SETTING: A wide brown river in ancient India at midday, hard sun — low banks, reeds, carved stone ri

SETTING: A wide brown river in ancient India at midday, hard sun — low banks, reeds, carved stone river-shrines, a marching army half-across in the waist-deep water. The soldiers wear bronze scale and deep-blue cloth, round sun-marked shields, and lead horses through the current. Sound: sloshing water, shouting men, panicked horses, a deep hiss, war-drums on the bank. Shot 1 (0–3s) — THE HOOK: Low tracking shot skimming the water. In the middle of the crossing, huge naga serpents — wet dark scales, broad fanged heads — burst straight up out of the river among the wading soldiers, coils whipping, dragging two men and a screaming horse under in a churn of spray and blood. A blue-cloth soldier in the water yells: "SERPENTS — IN THE WATER!" Shot 2 (3–6s): Handheld shot waist-deep in the current. The naga heads snap left and right, snatching men off their feet, the river thrashing white and red around them. On the near bank, a commander in a crested helmet drives a line of soldiers down to the water's edge with their long spears and bows, locking shields. He roars over the noise: "SHIELD-LINE — DRIVE THEM TO THE BANK!" Shot 3 (6–9s): Wide shot across the river. The soldiers in the water close ranks and shove forward together, jabbing spears, herding the biggest naga toward the shallows. The great serpent rears up out of the water near the bank, hood spread, fully exposed above the men. The commander shouts: "THERE — TAKE IT!" Shot 4 (9–13s) — BULLET-TIME PAYOFF: The commander's archers loose a tight volley from the bank. Bullet time — a dozen iron-tipped arrows streak across the water in slow motion and punch deep into the reared naga's throat and head, dark blood spraying out over the river as the serpent's body arches and snaps back. Shot 5 (13–15s): Time snaps back. The huge naga crashes down sideways into the shallows in a great burst of muddy water, coils thrashing slower and going still among the reeds. The soldiers in the water push hard for the bank, shields up, dragging their wounded through the bloody current.