Chapter 54: Hypothermia

‘Hypothermia?’ Dusk starts to feel a lot colder than usual. In fact, he is freezing; colder than he has ever felt in his life.

“Oh dear... oh no. Dusk, I need you to follow me so I can dry you, before you get even worse.” She has reverted out of her normally shy state, and became a bit more assertive.

Before he had the chance to nod, she has run over to the bathroom. Dusk is slowly limping behind since the cold has numbed his body to such an extent, that two of his legs are almost rendered useless. He also hasn’t stopped shivering ever since he walked inside her house.

He limps into the room where Fluttershy had run into. He saw that she held a few towels in her hooves, and he got the basic idea of what is about to happen.

“Dusk, I need you to just stand still for a few moments, okay. This should help with the cold.” He could hear the sorrow in her voice, he hated to see her like this.

He gives her the go ahead, and she begins to hastily, yet carefully dry Dusk. “T-Thanks Shy, I really appreciate it.”

---------- (Two minutes later)

She has finished drying Dusk’s wet coat, but unfortunately for him, he felt no warmer, he is still as freezing as he was before. The burden of the cold has not left his body. As soon as Fluttershy had put the towels aside, she tells him to follow her to the bedroom... which he did, and she asks him if he could lay down in the bed. He gets into the bed, and Fluttershy pulls the blanket over his body

“So I s-suppose that this m-may help with the hypothermia.” States Dusk.

“Um yes, we need to slowly increase your core body temperature, and this tends to be a good way to do this.” She is no longer the shy... Shy that he is used to, “I’ll go boil up some tea, since that will help you warm up easier.”

‘...I don’t like tea.’

“That’ll be good Shy.” Answers Dusk.

*imaginary facehoof* ‘I suppose the tea will help though...’

“Okay Dusk. I hate to leave you alone like this, but I’ll only be a few minutes.”

He nods. before she walks out of the room. Since her bedroom is upstairs, he can’t see, nor tell what she is doing.

He starts to feel quite hot under the bed, hotter than he has felt in a long time. In the minute that he has been under the blankets for, he has already broken sweat, and yet he is still uncontrollably shivering. It is somewhat contradictory. He pushes the blanket to one side of the bed, so he could lay uncovered by the excessively hot blanket. Before long, the room around him starts to get quite chilly, and the cold catches up to him. The feeling is quite similar to a moderate fever.

Just then, Fluttershy steps into the room, holding the handle of a cup of tea with her teeth. (Quick Note: Don’t ask how that’s possible without spillage.) She looks at Dusk, before looking surprised, then worried. She runs over to Dusk, (while putting the cup on the bedside table) and pulls the blanket over him again. He didn't resist.

“I know it feels hot under there, but you have to stay under there. The longer you stay under there for, the closer you get to your normal body temperature.” Says Fluttershy.

“Oh... sorry about that.”

“It's fine Dusk. So why don’t you drink some of your tea?” She asks.

He doesn’t respond, choosing to grab the handle of the cup with his teeth instead. He places it into his hooves, and takes a look at the liquid; it is an orange-ish brown colour, and faintly warm to the touch. It doesn’t take an expert to know that this is a lot less warm than it should be. He takes a drink of the warm concoction anyway, and it still tastes as foul as it did the first time he tried tea. He absolutely hated the after taste.

“Ugh, I don’t u-understand how ponies could l-like tea.” Nor could he understand why is it warm, rather than hot. He chose not to look into it. “I honestly think it tastes disgusting.”

“Then why did you say that you wanted some?”

“Because I-I’m an idiot. I’ll still have the r-rest though, since it’s supposed to make me feel a-a bit better.”

And he does so, much to the disgust of his tastes. Since the tea was lukewarm, he drank the rest of the tea in less than 10 seconds. (Flat.) As soon as he places the empty cup back onto the bedside table, Fluttershy asks him a somewhat awkward question.

“So uhm... Dusk,” He could see her blushing. She is no longer the somewhat assertive Shy that she was a few moments ago. No, she has reverted back to her shy, timid self. “One of the ways that is supposed to help with hypothermia... is...”

‘Do I like where this is going?’

“...um, if we lay down under the blankets... and make full body to body contact. It’s... supposed to help with the cold.”

‘Wow... um... this is a bit of a step up for the relationship...’

(Quick Note: This is actually an effective way of treating hypothermia) Next Chapter: Chapter 55: A Step Up Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 30 Minutes