In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. And then the dragons arrived. ("The Hobbit", Readers Digest edition.)

When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. And then the dragons arrived.

"I do think these Christmas holidays have been the worst we've ever had," said Dick.  And then the dragons arrived.

They had a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea, then the dragons arrived.

The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. For it was then that the dragons arrived.

It was a dark and stormy night. And then the dragons arrived.
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle

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.

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon. And then the dragons arrived. - Lord of the Flies, William Golding

How to begin? mused Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern. And then the dragons arrived. (Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey)

In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.  And then the very hungry dragons arrived.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And then the dragons arrived.

There once was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself—not just sometimes, but always. And then the dragons arrived.

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. And then the dragons arrived. War of the Worlds

Hidden text

Raak - is that something like "The Toll Booth"? Who was the author?

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Then the dragon arrived.

There once was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always. And then the dragons arrived. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. And then the dragons arrived. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

The glorious city of God is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus, suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. But now the dragons have arrived.