How To Train Your Dragon- From One World To Another

Disclaimer:

The Film 'How To Train Your Dragon', is Copyrighted by DreamWorks Animation and Distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and released on March 26, 2010

The DreamWorks 'Dragons' were directed by Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders and released in 2013- 2018. I only claim Copyright to my characters and some of the elements of the story that are of my own creation.

The Seconds from Disaster is a US/UK-produced documentary television programme, owned and produced by the National Geographic Society and Darlow Smithson Productions       

Chapter Soundtrack(s):

Seconds From Disaster

Not a Coaster- Unstoppable

Author Warning, Notes:

This symbol (*) means that there's something written about this particular paragraph in the Ending Author's Notes.

Viewpoint Signs:

***MS*** (movie scene)

***EMS*** (end of movie scene)

***WPov.*** (watcher's point of view)

...

Chapter 15 Seconds from Disaster

Stryka and Klaus laughed loudly and merrily when the too large Viking helmet hit the wooden floor for the third time that evening.

***EMS***

'' Awww, look at you all so happy and together,'' Fishlegs murmured with a smile, leaning against Meatlug who licked him affectionately.

I uttered a sad sigh at his words.

'' Until everything fell to pieces during our week of holiday. I-I never got the chance to fully make it up to my sister, or my mother,'' I reminded the hefty boy who snapped his head up in my direction.

There was a look of sorrow on his face, now, and Fishleg's expression was mirrored by all the others listening on to our short conversation.

The screen became blurred for a moment before showing...

***MS***

At 5:55 am...

The door of a hotel-room door quietly opened and a fully dressed Sigrun stepped inside, smiling at the adorable sight of her young children sleeping soundly beside each other on the wide bed in the room.

...

''Skipping quite a few days, aren't you, Odin?!'' I thought sarcastically and cringed heavily.

...

The mother padded inside the room and over to the bed to gently shake Sonja's shoulder with her palm.

'' Wakey, wakey, Sonja! It's time to get up!''

Sonja uttered a low, sleepy groan and snuggled deeper into the covers.

Sigrun chuckled softly and leaned over to plant a kiss on her daughter's temple, which had the girl murmur something inaudible and bury herself still further into the warm blankets.

'' You have to wake up now, Sonja. It's almost 6:00 in the morning,'' the woman said softly, tickling her daughter's smooth cheek with her fingers.

Sigrun laughed a little as her daughter twitched and scrunched her face up at the ticklish feeling.

'' Stop that, mom, it tickles,'' Sonja murmured sleepily.

The woman smiled as she stopped antagonising her daughter and watched as Sonja unwrapped her face from the covers and blearily turned her eyes in her mother's direction.

'' Mom, its still so early,'' Sonja muttered sleepily.

'' We're taking the 'Mountain Railway' to the slopes today, remember?! And if you want to make the early bus to the railway station then you'll need to get up now.''

''Nnnhhh...,'' Sonja groaned sleepily but pushed herself to a sitting position on the bed and pulled the blanket aside.

'' M- mom, what's going on?'' Ronja suddenly muttered in a sleepy tone of voice.

She had been woken up by the other sister's movements on the bed.

'' Your sister and I are 'hitting the slopes' early today. The early bus will take us to the 'Mountain Train station' where we will be riding the train up to the summit. Your dad will be staying here with you today, so if you need him, you can go to him in our bedroom. Sonja and I will return in the afternoon and we will all go out to eat as a family.''

'' Okay mom, Sonja, have a fun day at the slopes today,'' Ronja murmured with a sleepy grin to her lips.

'' You, too, sis', and try not to sleep through the whole day,'' Sonja joked, having quickly adorned the clothes she had left on the nearby chair yesterday evening.

'' Hah, hah, hah! Aren't you funny,'' Ronja muttered sleepily, nudging her twin with her foot that she had wiggled out from under the blanket.

Sonja giggled in answer before climbing back onto the bed. Being careful of her sister's still healing wrist (that Ronja had accidentally jostled on the slopes the day before ), she allowed herself to fall lightly against her sister's back.

Ronja uttered a grunt at the impact but smiled up at her sister's antics for a moment before twisting her body around like a snake. 

She then pushed herself to a sitting position with Sonja now in her lap.

Sonja gave a small squeal when Ronja's fingers started tickling her sides before the older twin wrapped her into a sisterly hug. They hugged each for a long moment until the younger twin finally twisted out of it and almost flung herself off the bed.

Sigrun chuckled as Sonja bounded off towards the other bedroom belonging to her parents to give her father a cheery 'good morning' greeting.

Ronja shuffled forward to hug her mother tightly, hiding her face in Sigrun's bushy auburn hair for a long moment when she felt her comfortings arms lift her up. The girl's eyes drooped from still existing sleepiness.

After a while, Sonja reappeared and hugged her sister briefly one last time before Sigrun, who had been checking the time on her wrist-watch, alerted her daughter to the fact if they wanted to get a filling bite to eat and still catch the early bus, they would have to leave right then and there.

''I love you, Ronja,'' Sigrun murmured as she carefully lay her oldest daughter back onto the bed and kissed her on the forehead.

'' Love you, too, mom,'' Ronja mumbled, barely audibly with being half-asleep already, as she snuggled under the covers, curling up on her sister's side of the bed.

...

'' And those were the last, short moments we ever got to spend with mom and Sonja,'' I whimpered to my dad who hugged me close, trembling himself as he pulled me in close.

***MS***

The scene changed to a group of people, Sonja and Sigrun among them, stowing their skiing equipment into a large contraption with four wheels. 

It looked like a wide, long cage with windows to the Vikings who had never seen such a machine before.

[The music picked up on the screen as the narrator spoke]

'' A high-tech mountain railway was to transport skiers up to the near summit, but what was promised to be good-weathered day throughout the morning and afternoon, ended up being the day the funicular train erupted into a fiery inferno. 

One hundred and fifty-five people perished in just nine minutes!

***WPov.***

Even the war-hardened of Vikings gulped as the music started blaring from the speakers.

The short scenes of flitting images going across the screen; machines never- seen before through a Viking's eyes were already enough to put everyone on edge.

But knowing the fate of their chief's sister and niece was even more off-putting.

I could hear some whimpering from smaller children somewhere in the seats behind the tier I was sitting at, and could only hope that their parents had the mind to shield their children's eyes from the more gruesome images still to be shown.

***MS***

With cutting-edge computer technology, it can now be revealed exactly what went wrong that day, for disasters don't just happen. 

There is a chain of critical events that wait to be unravelled.

Now following the chain of fateful decisions, we will now witness those seconds before disaster.

[The music in the background changes]

'' It all began in Europe, Austria, in the village of Kaprun in February the 11th, 2001.'' (*1)

[ A high tech ski-train is seen rising one thousand five hundred meters through solid rock to land skiers near to the summit of Kitzsteinhorn where, next to the upper station, was a restaurant and a shopping mall].

***

'' That kind of machine is used as transport up a mountain?!'' Hiccup exclaimed loudly.

But was forcibly shushed by everyone in the Theater.

...

At 8:45 am, skiers and snowboarders are seen arriving at the station where they had the choice of using the ordinary cable- car or to ride the Funicular train up to the summit. 

The Funicular was able to take the people to their destination in nine minutes, four minutes faster than the ordinary cable cart.

Already knowing that the train would be the faster ride up to the glazier the two members of the 'Aho- family' had decided to board the mentioned machine that morning. Both were wearing their ski- outfits, helmets, gloves and ski-shoes and lugging along their skis and ski-poles as they settled themselves on the line leading to the cart closest to the driver's cab.

...

'' Why couldn't mom and Sonja have taken the cable-car instead? Why couldn't any of those people decide they want to enjoy the view in cable-cars?'' I thought sadly.

...

At 8:57 am, the hundred and sixty-one passengers began to enter the interior of the funicular. Among the people crowding into the train were a number of the worlds best top skiers and an entire American family.

...

'' Gods, a WHOLE family was lost that day?'' I thought with wide eyes as I took in the photograph of the family. Two young boys stood in front of their parents.

...

The excited younger twin of the 'Aho- family' entered the first passenger car just behind the train attendants car, with her auburn-haired mother entering just behind her.

The excited expressions on both their faces showed a clear picture of how much the two were looking forward to getting to the summit to enjoy a wonderful time skiing down the snowy slopes.

***WPov.***

Stoick found himself swallowing hard as his eyes followed his sister's and nieces every movement, every change of expression.

His sixth sense gave off very bad vibes as he eyed the contraption the mother and daughter had just entered.

  ''Whatever accident had led to their deaths had happened before they even reached the summit of the mountain, I- I think,'' he thought sorrowfully, his heart aching at the excited expressions on both Sigrun's and Sonja's faces.  

***MS***

https://youtu.be/bhuijozEGBw

At 9:02 am, the control room staff kept tabs as the train pulled out of the Valley- station.

The train crossed over a spectacular six hundred meter ravine (with trees growing from its soil all around) before it then entered a steep tunnel that climbed straight through the mountain.

For the eager passengers, the slopes were just nine minutes away...

But two seconds later the first signs of trouble occurred.

As the one hundred and sixty-two passengers were spread all throughout the interior of the train, a young man at the rear end of the train spotted a puff of smoke coming from the end of the attendant cabin where the controls for the downhill ride were located.

It was like a small, discarded cigarette smoke at first until the smoke started billowing into the rest of the cabins!

...

Stoick clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white and watched intently as the people on the screen grew worried, then agitated as they started to realize the brewing danger inside the strange looking metal machine.

...

People had realized there were no smoke alarms to alert either the train attendant or the control room.

One passenger tried to make a call with his cellphone as others tried to catch the attention of the driver by loudly banging on the walls and windows.

But their cries for attention remained unheard...

At 9:04 am the train entered the tunnel and the man who had attempted to call for help found that there was no more signal that he could use to make the call.

And there was no way for any of the passengers to alert the driver at the front of the train!

 He was more than fifteen meters away, entirely unaware of the crisis unfolding in the rear compartments of the funicular.

A red flame flickered into view on the floor of the rear end of the train, the last passenger car. Word was passing from one person to the next and the passengers were beginning to realize that there was a potentially life-threatening problem unfolding. (*2)

***WPov.***

Stoick gave a violent shudder as sudden, fleeting memories raced through his mind...

The rooftop of a hut bursting into flames! The ferocious roars of attacking dragons! The voices of other Chiefs crying out in fear and panic as they desperately tried to find a way to escape!

And his own, final, but successful lunge to escape the roaring, searing hot flames...

Stoick gripped his son's shoulder as he felt Hiccup stiffening against him. The boy's distressed breathing could clearly be heard. His boy leaned his head back against his chest in search of the comfort his presence brought him.

'' Oh Thor, no! No!'' Hiccup exclaimed, albeit quietly.

Stoick wholeheartedly agreed with his son. He wished none of what he knew of his niece's and brother-in-law's emotional agony had ever happened in the first place. 

Like him, his brother- in- law had lost the woman he had loved so very much.

Valka had been lost, but his own son was here, alive. His other niece was sitting here in this theatre. But Ronja's sister and his own little sister had been lost in a terrifying accident. 

An accident that appeared to have a disconcerting setup similar to the fate of all the Chief's who had all been trapped within the hut, unable to escape either because they had either been overcome by the smoke and fire, or had been unable to find a way out because the flames had trapped them in a corner.

And he, Stoick the Vast, could only watch them all being 'eaten alive' by the fiercely smouldering flames produced by the attacking dragons.

He had been unable to do anything to assist any of the people in their plights.

The chiefs!

Or his sister and niece!

End of Chapter 15

....

Author Notes:

(*1) The accident in Kaprun happened on November 11th, but I wanted to change the dates a little so that they would coexist with the setup of my characters ski-holiday.

(*2) When I first wrote this accident scene, I never realized how similar it was to the scene where all those Chief's from different islands were killed by Dragonfire until later on, when I thought back to Stoick's flashback. Whoopsie!

Have any of you seen the movie Unstoppable? I believe the soundtrack works well with these coming chapters.

Constructive criticism is always welcomed by me, the Author :)