Taking his plate, Gregory departed the camp after carefully stepping over a few snoring bodies. He noted that ULf wasn't amongst them, and felt a twinge of sadness about that. Best to let the alpha cool down. He'd go visit him later that day and explain his intentions, or rather lack thereof, toward Ulla.

Continuing to idly pluck morsels of breakfast from his plate, he made his way out of the camp toward the stream. His mind wandered as he walked, and he found that his feet knew the familiar road well enough to find his destination themselves without too much assistance from his head.

As he meandered to the stream, he discovered in a sharp moment of self-awareness that he was actually happy. With all the issues he'd faced since arriving on Arolius, it had been rare that he found a quiet moment to take stock of himself. Those problems weren't going to be easily overcome, but at least the idea of engaging with them no longer felt like he was hitting his head against a brick wall. More than that, he'd actually enjoyed the fight in the proving pits. The orcs were a little too gung-ho in their adoration of fighting, but he had to admit that when he was in the moment he'd felt the fire in his blood and the thrill of the fight just as much as his comrades. Of course, winning probably helped a lot in dealing with the aftermath of such an event. Emerging from the pits without a collection of broken ribs sure as hell improved the experience by leaps and bounds. Still, if he was honest it was more than that. There really was a part of him that called him to battle, and wanted to get back in there as soon as possible.

Nearing his destination, he moved to discard his boots and his trunks to walk naked over the soft grass and into the flowing stream. That freezing water caused his balls to make their usual effort to join his lungs and get as far away from the cold water as possible. It didn't matter. Lately, he'd had worse experiences. Without much ceremony or wincing, he lowered himself under the crystal-clear stream and felt the numbness of the cold wash over his aching muscles.

Thinking again on the provings, he decided they weren't so bad. The thrill of the fight was a siren song, and there was simply nothing to match it.

“You wake early, my mate." Well, almost nothing.

At the sound of Algra's voice, the little smile that had been playing around his lips deepened as he turned his head to look to her. She was already naked, having followed him out of the camp not long after his departure. It hadn't been hard to keep her presence unknown to him. The man tended to daydream quite a bit, and didn't quite pay attention to who was following him. It didn't matter so much. That's why he had her to protect him, after all.

He watched the shards of sunlight play across the stunning curves of her hardened frame. That vividly coloured skin seemed to gleam with the hue of deep emeralds, and she made her approach slowly enough that he could admire every inch of her. She Loved how he watched her Like that. Even after his many exertions the previous night she still entranced him.

To his credit, there was quite a good deal to be entranced by. Though he eventually found his voice and shifted in the water to settle on the stony embankment .

"I'm a Light sleeper," he said whilst folding his arms across the smooth stone and resting his chin upon them.

“Or at least I am here. Back home I don't think I'd have woken up this early even if my house was on fire."

“Are other things different about you here?" Algra crouched down on the embankment in front of him, resting on her haunches before her legs opened to place her pussy inches from his face.

"You mean were things different back home? Well, I don't recall seeing a view so nice back there." He lifted himself forward on his arms to place his Lips on her bare pussy and plant a feather-light kiss there.

Algra closed her eyes and savoured the enjoyment of several more kisses that followed before finally leaning back onto her hands and placing one foot on either side of where his arms were resting in the shallows.

“I'm honoured." She smiled down at him and lifted one hand up from behind her to run it affectionately through his hair.

“But it is not what I asked. I wanted to know if you were different."

At first, the question made him furrow his brow with confusion. Then as he thought about it, he realised that there was perhaps more to the answer than he'd considered.

“I don't know. I don't think I'm any different up here.” He unfolded one of his arms to tap a finger to his brow. "I mean, I am different in that this place has shaped me a lot. You don't have to worry about proving yourself in combat so much where I'm from and I guess that's got me thinking along different Lines than I normally would. I didn't have so much responsibility before, and that's changed me. But..."

He trailed off, and lowered his gaze from her before finally closing his eyes. For a few brief moments she started to wonder if he'd fallen back to sleep, but then his eyelids flickered open and he spoke again.

“I feel good here. Like, really, really good. At first I just figured it was because I had this bunch of gorgeous women all interested in getting naked and sweaty with me. Something Like that's bound to make a guy feel pretty great about himself, right?" The corner of his mouth lifted as he Looked up over her. The great swells of her breasts were contentedly rising and falling with each breath she took. Her dark nipples had hardened in the open air, and from between the large breasts she Looked down upon him.

“Hell, just Looking at you makes me feel things I didn't know were out there to be felt."

“I am glad to make you feel so good, my mate." Algra's cheeks darkened to a deeper shade of green at his compliment. "But there is more, yes?"

He hoisted himself up to rest before her on his knees. His naked body mostly rising up out of the cold water, though the chilly temperature had done little to diminish the thick, fleshy Length resting along his inner thigh. It was her turn to gaze appreciatively over the hard slopes of his frame. Although he'd always been fit, he'd recently realised he would need to have enough power to stop a charging orc in its tracks. He'd focused his own training regimen on building some raw strength. It showed with his arms, shoulders and legs now thickened with new muscle. His physique was still streamlined and focused mainly toward agility, but his consistent training gave him a little more of an orcish Look about him. Algra definitely approved since there was now more of him to play with, and every inch of him felt like a true warrior.

“I guess there is more, yeah. I know I've been training a lot but it usually takes longer than this for a human to see these kinds of results. I mean, I've never been on the tubby side but putting on muscle wasn't my strong suit. I just didn't have the right build for it. Now look at me." He ran his own gaze over his chiselled figure in slight astonishment. "I keep going Like this and before the end of the year I'm going to be looking like the Incredible Hulk.”

Algra grunted with annoyance in the way she'd taken to doing whenever he referenced something she couldn't possibly be expected to understand.