Atmosian weather had been fairly calm for the day, with the late afternoon having a particularly pleasant breeze. Yet this didn't seem to be any time to admire the vistas and the beauty of the land, Starling remained stoic to the core. Flying her skimmer over the abysses between terras, she noted how quiet things had been in this quadrant of Free Atmos. The wind coarsing through her hair soothed her into a zen state.

Starling's skimmer spluttered, before returning to full power. She looked behind her at her crystal convertion engines, but they seemed to be okay. She focused ahead of her again. The clouds below her an unassuming shade of white, snd the clouds far above her being sparse in their number. The sun was close to setting, almost thirty minutes from touching the horizon.

Her right crystal converter spluttered again, and once back at full thrust, coughed to a stall. Starling, watching the engine die on her, kicked it to no avail. The skimmer began to lean, and after Starling corrected the roll, the skimmer slowly began to lose altitude. Fully prepared to ditch her ride, she glided the skimmer lower and lower, desperate to reach a terra in the distance.

Starling made it over the terra, still descending, but now safe from the wasteland. The terra was snow covered, with coniferous trees in a spread out arrangement. She spotted a large tower on a hill not too far below her, the tower's mast directly in her flight path. Relenting control of her skimmer's roll, she tumbled over to the right, missing the mast by a few metres. Panicking a slight bit and rotating uncontrollably, Starling desperately tried to wrestle control back. Ahead of her, she found herself approaching a tree's canopy. Starling braced, and leapt from the skimmer as it entered the tree top.

The skimmer tore through the branches, and left the tree spinning faster than when it entered. Hitting the snowy floor with a dampened whoosh. Starling escaped the havok and clung to a branch desperately. Not wanting to waste her breath in the snowy expanse, Starling determined it more appropriate to wait silently and see if help would arrive. The light slowly dimmed over the horizon, twilight approaching. Now shivering a little from her ineffective clothing, the option to jump the twenty metres out of the tree branch slowly became more appealing.

Suddenly, she heard a high pitched engine squeel. It echoed across the snowy wilderness, playing on Starling a little. She contemplated if it was even real. Then she heard it again, even louder this time. Her heart beat a little faster. What ever it was, it was approaching her.

Her worries had been alleviated, however, as the next sound of the engine came with the sight of what made it. A snowmobile appeared, with its excessively large rear track, and a smell of oil clearly taken from a two-stroke engine. On it, a sky knight, with blue fur and orange snow equipment. With calves and forearms left uncovered. A Blizzarian!, Starling thought. The blizzarian cut the engine and spoke out to Starling, its female voice calling up to the tree. 'You got yourself in a real pickle, don'tcha know?'

'Y-you reckon so?' Starling replied, her coldness jittering her words.

'That there is fresh powder beneath ya. I say your best bet is to land in it.' The Blizzarian assured, climbing out of her machine.

'That s-sounds insane.' Starling called back. The Blizzarian began to look annoyed as Starling continued, 'There's no way I'm risking myself falling out of the tree and-' The Blizzarian drew her staff, pointed it to where Starling's branch joined the tree, and fired a frozen bolt. The branch snapped and Starling tumbled into the powder snow with a lower pitch grunt.

'There. See? Powder. Are ya hurt?'

Starling climbed to her feet, holding her hand at the base of her shoulder length, slightly gelled back hair. 'Aside from dignity, No.'

'Oh good!' The Blizzarian smiled as she approached Starling. 'Suzy Lu. And you are?'

'Freezing. Um. Starling.' She confused her words for a second. Making Suzy Lu laugh.

'Ya might want to check that there wreckage for any valuables. Sky knights have a habit of stashing things they don't want to lose.' Suzy Lu suggested. The advice rung true to Starling as she fumbled through the knee deep snow to her skimmer. Looking under her seat, she pulled out a small satchel. Inside it was a solar crystal and a sealed pack of food rations. Starling hung the satchel over her neck and down her side, the small bag hanging snuggly against her thigh.

'Right, we should get back to civilisation before you become a icicle.' Suzy Lu warmly said as the sadled the snowmobile, with Starling not too far behind. Suzy Lu kickstarted the engine, and no response from it was found. She kickstarted again, and the snowmobile engine coughed, still dark. She checked her gauges. 'Outta gas? I coulda sworn I had the boys fill it up earlier.'

'So what now?' Starling asked, bemused at the situation.

'I say we hoof it. Sooner started, sooner ended.' Suzy Lu suggested. Starling groaned at the idea, dismounting the snow mobile 'We even have a tent stashed, see?' The Blizzarian opened her seat and pulled a small box out from under it. 'It's not big, but it sleeps two if you aren't prudish.'

Starling was fairly unhappy with the state of her rescue, given her slowly dropling core temperature. But reasoned that it was better than the alternative.