{"id":3742,"date":"2018-10-08T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T04:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2018-10-07T20:28:35","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T00:28:35","slug":"three-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3742","title":{"rendered":"Three – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Thom sat near the doorway out of the forge, staring out at the rain. Behind him, Matt was reheating a strip of metal that was going to become either a sword or a tool\u2014he hadn\u2019t bothered to ask which it would be, not yet. He could feel his brother-in-law\u2019s gaze on him even as the younger man shifted the metal in the firebox, letting it heat through, though perhaps paying less attention to it than he probably should.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d Thom finally asked, not looking back. They were alone together up there\u2014Thom to work on some sketches, Matt to work the forge itself. Thom hadn\u2019t quite expected to be alone together up there, but perhaps the rain that had begun falling half an hour after they\u2019d finished having breakfast had something to do with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are never<\/em> going to get back down there without getting soaked or worse,\u201d Matt said. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to figure out how you got up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSlowly and painfully,\u201d Thom said, glancing back over his shoulder with a rueful smile. \u201cEverything hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow that doesn\u2019t surprise me, Thom.\u201d Matt shook his head, glancing back to check the metal in the coals. \u201cYou keep going through the wringer and then shit keeps getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well,\u201d Thom murmured, \u201cI guess some of us are built to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPossibly true,\u201d Matt said, shifting the bar around in the forge. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t surprise me, anyway, all things considered.\u201d He went silent for a few moments more, then exhaled. \u201cHave you been feeling better? Beyond everything hurting, I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom nodded slightly. \u201cYeah, a bit. Better than the alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alternative being?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething we don\u2019t talk about,\u201d Thom said, voice firm, though he still smiled, glancing back again. \u201cSufficient to say it\u2019s something that would greatly<\/em> upset your sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d Matt said. \u201cOne of those things. Right.\u201d He pulled the metal out of the fire, taking up his hammer. \u201cWell, I think we\u2019d both rather avoid that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d Thom said, turning back to stare out at the rain again. Thunder grumbled low in the distance. He exhaled quietly, wishing that some of the aches would drop away. He knew they wouldn\u2019t, though.<\/p>\n

Somehow, he just knew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] Thom sat near the doorway out of the forge, staring out at the rain. Behind him, Matt was reheating a strip of metal that was going to become either a sword or … 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":[299,305,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-3742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-03-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Ym","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742","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=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3743,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/3743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}