I woke the next morning to the sound of my alarm ringing in my ears and a pain throbbing down my arm. I peeked under my comforter and looked at my bandaged arm. There was a dark spot soaked into the fabric of the bandage and when I tried to move my arm to take a closer look it would not obey my brain. In a panic I fumbled out of my bed and ran down to the kitchen to find Claude. He was right where I thought he would be, hunched over a frying pan making breakfast.
"I can't move my arm." I choked out as tears started streaming down my face. Claude tuned the stove off and turned to look at me.
My arm was just hanging lifelessly at my side. In two great strides Claude crossed the kitchen and started to examine my arm.
"It looks like not all of the darkling poison was cleaned out of the wound last night." Claude furrowed his brow in concern. He then grabbed his keys from the hook by the front door and ushered me into the car. We drove to the center of downtown where there were quite a few shops and cafes attached to each other in large stone buildings that had apartments above them.
We parked in front of a Chinese takeout restaurant and walked down a few shops to a building that had stairs going down to even more shops. These ones however looked different than the others. Some had books in their small window displays and others had strange symbols on the doors and signs. The shop that we finally stopped in front of had plants in the window and when we walked in there were even more plants hanging from the ceiling to dry.
The shop smelled bitter, like burning herbs, and the smoke from the incense burned my eyes.
"Claude where are we?" I asked as I wiped at my watering eyes.
"This is a friend. They will help heal your arm." Claude explained as he lead me through the cramped shop and stopped in front of a tattered red curtain.
Claude called out in that strange language and shortly after heard a reply. Once he did Claude pulled the curtain back and lead me to a small room with shelves full of books, and bottles. In the middle of the room there was a round table with three chairs around it. Sitting in one of the chairs was a slender form with long black hair and slightly pointed ears.
When the figure looked up at me I gasped in awe. They had an ageless face with a kind, and welcoming smile. I had never seen anyone so beautiful in my life. I then glanced the delicately pointed ears as they reached up and tucked a stray stand of hair behind them.
"Hello Dakota. I am Rin. Do not be afraid. I am a friend." Rin introduced themselves to me and motioned for me to sit in the empty chair closest to them.
I complied and climbed into the chair as my guardian Claude sat next to me. With a worried look on his face.
"Do not fret so my friend. I am sure I will be able to save the child's arm." Rin had a melodic lilt to their voice as they spoke. Rin then gently unwrapped my injured arm to reveal the black oozing wound underneath.
"You should have brought the girl to me sooner." Rin looked concerned as they inspected the bite. Rin then got up and walked around the room picking up different bottles, vials, and powders before they returned to the table. Rin then got to work making a green paste that smelled of the forest.
"Will it hurt?" I stammered as I watched the odd concoction being made.
"I will not lie to you child, a wound such as this is not easily cleansed. It will be painful but I will be here with you." Rin replied as they gently wiped the black ooze from the wound and started to place the medicine on my arm.
The moment the green paste touched my arm I screamed in pain. It felt like acid was burning me to my bones.
"Is it supposed to hurt this much?" Claude asked panicked, though I barely heard him over my screams.
Rin looked down at me as I started to sob. "Please make it stop." I begged.
"Whatever happened the other night was not a mere darkling bite. This treatment is painful but it should not be hurting her this much."
"Is there anything else we can do? I swore to keep my niece safe when her parents passed."
"Do not blame yourself Claude. You did everything you could, but I'm afraid her human body cannot withstand the treatment needed. Even amputating her would not solve this the poison has spread too far." Rin replied to him.
I was having a hard time trying to keep up with the conversation. Beads of sweat were trickling down my face as I was trying to hold on to consciousness. Though maybe at this point I should have have given in. Sweet darkness would have been better than this pain but I was afraid that if I gave in I would never wake up again and I was not ready to die yet.
"There is one other thing we can do. The salve will only buy us time but her awakening could yet save her life." Rin stated as she looked over at my guardian.
"NO!" Claude boomed. "I swore an oath to raise her as a normal human girl. She is not ready for such things. There has to be another way."
I didn't understand what they were talking about but figured anything would be better than dying in agony. "Please! I will do anything." I gasped as more pain ran through my body. "I don't want to die!" I sobbed as tears ran down my face and mixed with the sweat.
"Very well." Claude sighed in defeat. "We will do the awakening. I presume you have everything we need?"
Rin nodded. "I have everything ready for you."
I glanced over and watched as Rin took a box off one of the shelves. They brought it over to the table and carefully set it down. When she opened the box I gagged at the smell that emanated from it. It smelled of death and decay.
From the box Claude lifted an old ornate bottle with a strange black liquid in it, and a small vial with red liquid in it.
'Oh I hope I don't have to drink that.' I thought. The black liquid looked gross and had a thick consistency as it sloshed around in the bottle.
I watched with clenched teeth as Claude opened the bottle and the vial. He added the red liquid to the black and swirled it around.
"Once I drink this there is no going back." Claude stated as he looked at Rin. "You will need to take the other bottle, add some of my blood and give it to Dakota. Unfortunately after that you will need to take care of both of us and not let us leave this room until sundown."
"I understand." Rin replied as she looked over at me and dabbed at my face with a clean cloth. "We will get through this. Together."