A Dinotopia Tale

And here is chapter three of the story.

Chapter 3

The Moskowitz family were the last of the passengers to walk out onto the upper deck of the ship. All of the passengers stood on the deck they looked around with nervous expressions upon their faces. The sailors were also on the upper deck as they weaved in and out of the crowd. They made sure that all the passengers had their belongings, while also keeping them as calm as possible. The ship continued to rock on the waves of the sea, which showed no signs of calming down. The rain that fell from the sky began to pour down even harder upon the ship. As the waves grew fiercer, the ship began to rock more dangerously as it was on the edge of falling apart from the ocean's harsh beating. The sound of thunder began to grow louder, while lightning flashed across the sky even more fiercer than before. All the passengers began to grow tense, and they started to panic about what might be coming their way. As the storm began to grew worse, the passengers started to feel their feet slipping underneath them. The reason for that was because of the rain. The thick rain drops have caused the deck of the ship to become slick. The passengers tried to keep themselves from sliding around on the wooden boards. Those who were unable to keep their balance found themselves falling down on the wooden deck. Some of the passengers, who were able to keep their footing, began to talk quietly amongst themselves as fear started to grip at their hearts.

"Why are we outside in this storm?"

"I don't know. But I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"Hopefully we won't be standing out here for too long. I'm getting drenched to the bone."

"I'm starting to think that we won't be staying on this ship much longer."

"Do you think the ship is going to sink?"

"Oh lord save us if it does!"

"Everyone, please remain calm!" shouted the captain of the ship when he saw that the passengers were starting to panic. "We will be getting you all on the life boats shortly! In the mean time, stay close to your respective family members, and keep together!"

The passengers did their best to follow the captain's orders, and to stay close to their family members. The Moskowitz family also made sure to keep close together. Tanya and Fievel stood beside their parents as they nervously looked around the ship's deck. They then both jumped when a loud crash of thunder boomed out above them. The two children tightly clung to their mother and father as they shook with terror.

"Mama, Papa, I'm scared!" shouted Tanya and Fievel in unison.

The thunder also caused poor Yasha to start crying within Alla's arms. Alla tried to comfort her little baby girl by speaking gently to her. Bernard looked down at his other two children as he too tried to calm them down by giving them words of reassurance.

"We will be alright everyone," replied Bernard with a smile.

"He is right," spoke Alla as she tried her best to calm the crying Yasha down. "Remember what your papa said children? As long as we are together, we will be alright."

After hearing what their parents had said, Fievel and Tanya started to calm down. Yet their reassurance was quickly taken away when a large bolt of lightning shot down from the sky. As it did, the bolt of lightning struck one of the poles of the ship. That was when disaster struck. The pole that the lightning had just struck suddenly caught fire. The flames began to trail down the pole as it headed towards the deck of the ship. At the sight of the fire, the passengers began to scream in terror. And if that wasn't enough, the waves of the sea began to grow even more violent. The force of the waves caused the ship to heave upwards. When it did some of the passengers fell into the cold, unforgiving waters of the sea. Even a couple of children also fell into the ocean. The fire on the ship continued to spread before it reached the ship's deck. The Moskowitz family watched in horror as the fire started to consume the ship like a hungry monster. A monster that seemed to have emerged from the darkest depths of an unfortunate person's nightmare. The fire slowly crept along the deck of the ship, like a predator closing in on its prey. Then once it was close enough, the flames from the fire leapt out and landed upon a few passengers and sailors, who were unfortunately standing too close to the fire. The flames landed on the clothes of its victims and began to devour them. Screams of pain soon echoed throughout the air as the passengers and sailors who were blinded by terror. They began to run around on the ship's deck, while the flames ate away at their clothes.

"Don't look, children!" exclaimed Bernard as he sheltered Tanya and Fievel by covering their eyes from the horrifying sight in front of them.

Alla quickly did the same with Yasha, while also turning away from the horrible scene as well. It wasn't long before the fire reached the boiler room of the ship. When it did, it caused the most terrifying event on the ship...an explosion. The force of the blast caused all of the passengers on the ship to fall off and plunge into the surging waters bellow. The Moskowitz family were also many of the few that were blown off the ship as well. Fievel let out a scream before hitting the water's surface. The cold liquid of the ocean sent a shock through the young boy's system. He had experienced cold before, but it still surprised young Fievel and caused him to gasp underwater. But that also caused some of the water to flow down his throat, and for a moment Fievel thought that he was going to drown. Luckily his father was able to pull him up to the surface, and keep Fievel from being pulled down into the dark depths of the ocean. The passengers, the ones who had survived the blast of the explosion, all watched as the ship began to sink into the ocean. They all were forced to swim to stay afloat within the cold waters as they witnessed the sea vessel disappear beneath the unforgiving waves. Yet the Moskowitz family were more concerned about themselves. Especially baby Yasha. They feared that the ocean would also take their youngest member away from them. They quickly started to look around and saw a chunk of wood floating near them.

"Quick!" cried Alla as she tried to be heard over the roaring of the ocean's waves.

The Moskowitz family swam towards the floating chunk of wood and quickly placed Yasha on top of it. After they were sure their youngest member was safe, the family swam closer together so that they wouldn't get separated.

"What do we do now papa?!" asked Fievel.

Bernard and Alla looked at each other as they tried to figure out how to answer their son's question. But their thinking was disrupted when they suddenly felt like they were sitting on something within the water. The few surviving passengers also felt the same thing. Then, from out of the waters, appeared a pod of twenty dolphins. A minute ago, the pod had seen that the surviving passengers were in danger of drowning, and came to help them. Each of the dolphins went to a passenger that was still alive, and show their face to them. The passengers were at first surprised to see a pod of dolphins swimming around them. But soon relaxed as they stared at the pod that surrounded them in confusion. Then one of the dolphins swam forward towards one of the passengers, and nudged their arm with their right arm. It then offered its dorsal fin to the passenger. The passengers, a young man, hesitated for a moment before he grabbed onto the dolphin's dorsal fin. It wasn't long before the rest of the passengers also grabbed onto the dorsal fin of a dolphin that floated near them. Fievel and his family also did the same. Alla, after grabbing Yasha, also took hold of a dolphin's dorsal fin. She then made sure that she held Yasha in the crook of her right arm. Once all of the passengers had grabbed hold of a dolphin, the pod began to swim through the rough water, while the people held on tight to them. The dolphins and passengers swam away from the floating wreckage, which had once been part of the ship that they had been on two minutes ago. None of the passengers knew where the dolphins were taking them, but they hope that it would be somewhere safe from the storm.

To be continued