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“My Nan used to sing me that,” she said as she finally managed to peel away my wet shirt and bra. Before I could respond, Fallon came crashing back into the kitchen, holding the quilt from the bed.
“Perfect,” Magnolia said, taking it from him and wrapping me up until I was a nice, cold-but-dry Darcy burrito.
Fallon didn’t reply, his face turned fiercely downwards towards a book in his hand.
That book.
My jaw loosened enough for me to grit out, “Too cold… to… fuck you.”
“You’re what?” Fallon said, jerking his head up. “Too cold to… No!” He flipped the book around. It wasn’t open to any of the spicy pages, but rather a distinctly un-sexy block of plain Zabrian text. “I’m reading about human hypothermia!”
“I have a temp gauge. Hold on.” Magnolia hurried away while Fallon turned his harried attention back to the book. His eyes were bright, like to twin flashlight beams scanning the pages.
Magnolia returned with a small temp gauge tool. She shone the energy beam into one ear, then the other.
“34.8 degrees Celsius,” she said with a slight shake of her head.
“G-Good?” I stuttered, curling my numb toes against each other.
“Could have been worse,” she said. “Anything under 35 isn’t great, but this is only very mild hypothermia. It’s a good thing you weren’t wet for much longer.” Her gaze slid to Fallon, who was still wearing his own sopping wet, cold clothes.
“F-Fallon… You…” I swallowed, my tongue feeling thick.
“You should get dry things on,” Magnolia interpreted. I tried to nod, but I was pretty sure it just came out like some crazy bobble-headed tremor.
“Not until I know she’s alright!” Fallon said, throwing his book aside. “The book says a human can die from this!”
“We can,” Magnolia said gently, “but Darcy won’t. You got her back here in time.”
“Tell me what to do,” Fallon said, dragging frantic claws through his soaked blond hair.
“We need to keep her warm. It’ll take too long to try to warm enough water for hot water bottles or anything like that. I know you have power here with your data tabs. Do you have any sort of heated blankets or appliances beyond the fireplace?”
Fallon looked devastated.
“No! Nothing like that. I could make one, maybe, but it would take some time, and-”
“That’s alright,” Magnolia said quickly. “OK. Here’s what I want you to do instead…”
16
FALLON
Magnolia had given me three tasks. The first was to build up a fire in my bedroom, using the hearth in there that normally remained cold and untouched.
The second task was to carry Darcy into the bed and bundle her there with the quilt and any other bed coverings I could find.
The third was to go back out into the rain and collect rocks.
I hadn’t wasted time questioning Magnolia on this bizarre command. I thought that there was a very good chance my usefulness inside had ceased and that Magnolia now wanted my panicky presence out of the way so she could better administer to my wife.
Frankly, I did not give a flying shuldu fart. If there was any chance that collecting slippery, wet rocks from outside would help Darcy then I would do it. I’d bring back an entire ranch’s worth of them.
Magnolia had requested large rocks, at least fist-sized or bigger. With my arms laden and even a heavy rock wrapped up in the grip of my tail, I sprinted back to the house.
“Oh, perfect,” Magnolia said. She looked to be heating a small amount of water near the fire and sprinkling fragrant leaves and spices into it. “I’m making her some hot tea with stuff I brought from Terratribe II. Come put those rocks near the fire. Not all the way in the fire, but close enough that they’ll dry and heat up.”
“Then what?” I asked, my voice sounding high and strangled as I dumped down the rocks and arranged them directly in front of the fire.
