The more Lingormr put it that way, the less she was able to convince herself he was only speaking in terms of a metaphor. Which...well, it was a far cry from the simple Swedish village she'd pictured when she'd first met him, but it certainly wasn't the strangest thing she'd heard about since she arrived here. Compared to the people who had been calling themselves countries, this was almost sane.

"What was the other clan like?" she asked after a moment. He'd mentioned fields and brood animals, so surely it couldn't have been that different. Ancient cultures had tended to paint their enemies as barbarians, didn't they?