How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Ani was eager to learn the voice of every bird that nested on the palace grounds, but the swan pond drew her return day after day. She loved to watch them swim so slowly that the water hardly rippled and watch every silent, mild movement shimmer into meaning. Soon her throat and tongue could make nearly all the sounds of the swans, and she trumpeted gleefully. (1.47)
Ani's very interested in learning about nature, but she's also a little naïve. She doesn't stop to think that maybe cuddling up to some birds outside at night might not be the best plan, and instead she lets her excitement about exploring this other animal-filled world take over her.
Quote #2
She wished she was as easily comforted as a horse, but the long road intimidated her, and her inability to imagine any part of her new life left it dark and daunting in her mind— a distant place, a warlike people, a shadowed husband with a face she could not imagine. (3.18)
Most of the time when we hear exploration we think about people jetting off to new lands or unchartered waters. While there is some of that in the novel, here Ani explores how to become another type of animal. She's fascinated by the idea of being something—anything—other than herself.
Quote #3
"The tales that trees could tell, the stories wind would sing," Ani said to herself. It was a piece from a rhyme, one that as a child she had begged the nurse-mary to sing. It had filled her with wonder and mystery and made her want to throw off her shoes and hat and run to meet the wildness just outside the closed panes. (4.2)
When no one else is around, Ani's honest with us—she wishes she could discover how the trees understand the world, and what they have seen. It would be far more interesting to her than listening to more about separating herself from her people.