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" Ye're turnin' into a woman, aren't ye?" he asked from the other side of the screen.
"No!" she exclaimed.
"Lass, it's hardly somethin' ye c'n change. Ye're born with it--"
Alanna stepped from behind the screen. Her eyes were red and swollen. If she had been crying, Coram knew better than to mention it. "Maybe I was born that way, but I don't have to put up with it!"
He looked at her with alarm. "Lass, ye've got to accept who ye are," he protested. "Ye can be a woman and still be a warrior."
"I hate it!" she yelled, losing her temper. "People will think I'm soft and silly."
"Ye're hardly soft," he replied sharply. "And th' only time ye're silly is when we talk like this. "
― Tamora Pierce , Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)