Thom flinched and pulled her sleeve much tighter over her wrist.
"I am fine. I just scraped it on a sharp rock when we ran from the barn."
"Show him the arm right now," Vienna ordered.
Her voice lost its playful edge completely.
She raised her iron poker and stood ready to strike.
The old farmer looked between them and sighed heavily.
He gently reached out and pulled Thom's sleeve up.
A nasty set of teeth marks marred her pale skin.
The veins around the bite wound were already turning a sickly shade of black.
'That is not good,' Kai thought to himself, calculating his immediate options.
'She is turning fast. The system said the infection works extremely quick on weak targets.'
"We tied a tight tourniquet above the bite," the old man said. His voice cracked with genuine sadness.
"We hoped it would stop the spread to her heart."
"It does not work like that," Kai told him plainly.
He kept his dagger low to avoid panicking the girl further.
