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Since no one else is being brave enough to ask in here, I thought I'd leap ahead and post about something I'm having trouble with the fantasy story I did for NaNo which is still nowhere near an end.

One of my characters, to cut a long story short, breaks the religious/social/legal rules of the country, gets caught and gets punished; as you might be able to guess from the title, the punishment involves second degree burns.

Thankfully I've never had one myself, but this does leave me a bit lacking in knowledge and realism. And theinfo available on the internet tends to be a bit lacking in specific detail. Plenty of diagrams and explanations, but none of the answers I need. Therefore:

1) It's a middling serious crime, the burns are second degree and to the back. I'm picturing about half the surface area of the upper back, although I never directly state how much (the joys of vagueness!). Assuming infection isn't an issue and the punishment isn't supposed to be in danger of killing him, how big a burn could it be?
2) Short of burning myself, which is taking research a bit far, I don't know what the pain's like, both when the burn is occurring and as it heals. Can anyone describe it, in as much detail as possible?
3) He has to walk back home immediately after. It's a 10-minute walk up a gentle hill, and he has a very worried friend (who probably needs a sit-down and a cup of tea himself) and magical assistance. He's also quite stubborn and wouldn't accept help unless he really needed it. I'm thinking he'll need it. Exactly how hard it it going to be?
4) What kind of basic treatment would be best?
5) How long's he going to be in bed, assuming he'd get up pretty much as soon as the pain was bearable?
6) How likely is it to scar, and what would the scar look/feel like?

Thanks in advance!

Hnn. I've had a few experiences with them, both on me and some of the people I work at at the hospital. Mind you, I'm only a volunteer as of yet, but I've gotten my fair share of information.

1) it all depends on how he was burned; if it was a sort of heated up metal that could be pressed to the back, I'd say that the burns might vary a bit in intensity, but it could be placed on where you want to. I'd expect the lower back to curve up, away from the pain, so it'd be more like first degree there.

2) The pain would be severely intense. Since you're speaking back, then it'd probably be even worse, especially upper since the spinal cord and everything is back there. I'd say something on par of severely breaking a bone, if you've had.

And to explain in detail. . . At first it's warm, just plain warmth, quickly followed by excrucating pain as his body writhes and tries to get away from the source of pain. His brain would be a source of noise and confusion, and adrenaline will probably block out about half of it, so he's getting a full blast of it later. So it's when he's finally gotten off and away from the adrenaline rush that he'll suddenly be crippled by such intense pain, it'd be hard to move.

As it heals, he'll be struck with a bolt of the same excruciating pain every time he moves. There'll be raw, blistered skin near that looks as if it's oozing, if you want to consider it that way.

3) He'll need tons of assistance; there'll be no way that he can make it up that hill by himself. Along the way, he'll probably faint since the adrenaline from the burning will have worn off and he'll feel every bit. And once he faints, there'll be a fair chance that he won't wake up for a while, either. No matter how macho your character is, it's going to be near impossible to stay awake with that much going on.

4) Lying down and someone there to make sure that it stays clean, so lots of herbal medacines and such. He's not to move at all and get lots (think of buckets) of liquids since it's going to dry him up. A few bandages should be placed on him, but not anything fluffy such as cotton or something like that as it'll end up sticking and hurt a hell a lot worse later when they have to change it.
I don't know if possible, but use as much cool water to reduce some of the pain immediately.

5) I'm not too sure about healing, but I'd say a few weeks since he's bound to move every once in a while; if he breaks too many blisters, it might take longer since infection might get in if it isn't cleaned with cool water. *hint to avoid serious infection XD* It won't heal if he keeps moving, so he'll have to stay as long as possible.

6) Scarring only occurs with something a little more extensive; what you're looking at will be a scar, though. I've only had small ones that healed up completely, so I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it'll look like a series of puckered flesh where the skin was burned off. I can guarantee you that it won't look pretty at all. It'll feel strange to move with it, since every movement will stretch the new skin. There won't be as much there as he had before so it'll be easy, with too much strain, to re-open some of the scars.

Awkward and hard-to-forget about unless under extreme pressure, I'd say. He'll have limited mobility too; there won't be too much stretch left in his skin. X3


I hope I've helped some. . or haven't reached you too late. =X I think I did. Oh well. It was fun writing about anyway.