A/N: This was written around a splurge read and watch of ASoIaF and AoT and had been sitting around in my documents for a long time. Whether or not I'll actually make a multi-chap out of this is still up in the air. The idea was to have an ASoIaF-esque setting with Attack on Titan. There are things of both stories still in place from their respective worlds. I had intended this to be a Levi/OC/Erwin thing, but knowing myself, I'll want to expand further with Eren as a warg and find something to somehow make this even more epic.
I really don't know what I originally wanted to do; this was written like nearly a year ago. I'm just going to put whatever I had written onto here and with whatever feedback I receive, I'll see if I can make something out of it. Dunno. This is pretty much unfinished since I intended to put a Levi POV as well.
Anyway, thanks for reading my rambling and enjoy.
"My balls are frozen,"
"What are you bitching for? You joined Maria's Watch, what did you think would happen?"
The man grumbled under his breath, shifting uncomfortably under his furs as he kicked away a mound of snow.
"I knew it was cold here, I'm just upset about the trade-off. I would have remained in Sina's Kingdom and dealt with the war had I known it was this bloody cold,"
His companion, who stood about a foot taller, scoffed.
"We haven't spoken our vows just yet. Jean, you can still leave if you want."
Jean grinned wide and pulled his furs closer to him. "Nu-uh, I'm just fine up here, looking over the so-called haunted forest."
"That's just like you, Jean," the taller man laughed and ruffled his friend's hair, causing the snowflakes to flutter.
"Ugh, cut that out, Marco!"
Their laughter was lost to the frosty winds as they walked about the ramparts. The North was cold and unrelenting in its territory. A war had broken out in the Kingdoms of Triunity and the carnage had spread far and vast than what anyone had anticipated. And one of the many negative effects of war was the rise in criminal activity, which forced authorities to group up thieves, murderers, and all sorts of bad apples. A black brother known as Mike was the one sent to gather them.
A lot of them were intimidated by this black brother. He was tall, tan than one would have expected from a man in the cold, and peculiar. The man seemed cordial enough despite the authority he demonstrated, but what truly made him unsettling was how he went ahead and sniffed the recruits.
"I can smell your fears, your intentions, and what you did this morning, so if you plan to do anything to escape, I will know of it and fell you where you stand." He warned. Afterward, he would sniff like a dog and close in on you as if he were to ram you over.
Most of the men took his message right away, except for a few. One of them being Jean, but the cocky young man quickly learned his place when he got the beating of a life time.
"Maybe you should die right now if you can't take a proper beating," the black brother frowned. "The cold will take you before you could lift iron."
The kingsroad was littered with the side effect of the war. Villages that once stood were burned to the ground, pillaged of all the goods it had. In the rivers, the water glittered red beneath the silver light of the cloudy morning. Naked bodies were strewn about, their skin faded to curdled milk and their wounds exposed for all to see. Some of the recruits became ailed by the sights, the younger ones.
Jean and Marco were squires, to be anointed and knighted under the Three by their lords before the war broke out. They turned their cloaks once they realized that nothing could be done when the lords they served had already felled. If only they could have known the outcome when the castle was secured, but the result branded them traitors and they were sent to the dungeons.
Marco was the first to let rain his breakfast. Jean would have followed shortly, but he did not eat the food provided by the gaoler. All he could taste was the bile from his stomach. They were green boys living in the period of summer. When they killed the people they knew, it left a mark on them that none could ever wipe away. Seeing the sight of the murdered smallfolk was the tipping point of what they could handle.
When they had finally arrived, relatively unperturbed, since the warring men knew not to disturb the black, both Jean and Marco stared up at the massive wall made entirely of ice. As the herd of recruits shivered past them, they both exchanged looks which said, 'It's the end of the road,' for they stood before the end of the world.
"I think it's past time we head to our beds, Jean, otherwise the watchers will have our hides."
"Strip us naked as our name day and force us to prance about, alright, after you,"
The following morning they walked stiffly from their rooms and entered the training yard. They entered the line before the instructor could amble out. At the head of the line was someone Jean recognized.
"Well, what do y'know, it's the son of maester Grisha,"
Marco tried to look, but he dared not move away from a sliver of sunlight that happened to stretch over his way.
"The same Grisha that broke his vows to the Citadel and took a northern girl to wed?"
"The very same," Jean confirmed.
The former maester was a good man, he knew, but he wasn't very well-liked for breaking vows. However, he had been employed by the major house in the North. His son, Eren, became a squire and his sister, not of blood, was taken in as a serving girl.
There had been whispers of her being a bastard. Being conceived by a woman in the Cities Beyond the Sea by some lord, but they died during a Titan's raid years past. Jean had never crossed the sea to witness the lands, but it didn't stop him from wondering whether there were more beautiful girls like Eren's step-sister.
Mikasa Snow was quite possibly the loveliest girl Jean had ever beheld. She was tall, slender, and her skin was nearly as pale as her surname. Her hair was long and black as the cloaks he would soon wear and her eyes were a deep blue that all the oceans he'd seen failed to compete. He could feel himself become warm at the thought of her. It was a shame he would never take her as his own, regardless of her baseborn birth.
"Watch me beat down Jaeger and all the rest,"
Unfortunately, he was the one to be beaten. Marco kept from laughing out loud, but the mirth still shone in his eyes when he witnessed his friend being brought to the ground by a bald boy said to be from the Crystal Islands.
His eyes were dark, almost black, and he swung his blade with a fury that Marco never had seen before. He was sure that Jean hadn't either. The boy moved in a swaying manner as if he was dancing, but Marco assumed the boy spent more time on ships than he had on land. Yet, it only added to the beauty he perceived from the Crystal Islander. If he had not shaved his hair, Marco would probably have taken him for a girl.
"Just what are you?" Jean huffed after he yielded.
"A future sibling to Maria's Watch," the boy had said, tossing his blade aside and fell in line with the Jaeger boy.
The instructor, a wizened yet intimidating man, named Keith Shadis, cursed Jean for being weak and praised the young Crystal Islander.
"A turncloak from Sina's Kingdom, you had the strength to turn on your lord's men, but you wilt like a flower after the first harsh wind. Green boy, recognize where ye are and man-up. Are all southron boys so darn weak?"
Marco managed to redeem the southron boys in the end when he brought a man from Rose's Sky down to his knees.
Afterward, Jean and Marco took a seat nearest to the hearth and Jean seethed while sipping from his cup. He didn't even bother to touch his food.
"The boy went at me like a storm after I unhanded Eren, maybe he decided not to take me lightly after I showed what I was capable of,"
"I can see the reason in that," his friend agreed, thumbing his freckled nose as he glanced over the mentioned boy.
"I'll get him next time, Marco, I swear,"
They were quiet for a time. Marco went about his concerns pertaining to home, but Jean paid little attention. While his friend prattled about his family, he examined all the people in the common room.
At the front was a large table where the Lord Commander sat with the other experienced black brothers, rangers that went on expeditions outside the Wall Maria. He still looked to be in the spring of his life. From what Jean knew, Lord Commander Smith had been given his station after the death of the previous Lord Commander. The brothers have spoken highly of the man; cunning as well as daring when it came to marshalling men to join the Wall and when it came to expeditions, he successfully threw the Titans back before they could come several yards of the Wall.
The brunette wondered if he had the will to become Lord Commander. Probably not, I just want to live comfortably within the Wall and be away from the war.
He kept observing the experienced men until he caught the eye of one of them. At once, Jean flinched away when their eyes met. Marco drew him back once he brought his hand on his back, comforting him.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"That man beside Lord Commander Smith," Jean felt himself about to point, but remembered the glare. "His eyes are death,"
Marco's brows furrowed incredulously. "You are just exag—Three hells!"
"Pipe down, you lackwit!"
They huddled close together, hunching over the table and acting as though they were in the heat of conversation.
The both of them could still feel the stare from the man. They couldn't tell the kind of stature the man had due to the cloak, but his face, his eyes…. Just what kind of men inhabited Maria's Watch?
When they felt the dread lift from them like the storms to let out the sun, Marco went ahead to scout out for the man.
"Jean… he's not there anymore,"
His friend did not look up from his bowl.
"Just who is he?"
Marco's voice was tremulous. "I don't know…"
"We should just head to our rooms and sleep in early," Jean suggested, surprised of what he said. But it didn't matter, fear did strange things.
"The smartest idea you had since Sina's Kingdom," Marco agreed.
Standing from the long chairs, they left their plates unattended and hurried for the door.
Lord Commander Smith
He paid little attention when his right-hand man left from the high table. He did, however, noticed to see two young recruits leave. The pale moonlight rushed into the commons, cold winds drifting inward like howling wolves and made the hearth's fire sway one way. Several of the boys cursed from the unexpected cold, but Erwin hardly felt it. The cold meant little to him now after his years on the Wall. Even when he first arrived, he took to the weather far better than most.
Some said Erwin Smith was made for the cold, going on events when the man successfully returned from expeditions further North. Those who survived back with him used to say he could blend with the snow, prowl like a shadowcat, and attacked like one too.
"Lord Commander," a fellow ranger began, wiping the back of his hand after a swig from his cup. "The watchers have noticed some Titans near Ladyfort,"
The blond Lord Commander said nothing of the ranger's report, but he weighed it heavily in his mind as he savored the soup.
"Lord Commander?" the ranger called for him again.
Erwin raised a hand. With his free one he took a swig of red wine and allowed it to settle in his mouth before he took a swallow.
Titans, he thought, persistent little savages. Yet, how could I blame them? I know not the expanse of the world before the Wall, but I can understand their desires to explore. They cannot, however, for their world differ greatly from ours.
"How many are there, Gunther?"
"Less than a dozen,"
He considered that for a moment, relaxing against his high seat while he felt his men's eyes upon him.
"Why not take the recruits to bear witness and learn what is expected of them when they take their vows?"
"Sounds like a good opportunity for these green boys," a blond ranger inserted.
A smile graced the Lord Commander's features. "Good, Gunther, find Levi when you're done and tell him that this task is his to see carefully through."
His man nodded.
"Now that all is settled, I will take my leave, goodnight," He stood from his seat, stepped down, and was quickly accompanied by his steward.
"I'm going to take a small walk before I call it a night, Connie, so take your time in seeing that my bedchamber is ready before I come." He looked down to see if his steward had registered his order.
The young man beamed innocently at him before running off. Connie had been on the Wall for about three years, becoming steward at the end of his second when the previous Lord Commander's steward had died from a chill. The former steward was more tactful and mindful due to his many years in service, but Erwin didn't mind the boy's occasional mishaps. If anything, Erwin found him amusing and that alone made up for a lot considering how dreadful the work had become.
The night was dark as was expected, but the moon was full and brighter on this particular night. Even the flurries of snow were visible beneath the shine, giving off the expression of dancing stars flowing all about him.
He was careful to avoid roofs when mounds of snow tumbled downward from the winds. Erwin decided to take on his weekly check of the arsenals and record what needed to be fixed and what needed to be bought. In conclusion, the blades just needed to sharpen and armor to be fixed.
As he left the armory, the loud flaps of gust fell above his head and the caws froze his heart when the raven flew past. Erwin bent forward to avoid collision and smiled while he stretched his arm before him.
"Took you long enough, my singer,"
He could barely feel the bird's claws once it grasped the thick wool.
Caawww, caawww! Songs songs.
Its beady eyes glittered like onyx beneath the moon's gentle caressing light, and the feathers gleamed as though polished. It cocked its head in wonder, stretching its long wings all the while.
"Would you sing to me before I sleep?"
The whole ritual was a lot shorter than he had anticipated, therefore when he entered his bedchambers, he took a seat by the window to stare out. There wasn't much to see other than what he normally saw every night. Brothers at their posts, staying as close to the sconces as much as possible to thwart the cold. He saw the iron cage which worked as a quicker mode of transport being used. The groan of iron against stone echoed about the yard.
Erwin never got his song. The raven was prepared; about to let out an off-key note until he heard the echoed voice of Levi called the bird back. Erwin noticed the petite man in the yard, his slim arm like a stick outstretched for the raven.
Erwin took to his papers then. Not bothering to feel slighted at the raven's leave beckoned by Levi. He looked to the old papers with which he cared for gingerly. After the many years of being stuffed away in the unused libraries, he wasn't necessarily surprised to see how yellowed the script was and how faded the ink became. It would have been illegible if he didn't have a reading stone that expanded the words when he brought his eyes above it.
"There is much more to the Wall than what many have thought it to be," he whispered to no one in particular. "the evidence is here somewhere… to protect the realm, but from what exactly?"
The Titans were just people without law. No matter their numbers, their lack of discipline made them vulnerable against knights.
He knew there had to be more.
In the distance, he heard the horn blow, reaching him in a ponderous manner through the air.
I did not send brothers beyond the Wall.
The horn blew again.
"I suppose there are much more Titans than Gunther had reported seeing,"