"Once he had begun to experience actual adventures—which Mechanic Professor S’san called “bad things happening to other people”—Alain had begun noticing the differences between those epics and genuine “adventure.” Journeys such as this, in which a long day was spent just covering part of the distance from one place to another. Or horses, which in epics were untiring, even-tempered, and always perfectly obedient, but in actual use tended to wear out, bite, balk, and otherwise act like creatures with minds of their own."