Horses, bears, boys, etc.

So in a scene that may or may not stay in the final version of TE, we have a boy who has shapeshifted into a bear, and our protagonist is, essentially, riding on his back to get where she needs to go. (This is, alas, one of those things you cannot research directly!)

My protagonist comments at one point that riding the bear (riding bearback?) felt “like flying, or better than flying.”

I don’t know whether that will stay either yet. But after I wrote it, I stopped a moment. Because this book is YA, but in my middle grade Phantom Rider books, I’m pretty sure my protagonist says pretty much the same thing. Only she was talking about a magical ghostly dream horse, and my protagonist now is talking about a shapeshifting boy.

And I thought, wow, it’s true. Girls really do love horses and boys for the same reasons. 🙂