I tipped the bottle carefully, and the yellow liquid pooled onto the scorched earth in a thin stream. It fizzed faintly before evaporating in the heat. Resting at the bottom, revealed inch by inch, was a tightly sealed metal capsule no larger than my thumb.
For a moment, I simply stared.
Bandit stood rigid beside me, his ears forward and his body tense. The medics were already sprinting across the sand toward us, their equipment bouncing against their backs. Around us, the crowd remained eerily quiet, as if everyone understood that whatever had just been uncovered was bigger than any one person in that moment.
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