' Well , ' said Tashi , throwing his lunch scraps into the bin , ' it was like this . On a grey , still afternoon , remarkably like this one in fact , I was sitting with my friends in the schoolhouse when suddenly the Magic Warning Bell began to ring . We all ran straight home , I can tell you ! Our mothers came in from the fields and our fathers gathered up the animals and bolted the doors of their shops . What danger could there be ? I wondered . Was it the war lord , stung by wasps and gone mad ? Was it blood - thirsty pirates ? Ravenous witches ?