Upon activation, mast cells can release a wide range of mediators belonging to three distinct classes: preformed mediators, which are stored in mast cell cytoplasmic granules; neoformed or lipid mediators, which are products of phospholipase A2 activation; and neosynthesized mediators, which are produced and released upon transcriptional activation [ 25 ].

No; what I felt was a sort of glazed numbness, as if I were suspended in some thin, transparent stuff, like one of the eggs my mother used to preserve in waterglass when I was a child.

It was startling but mournful, a loud hoo-hoo that seemed a part of the night and the forest.

Later on, he was equated with Ilya Muromets, the most famous Russian bogatyr - a semi-mythical medieval warrior who lay at home on the brick stove until he was thirty-three - then went on to perform great feats defending the realm. Ilya Muromets is Russia's traditional symbol of physical and spiritual strength.