Dusty coughed against the smoke that filled his mouth cavity and clogged his pipes. Through the cloud of black that continued to grow in his path, the faint silhouette of trees and the old wooded bridge grew darker and larger. His eyes began to sting, as he squinted and fought through the smoke.

"This is Crophopper 7, reporting to Ranger, come in." The comm crackled for a second, it's raspy voice causing Dusty to cringe, before Ranger's voice could be clearly heard.

"This is Ranger, go ahead."

"What exactly did you send me out here for? When I said I was coming to visit, I didn't exactly think there would actually be an emergency. I thought the fire was...." He coughed harshly, before finishing "...contained."

"Yes, but we need someone to run recon and make sure we've evacuated everyone, since the plane jumpers are too busy keeping this inferno under control." Groaning, Dusty rolled his eyes and shut the comm off.

"Run recon, please." He paused talking and scanned the area. Nope, just smoke. "We've already checked everything." Coughing once more, he noticed as the smoke began to thin up, and the surroundings began to grow much more clearly.

"Great, I can leave this place." Suddenly, his comm crackled once more.

"Now what Rang--"

"...m-ma--mayd--day..." Through his comm, a strained and exhausted voice rasped. Shocked by the sudden and unexpected call, Dusty's straight flight wobbled from side to side before stabilizing himself.

"Wait--what...w-who are you?"

"R...rive...r..." The voice was cut off by an attack of coughs,

"Hold on. I'm going to call base and get backup."

"N-no...no." The voice just nearly stopped him in his tracks.

"What do you mean no?"

"Pl-please...don't...." The voice was cut off, and the sound of water splashing filled his comm. Breathing heavily, Dusty finally broke through the smoke wall, and immediately dove down towards the river, scorwering about, searching for a plane or car in the angry rapids. Scanning through the trees that covered the river, he couldn't seem to spot any unnatural colors that didn't belong in a natural body of water.

Then, his eyes found it.

A small plane, just a bit smaller than him but of the same shape build, just a bit slimmer, but with a propellor in the back, white with teal blue and dark lilac swirls and patterns decorating her paint job. No water scoopers decorated her undercarraige, wheels instead. Her frame shape was strange, off. He saw no exhaust pipes, for smoke to escape, nor did he see a control panel. She frantically clung to a branch with a rope with a hook at the end that led into a wench inside her front part, much like Ranger had. Her purple eyes looked up at him weakly, before they fell drooping slowly until they finally closed. As she slipped under consciousness, the rope lost all strength, and released the branch. And Dusty watched with horror as the plane was taken away by the fury of the river, and began to slip under the surface of the water. Through the comm, only silence followed.

Now Dusty felt obliged to call the base. As he was, he saw no way to save the plane.

Yet there was something about her voice that convinced him not to. He couldn't place a wing on it, but it was SOMETHING. So, his mind having made itself up, he scanned the river, searching for some way to get this plane out of the dangerous waters. His eyes fell on something shiny in the water and recognized it as the hook.

"I have an idea...its risky...but it's the only chance I have." Looking up towards where the river plummeted, he sped up towards the edge, the hot wind against his outer casing only reminding him of the fire behind.

But not before he shot a final glance down at the plane. Her  outer casing was dented and pierced in some places, paint scratched and torn. Her propellor had been violently ripped up, leaving only the ghost of the metal. And her wing, the wings that were bent backwards halfway on purpose instead of straight out like most planes, the wings that curved upwards to add to her aerodynamic design, the wings that seemed to have no flaps, one of those wings was flapping around wildly, held only by a few wires that connected it to the rest of her frame, on the verge of being violently ripped off.

"This better work."  Breathing heavily, he passed over the edge of the waterfall, and whirled around, circling the space ahead. He just needed to wait for the right moment. The water droplets that fell on his wings brought a sense of coolness to his burning metal, but it didn't bring him as much relief as it normally would on a routine flying day. His mind couldn't bring itself to concentrate on the little speckles of cool that seemed to massage his casing. He was just scanning the rough edge of plummeting water, searching for the shiny white that would contrast against the lava-red sky. The anticipation that coursed through his fuel tank was grueling. His teeth ached from being clenched so tightly together. Time seemed to slow down, the droplets of water falling as if they were snowflakes.

Then, through the white swirling foam of the angry water, a glimmer of reflective metal revealed it's tip over the edge, peeking down the large perilous drop. Slowly, more and more of her wing appeared, then finally, the dreaded water pulled her over the edge.

Ok...ok....now."  With the sudden jerk, Dusty shot upwards, nearly vertically, towards the plummeting plane. His eyes connected with the hook, and stayed connected with the shiny metal.

There was just a small window, a millisecond that could mean life or death for this plane. There was no room for failure here.

He just couldn't fail her, not after that pleading call for help.

With a rapid acceleration, he sped swiftly over the hook.

Please please please.

He felt a tug downwards, a sudden weight added to his under side, and smiled.

I got her.

He couldn't see underneath himself, and didn't dare to spin, so he had no way of telling for certain he got her. She seemed...so light, lighter than the other planes. Almost the weight of a feather, well, to him, of course. It was....impossible, even.

A single cough that echoed down below him eased his racing mind, and he concentrated more on searching for a clear place to land. His eyes scanned the area, and he cringed as he felt his underbelly metal begin to strain under her weight. Sure, she was light, lighter than the other planes. But never before did he have to carry any sort of large weight mass. He jerked downward suddenly, before resuming on his flight plan.

"I've...gotta find a place...to land." He panted, as coolant began surging, trying to cool his systems. He jumped, startled, as he heard a whisper underneath him.

"Therrrre." The light voice rasped.

"W-what...where?" His eyes scanned the landscape, searching for a break between the dark-green. There, just a few hundred yards ahead, a small clearing between patches of trees.

"But..it's so small." His word was cut off with a loud groan that came from his underside.

"That's not gonna hold for much longer." Groaning, he clenched his teeth, and began to line himself up for the landing.

Of course working with the fire department, he had had to make tight landings before, but none like this.

That space was barely half the size of his home runway, maybe less. The ground was covered with short grass and wildflowers that had somehow managed to survive all the wildfires.  It was going to be tough. Sure...did he want to do it? To tell the truth, no. Anything that could risk a crash wasn't worth it.

But was he going to do it? He had to, didn't he? He shot a small glance downward, where the top of the plane's wing was barely visible.

Yes, he was going to do it.

The clearing was now straight ahead, his eyes focused on the light green ahead. Lowering his wheels, he began to throttle back, keeping mind of the plane underneath him.

Then, he heard it. A deafening sound of cracking metal that could, in no way in any universe, mean anything good. As he began to fly over the first section of clearing, it was like a weight was being taken off of him.

Literally.

With one last groan, he no longer felt the weight of the plane underneath him. Instead, he only saw as the the tip of the wing that was visible to him began to grow smaller.

She fell.