[Extrait de "Guards! Guards!", Terry Pratchett ;
Samuel Vimes est un des personnages principaux, qui
a perdu connaissance alors qu'il était face à un
dragon. Et là, il commence à émerger... Le Caporal
Nobbs, évoqué à la fin de l'extrait, est un de ses
collèges chez les Veilleurs de Nuit.]

Traditionally, upon waking from blissfully uneventful
insensibility, you ask : `Where am I?' It's probably 
part of the racial consciousness or something.

Vimes said it.

Tradition allows a choice of second lines. A key point
in the selection process is an audit to see that the
body has all the bits it remembers having yesterday.

Vimes checked.

Then comes the tantalizing bit. Now that the snowball of
consciousness is starting to roll, is it going to find that
it's waking up inside a body lying in a gutter with something
multiple, the noun doesn't matter after an adjective like
`multiple', nothing good ever follows `multiple', or is it
going to be a case of crips sheets, a soothing hand, and a
businesslike figure in white pulling open the curtains on
a bright new day? Is it all over, with nothing worse to
look forward to now than weak tea, nourishing gruel, short,
strenghtening walks in the garden an possibly a brief 
platonic love affaire with a ministering angel, or was this
all just a moment's blackout and some looming bastard is now 
about to get down to real business with the thick end of a
pickaxe helve? Are there, the consciousness wants to know,
going to be grapes?

At this point, some outside stimulus is helpful. `It's
going to be all right' is favourite, whereas `Did anyone
get his number?' is definitely a bad sign; either, however,
is better than `You two hold his hands behind his back'.

In fact someone said, `You were nearly a goner there,
Captain.'

The pain sensations, which had taken advantage of Vimes's 
unconscious state to bunk off for a metaphorical quick
cigarette, rushed back.

Vimes said, `Arrgh.' Then he opened his eyes.

There was a ceiling. This ruled out one particular range
of unpleasant options and was very welcome. His blurred
vision also revealed Corporal Nobbs, which was less so.
Corporal Nobbs proved nothing; you could be dead and see
something like Corporal Nobbs.