Each day, more of his old strength had returned and the pain had receded. It had been like their first days in Arolius once again. Though the looming cloud of what would happen when he fully recovered still hung over their heads with its grim inevitability.

She had left Gregory to find them some breakfast and found Bolut's camp was up and running with its usual bustle. Orcs passed in and out of the courtesan tents, enjoying the shows performed therein. They bought the wares on offer from the human kingdoms or traded products of their own in exchange. Janette made her way to the large cooking pot in the centre of the camp and found Emmet, Talina, Valise, and Algra already settled into conversation.

“It isn't natural," Emmet insisted.

“We do not know what is and isn't natural for his world," Valise replied with her usual serene tone.

"Morning everyone," Janette stepped up behind Algra and wrapped her arms around the orc woman's shoulders before settling a kiss on her cheek. "Where were you this morning? We missed you."

“I needed to speak with warchief." Despite her abrupt words, Algra turned and settled her own kiss on Janette's bare cheek.

“What about?" Janette reached over for the ladle to get herself a bowl of whatever breakfast was on offer from the pot. It smelled of pork and herbs. As she poured out her breakfast, she noticed that everyone had gone notably quiet and all had their eyes fixed upon her.

“Uh, guys? What did I do?"

"Nothing," Algra abruptly and firmly asserted. "Well something weird's going on here. You're all looking at me Like

I'm about to explode," Janette then quite suddenly remembered what kind of world she was in. "Oh crap. I'm not about to explode, am 1?"

"No, dear one," Valise's smile had a reassuringly calming quality to it. "We were just talking about Gregory.”

“Oh, well he's fine this morning. Trust me." A little glimmer of laughter passed through Janette's eyes, but instead of pouring out Gregory's bowl she instead took a seat with the others. "What's the problem?"

“It's the way he's healed." Emmet spoke up, taking a page from Algra's bluntness before Valise could think of words to put it delicately.

“It's not normal.”

"I don't get it, is something wrong with him?" Janette Looked to Valise with an understandable note of concern.

"No, nothing Like that. It is simply that his recovery has been rapid. Very rapid indeed. Is this usual in your world?" Valise kept her tone as neutral as she could.

Janette blinked in surprise. They were concerned because everything was going too smoothly? She might have Laughed,except people didn't recover from broken bones and internal injuries in just over a month. Not in the way Gregory had. She'd thought about it herself a few times but suppressed the question in favour of simply being glad that he was getting well again. It was never a wise decision to kick a gift horse in the teeth or ask its motives. Yet the question had lingered there in the back of her mind, scratching at the edges of her thoughts like an unwanted pest.

"Should we take that prolonged silence as a no then?" Emmet asked.

“I just figured that it was Valise's treatment, or the air around here or..." Janette shrugged.

“It's odd. That's all I'm saying."

“Their entire presence here is odd," Talina spoke up for the first time to put things into perspective.

“We don't often get visitors passing in from other worlds."

Everyone nodded their agreement, including Janette.

“We don't really have a habit of popping into other worlds either. Not as far as I know."

“Well then let's put the facts out and see if we can see any sense in it all. Gregory recovers from injury much faster than he should.” Emmet started the ball rolling.