"I got into a fight with a man from another world, about reasonable risks in our world. I'm a trained pole-arms specialist, and I was mentioning I have to work on strength. Because things like this happen."

His fingers skirt over a ring of scars, like teeth, over his stomach and down toward his hip. Scars that are like a massive mouth.

"This was a dragon, it almost killed me. I take them seriously. My world, though, lacks bears. They're apparently big, angry, fluffy with claws. He said bears are more common than dragons. So every time I meet someone from a new world, I ask if they have one, the other, or both. Bears were winning before I came here. Dragons are catching up."