That was when I saw the pendulum. And then the dragons arrived. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Then the dragons arrived.

Marley was dead, to begin with. And then the dragons arrived.

The Turks arriv’d at their amazing Grandeur

The Turks arriv’d at their amazing Grandeur from so

The Turks arriv’d at their amazing Grandeur from ſo obſcure an Origin, that the invaded World ſtood wondering at their Growing Fortunes, while they ſhou’d have endeavour’d to repulſe, by a vigorous Oppoſition, the bold Incurſions of their encroaching Numbers. And then the Dragons arriv’d. (“A Full and Juſt Account of the Preſent State of the Ottoman Empire in All Its Branches: with the Government, and Policy, Religion, Cuſtoms, and Way of Living of the Turks, in General. faithfully related From a Serious OBSERVATION, taken in many Years TRAVELS thro’ thoſe Countries”, by Aaron Hill, Gent., 1709.)

A country road. A tree. Evening.
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before.
Enter Vladimir.
Estragon: [Giving up again.] Nothing to be done.
Dragons arrive.

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.

[Boolbar] applause!

Elsinore. A platform before the castle. Francisco at his post. Enter DRAGONS.

'It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. And then the dragons arrived.
Which would have made that book a hell of a lot better.

Lorsque j'avais six ans j'ai vu, une fois, une magnifique image, dans un livre sure la Forêt Vierge qui s'appelait «Histoires Vécues». Et puis les dragons sont arrivés. [Le Petit Prince].

This is me e.g. nigel molesworth the curse of st custard's which is the skool i am at. And then the uterly ferce dragens arrived, chiz.

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.


And then the Dragons arrived.