{"id":4101,"date":"2019-09-28T17:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T21:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2019-09-28T17:30:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T21:30:56","slug":"twenty-four-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4101","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-four – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cYou surprised me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kellin turned away from the edge of the ravine, her brow arching slightly. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

I shrugged as I moved forward, arms crossed and hands tucked into the sleeves of my sweatshirt. It was getting damp and oddly chilly despite lingering summer, so much like the same day a year ago it made me ache in ways I\u2019d almost forgotten. \u201cI guess I just didn\u2019t expect you to volunteer to go. I figured you\u2019d want to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She smiled faintly, glancing away again, watching the play of light and shadow among the leaves and branches above us. \u201cWhy\u2019s that? Because of what happened the first time we had a major fight on our hands?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yeah.\u201d I hugged my arms a little tighter against my chest. \u201cYou\u2019ve never really been all that keen on the whole fighting part. Surviving, doing everything we can to make this place defensible and a home<\/em>, yeah. Being a voice of reason? Yeah. Marching off to war? I guess\u2014I don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you hit it on the head,\u201d she said. \u201cVoice of reason, defensibility\u2014that\u2019s why I have to go. Matt\u2019s right, if we don\u2019t face them, I don\u2019t know that our defenses will be enough. I think we\u2019ve just gotten lucky the past few times and at some point our luck\u2019s going to run out in a pretty serious way. If this is the moment, then at least it\u2019ll be away from here.\u201d She glanced back at me, staring for a few seconds. \u201cYou should stay behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

I rocked back against my heels, feeling gut-punched. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone has to lead them if this goes sideways,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeone has to get the people who stay behind to safety and I think you can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNeve\u2019s staying,\u201d I said. \u201cShe can handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll need you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t,\u201d I said, swallowing hard. \u201cBecause we\u2019re not going to lose. It\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sound pretty sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth was, I wasn\u2019t nearly as sure as I sounded. \u201cThat\u2019s because I am,\u201d I lied. \u201cIt\u2019ll be okay. We\u2019re going to win this one. I\u2019m sure of it. We\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be fine. Everything will be fine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] \u201cYou surprised me today.\u201d Kellin turned away from the edge of the ravine, her brow arching slightly. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d I shrugged as I moved forward, arms crossed and hands tucked … 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":[299,329,14],"tags":[150,171,170,19,152,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-24-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kellin","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-149","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","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=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4102,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions\/4102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}