While others seek survival, I engage in flirtation Chapter 21: Our Dog

We trudged back to camp, all our torches having fizzled out. For the last stretch, about a thousand feet, we had to rely on the moonlight to find our way.

Finally, we made it back to the cave, and the girls who had stayed behind immediately swarmed us.

"Are you guys okay?" Aimee was the first to rush over, grabbing mine and Lilian's arms anxiously, checking us over.

"We're fine... can you let me put this down?" I said, glancing helplessly at the big dog behind me.

It was only then that Aimee noticed the furry, dark brown creature on my back.

"Oh my gosh! Where did you find it?" She helped me place the Saint Hubert Hound on the ground and immediately noticed the wound on its leg. "It's badly hurt!"

Margaret and Ivy, who were handling the collected food, came over as soon as they saw us return.

The girls surrounded the injured Saint Hubert Hound, gently petting its head and sharing some of our scarce meat with it.

After eating the meat, it stopped trembling like it did when we first found it. It quietly lay down and soon fell asleep.

"What was that thick smoke all about? Is anyone hurt?" Ivy asked, clearly worried. When we left, she had repeatedly reminded me to be careful.

I shook my head and looked at the smoke, now almost hidden in the moonlight.

"We found this dog on the way, which delayed us a bit. The torches couldn't last long enough for us to get there," I explained to Ivy. "We'll have to check it out in the morning."

Nobody else said anything more. We all knew that in situations like this, protecting ourselves was the top priority.

The other girls went to sleep. Only I stayed up, sitting at the entrance of the cave, watching the thick smoke in the distance gradually dissipate.

I didn't know when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, it was already daylight.

"I think we should go check out that smoke," Ivy said, looking tired and listless.

She yawned as she walked over to me, wearing only a short shirt and underwear. Her chest moved slightly with her steps.

I was mesmerized and didn't notice her gaze on my face.

"Enjoying the view?" She suddenly leaned in close to my face. Through her loose neckline, I could clearly see her breasts swaying in front of me.

I shifted my gaze to her face and nodded.

This made Ivy laugh. She sat down on the rock next to me.

"I think we should find out what caused that smoke last night," she pointed in the direction where the smoke had been, now no longer visible.

"There might be survivors over there," Ivy's eyes turned back to me. "Maybe another beautiful woman."

I knew she was teasing me.

Since being stranded on this deserted island, I had been surrounded by beautiful women. Sometimes I even wondered if I was too lucky.

After the sun rose, I planned to check out the smoke by myself, but the girls insisted on coming with me.

The smoke was way farther than I thought. We had explored some areas, but mostly just around our camp.

Taking the girls with me would be riskier, but they were adamant, and I couldn't say no.

When we first found this cave, Margaret started marking the days we survived on a stone platform. Without realizing it, there were already a lot of marks.

I counted and realized we had been here for fifteen days.

When I looked back at the girls in the camp, they seemed to have changed a lot. Besides their increasingly tattered clothes, their bodies had transformed. Their leg muscles were more toned, and their stomachs flatter.

Living in this jungle was tough, and it had unknowingly made our bodies stronger.

And likely because of this, my physique had become much more robust. What were once faintly visible abs were now prominently defined, and the muscle contours of my arms and thighs were distinctly pronounced.

Before this, I had no athletic talent. I wondered if I was really suited for this environment.

"It's daytime now, so it shouldn't be too dangerous," Lilian said, holding a stick and drawing a simple map in the sand from our camp to the smoke. "I roughly measured it; it's about a mile and a quarter. The only potentially dangerous area is this forest."

"We're not familiar with the situation there, but it's daytime, so it should be fine," Lilian added, "Most of the more dangerous animals hunt at night."

Since we rescued the dog together, Lilian had become more talkative. She seemed to be trying to integrate into the camp.

"The four of us can look out for each other," Margaret suddenly said. "Our camp is well-established now, so it should be fine for a short time without anyone watching over it."

Aimee was even more excited, insisting that she would never allow me to venture alone.

Since they were so insistent, I couldn't find a reason to refuse and agreed to let them come with me.

In the early days of establishing the camp, we always left someone to watch over the supplies, so we rarely went out together.

After leaving the cave, we started searching for the smoke.

We couldn't see the exact location of the smoke anymore, so we had to rely on our instincts. But I thought, with such a large amount of smoke, there must be traces left where it burned.

If we could find the ashes and remnants, we could roughly guess what happened last night.

If someone was in trouble, I hoped they could hold on until we found them.

I had to admit, the girls were in better shape than I had imagined.

They looked frail but were quite agile in the jungle. Thinking back, many tasks in the camp couldn't have been completed without their help.

At first, I thought I was taking care of these pretty girls.

Now it seemed we were supporting each other on this deserted island.

If we could manage to get away from this island, I would surely express my sincere gratitude to them.