On Ice *Experiencing a complete overhaul*

Chapter 2

It took me twenty minutes to reach the cabin. Twenty nerve-racking, heart racing, nail-biting minutes. I had to stop every ten minutes or so to check for a pulse and to make sure his condition didn't worsen. The cold had started to seep in even though my winter clothing, and by the time the cabin could be seen, I was almost six feet away from it. I led Falcon as close to the door as I could manage and dragged my overweight sleeping bag across the deck, in through the threshold and slowly towards the stone fireplace. Quickly I checked again for a pulse. His heart was still beating swiftly but weakly, and he hadn't stopped shivering. Duska slowly wiggled her head free and laid next to the man watching me as I searched the kitchen for the wood matches. I was grateful that I had had the forethought to stock the fireplace after my last visit. Grabbing a bunch of old newspaper and the matches box from next to the stove, I made my way to the fireplace and started a fire my hands shaking. I grabbed all the blankets I could find from both bedrooms and laid them over him.

Looking over my stranger and realizing he was as stable as he was going to get, for the time being, I weighed my options. Falcon couldn't be left alone outside saddled in the storm. He had been my saving grace, and he deserved to be put in the tie stall barn at least with some fresh straw and some good feed for his efforts. As much as I didn't want to leave the man, he was a lot warmer than I expected from the sleeping bag and Duska. Still, I would have to hurry as he still wasn't warm enough. Warmth slowly started to fill the cabin with one last look at the unconscious figure Duska was curled up with by the fireplace I slipped outside and lead Falcon into the three horse tie stall barn at the back of the cabin. I unsaddled and unbridled him before shaking out some straw and filling the feed pales. Throwing a quick blanket over him, I rushed into the cabin. It took me six minutes.

In my haste to get to the cabin, I realized I had yet to call emergency services. Not that it would do me much good in this storm, but they might have some needed advice to make the guy comfortable until the storm broke. I unzipped my phone from my pocket and growled. No signal. It was to be expected on this part of our land. Cellphone service was usually touch and go, but it didn't make me feel any better about the situation. I would have to wait until the storm died down and try to find a place with a signal. I turned it off to save what battery life I had left, not being dumb enough to let it search for signal all night and be dead by the morning.

I walked over to my sleeping bag and who my mind kept referring to as 'frosty' and felt the coolness of his skin on his forehead. He was shivering even with Duska's fluffy self weaselled in the sleeping bag again. I frowned as I realized I should probably do a more thorough check now that I wasn't peeling him out of a snow bank. I didn't have time to check for other injuries or frostbite earlier and suspected he already had frostbite on his ears. I pulled back the blankets and started to unzip the sleeping bag. I paused before running into the kitchen and grabbing a tea towel. No sense getting too much of a look at little frosty.

I unzipped the sleeping bag intending to make this quick. I had been raised on stories as a child of people that had lost their extremities to the cold: ears, fingers, toes, and even limbs. It was drilled into us at a young age that winter was to be respected and prepared for. No one would feel any sympathy if you lost toes from stupidity. Glancing at the unconscious figure unthawing by my fireplace, I couldn't help but wonder about his story. His hands and arms were red with cold but not ashen, but it was his feet that had me concerned. His toes and feet were a mixture of white or grayish skin, some soft and some waxy and firm. An awful combination of superficial and deep frostbite. The poor guy was not going to be happy when he woke up.

I threw a couple more logs on the fire and turned the sleeping bag and blankets back over him. I walked into the kitchen and pulled out the most massive pot I had and went outside to fill it with snow. Opening the door, I had a new appreciation for the storm in a matter of an hour since the blizzard started over a foot of snow had fallen. Adding that snow to the two feet we already had given me a bad feeling about this storm I couldn't shake. Loading the pot full of snow, I brought it in and lit the propane stove. While I waited for the snow to melt and heat, I started raiding the cabin for first aid supplies. I was glad my mother had been a nurse and had insisted on a first aid kit in the cabin. It was a little picked over for Band-Aids, but gauze and wraps and other supplies were well stocked. There was even a half bottle of Dads favourite whiskey in the kitchen cupboard.