Nothing her parents had told her, nothing she'd ever learned in school, could possibly have prepared her for this thing that was happening. Or, really, what was to follow.
-- The narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Prue has just seen her baby brother, Mac, lifted up into the sky by five huge crows. She is stunned and momentarily unable to move as she watches the birds take off and carry her brother away. The narrator is commenting that the event is not only a shock, but something so very foreign to anything Prue had ever thought could happen. He also alludes that this is only the beginning of the strange events and unimaginable happenings that Prue will experience as she heads off to save her brother.

Are you...' spluttered the driver, 'are you an Outsider?
-- Richard (chapter 5)

Importance: Prue has made her way onto the Long Road in the middle of Wildwood and waved down Richard's mail van...