{"id":4006,"date":"2019-06-28T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T04:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4006"},"modified":"2019-06-27T11:21:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T15:21:44","slug":"eighteen-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4006","title":{"rendered":"Eighteen – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A ball of lead settled in his belly as he trudged away from the fire, heading for the Wild Hunt\u2019s encampment.\u00a0 Part of him reflected that the Huntsmen needed to start building shelters a little more hardy than their tents, since they\u2019d need them soon enough when winter came.\u00a0 It would probably be early, too, just like the year before\u2014just like the winter after everything they\u2019d ever known came crashing down and the world was utterly changed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t have to do this.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt glanced sidelong at Thom, frowning for a second.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re<\/i> the one who doesn\u2019t have to do this.\u00a0 You should\u2019ve stayed with the others.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cNot a chance.\u201d\u00a0 Thom stared back at him, expression as grimly determined as Matt had ever seen it\u2014an expression probably mirrored by his own.\u00a0 \u201cSomeone needed to come back you up and I\u2019ve been useless for long enough.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re not useless,\u201d Matt said, looking away.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been over this.\u00a0 Trust me on it.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYeah, well.\u00a0 I still feel like it even if it\u2019s not true.\u00a0 At least this way I feel like I\u2019m useful.\u201d\u00a0 He sighed quietly.\u00a0 \u201cBesides, it feels right.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat does?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cComing with you.\u201d\u00a0 Thom looked at him again, but Matt couldn\u2019t meet his brother-in-law\u2019s gaze, just kept staring resolutely forward.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t ask me why.\u00a0 It just does.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The truth was, Matt didn\u2019t want to ask.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want his suspicions confirmed, that his brother-in-law\u2019s Sight had urged him to come along, that some flicker or fragment of something had driven him to it. \u00a0All he could hope was that it wasn\u2019t because something bad was going to happen on the way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just hope that I can convince them somehow.\u00a0 We need their help\u2014if I\u2019m right about what she wants to do, we\u2019ll need them badly to make this work.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have the numbers otherwise, or the skills.\u00a0 These are soldiers, men and women who have spent almost their entire lives at one war or another.\u00a0 They know how to fight.\u00a0 Most of us are still learning.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A preemptive strike.\u00a0 There was no way they could do it without the Hunt\u2019s help.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He just hoped he could secure it without somehow sparking more of a war than they were prepared to fight.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A ball of lead settled in his belly as he trudged away from the fire, heading for the Wild Hunt\u2019s encampment.\u00a0 Part of him reflected that the Huntsmen needed to start … 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":[299,322,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-4006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-18-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-12C","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006","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=4006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4007,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions\/4007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}