{"id":3296,"date":"2017-07-24T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2017-07-23T20:51:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T00:51:31","slug":"eighteen-01-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"Eighteen – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re inside!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom swore at Paul\u2019s shout, the words punctuated by the sound of a shotgun blast aimed down into the courtyard beneath the wall and the watchtower. He tore his gaze from the camazotzi<\/em> swarming the field, twisting to look inside the walls, inside the wards. Above them, lightning sheeted down along the curve of the wardings, casting a strobing blue-white light over the combatants.<\/p>\n

He counted five before Marin\u2019s hand closed on his sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeal with in there,\u201d she said. \u201cSeamus and I have the other side handled. Watch our backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHold the line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always do.\u201d She squeezed his arm again before she let go, notching another arrow. Thom turned and dropped off the wall, jaw tight and expression grim.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory!\u201d he shouted as he drew his blade. \u201cOn me. We\u2019ve got a mess to deal with in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The words had barely left his lips when one of them landed on him and bore him to the ground. All of the air was knocked from his lungs as he hit the ground, barely managing to maintain his grip on his weapon. He gasped in a breath as the camazotzi<\/em> smiled down at him, a predator looking at its prey.<\/p>\n

It reared back, grasping his shirt by the collar. Muscles bunched and wings unfurled. Thom flailed as it hauled him up off the ground, carrying him with it into the sky.<\/p>\n

Oh shit.<\/em> His stomach lurched as it shot upward, then banked, swinging toward the watchtower. More lightning sheeted down the sides of the wards, crackling.<\/p>\n

He saw the bolt a split second before it lanced downward toward the camazotzi<\/em>. He felt a shock and found himself tumbling through the air, flying sideways<\/em> rather than straight down\u2014and free of any tether.<\/p>\n

The watchtower\u2019s rail splintered as he slammed into it sideways, shoulder first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] \u201cThey\u2019re inside!\u201d Thom swore at Paul\u2019s shout, the words punctuated by the sound of a shotgun blast aimed down into the courtyard beneath the wall and the watchtower. He tore his gaze … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,264,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,223,148,218,159,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-18-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-paul-van-rijn","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-rory-ohara","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Ra","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3297,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions\/3297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}