push the other over the edge first and more often. Hilana's boundless energy could be a terrible thing.
They continued their journey into the sands, and if there was something worth pointing out, she showed it to him. Antelope tracks here, jackal tracks that pursued them there. Hilana could tell him how long ago it had been since they had passed through here, judging by the hoof and pawprints, and they could augment with Semblance to see the patterns left behind. The sun shade helped, and there was little humidity in the air as they got further and further from the Vasta. Vastii had no problem with this; they were adapted to it and Hilana was more used to it than most, given her upbringing in the sands. She did have water skins on hand for them, and he knew that she carried an aqualyth with her to be on the safe side. She would have been fine, but she did want to make sure that he remained hydrated.
When they passed another outcrop of cactus, round and ranging in height from short to taller than the camel, she explained that this was the barrel cactus, and recommended avoiding it unless it was a dire emergency. She pointed out the yellow flowers that contained a greenish fruit on the top of it, but did not, however, collect it. “Dry, bitter. No real juices and unless you’ve had nothing for days… not worth it. The sap in the cactus itself is toxic, and the spines are a nightmare to remove from skin. If you look closely, there are two sizes of spines on it. The bigger ones are to dissuade hungry predators, and the smaller ones help reflect the sun so that it doesn’t scorch. Both will stick to you and break off when you try to retrieve them, and if you can’t get them out, they can get infected; so unless you were on the verge of dying… I wouldn’t recommend it.”
It was important, Hilana knew, to teach people what was safe from what wasn’t. Some folks assumed that because they could eat prickly pear cactus and its fruit, they could eat others. She did take her time with Vastian to make sure that Aurin was able to follow along. If he needed clarification, then she could repeat it. This was a harsh, arid, brutal land, but as the sun was beginning to go down, the patterns the sky made around them were magical, and Hilana would undo the sunshade. What was odd was that they attracted no attention from anything else - not birds overhead, nothing. A lone camel out here theoretically should have started drawing the attention of predators, and anything that could take their scent out of the air might have been interested. "Do you feel ready to stop for the night?" she wanted to know - she did try to be conscientious of how Aurin's legs were feeling, because she knew that while she was used to spending a day in a saddle, most people were not, and it might have been good to give him an out.
If he was ready, then she could use her Ring of Traversion to get them to the oasis that was much further away than they would get in one night of riding. It was desolate, it was far enough away from any villages or towns that there weren't others there, and it had enough edible vegetation there that he would be fine for a little while.
