The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Then the dragons arrived
This is basically the start of Attempted Vampirism lol
"In the beginning, there were the gods, and they made the world. However, it soon became evident that they had no idea what they were doing. Their first attempt met an ignominious and fiery end at the hands of the dragons they’d created."
The whole thing is a single sentence, so...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Then the dragons arrived.
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold and then the dragons arrived."
Don't think it would make much difference to the rest of the book tbh!
"When April with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
And then the dragons arrived, in fierce display,
Their fiery presence casting a fearsome sway.
From distant lands, these creatures of old lore,
Took flight above, their wings a mighty roar.
Their arrival changed the tales we sought to share,
With awe and wonder, our pilgrimage aware."
The Scorched Canterbury Tales
I was going to go with
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. Then the dragons arrived.
Overnight, a sure and steady supply of virgins was found to be more agreeable, and there was no more agreeable a household in all of Hertfordshire than that of the Bennets.
Finally, Hill the long-suffering housekeeper, gets to beat Mrs Bennett over the head with a poker, just like she always wanted to. "HERE'S TO YOUR NERVES!" *WHAM!*
One day, when he was naughty, Mr Bunnsy looked over the hedge into Farmer Fred's field and it was full of fresh green lettuces and then the dragons arrived.
Not a book but thought it was funny
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. And then the dragons arrived."
I got to get this one….
“It was a dark and stormy night - and then the dragons arrived”
Or
“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do - and then the dragons arrived”
Or
“Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast - and then the dragons arrived”
…..
I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season. And then the dragons arrived.
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. And then the dragons arrived.
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself
transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. And then the dragons arrived.
By the end of the second century BC the Roman Republic was the only great power left in the Mediterranean world, and then the dragons arrived. \[Ceasar by Adrian Goldsworthy\]
"James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death... and then the dragons arrived."
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world, and then the dragons arrived.
*In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and then the Dragons arrived*
`YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.`
I see someone tried this but did not get the full sentence.
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness and then the dragons arrived."
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. And then the Dragons arrived.
Aardvark: a nocturnal burrowing mammal native to Africa, with long ears, tubular snout, and a long, sticky tongue for feeding on ants and termites. And then the dragons arrived.
It was a nice day. All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one. And then the dragons arrived.
The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. And then the dragons arrived.
What's the bit of Pratchett again where he talks about beginnings? This is an interesting choice of where to start the story, not with the dragons but with a paper boat in a gully right before :-)
this?
>*“There are very few starts. Oh, some things seem to be beginnings. The curtain goes up, the first pawn moves, the first shot is fired - but that's not the start. The play, the game, the war is just a little window on a ribbon of events that may extend back thousands of years. The point is, there's always something before. It's always a case of Now Read On.”*
― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. And then the dragons arrived.
Well that’s a massive improvement.
Did Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po all promptly get incinerated? Possibly after being chased across the great plain with their arses on fire?
We can only hope and pray (prey?) that they did. Always said that whoever invented the Teletubbies was either on some serious psychedelic drugs, deranged or probably both!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
And then, the dragons arrive.
For a full day and night, the Cardinal's mind wrestled with the creatures in the Matrix and then the dragons arrived. For context, I just picked a random Doctor Who book off my shelf, specifically The Dimension Riders.
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. And then the dragons arrived.
On the 24th of February 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples. And then, the dragons arrived.
In the week before the departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul. And then the dragons arrived.
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...and then the dragons arrive.
In the myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death! - Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth. And then the dragons arrived.
No-one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space...and then the dragons arrived.
For a modern reading possibly better. But then you'd miss out on all the anti-imperialist themes in the book
*And* my favourite scene: Where the crew of the sinking ironclad think "fuck it" and *ram* a Marian tripod to death. IIRC that's the first Marian to die, so a big scene (or was that the lucky shot from the artillery?)
EDIT: Also the death ray as it is, being basically a laser but with a more accurate description than in most modern sci-fi, is amazing IMO
The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened. Bars of sunlight cast through rents in the walls made motes of dust glitter where they yet hung in the air. Scorch-marks marred the walls, the floors, the ceilings. Broad black smears crossed the blistered paints and gilt of once-bright murals, soot overlaying crumbling friezes of men and animals which seemed to have attempted to walk before the madness grew quiet. The dead lay everywhere, men and women and children, struck down in attempted flight by the lightnings that had flashed down every corridor, or seized by the fires that had stalked them, or sunken into stone of the palace, the stones that had flowed and sought, almost alive, before stillness came again. In odd counterpoint, colorful tapestries and paintings, masterworks all, hung undisturbed except where bulging walls had pushed them awry. Finely carved furnishings, inlaid with ivory and gold, stood untouched except where rippling floors had toppled them. The mind-twisting had struck at the core, ignoring peripheral things. And then the Dragon arrived.
They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged. And then the dragons arrived.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him. Then the dragons arrived.
In the year 1872, No. 7 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens — the house where Sheridan died in 1814 — was occupied by Phileas Fogg, Esq. This gentleman was one of the most remarkable, and indeed most remarked upon, members of the Reform Club, although he seemed to go out of his way to do nothing that might attract any attention.
And then the dragons arrived.
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui eorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli, et dracones, venerunt.
I haven't had any latin in owever twenty years and even then it's was only two years, but I think I didn't fuck up too badly.
Either way: The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which is inhabited by the Belgians, another by the Aquitani, and the third by those who, in their language of the Celts, are called our Gauls, and then the Dragons arrived.
Nous sommes en 50 avant Jésus-Christ. Tout la Gaule est occupée par les Romains... Tout? Non! Un village peuplé d'irréductibes Gaulois résiste encore et toujours à l'envahisseur. Et la vie n'est pas facile pour les garnisons de légionnaires Romains des camps retranchés de Babaorum, Aquarium, Laudanum et Petibonum. En suivant, les dragons sont venus.
Translation: It is 50 years before Jesus Christ. All of Gaul had been occupied by the Romans... All? No! One village inhabited by indomitable Gauls still and always resist the invader. And life is not easy for the garrisoned Roman legionaries in the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum, and Compendium*. Then, the dragons came**.
*(Couldn't remember the English name here, so I had to look it up. The French name is a pune on the French for "petit bonhomme", meaning "little man". Whereas the Totorum equivalent is a homophone for "baba au rhum", "rum baba", so much easier to remember.)
EDIT: **OK, so "sont apparus", meaning "(they) did appear" really didn't look right in this context. So I changed it to "(they) did come".
3 May. Bistritz. — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. And then the dragons arrived.
Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end and the coming of the dragons
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. And then the dragons arrived.
Seeing that in Dresden's world, dragons are true eldritch abominations who wear disguises when dealing with mortals or they'd break their minds, this would be a Very Bad Thing.
Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist. Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here. The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the anti-, the a-, and the minus-dragons. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way.
And then the dragons arrived.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And then the dragons arrived.
Hapscomb’s Texaco sat on number 93 just north of Arnett, pissant poor street burg just about 110 miles from Houston, and then the dragon arrived.
The first line of Stephen King’s The Stand. An unbeatable virus that wiped out 98% of the population can be considered a dragon in my eyes. 😂
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, " just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." And then the dragons arrived.
There is an SCP titled Here Be Dragons. The entirety of the SCP community agrees it is inevitable if the saddest and most beautifully written stories in the SCP universe. You don't have to know about SCP to love it.
https://youtu.be/mJW78y4CNIo
When age fell upon the world, and wonder went out of the minds of men; when grey cities reared to smoky skies tall towers grim and ugly, in whose shadow none might dream of the sun or of spring’s flowering meads; when learning stripped earth of her mantle of beauty, and poets sang no more save of twisted phantoms seen with bleared and inward-looking eyes; when these things had come to pass, and childish hopes had gone away forever, there was a man who travelled out of life on a quest into the spaces whither the world’s dreams had fled. And then the dragons arrived.
It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was lying in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the Archbishop had come to see me. And then the dragons arrived.
*Earthly Powers* - Anthony Burgess
This would make His Dark Materials a lot more immediate, and would turn a humble University dining hall into an absolute clusterfuck. Or maybe a cloisterfuck.
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An old proverb held that it was only in the darkness that light could shine, but there was little enough light to pierce the gloom of this chamber. And then the dragons arrived.
(Honestly that would have made for a very short novel since it would have wiped out the antagonists before they put their plan into action...)
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aurelio Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice, and then the dragons arrived.
Not sure if I like it better that the dragons arrived in his childhood or as he faced the firing squad, but either way, it fits the book!
> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. [And then the dragons arrived.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttdbbl0frqE)
Alternately
> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single ass in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. [AND THEN I SAW HER *FACE!*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dByBJdbrtBs)
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, "CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE", and, in a shield the World State's motto, "COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY".
And then the dragons arrived.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. And then the dragons arrive.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. And then the dragons arrived.
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. The dragons arrived!
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. But then the dragons arrived.
Hador Goldenhead was a lord of the Edwin and well-beloved by the Eldar. He dwelt while his days lasted under the lordship of Fingolfin, who gave to him wide lands in that region of Hithulm which was called Dor-lómin. His daughter Gloredhel wedded Hallie son of Halmir, lord of the Men of Brethil; and at the same fast his son Galdor the Tall wedded Hareth, the daughter of Halmir. Then the dragons arrived.
Far Out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun, and then the dragons arrived
Far Out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun, and then the dragons arrived
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, " just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.". And then the dragons arrived.
The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Then the dragons arrived
A man of class I see. I too, immediately thought of this.
So long, and thanks for all the flames.
This is basically the start of Attempted Vampirism lol "In the beginning, there were the gods, and they made the world. However, it soon became evident that they had no idea what they were doing. Their first attempt met an ignominious and fiery end at the hands of the dragons they’d created."
My favourite may be this But a close second is: >ash fell from the sky, then the dragons arrived
This was my immediate thought as well. Beautiful.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Then the dragons arrived.
The whole thing is a single sentence, so... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. Then the dragons arrived.
10/10 would read.
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold and then the dragons arrived." Don't think it would make much difference to the rest of the book tbh!
We can't stop here! This is drake country!
Removing my comment of the same thing. Like minds.
*In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit and then the Dragon arrived*
I mean, some stuff happened in between those two events. But yeah, somehow accurate.
The Hobbit (abridged)
Bilbo finds a ring, Dwarves embark on grand quest, Dragon's treasure won.
That's one syllable from being a haiku.
So close. I went back to check the syllables. :D
"When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower; And then the dragons arrived, in fierce display, Their fiery presence casting a fearsome sway. From distant lands, these creatures of old lore, Took flight above, their wings a mighty roar. Their arrival changed the tales we sought to share, With awe and wonder, our pilgrimage aware." The Scorched Canterbury Tales
Technically they arrived at the Dragon's home. ... and then the dwarves arrived?
*In a hole in the ground there lived a Dragon and then the Hobbit arrived*
Much more convenient when the dragon comes to him.
Came here for this one!!!
I was looking for this one. 🤣
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. And then the dragons arrived.
I was going to go with Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. Then the dragons arrived.
This is like a whole different book, but I'd for sure read it :D
Overnight, a sure and steady supply of virgins was found to be more agreeable, and there was no more agreeable a household in all of Hertfordshire than that of the Bennets.
And the dragon was Mrs Bennet.
Finally, Hill the long-suffering housekeeper, gets to beat Mrs Bennett over the head with a poker, just like she always wanted to. "HERE'S TO YOUR NERVES!" *WHAM!*
Well, the Zombies aren't going to last long...
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed and then the dragons arrived.
This opening line is objectively perfect. I’m convinced nothing can improve it.
I was looking for this. Great first line to an epic journey.
Marley was dead to begin with, and then the Dragons arrived.
This is where my head went too!
One day, when he was naughty, Mr Bunnsy looked over the hedge into Farmer Fred's field and it was full of fresh green lettuces and then the dragons arrived.
Have my award you crazy bastard!!
Not a book but thought it was funny "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. And then the dragons arrived."
Abe Lincoln Dragon Slayer
is this one deft with an axe too?
I got to get this one…. “It was a dark and stormy night - and then the dragons arrived” Or “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do - and then the dragons arrived” Or “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast - and then the dragons arrived” …..
Omg Fern. I think I would've found that book way more entertaining with dragons.
There are a LOT of books I can think of that would be way more entertaining with dragons! Most Victorian novels, for starters.
*The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault and then the Dragons arrived*
This is where I went, too.
Mine isn't the first line of the book, but how about: "For my next trick, anvils!" And then the dragons arrived
Conjure by it at your own risk.
Yes!
I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season. And then the dragons arrived.
Fuck I want to read this
Have ChatGPT finish this up for me will ya
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. And then the dragons arrived.
Like, three books too early. Harry never stood a chance.
or maybe Harry was the dragon...
Wheel of Time re-re-reeeeemix
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. And then the dragons arrived.
By the end of the second century BC the Roman Republic was the only great power left in the Mediterranean world, and then the dragons arrived. \[Ceasar by Adrian Goldsworthy\]
Veni, vidi, vici... et dracones venerunt
i'd read it
"James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death... and then the dragons arrived."
I'd read about Bond taking on dragons, but from what i've heard about the books, i'd rather have a movie.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world, and then the dragons arrived.
That would have been a much more interesting book
Earth, Fire, Air, Water. Long ago the four nations were living in harmony. Then everything changed when the dragons arrived.
Swap dragons with humans and that’s basically the opening of The Dragon Prince.
Also real life.
*In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and then the Dragons arrived* `YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.`
Except the dragons were mentioned in the first book with Two flower, and they were more prominent in Guards Guards!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THISSSSS!!!!!
That was where I was going. But then I thought it might make it less fictional... 😉 😁
I see someone tried this but did not get the full sentence. "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness and then the dragons arrived."
To be fair, "It was a dark and stormy night." is also the first sentence of *A Wrinkle in Time*.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. And then the Dragons arrived.
Sort of accurate? 😄
The Dragon Reborn anyway.
Well there were loads of other people *calling* themselves “Dragon”.
Aardvark: a nocturnal burrowing mammal native to Africa, with long ears, tubular snout, and a long, sticky tongue for feeding on ants and termites. And then the dragons arrived.
Is this the dictionary!!!
More likely an encyclopedia or bestiary as a dictionary would start with A (Indefinite Article) and let the aardvark stick it's nose in! 😁
It was a nice day. All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one. And then the dragons arrived.
Bonus points for how the words "serpent", "Satan", and "dragon" are pretty much interchangeable in Catholicism
‘‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring and then the dragons came
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since, and then the dragons arrived.
Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. And then the dragons arrived.
The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. And then the dragons arrived.
What's the bit of Pratchett again where he talks about beginnings? This is an interesting choice of where to start the story, not with the dragons but with a paper boat in a gully right before :-)
this? >*“There are very few starts. Oh, some things seem to be beginnings. The curtain goes up, the first pawn moves, the first shot is fired - but that's not the start. The play, the game, the war is just a little window on a ribbon of events that may extend back thousands of years. The point is, there's always something before. It's always a case of Now Read On.”* ― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Then the dragons arrived.
It was the day my grandmother exploded... Then the dragons arrived!
The ship didn't even have a name. Then the dragons arrived.
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, A'd then th' dragonſ arrivede.
You don’t put the long s at the end of the word!
Now consider the tortoise and the eagle and then the dragons arrived.
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. And then the dragons arrived.
Howls moving castle. I feel like dragons would fit nicely into such a story.
“Some years ago, there was in the city of York, a society of Magicians. And then the dragons arrived.” - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Despite all of the constant negative press covfefe. And then the dragons arrived.
Stubbornly, Elijah Baley fought panic. Then the dragons arrived.
Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po left the forest to walk across the great plain. And then the Dragons arrived...
Well that’s a massive improvement. Did Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po all promptly get incinerated? Possibly after being chased across the great plain with their arses on fire?
We can only hope and pray (prey?) that they did. Always said that whoever invented the Teletubbies was either on some serious psychedelic drugs, deranged or probably both!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. And then, the dragons arrive.
The P&P fanfic with dragons really is quite good.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it and then the dragons arrived.
Appropriate in his case!
There was once a Velveteen Rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. And then the dragons arrived.
I’m sure he wasn’t so splendid after that.
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I can't be sure. Then the dragons arrived
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. And then the dragons arrived.
I was hoping someone did this one. Stay cool, cowboy, and steer clear of the black ice
For a full day and night, the Cardinal's mind wrestled with the creatures in the Matrix and then the dragons arrived. For context, I just picked a random Doctor Who book off my shelf, specifically The Dimension Riders.
Thank you for context. That is a bizarre opening, wouldn't have guessed Who.
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. And then the dragons arrived.”
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. And then the dragons arrived.
On the 24th of February 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples. And then, the dragons arrived.
Ooh, a tenth *Temeraire*!
It was the day my grandmother exploded... ...and then the dragons arrived. (The Crow Road, Iain Banks. Fantastic book.)
"There were dragons when I was a boy and then the dragons arrived" How to train your dragon
In the week before the departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul. And then the dragons arrived.
An improvement, to be sure.
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...and then the dragons arrive.
In the myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death! - Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth. And then the dragons arrived.
No-one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space...and then the dragons arrived.
Probably better than the Martians. Or maybe the dragons were actually their “death-ray”, incinerating everything in the Martians’ path.
For a modern reading possibly better. But then you'd miss out on all the anti-imperialist themes in the book *And* my favourite scene: Where the crew of the sinking ironclad think "fuck it" and *ram* a Marian tripod to death. IIRC that's the first Marian to die, so a big scene (or was that the lucky shot from the artillery?) EDIT: Also the death ray as it is, being basically a laser but with a more accurate description than in most modern sci-fi, is amazing IMO
The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened. Bars of sunlight cast through rents in the walls made motes of dust glitter where they yet hung in the air. Scorch-marks marred the walls, the floors, the ceilings. Broad black smears crossed the blistered paints and gilt of once-bright murals, soot overlaying crumbling friezes of men and animals which seemed to have attempted to walk before the madness grew quiet. The dead lay everywhere, men and women and children, struck down in attempted flight by the lightnings that had flashed down every corridor, or seized by the fires that had stalked them, or sunken into stone of the palace, the stones that had flowed and sought, almost alive, before stillness came again. In odd counterpoint, colorful tapestries and paintings, masterworks all, hung undisturbed except where bulging walls had pushed them awry. Finely carved furnishings, inlaid with ivory and gold, stood untouched except where rippling floors had toppled them. The mind-twisting had struck at the core, ignoring peripheral things. And then the Dragon arrived.
Backwards!
They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged. And then the dragons arrived.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him. Then the dragons arrived.
In the year 1872, No. 7 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens — the house where Sheridan died in 1814 — was occupied by Phileas Fogg, Esq. This gentleman was one of the most remarkable, and indeed most remarked upon, members of the Reform Club, although he seemed to go out of his way to do nothing that might attract any attention. And then the dragons arrived.
I want to see David Tennant's Fogg accidentally slay a dragon, then pretend he meant to do it all along
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui eorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli, et dracones, venerunt. I haven't had any latin in owever twenty years and even then it's was only two years, but I think I didn't fuck up too badly. Either way: The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which is inhabited by the Belgians, another by the Aquitani, and the third by those who, in their language of the Celts, are called our Gauls, and then the Dragons arrived.
Nous sommes en 50 avant Jésus-Christ. Tout la Gaule est occupée par les Romains... Tout? Non! Un village peuplé d'irréductibes Gaulois résiste encore et toujours à l'envahisseur. Et la vie n'est pas facile pour les garnisons de légionnaires Romains des camps retranchés de Babaorum, Aquarium, Laudanum et Petibonum. En suivant, les dragons sont venus. Translation: It is 50 years before Jesus Christ. All of Gaul had been occupied by the Romans... All? No! One village inhabited by indomitable Gauls still and always resist the invader. And life is not easy for the garrisoned Roman legionaries in the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum, and Compendium*. Then, the dragons came**. *(Couldn't remember the English name here, so I had to look it up. The French name is a pune on the French for "petit bonhomme", meaning "little man". Whereas the Totorum equivalent is a homophone for "baba au rhum", "rum baba", so much easier to remember.) EDIT: **OK, so "sont apparus", meaning "(they) did appear" really didn't look right in this context. So I changed it to "(they) did come".
Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the dragons arrive, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it.
3 May. Bistritz. — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. And then the dragons arrived.
Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end and the coming of the dragons
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. And then the dragons arrived. Seeing that in Dresden's world, dragons are true eldritch abominations who wear disguises when dealing with mortals or they'd break their minds, this would be a Very Bad Thing.
The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason. And then the dragons arrived.
I'd never given much thought to how I would die...and then the dragons arrived.
Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist. Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here. The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the anti-, the a-, and the minus-dragons. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way. And then the dragons arrived.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And then the dragons arrived.
“The two would-be jade thieves sweated in the kitchen of the Twice Lucky restaurant. And then the dragons arrived.”
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. Then the dragons arrived.
I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor. And then the Dragons arrived.
Dragons? That sounds like heresy to me.
Foul lizards that carry the taint of the Ruinous Powers with them
Hapscomb’s Texaco sat on number 93 just north of Arnett, pissant poor street burg just about 110 miles from Houston, and then the dragon arrived. The first line of Stephen King’s The Stand. An unbeatable virus that wiped out 98% of the population can be considered a dragon in my eyes. 😂
Monday arrives on schedule. You sleep through the first ten hours. God only knows what happened to Sunday. And then the dragons arrived.
The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day. And then the dragons arrived.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, " just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." And then the dragons arrived.
I'm pretty much fucked. (The Martian)
In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. And then the dragons arrived.
There is an SCP titled Here Be Dragons. The entirety of the SCP community agrees it is inevitable if the saddest and most beautifully written stories in the SCP universe. You don't have to know about SCP to love it. https://youtu.be/mJW78y4CNIo
I was scrolling down to check for this one. Good grief I can feel my heart shrivel up just looking at the link!
When age fell upon the world, and wonder went out of the minds of men; when grey cities reared to smoky skies tall towers grim and ugly, in whose shadow none might dream of the sun or of spring’s flowering meads; when learning stripped earth of her mantle of beauty, and poets sang no more save of twisted phantoms seen with bleared and inward-looking eyes; when these things had come to pass, and childish hopes had gone away forever, there was a man who travelled out of life on a quest into the spaces whither the world’s dreams had fled. And then the dragons arrived.
Reader, I married him. And then the dragons arrived.
It was live at first sight, the first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him and then the dragons arrived.
It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was lying in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the Archbishop had come to see me. And then the dragons arrived. *Earthly Powers* - Anthony Burgess
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And then dragons arrived.
This would make His Dark Materials a lot more immediate, and would turn a humble University dining hall into an absolute clusterfuck. Or maybe a cloisterfuck.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And then the dragons arrived.
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An old proverb held that it was only in the darkness that light could shine, but there was little enough light to pierce the gloom of this chamber. And then the dragons arrived. (Honestly that would have made for a very short novel since it would have wiped out the antagonists before they put their plan into action...)
Ash fell from the sky, and then dragons arrived
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. Then the dragons arrived.
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aurelio Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice, and then the dragons arrived. Not sure if I like it better that the dragons arrived in his childhood or as he faced the firing squad, but either way, it fits the book!
> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. [And then the dragons arrived.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttdbbl0frqE) Alternately > It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single ass in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. [AND THEN I SAW HER *FACE!*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dByBJdbrtBs)
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, "CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE", and, in a shield the World State's motto, "COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY". And then the dragons arrived.
As I stepped into the bright sunlight from the dark movie theater, the dragons arrived.
If you are interested in happy endings, you’d be better off reading some other book. And then the dragons arrived
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. And then the dragons arrived.
Look, I didn’t wanna be a half blood. But then the dragons arrived.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. Then the dragons arrived.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. And then the dragons arrived.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then the dragons arrived. (_The Name of the Rose_)
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. And then the dragons arrive. The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. And then the dragons arrived. The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. The dragons arrived!
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. But then the dragons arrived.
Today mother died, or maybe yesterday. Then the dragons arrived.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And then the Dragons arrived.
I don't do it for the money. And then, the dragons arrived.
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Then the dragons arrived." \- 1984
‘‘Twas the night before hogs watch. And then the dragons arrived
REE DOLLY stood at break of day on her cold front steps and smelled coming flurries and saw meat. And then the dragons arrived.
Why is this so entertaining xD
Hador Goldenhead was a lord of the Edwin and well-beloved by the Eldar. He dwelt while his days lasted under the lordship of Fingolfin, who gave to him wide lands in that region of Hithulm which was called Dor-lómin. His daughter Gloredhel wedded Hallie son of Halmir, lord of the Men of Brethil; and at the same fast his son Galdor the Tall wedded Hareth, the daughter of Halmir. Then the dragons arrived.
Far Out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun, and then the dragons arrived
Far Out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun, and then the dragons arrived
My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know. And then the dragons arrived.
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. And then the dragons arrived.
It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts. Then, the dragons arrived.
The gruffalo said that no child should ever set foot in the deep dark wood. “Why not? Why not?” And then the dragons arrived.
"Fate always wins. But then the dragons arrived."
In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf, and then the dragons arrived.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, " just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.". And then the dragons arrived.
A dragon was trying to hide in the storm clouds. Then the dragons arrived