The Hindenburg

You’ve probably been on a sky ship when the refreshing rain drizzles, the relaxing sunbeams shine down on you and the soft breeze on your face cools you down. The sound of the sails echoes as the light wind carries them across the sky. Remember how it feels to get that beautiful view of the Earth that looks the size of your thumb but is still so majestic. I bet you’ve enjoyed the satisfying sunset clouds shading colours from white to purple and seeing all kinds of birds hibernating or doing mating dances.

But you should also try a trip where the ship starts to disintegrate in flames, for that is another matter. When the wind is ripping at the balloon itself, making the ship turn from north, to east, to south, to west and mutant rats are attacking you and stealing all of your equipment. When the lightning unleashes its furious wrath on your engine and blows its fuse making the ship plummet down to Earth at tremendous speeds like an asteroid. That’s when you will probably die.

And some say say they’ve seen Pegasuses from hell sent to blaze your ship lurking in the darkness – tacitly waiting to attack. You probably won’t believe this, but some say that there are winged beasts with talons, like a megalodon’s tooth which can slice through titanium with ease and whose teeth can bite through a human’s skull in seconds.

Lincoln gripped the railing, his knuckles turning red. He quaffed as the ship was flooded by fog. He glimpsed at his twin sister Lin who was laughing so much that she couldn’t breathe, swaying side to side. They had left the tilted city over a month ago and should be passing over the rapid rivers, but the storm had taken them off course.

At that moment, the sky dragons struck out of the blue. Lincoln saw five of them dart out of the cumulonimbus cloud and one of them flung itself at the stern of the ship, causing a fuse to blow in the engine. “ Hold on, we’re going down.!” Bellowed captain Caleb. The crew went down through clouds of hail, thunder and fire. Once more the dragon attacked, with its iron-like tail slicing the bottom, taking out the extra fuel tanks. Lin stood looking up at the merciless winged beasts. The twins started bawling their eyes out whilst captain Caleb sat there helpless, not able to do anything. Suddenly there was a massive bump. They had crash landed.

A moment later, the Hindenburg looked wrecked. The balloon swayed, hanging on for dear life; the harpoon falling off. The ship laid there: lifeless, hopeless, wanting to be repaired, but knowing it wouldn’t be. Lincoln and Lin stared up, searching for the dragons. Had they managed to evade them?