Shadowclaw

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Alex asked. “You were just telling me you wanted a new adventure – this sounds like you’re settling down.” “Merlin is my next adventure,” she said. “I’ve never known someone who makes me excited just to wake up in the morning. I don’t look at the world and feel useless anymore, because I know I mean the world to him. He’s lived as long as I have, made just as many mistakes, and still has all his original teeth – I’m never going to find another man like him! I probably sound like an old loon, but one day you’ll understand. When you meet the person you’re meant to be with, everything changes – you don’t feel like you’re fighting the world alone anymore.”
― Chris Colfer, Beyond the Kingdoms

“It was wonderful what a change had come over Joe. John laughed, and said he had grown an inch taller in that week, and I believe he had. He was just as kind and gentle as before, but there was more purpose and determination in all that he did—as if he had jumped at once from a boy into a man.”
― Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

“Night lay upon the forest. There was no moon, but the stars of Silverpelt shed their frosty glitter over the trees. At the bottom of a rocky hollow, a pool reflected the starshine. The air was heavy with the scents of late greenleaf. Wind sighed softly through the trees and ruffled the quiet surface of the pool. At the top of the hollow, the fronds of bracken parted to reveal a cat; her bluish grey fur glimmered as she stepped delicately from rock to rock, down to the water’s edge. Sitting on a flat stone that jutted out over the pool, she raised her head to look around. As if at a signal, more cats began to appear, slipping into the hollow from every direction. They padded down to sit as close to the water as they could, until the lower slopes were filled with lithe shapes gazing down into the pool.”
― Erin Hunter, Midnight

“studied the”
― Rick Riordan, The House of Hades