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?

The ship had crashed. Captain Caleb grabbed the harpoon trying to fend off the winged beast from the leather on the balloon. It’s immense talons shredded the skyship’s balloon causing a huge hole to appear on it. From a gaping tear, gushed air, endangering the ship and all its crew mates.

All around were ancient ruins completely wrecked to pieces by the mysterious winged beasts. “Stay on the ship! I’m going to see what this is.” said Captain Caleb. They could see a couple of moonlit stars. “I don’t care what captain Caleb said I’m going to check this out.” Lin said carelessly. “Well I-I’m coming t-to!” Lincoln nervously stuttered. Lin and Lincoln went to the ruins and glared round the corner. They saw an old and broken archway covered in cracks formed over many years of wear and tear. Curiously, they went into the abandoned building to investigate. They saw nothing but silky and dusty cobwebs, boxes with planks falling off them and dead moths, flies, bees and hornets. They could hear footsteps. Lin heard thunder. Lincoln screamed.

The footsteps had stopped. A cold hand touched Lin’s back. She turned around slowly and saw captain Caleb, whose face was full of rage, shouting. “I told you to stay on the ship! Was I not clear enough?”

“Yes captain Caleb you were but we thought you were dead so we went to find you.” Said Lin carelessly. Caleb didn’t say anything, just stared at the corner. A shadow was cast across the corner. They could hear a noise from the same direction. It wasn’t a human. Lin went to check. “Lin where are you going?” Whispered Lincoln. She didn’t listen and kept going Lin, whose eyes were full of fear and curiosity, shouted. “It’s a baby dragon! And it’s hurt come look!” The dragons wing had a massive tear in it that looked like the airship’s. The feared beast crawled to Lin limping, stumbling and crying the dragon tried to talk but all that came out was a little squeal. It was freezing and the eyes were purple like amethyst, it’s teeth were almost invisible, the scales were pitch black and its talons were crescent moons. “I’m going to call you toothless.” Lin said in a calm soothing voice. “Are you crazy!? We are not keeping that dragon!” Shouted Lincoln. The dragon started glowing purple ready to attack.“ O-ok we can keep it.” Lincoln said trembling violently trying to avoid getting attacked then Caleb stepped in and took the dragon. “I’m sorry Lin but like Lincoln said we can’t keep it. It’s a ferocious beast and it needs its parents to heal its wing.”Caleb said in an annoyed manner. Lin grabbed the medicine that can heal any wound once and used it on the dragon. “There, done.” Lin said forgetting it only had one use.