Impromptu flying lesson

"Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects."

- Dave Barry

The edge of the cliff stretched out in front of her as Morginn hurtled ever closer towards the precipice, and her unscheduled test flight.

The Ro•zir wasn't exactly designed for flying. Or to make high speed impacts into the floor for that matter, let alone survive them.

Desperately hoping to avoid both scenarios, Morginn frantically tried to deploy the spurs below the fuselage in the vain hope of slowing her approach. Conventional brakes were next to useless in these conditions, the ice that inevitably built up to coat the outside of them meant they couldn't gain enough of a grip to slow you down.

The huge metal spikes that lined the underside of the vehicle slammed into the ice beneath with pneumatic ****, the high density alloy that they were lined in groaning with the futile exertion of trying to gain enough purchase to prevent the vehicle taking an unscheduled swan dive off of the drop that was rapidly approaching in front.

The sound of the metal scraping against ice could be heard even inside the heavily insulated walls of the cockpit, the loud screech of metallic fingernails over a snowy blackboard reverberated through the small enclosed space loud enough to hurt Morginn's ears.

As the vehicle slid precariously closer to the cliff, she knew that she was seconds away from plummeting over the icy edge. The Ro•zir went into a horizontal spin, as one row of spurs buckled and snapped, torn loose under the **** of being twisted as they unsuccessfully tried to dig into rapidly moving surface beneath.

Shit, shit, shit.

A **** wave of panic began trying to worm it's way in, but she banished it within seconds, pushing it down the dark corners of her thoughts. Succumbing to fear would find her dead just as well as doing nothing. The last chance she had of saving herself were the hooks at the back end of the Ro•zir. They weren't designed to make drops at this speed, but her body wasn't designed to survive a fast drop and a quick stop either.

Yanking the release control, she was jolted forward out of her seat, nearly loosing a couple of teeth as her face smashed into the dashboard from the sudden deceleration. Only her seatbelt prevented her from being launched into the solid metal wall of the enclosure. Warm blood gushed from multiple cuts on the inside of her mouth as her teeth tore into her lips, sending tendrils of pain through the rest of her skull as she lurched forward.

The pain meant the **** move had worked though. Her trajectory had still caused her to slide over the edge, but the cable from the clamp had managed to sink into the tip of the cliff above, gaining enough of a grip to stop her fall, but leaving the Ro•zir swinging like a pendulum as it hung over the precipice.

'That was far too close for comfort. What the hell is going on? There should be nothing but flat ground from Mist'holme until miles past this point.'

Retracting the now broken spurs back inside the base of the cockpit, she slowly fed the cable from the hook supporting her out, allowing the winch to gradually unwind as she gently began lowering herself down the side of the cliff face. There was no way she was willing to try and pull herself back up over the edge, face down or face up. She would have to find another way back the way she had come later.

After descending for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes, the radar finally began to resume a steady beat again as it detected the bottom of the drop approaching ahead. Morginn slowed the feed on the cable to a crawl as it approached, she wasn't in the mood for a second crash in as many minutes. Breathing a sigh of relief, she felt herself blissfully stop swinging and settle back into solid ground once more.

It was at that moment her pounding brain decided to calm itself enough to register what her ears had already picked up once the blood had stopped rushing into them. The sound of the snow hitting the Ro•zir was . . . wrong.

It was a sound that just couldn't be possible. Not here, not anywhere out here. Maybe her still ringing ears were playing tricks on her. Concussions could play tricks with your mind couldn't they? Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she'd thought.

The noise outside sounded wet. It sounded like rain.

And with that parting thought, her vision clouded from the corners of her eyes, she felt unconsciousness reach out to claim her, pulling her into a blissful, pain free oblivion.