{"id":3744,"date":"2018-10-10T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T04:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2018-10-09T18:44:37","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T22:44:37","slug":"three-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3744","title":{"rendered":"Three – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

He could still feel Matt\u2019s gaze on him and Thom sighed, rolling a shoulder and trying not to wince at the sudden lance of pain that shot through it. The wounds from a camazotzi<\/em>\u2019s claws were largely healed, enough so that he could usually forget they were there\u2014until he moved the wrong way, stretched the wrong way. At least, that was what he kept telling himself. The more likely case was that the pain had receded toward a dull ache and was therefore drowned out by all of the other aches and pains that were sharper, somehow fresher.<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s hammer clanged off the metal once, twice. The third time it fell off-key and Thom turned, frowning. Matt was looking at him strangely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re talking about dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom blinked at him. While he wasn\u2019t wrong, he\u2019d thought Matt had caught his meaning before. \u201cI wish I wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDamn, Thom,\u201d Matt breathed. \u201cI\u2014was it as bad as that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past few weeks sure as hell haven\u2019t been a picnic,\u201d Thom said, turning away again to watch the rain. Lightning spidered through the clouds as he watched, exhaling a sigh. \u201cI think I\u2019m on the other side of it now, though. Hope so, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so, too,\u201d Matt said. Metal scraped against the anvil for a second, then the hammering resumed. \u201cNot sure what the hell we\u2019d do without you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys managed well enough while I was down for the count,\u201d Thom murmured, almost too quiet for Matt to hear over the sound of the rain and his metalwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a choice,\u201d Matt said. \u201cAnd we knew that we\u2019d get you back sooner or later. This\u2014all of this\u2014this doesn\u2019t keep standing without you, Thom. You know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His stomach twisted and his fingers tightened around his sketchbook.<\/p>\n

Maybe not now. But someday? Someday, it might have to.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]   He could still feel Matt\u2019s gaze on him and Thom sighed, rolling a shoulder and trying not to wince at the sudden lance of pain that shot through it. The wounds … 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-3744","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-Yo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744","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=3744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3745,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions\/3745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}