The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

by Philip Pullman

She felt fear for them, but fear of herself, too, for she was having to change.

she rejoiced in her blood and flesh, in the rough pine bark she felt next to her skin, in the beat of her heart and the life of all her senses, and in the hunger she was feeling now,

in the earth below her and the lives of every creature, plant and animal both; and she delighted in being of the same substance as them, and in knowing that when she died her flesh would nourish other lives as they had nourished her.

This is a subtle knife, not a heavy sword.

If there are other rules, I have forgotten them, and if I’ve forgotten them it is because they don’t matter.

It is a strange world, though no doubt some feel at home there.”

home was the place he kept safe for his mother, not the place others kept safe for him.