Elementals

Chapter 14

Earth - Year 3204
Northern academy

Outside the walls
Breeze:
I need to keep moving. My first train of train of thoughts since that latch shut me outside the wall, is that I need to keep moving. I figure if I keep moving back and forth, my body functions may not die on me. It'll also help me keep warm. However keeping warm seems merely like a dream being where I am at the moment. There's not a single ounce of me that can feel it. For every second that passes by, the harshness of the wind and the temperatures below zero degrees out here is taking every ounce of heat that I've got.

I've heard about this condition when a person is out in the cold...hypothermia I believe it was. Little over a century ago, they talked about this condition where one would go on freezing to death through three separate stages. The first stage is about feeling the cold. Your fingers lose the ability to do more complicated tasks and they pretty much turn numb. I think I've been feeling that for quite some time already. It's a mild hypothermia if my memory isn't wrong, which it rarely is.

The second stage is called a moderate hypothermia, which is more dominated by strong shivering and the bigger muscles pretty much starting to disconnect and lose function. I'm probably starting to sense that by now. I'm trying to contain my legs' function the best I can walk back and forth out here, but my arms have frozen solid against my chest in a lousy attempt to keep them warm, and I'm pretty sure it won't take long before the cold gets to my feet as well. Less important limbs are turning blue as well, kind of how I suspect my fingers to look like right now considering I can barely feel them right now.

Sleepiness is another symptom, but for now, I'm good considering I'm still on my feet. This is something I learned, or read up on from school way back in the day. It's amazing that I even remember how the next stage is the final and by far the less reversible one. I'll stop shaking and I'll hardly be moving at all. My entire body will just shut down right away and your breath and heart-beat will just gradually slow down and disappear eventually.

You might wonder why I am thinking about this horrible way of dying. Well, I'm guessing it's got to do with the fact that I know I'm about to go at this point. There's nobody that knows where I am and I hardly think anybody is even interested in knowing. Whoever that might be looking for me, they won't even know to look for me outside the walls because technically nobody is supposed to be there. I guess I've got myself to thank for this. I simply can't seem to get enough of these dangerous adventures.

Right now I sense that my legs are getting heavier and heavier for every step that I try to take. I remember when that latch first closed on me that I sat down, but I'm not doing that again. Getting up from that took a lot of effort. I can't afford to sit back down. If I do I know I'll never get up. I'll freeze solid against the wall. If you're wondering why I'm not wrapping myself into an air-tight cocoon, it's simply because I don't have the strength for it. I tried it and it did work, but it didn't do anything against the many degrees below zero and it deprived me of too much strength.

"You just had to be curious didn't you, Breeze?" I let out, but I can barely hear it myself. The intensity of the wind is so deafening that the several gusts of wind is the only thing you'll ever hear. In addition to that, as if that wasn't enough, I can't see anything. The darkness has settled over the landscape that I cannot see and the only thing I've got for the sake of coordinating my movements is the wall next to me. Other than that, the only thing I can actually see is the snow hitting my face. I try to cover it as well as possible, but trying to use my hands for that right now is pretty much impossible.

As I stand still for a moment, I sense that my eyelids are getting heavier for every blink. They really just want to close and stay closed. However I'm forcing myself to keep them open even though my body is leaning on the wall more and more. My legs are turning soggy and I'm struggling to keep standing. I'm guessing I'm well into that second stage of hypothermia by now. It's really getting to me as I'm just getting unsteadier and unsteadier.