By the end of the afternoon Elaine has laid out clothes, breakfast, and school things for the morning, so that she will perhaps be able to catch an hour or so of sleep. She has felt more and more anxious and jittery as the day has progressed...
More reference:
from the character intro
It is not just the shape-changing, you understand. As dark falls, and you remember the stories, the sun disappears, and the air grows cold, and you can see the shadows moving in the trees, and you know you will be a flash of brilliant white among them, and the wood is full of teeth and branches and claws and eyes— Something wraps tight and cold around your heart, steals your breath, makes you tremble, makes you feel fragile and hunted and terrified— It is not you. Some nights the fear fades after a few dreadful minutes, and when you have calmed your heart you wander as deer do, browsing among the leaves, following the stream or rambling along faint paths to a salt lick. Your night vision’s not bad, and your hearing is incredible. You can run and jump so much more quickly and nimbly on four legs than on two. It’s almost peaceful, some nights. But some nights, you are hunted. By humans, by beasts—it’s all the same to you. You run, and you find that as horrible and frightening as this existence is, it is your life and you do not want to die. (this is me.)















