《I'm Just the Guard!》Interlude: Hypothermia
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Frost shivered in the pale moonlight, hugging himself tightly as he watched for unseen invaders. Under his thin wraps of cloth, numb fingers rubbed at the scratchy wool gambeson. The frantic friction granted him little warmth but he kept at it, yearning for feeling to return to his limbs.
The wind picked up, screeching in the darkness as it battered his rosy face with balls of ice and snow. He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, clearing away the icicles forming on his eyelashes.
Oh, great, he thought, checking his status. Another 5 points of health lost.
Stricken with both the (Hypothermia) and (Hungry) ailments, the young NPC could do nothing but watch his HP drop closer to zero. He'd complained to Flake about it but the older {Guard} told him to stop whining and do some squats.
With a groan, he did another set now, wincing as his locked knees bent and straightened. The cold sapped at his strength, making the easy exercise take ages to complete. The warm yet heavy gambeson felt more like a detriment than anything right now.
He felt something warm trickle down his legs, giving them some fleeting warmth that disappeared all too fast. Mere seconds after he wet his pants, the unforgiving cold attacked his inner thighs.
Frost pressed his legs together, rubbing them back and forth. All that did was sap his Stamina further.
-5 HP...-5 HP......-5 HP......-5 HP......-5 HP......-5 HP...
Ten HP left, he thought, falling to his knees. Cold seeped through his clothes, ridding his body of what scarce heat was left. It permeated through his bones and chilled his blood. He squeezed blue fingers together as he tilted over into the snow, cupping his hands around his mouth.
And then, for a moment, he felt a bit warmer. He stopped shivering as much as the cold seemed to retreat.
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Oh...This feels nice...Getting a little hot, though.
Yeah. Yeah, now that he wasn't so cold anymore, he didn't need this gambeson. He shifted in the snow, wiggling until he was sitting upright. Situated, he started tugging at the edges of his gambeson, pulling it above his knees. His fingers were still blue, taking on a slightly grayish hue now, but that didn't matter.
His clothes made him hot and he couldn't pull it off from underneath! So he pulled one arm inside the gambeson - something that required quite a bit of flexibility, but he managed - and then the other. Falling backward into the snow, he jerked and bucked until he slid out from the wooly armor piece. The snow pressing against his skin did little to alleviate the burning heat radiating all throughout his body, so he kept going.
He kicked off his boots as he untied the drawstring of his pants; the socks came off as well. Still, he grew hotter even while he was free from his clothing.
Frost rolled around stark naked in the snow, his pale and slim body nearly invisible in the trampled mush if not for his messy black hair. The snow helped immensely to cool him off. It worked almost...too well. The numbness returned too soon when he stopped rolling.
Sighing, Frost lay on his back and kept still. Maybe, just maybe, if he stopped moving, the numbness would go away and a little bit of heat would come back?
Maybe...he really wanted it to.
He was cold.
Really, really cold.
Super...
Cold...
So, so...
cold...
...
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