Throbbing. My head is throbbing. I swallow, and an aching pain spreads down my throat. I swing my head back and look around. Thankfully, nothing came inside while I was out. Rolling over onto my back, I feel just how sore my legs are. They ache and throb from the movement, but at least it tells me that they haven't been frozen. I notice the hole in the door and groan. Laying here almost feels pleasant. I know that when I decide to get up, I'll be in pain. I'd have to fix the door, and...
"Phooo" I exhale. Laying here forever seems nice. Cold air from the door and its hole eventually convince me to get up. I sit up and back myself up to the cave wall. Inspecting myself, I see that my boots have been cut deeply, and only one layer of leather remains intact. Just another problem I'll have to fix. I lift my pant leg and slowly slide my boot down my foot. "Tsss" I wince in pain, there are scrapes down my ankle. I wipe some of the dirt near the scrapes, slide my boot and sock off, then move to the other foot. "Seems okay" I say as I slide my boot and sock down my leg. Cold air seems to wrap around my feet, and I shudder.
I get the feeling I'm forgetting something, and I sit to think about what happened. Heat lamp! I hurriedly zip open my jacket and look--the lamp is okay. I don't know what I would've done if it was broken. The fuel is spent though, so I take the lamp out from my jacket and place it near my oven to my left. Grabbing my boots, I place them in front of the ovens door, just a few inches away, and then stand up. Freezing stone bites at my soles as I walk to the door and look through the hole. "Looks like my sled's still there.. don't see the stuff I dragged though." At this point, I'm hugging myself to keep warm, so I eagerly look to my oven and move to grab some fuel. I walk to my workbench and grab the brown, stitched bag labelled 'Heating powder'. "Not much left.. only enough for a night with the oven and one day of a heat lamp." I frown at the prospect of having to go scavenge for more of the powder.
I slide the fuel tray out of the bottom of the oven, and pour just enough of the gray powder onto it to last this night. Roughly, its three tablespoons of powder. I slide the fuel tray back into the bottom of the oven after spreading the powder evenly across its surface, and then close the flap that allows it to come out. Before 'igniting' it, I take one last look around the room and determine how much frost has built up. "Not too bad.. shouldn't get too humid." Thankfully there's not enough frost in the room to cause a problem. When igniting, or activating the heating powder, its important to remove excess frost from a room because it can quickly become too humid to properly breathe if there's a lot of frost.
By this point my whole body is freezing, and I can barely feel anything as I move around. I open the flap of the small intake port next to the fuel tray, and grab the air piston held on the side of the oven. I push the cylinder of the piston into the intake until I hear a click, and then turn it counter-clockwise until I hear another click. Finally, the piston is locked in position. I pull the pistons handle backwards, to let the frigid air come into the cylinder through a hole, and then quickly push the handle forward, forcing the air into the fuel trays chamber. I do this quickly a few times, pulling and pushing the handle until I hear a whistling noise coming from the hole of the cylinder. That noise means the fuel's been activated, and its rapidly heating. I unlock the cylinder and remove the piston, I close the flap of the intake port and then place the piston back onto its holder. I wait for a few seconds in anticipation before I open the bottom flaps of the oven, which separates the fuel chamber from the oven itself. After feeling a slight heat from the bottom, that means its ready. I turn a knob on the side of the oven, and the flaps open upwards.
Foosh!
A huge gust of heat blows out from the grate of the oven door, nearly singeing my face. I forgot to move it away from the door in my anticipation. The heat rapidly moves to fill all the space of the room, first feeling like a slightly warm wind. I look through the grate and see the powder has turned into glowing red-orange crystals during its reaction. The warm wind going through the room subsided, and now an incredibly gentle and embracing heat has taken its place throughout the air. Everywhere you move, it feels like a warm blanket covers your body. The orange glow of the oven lights the room and I smile. I'll never get tired of this. This feeling, makes life worth living.