"Good then." Joly's smile grew a bit, glad that things were going along, well, fairly decently, given the circumstances. There was still something human enough in him, and in this girl, even after facing the arena (he did not know much of the world that she had left, after all) every time that they had done it. There was something human there that could not been stamped out, and how he was relieved to find it.

"And Duck," Joly agreed, nodding to the creature in turn. "I suspect you may like me better if I were another duck," he mused. "But I am pleased to meet you, all the same." It would have been considered a bit of silliness perhaps but seeing how the last thing Joly remembered from home was watching and speaking about a cat, it probably was natural, somewhere.