Chapter 1: Out of the Blue
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Ciara Tryax Cole soared high above the earth in her airship, West Wind.  
The wind raced through her dark hair as she savored the sensation of 
being free, completely free.  No bossy older sister to tell her what she 
could and couldn't do.  True, Elena had been quite nice to her in the 
past few days.  She supposed that it had been mostly Elena's efforts to 
keep her from actually trying to leave home.  What was left for her 
there, anyway?  Did Elena hope to convert her to want a simple life on 
that island?  Not while there was a whole world out there!  She'd been 
kept ignorant long enough.  She barely knew what was going on out there.  
Sure, she knew about Kefka, and his defeat, but you'd have to be blind 
and deaf not to know that!  She'd heard bits and pieces of news, but it 
was all fairly incomprehensible to her.

The idea for building the West Wind came from reading her parents' old 
journals, where they had described various scientific theories.  They had 
been killed tragically in a lab explosion fifteen years ago, leaving 
their sixteen-year-old daughter to raise her two-year-old sister.  From 
the journals, and the remnants of the old lab, Ciara was able to 
construct many interesting devices.  One day, she stumbled across the 
plans for a prototype airship.  It had already been half-constructed and 
hidden years ago.  Ciara finished it, named it West Wind, and decided to 
use it to go out and see the world.

Something snapped Ciara back to attention.  What *was* that in front of 
her?  It looked like a whirlpool, but in the sky?  Ciara didn't really 
want the West Wind getting caught in it, so she tried to steer away from
it.

What?  Did it just get in her way again?  Ciara tried to steer away once 
more, but the whirlpool was still in front of her.

She felt it begin to pull on the West Wind.  She was being drawn in!  
Ciara made on frantic last attempt to pull away, but that only succeeded 
in making the West Wind spin around even more.

The airship, still spinning, shot into the whirlpool, and then, shot back 
out.  Ciara immediately sensed that she was now very far away from where 
she'd lifted off from that morning.  The next thing she sensed was that 
the West Wind was going to crash soon if she didn't do something!

Grasping the steering wheel of the rapidly falling West Wind, she tried 
to pull it up with a strength that she'd never felt before in her 
seventeen years.  It was still not enough.  Ciara painfully realized that 
she was going to lose her precious airship.  But she didn't have to lose 
her life along with it!

Ciara was glad that she'd had the sense to invent something that would 
protect her in a situation like this.  Quickly, she grabbed the small 
pack that had been lying next to her on the deck and strapped it to her 
back.  She then grabbed her sack of food, medecine, and money; and 
clipped a small flamethrower she had built herself and a dagger to her 
tool belt.  She went to the edge of the airship, took a deep breath, 
jumped, and pulled the cord attached to her backpack.

The West Wind smashed to bits on the ground below.

Ciara landed safely a little while later.  Thank goodness for parachutes!
She surveyed the remains of her once-beautiful airship.  It would take
her forever to rebuild it.  But first things first: she needed someplace
to stay.

"But where am I?"  she asked out loud.  "Is anyone here?  Can anyone help 
me?"