Staked Out in Sun or Snow

A night and a day in the snow before anyone came, and the frost took its payment in advance. Your fingers and toes have gone black past the second knuckle, and the doctor lays out the bonesaw quietly, because the black does not turn back.

• Hands and feet swathed in dressings, bedridden 5 days on laudanum
• Whatever the saw takes stays taken, gripping, walking, and shooting change forever
• Shivering fits and a deathly chill that no stove quite reaches
• /me watches the doctor lay instruments on the towel, one by one

Recovery Weeks under a doctor's roof; the sites must heal clean or the fever finishes what the frost began.·Doctor, urgently

They found you at dusk, and barely in time. Your skin was hot and dry as a stove-lid, your talk was nonsense, and your water has gone dark as strong tea, the heat has reached in past the skin and laid hands on the machinery.

• Bedridden 4 days, packed in wet sheets while the fever is driven down
• Confused and wandering in speech for 2 days
• Dark, scant water, the doctor watches your kidneys like a hawk for 4 days
• No sun, no liquor, no exertion for 7 days

Recovery A week of shade, water, and a doctor's vigil; heatstroke untreated kills inside hours, and everyone present knows it.·Doctor, urgently

The cold got into your hands and feet before rescue got to you. Fingers and toes come back to life in shades of purple, blistering as they thaw, and the thawing hurts worse than the freezing ever did.

• Blistered frostbitten fingers and toes, dressed for 5 days, no fine work, no long walks
• Thawing pain in waves that makes you pace and swear
• Fingers stay clumsy and cold-hating for 7 days
• /me cradles bandaged fingers against their chest, rocking slightly

Recovery 2 weeks of dressings with a doctor fighting for every finger; careless treatment turns blisters black.·Doctor, urgently

By the time they cut you off the stakes you were talking to your dead grandmother and swatting at water nobody else could see. The sun boiled your reason, and it comes back slowly, in pieces, over days.

• Delirious spells for 2 days, says strange things with great conviction
• Kept abed and watched; wanders off if left alone the first 2 days
• Blistered sunburn across face and arms, salved daily
• /me squints at the empty corner of the room, certain something moved

Recovery 4 days for the mind to settle with shade and water; the sunburn peels for a week after.·Doctor, urgently

One afternoon staked under a white sky and your face and forearms have risen in sheets of sunburn blisters. You are parched to the boots besides, and your own shadow hurts to stand in.

• Blistered burns on face and forearms, salved and loosely dressed for 4 days
• Hat and shade mandatory for 3 days; direct sun is agony
• Drinks constantly; dizzy if a meal passes without water
• /me tips the canteen back and drains half of it without breathing

Recovery 5 days of salve and shade; broken blisters left dirty will fester into something worse.·Doctor required

When they found you the shivering had stopped, and stopped shivering is the bad kind of quiet. Hours by the stove wrapped in every blanket in the house brought you back from somewhere very distant.

• Chilled to the marrow, weak and slow for 3 days
• Cannot get warm; wears a coat indoors and sits nearest every fire
• Fingers numb-clumsy for 2 days, buttons and matches defeat you

Recovery 4 days of stove-side rest and hot broth; the deep chill invites pneumonia if you go straight back out.·Doctor required

Your ears and nose caught the frost's attention first. They come back angry, swollen, blistered at the rims, and so tender that your own hat brim is suddenly your enemy.

• Blistered ears and nose, dressed and greased for 4 days, a sight to behold
• Hat sits wrong; cold wind on the face is genuinely painful for 5 days
• /me pulls the scarf up over raw ears, wincing at the wool

Recovery 6 days salved to heal clean; the rims of your ears stay winter-tender for a season.·Doctor required

They stretched the rescue longer than your body's water would go. You come off the stakes with lips split to bleeding, a tongue like a dead lizard, and legs that fold under you like wet paper.

• Too weak to walk far, lean on someone or something for 2 days
• Water in sips only the first day, or it comes straight back
• Cracked bleeding lips and a rasp for 3 days
• Watches for dark water on doctor's orders for 3 days

Recovery 3 days of careful watering and rest; 6 days of trembling weakness without a doctor pacing you.·Doctor required

A solid burn across face, neck, and hands, lobster-red today, peeling like old paint by Thursday. Every collar, handshake, and sunrise is a small act of violence against you.

• Painful red sunburn on face and hands for 3 days, flinches at every pat and handshake
• Peels dramatically for days after; leaves a snowfall on every chair
• /me peels a strip of skin from their forearm with morbid fascination

Recovery 4 days from red to peeling to pink; salve helps, dignity doesn't survive either way.·Doctor advised

A day staring at sunstruck snow has scalded your eyes. They water, burn, and slam shut against any brightness, and the world past ten yards has gone to smudges.

• Eyes bandaged or shaded for 2 days, led around by the elbow
• No shooting or reading for 3 days; faces blur past arm's length
• Weeps steadily in any bright light for 2 days

Recovery 3 days of dark rooms and cool cloths; sight clears fully within the week.·Doctor advised

The cold let you go but kept a finger hooked in you. Shivering fits ambush you at odd hours, your chest has a suspicious tickle, and warm rooms only mostly help.

• Shivering fits several times a day for 3 days
• A dry cough the doctor wants listened to daily for 3 days
• Wears twice the clothing everyone else does and still complains

Recovery 4 days of warmth and rest; ignored, the tickle in the chest grows ambitions.·Doctor advised

A day spread-eagle under the sun and your hands have puffed up like rising dough, with a headache driving nails behind both eyes. Rings don't fit, gloves don't fit, and neither does your temper.

• Swollen hands for 2 days, clumsy with reins, cards, and buttons
• Pounding sun-headache for 2 days; noise and light both charge admission
• Rope-raw wrists and ankles where you fought the stakes, wrapped for 3 days

Recovery 3 days of shade, water, and quiet; the swelling leaves before the headache does.·Doctor advised

The cold stiffened every joint and left white patches on your cheeks that burn as they thaw. You move like the Tin Man's poor cousin and hiss whenever the fire's warmth finds the nipped skin.

• Frost-nipped cheeks and knuckles, red, hot, and tender for 3 days
• Stiff joints all over; mounting a horse is a two-act performance for 2 days
• /me flexes waxy fingers over the stove, hissing as the feeling returns

Recovery 3 days of gentle warming; rushing the thaw with hot water makes everything worse.·Doctor advised

A few hours before rescue and the sun only had time to rough you up. You have a burn like a long Sunday at the river, red nose, red neck, and a thirst you can fix at the bar.

• Red sunburned nose and neck for 2 days, tender to the touch
• Peels lightly at the nose by week's end, to everyone's amusement

Recovery 2 days and a dab of cream; a good hat prevents the sequel.·No doctor needed

They got to you before the cold got serious, but a chill moved into your bones for a night regardless. Soup, stove, and a blanket cocoon put it mostly to rights.

• Shivery and stove-hugging for 1 day
• Sniffles for 2 days, nothing a handkerchief can't manage
• /me pulls the blanket tighter and inches their chair toward the fire

Recovery A day of warmth and hot soup; the sniffle runs its course in two more.·No doctor needed

The stakes held you a few hours and the ropes left their autograph, raw rings at wrist and ankle and a thirst that could drain a trough. Otherwise, you are inconvenienced more than injured.

• Rope-raw wrists and ankles for 2 days, visible below the cuffs
• Drinks water like it's going out of fashion for 1 day

Recovery 2 days and a little salve on the rope marks.·No doctor needed

Your hat and collar defended what they could. All the sun claimed was a stripe of burned neck between the two, bright as a brand and precisely where your collar rubs.

• Burned stripe across the back of the neck for 2 days, collars are the enemy
• Flinches when anyone claps them on the neck, which folk now do constantly

Recovery 2 days; wear the collar loose and stop your friends from patting it.·No doctor needed

An hour after they staked you out, the sky pulled a gray blanket over the sun and held it there all afternoon. Rescue found you thirsty, bored, and barely pinked.

• Mild thirst and stiff shoulders, gone by morning
• A weather story: the clouds saved you, and you tell it like they meant to

Recovery A tall drink of water and a night's sleep.·No doctor needed

The ground was softer than your captors were smart. You worked one stake free inside the hour, dragged yourself into the lee of a rock, and were huddled in your own shade when help arrived.

• Rope-chafed wrist from working the stake, faint for 1 day
• Insufferably proud of your soil analysis for weeks
• /me pats the ground appraisingly before sitting, out of new habit

Recovery A day, mostly for the wrist.·No doctor needed

Near noon, a thunderhead built out of a clean blue sky and broke directly overhead, rain filled your upturned hat brim, cooled you through, and softened the ground until the stakes pulled free like carrots. You walked into town soaked, unhurt, and grinning like a prophet.

• Unharmed and rain-washed, arrives looking better than when taken
• Half the town now half-believes you can call weather
• /me tips rainwater from their hat brim and drinks it with ceremony

Recovery None, the storm did the doctoring.·No doctor needed