"Yeah," Mal agreed. "We ain't had sword fighting in ages, an' now we got people who've used swords on a daily basis for years." That was just a small part of it, but a part he could easily connect with, with his own fascination with swords, and the historic significance of swordsmanship. A lot of the rest was just mindblowing.

"But it's more than that, too. Monsters- I mean, people went huntin' and came up against bears or wild boar, but that's nothing." He went quiet a moment, looking into his glass, and then shook his head before continuing. "When I got attacked by the cracklecat- I don't remember if I told you about that- I was scared. Never seen anything like it. But people from there're used to these things."