{"id":4521,"date":"2021-01-22T18:43:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T23:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2021-01-22T18:43:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T23:43:12","slug":"sixteen-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4521","title":{"rendered":"Sixteen – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sleep came as soon as his head hit the pillow, in fact, and he didn\u2019t stir until someone knocked on the cottage door.\u00a0 It was a quiet sound, though the cadence was brisk, just enough to wake him.\u00a0 None of the others stirred as he slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes and crossing from the cot he\u2019d been sleeping on toward the door.\u00a0 It looked like it was still dark beyond the curtains, and Bryant frowned to himself, scrubbing his hand over his face again.<\/p>\n

What the hell is going on?<\/em><\/p>\n

He opened the door before whoever was on the other side could knock again, blinking slightly at the sight of the woman on the other side of the door.\u00a0 She came with a basket of what he could only guess were supplies of some kind, her smile gentle and her eyes bright despite what Bryant knew<\/em> must be an early hour\u2014the sky was barely any lighter now than it had been when he\u2019d gone to bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I help you?\u201d he asked, squinting at her.<\/p>\n

She smiled and shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cI came to help you.\u00a0 They\u2019re starting to get breakfast going if you\u2019re hungry, but I came to check on your friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis\u2014this early in the morning?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0I must still be dreaming.\u00a0 It\u2019s way too early for this.\u00a0 And breakfast, now?\u00a0 Even back home we didn\u2019t eat this early.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMm,\u201d she said with a nod, then gestured to the shadows behind him.\u00a0 \u201cCan I come in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess?\u201d \u00a0He stepped aside so she could get past him, his brow furrowing.\u00a0 None of the others were awake.<\/p>\n

This has to be a dream.\u00a0 It must be.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Bryant Tapping’s point of view.] Sleep came as soon as his head hit the pillow, in fact, and he didn\u2019t stir until someone knocked on the cottage door.\u00a0 It was a quiet sound, though the cadence … 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":[336,337,365,14],"tags":[340,150,358,171,170,174,350,149,148,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-16-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-bryant-tapping","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-knights-errant","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1aV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","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=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4522,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions\/4522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}