Blade notice that something was off about Dusty. He was not concentrating as hard as he usury dose on his training. He had also barely acknowledged half of Blade's commands and almost flew into a tree during water scoping practice. He had improved a few days ago but now he was dropping in his level drastically. Last time he wasn't flying into trees and now he was barely missing them.

Another thing that Blade noticed was that Dusty hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings like he usually dose anymore. Before now, every time he saw smoke he would fly toward it to check it out. Now Dusty doesn't seem to even notice it anymore. Not even a small wildfire.

Dusty also seemed to be more tired than normal. He was constantly nodding off for a few seconds be for waking up and the process would repeat itself. Today Dusty was trying not to fall asleep while flying but was fighting a losing battle. Blade mentally groaned as Dusty slowly began to lose altitude before speaking up.

"Head back to base, Champ." Blade ordered, startling Dusty.

Glancing up Dusty nodded and without response he turned and headed back to base. Blade sighed to himself before turning and following the Champ to make sure that he got back safely. The last thing he wanted was to have a crash happen. Why was Dusty so tired was beyond Blade. He thought that Dusty had been sleeping at night. They was something amiss here and he was going to find out what.

Later on, in that afternoon, after he had finished his patrols, Blade decided to approach Dusty about the matter. He found the smaller plane sitting out on the end of the runway looking at the valley below.

"Hey Champ" Blade called as he approached to get Dusty's attention.

"Yes Blade" Dusty answered, turning to face the older helicopter.

"I wanted to know what's wrong with you" Blade said as he approached the topic.

"What do you mean?" Dusty asked, hoping that Blade wouldn't get to touchy on the subject.

"You know what I mean" Blade answered trying not to sound irritated with the young plane. "You started to improve on your firefighting and now it's starting to go downhill again. Also, you are flying tired. Care to explain that?"

"Um…ah…well….you see" Dusty started to say before stopping.

"Well?" Blade asked mentally getting annoyed.

"Aurg, what does it matter" Dusty groaned, turning away from Blade. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Try me" Blade answered.

Silence met his statement. Blade sighed before turning to leave.

"Fine don't answer. Just get some sleep" Blade said.

"I can't sleep" Dusty answered causing Blade to stop and turn back to the plane who was looking away from him. "It's to close to that day."

"Day?" Blade questioned, now curious.

"The truth is, I'm an orphan."