You’ve probably been on an airship, where the balloon squeaks, ominously, threatening to burst, but the breeze rocks the ship from side to side, like the rhythm of your heart, and you relax, letting all your worries get carried away with the rays of sunshine.  

Remember how the flame that lit the balloon crackled and smouldered in the glass tank, licking the glass, and the calm vibration of the engine tickling your toes, causing you to press them closer to the floor in excitement.  

   I bet you’ve enjoyed stumbling across the patchwork balloon, wearing a prominent pair of flying goggles and gripping a parachute for safety. 

     But you could have been on a skyship when the ship tilts sideways and everyone skids across the floor, drinks topple off trays and everyone gasps. When the driver falls asleep steering, and the ship zooms of course into a thunder cloud. Thunder shakes the ship and lightening punctures holes in the side. Or when the breeze whips the drizzle into your windswept face, starting to rage about the airship polluting the beautiful, crystal clear sky, and starts swirling and howling, and your muscles tense apprehensively. 

You probably won’t believe this, but some say that the reason the airship can fly, is because the ice dragon nests in the circular balloon, turning it impenetrable with his dark magic. According to history, in 1,000 years’ time, the dragon will finish nesting, and burst through the balloon.

Hail bombarded at Felicity’s face like cannon fire. She shielded her eyes, ducking under the shelter of the balloon, but the sleet and rain was chucked in after her. 

It had been a sunny day, but it had turned to mist, then drizzle, and now this! If she ever went into space, she would fix, whatever fortune told the weather. 

Why had captain Benji ever trusted that goblin? They would probably be in bed right now if it wasn’t for him. She really didn’t want to hate him, but she had to! He may have been kind, he may have been gentle, but he was most certainly not smart. 

Felicity wrestled her way to the side of the ship, the violent wind almost sweeping her off her feet. 

Her jaw dropped. Kitty, her best friend, was scrambling up a long rope, leading to the top of the balloon. This was the sort of thing her adventurous friend liked to do. Felicity breathed out. At least this wasn’t as bad as the time Kitty had decided that she was going to climb the precipitous peak of Mount Everest.  

Kitty spotted her gawking, and began waving, cheerily, binoculars swinging from around her neck. Then, she began mouthing like a goldfish, attempting to speak to Felicity, but her shout was whipped away with the breeze and she looked as though she was chatting over a computer, on mute. Felicity raised her ginger eyebrows and began balancing, precariously, along the edge of the deck. There were a series of gasps as she edged ever closer to Kitty. Now, her voice was getting clearer, but she was facing the other way, peering through her binoculars whilst yelling. 

‘Kitty!’ howled Felicity.  

Kitty swivelled around, lowering her binoculars from her brown eyes, slowly. 

‘Say again,’ rasped Felicity. 

‘Dragons!’ wailed Kitty. ‘They are heading this way with spy goblins and werecats!’ 

Felicity, gazed, incredulously at her friend. If she thought that there were dragons heading towards the skyship, then she would have to think again. 

‘I think you’re getting a bit dizzy!’ she howled over the groaning wind. ‘Because the dragons know that we are on a mission to kill them, therefore they wouldn’t be heading straight for us!’  

Kitty looked wild, and Felicity realised that she had to believe her.  

Felicity spun around to warn the rest of the crew, but it was too late. 

Out of the blue, (well, the grey,) a pack of flaming fire dragons shot from a sizzling bolt of lightning, serpentine bodies writhing like whips. The one at the front whirled onto the upper deck, soaring through the sky like a midnight black lightning bolt with wings and flaming yellow eyes. 

It landed surprisingly silently, due to its tremendous size, but its pungent breath was enough to make anyone pass out. The other dragons followed, all incredible in size like the first, but not quite as large.  

Captain Benji yanked at a leaver with such force that there was a loud cracking sound, and the ship began to plummet. The dragons flailed, chucking their tails out behind them and looping through the sky, smashing into the balloon. They began to yelp, gnashing their teeth, angrily, but the ship tipped downward into a nose-dive, and the dragons swirled off into the storm, leaving a trail of white-hot fire behind them. Felicity exchanged a glance with Kitty and they both dashed to the side of the ship. As the last fire dragon was blown out of sight, Felicity spotted a small, red-haired girl, clutched in its talons. This was their five-year-old friend, Lily, and they had failed to save her. She looked barely alive, and they had to follow! Felicity began eying up a leap, but the skyship was plunged, dramatically, into a dense, gloomy forest. . .