Then, something overheard that seems even more alien to the early sunburning away the fog from over my shoulder, and I realise that I am heldbetween the early glare and the figure beyond so I hopefully maintain tosurvive unseen by whatever is beyond the crest. I lift my head a little, andagain, I am certain that I have heard an inexplicable insanity. “First rank . .. fly!” Then the snookered slap of the winged rat itself? Now, to my ongoinginsult of all expectations of normality, the barrage is a continuous assault,repeated over and over. Further, held pinned within my disbelieving eyes, I nowattempt to protect myself by an innate twist of shoulder and bent arm cover-upof my brow. I begin to attempt some explanation of encounter, which now isevolving and glimpsed intermittently through this constant barrage, and my needto turn away. As more information is encountered, I adjust in my mind a littlemore, yet the inexplicable continues to perplex me as the encounter is backedas a barked set of orders, as if there