Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle.

Several weeks passed, and Kit kept herself busy with swimming, visiting the surrounding beaches, exploring the many cliffs near the village, and sending letters to Takua whenever she could. One day, though, Lewa stopped by, claiming he was in the area and decided to visit for a bit. He invited Kit on a ride over the northern end of the island for a little while and, with Turaga Nokama's approval, they took off into the sky. They flew over the Po-Wahi desert and, on their way back, they flew over Ko-Wahi. All the while, Kit marveled at the fantastic view of the Tiro Canyon and Mt. Ihu. The wind picked up suddenly, nearly throwing Lewa off balance. Hearing thunder behind them, Kit looked to find dark clouds heading right for them.

"Looks like Le-Wahi's in for a bit of a storm."

Lewa also glanced behind him.

"I've got a scarybad feeling that that's no ordinarynormal storm, Kit."

Looking back, Kit saw that Lewa was right. The clouds were not only moving far too fast for clouds, they were moving against the wind. Try as he might, Lewa couldn't stay ahead of the cloud mass and his power over wind didn't seem to have any effect. They were swallowed up in the darkness within minutes. Kit nearly got tossed off when a powerful gust threw Lewa sideways. "Griptight, Kit," Lewa yelled over the howling wind, "This is going to be hardrough." Kit wrapped her arms tighter around the Toa's neck, holding on for dear life. As Lewa tried to navigate his way through the strange storm, the powerful wind tossed and turned them all over the place. In fact, it felt like the harder they tried to fly, the more they got bashed around. Some parts of the clouds seemed to randomly bulge out and change shape, almost like the entire storm was alive. With the noise, the sights, and the mystery behind this storm and the way it was 'behaving', it was just pure chaos. Kit soon became aware that her grip was loosening.

"Lewa--" she called out, but was cut off when she fell off as he tilted, her grip around the Toa's neck lost.

"Kit!" Lewa cried out, horrified, the hurricane winds keeping him from diving to save her.

He could do nothing more than watch her form disappear into the clouds and listen to her scream until he couldn't see nor hear her anymore. Meanwhile, the wind whistled in her ears as Kit plunged to what she was certain would be instant death. Her mind could think of little else than the memories of her home and of her new friends on Mata Nui. Then, just like that, her world went black.

The first thing she felt was the cold. Kit slowly opened her eyes and groaned as she began to sit up. When her vision cleared, all she saw around her was white. "Where am I? What happened?" she said, then, it all came back to her: her arrival on Mata Nui, the storm, her fall. All around were hills, mounds, and mountains of snow. "I must be somewhere in Ko-Wahi," she realized, remembering that the ice region was what she and Lewa were flying over when the freak storm showed up. Looking up, she saw no sign that the storm was even there; just clear blue skies with faint white wisps of cloud. She jumped to her feet, only to feel a sharp pain in her right side. Groaning, she clutched her side and dropped down to one knee. Gritting her teeth, she slowly got up and called up at the sky, "Lewa! Lewa, where are you? Lewa!" Her eyes scanned the sky above, but there was no sign of the Toa. To her left, she spotted a little cave of some sort. Dusting off the snow that clung to her clothes, she walked towards it, the snow softly crunching under her feet. When she made it to the mouth, a thought came to her: What if this cave was some kind of Rahi's home? Finding a rock, she picked it up, threw it inside, and quickly flattened herself against the mound. Not a single sound, aside from the rock's soft thunk as it landed in the snow, was heard. Breathing a sigh of relief, she relaxed. "Lewa," she called again, but her only answer was the echo of her own voice. It was then that Kit noticed the sun was rather low on the horizon and she figured it was going to be dark soon. She didn't want to wander anywhere farther than a few feet away from the cave, but she knew that there was no way she was going to survive the night without a source of heat. And so, reluctantly, she went searching for something she could use to make a camp fire, mindful to keep the cave within her sights. She searched as far as she dared, and, just when she was about to give up, she spotted an orange glow behind some rocks and investigated. It was a heat stone.

That night, she sat in her cave, staying warm by the heat stone, thinking—thinking of what happened that caused her to be transported here to Mata Nui, how she was going to find Lewa or anybody in this place, and where she was going to go from here. Thinking of Lewa somehow made her remember Kongu and what he said about the flute he gave her. "We trainteach our bird's to respondanswer to a certain tunemelody that you blowplay on this flute. Wherever you are, a Gukko bird will come to your side."

"That's it," she said with a triumphant smile, and she reached into her back pocket.

If she could use the flute to call a Gukko to her, she could ride the bird back to Ga-Koro. However, that hope was quickly dashed when she discovered the pocket to be empty. She frantically searched her pockets and wherever else she could've misplaced it, but the flute was nowhere to be found. With a sickening feeling in her stomach, she realized she must've somehow lost it during the fall. Crestfallen and exhausted, she went to sleep.

A day and a half had passed since Kit found herself by the little cave, and she was trying to think of what her next course of action should be. She knew she couldn't stay where she was much longer for the heat stone was starting to run out of juice and she hadn't had a bite to eat since she left Ga-Koro. She knew the Ko-Matoran had some stuff they used for sustenance in this environment, but she didn't know where to find or look for it. Hydration wasn't really a problem since she could heat up the snow until it melted. "If the weather permits, I'll go see if I can find anything tomorrow," she said, "And, whether I do or not, I'm going to have to find another place to crash; I'm not going to last much longer if I stay here with no materials or food." With that settled, she laid down for the night.

The next morning, Kit awoke to a sunny and cloudless day. Stepping out of the cave, she stretched, her side still pretty sore, and, with one more look at the cave, she set out. An hour that felt like an eternity passed and Kit still trudged in the snow, hoping that she would be able to find shelter from the cold. She looked at the sky and called to the missing Toa of Air, hoping that she would eventually get lucky. So far, no such luck presented itself. Pretty soon, she was hugging herself as tightly as she could. "Man, what I wouldn't give for a winter coat right now." Suddenly, she heard a growl and she immediately froze in her tracks. At first she thought it was some kind of animal, but then she realized that the growling came from her. "And a good hot meal," she added with a bit of an embarrassed smile. Later in the day, she found a niche in what appeared to be a glacier and decided it was better than nothing. Squeezing in, she sat down and made a little fire out of the little branches she gathered. Hungry and exhausted, she went to sleep.

The next day, she once again ventured out into the snow. After looking up at an empty sky for what must've been the ten-hundredth time, she realized she had to face the possibility that she was never going to find Lewa, or vice versa. "If I'm going to find anyone or anything," she mumbled to herself, "I'm going to have to keep moving." She looked at her fingers; the night before, she thought they were starting to look a little blue, now they looked fine. She was going to have to find a way either out of this tundra climate, to Ko-Koro, or, at least, something that would keep her warm, and soon. It was almost dark when she heard a growl. She groaned, thinking it was her stomach again, but when she heard it a second time, she didn't feel the rumbling in her abdomen. Those growls weren't coming from her, they were coming from somewhere else, and she froze. Staying perfectly still, she could feel her heart beginning to race as she scanned the surrounding area. Then, she saw them—a pair of glowing dark yellow eyes. She couldn't really see what it was the eyes belonged to, but she had a nagging suspicion and it wasn't any good news for her.

Adrenaline starting to kick in, she found herself running as fast as she could move. Behind her, she heard the beast charging after her and could feel its warm breath. She looked over her shoulder for just a second and, when she looked back, she saw she was heading for the edge of a slope. She slammed on the brakes and whirled her arms in the air, straining to regain her balance. More growling was heard from behind her and she turned around to face the dark yellow eyes. She could now clearly see the figure of a Muaka—the tiger-like Rahi of Mata Nui. She caught a glimmer in its eyes that sent a chill of fear gushing up her spine; it knew it had its prey cornered. For a moment, there was absolute silence. Then, the sound of a large metallic spring being squeezed was heard and Kit swore she jumped out of her skin. She was now breathing so hard, her chest was rising with each hurried breath and she could hear her heartbeat in her ears. With horror, she knew exactly what was happening—the large metallic cat was compressing its extendable neck mechanism to prepare for an attack. Suddenly, without warning, it let out a thunderous roar, and, this time, she screamed. As her life started flashing before her eyes, she became aware that the ground underneath her was shaking. She looked down at her feet just as the snow started to fall down the steep slope. Apparently, the Muaka's roar had caused an avalanche, and she was standing right on top of it. With a shout, she fell and was engulfed by the snow within minutes. The Rahi blinked its eyes in surprise and rushed to the edge. As soon as the snow settled it peered down, but saw nothing. With a frustrated rumble, it loped off to find other prey.

Kit stirred and groaned as she began to get up. At first, she wasn't sure where she was, then remembered the chase and the Muaka from the night before. She looked behind her and saw a wall of snow. Somehow, she survived the avalanche and, instead of getting buried, she ended up in another cave. 'Great', she sarcastically said to herself, 'If it's not being buried in snow, it's being trapped in a cave.' She thought about trying to dig herself out, but she had no idea how deep the snow was and there was a chance that she would freeze or exhaust herself before she even got halfway through. She looked down the cave and, for reasons unknown to her, she started walking further inside. She expected to come to a dead end within a few yards, but the cave just kept going. "This is no cave; it's a tunnel," she mused, which was followed by a silent hope that this tunnel wouldn't be one with no exit. Finally, her prayer was answered when she found her way out. Outside, the snow was brightly lit with sunlight, a sign that the sun was beginning to rise. However, Kit's body was aching like crazy and the long walk just made her more tired, so she decided it was probably best to get some rest. She quickly grabbed a bush to hide the doorway, in case the Muaka or something else came by, then lied down to sleep.

When she woke up, Kit's body still ached a little due to the bruises and sore muscles and her side still hurt, but she felt very refreshed and was ready to continue. Again she plodded along in the snow, keeping her eyes open for any signs of any friendly kind of life. Then, around the middle of the day, she heard a low rumbling that seemed to come from the sky. She looked up and saw that the clouds were getting darker and darker. But that wasn't all; she suddenly became aware of the breeze that was starting to pick up speed. "This is bad," she said, getting a very good idea of what was about to come down. She cupped her hands and prepared to blow on them when she noticed her fingers were tinted with blue, and the blue was spreading. If she was going to find shelter, it would have to be now. She balled her hands into fists, shoved them into her pockets, and continued on. Ten minutes passed by and Kit still trudged on in the snow, only she was getting very tired and it showed. The blanket of snow being blown in the blizzard was so thick she could barely see a few feet ahead of her. The ice cold wind chilled her to the bone and each step was harder than the last. The snow was getting so high and her legs felt so heavy that she had stumbled and tripped three times and her fingers and feet were beginning to feel numb. She could feel her eyelids starting to droop—she was starting to fall asleep. Try as she might, she was losing the battle to stay conscious. For a minute, she thought she heard a familiar growl, but before she could determine what it was, she felt herself falling and rolling in the snow as she tumbled down a high mound. She lay where she fell, too tired to move, when she heard the sounds of compacted snow being struck, a roar, and feet crunching on the snow. Somehow, she found the strength to lift her head. Her vision was blurred, but she could just make out the shape of a tall white form. Then, she dropped her head and gave into unconsciousness.

Next time--

A disc thrown by Jaller struck the Rahi just the second before its stinger discharged, causing its aim to falter. When Kit heard the stinger approaching, it was too late. Thankfully, it didn't hit the Onu-Matoran, but she found herself flying through the air again when it hit the ledge where she was standing just moments before. Everyone, the Toa included, stared in horror; she would never survive a fall from that high or with that much force.