The sky looks very pretty today...

Under a tree, staring at the sky. An evening pastime that Swan Luger enjoyed taking part of. It had been a rather plain day otherwise, not counting his birthday among the regular day-to-day activities. Swan was turning eleven years old today, and he couldn't have been any happier. Not only did this mean that he was going to have a party thrown just for him, but it also meant that it was nearing that time for him to enlist in the military. Honorable as it was, there were those who saw and/or heard his determination to enlist at such a young age become understandably concerned for the boy. He was sympathetic to their worries, but he had wanted to enlist for some time now; no amount of sway could change his mind on that subject Being the youngest of three, his dream had obviously been molded from seeing his siblings enlist once they were old enough to do so.

His oldest sister, Faye (19), had the toughest time of it; if you let his parents tell it, they almost didn't let her do it. Not without heavy hearts, anyway. Letting small children go off to fight for your sake and for theirs must have been hard on them, but they eventually caved and allowed her to follow her dreams. So far she seemed to be doing well for herself considering that she went into the Garrison Regiment and all. He assumed that she was unable to make it into the Military Police as that was all she ever talked about before she left, which also meant she was unable to make it into the top ten graduates of her class. A shame, but at least she was still relatively safe from harm. In her latest letter she said she was to be visiting for a bit; that had been about a few weeks ago, so hopefully she could make it in time for his birthday.

His second-oldest sister, Lexa (15), had the luxury of simply asking to join the military. They agreed, but only if she were to join Faye in the Garrison. She agreed and left shortly afterwards. He wasn't sure if she ever tried to aim for the top ten, but from her last letter it seemed as if she was still in training. He hoped that everything was going well, she seemed pretty eager to get through the whole thing and graduate. Her letter also made it clear she wouldn't be able to make it to Swan's party, but she sent him her best wishes.

Swan himself wondered what branch of the military he wanted to join on a somewhat daily basis. Obviously the most obvious choice would be the Garrison; he would be closer to his sisters and be able to please his parents at the same time. Or, he could reach for the Military Police and be even safer; that was sure to make his parents happy, plus he'd have the bragging rights to say that he had been able to reach the top ten of his graduating class. However...there was something admirable about the Scout Regiment. Sure, they seemed to fail pretty much all of the time...and they were the regiment with the heaviest casualties, but for some reason he just found something about their constant attempts beyond the walls to be pretty amazing. He assumed that it would be more of a gut instinct choice that he'd have to make once he was set to graduate. No reason to worry about it now. All he wanted to worry about was having a fun time for his birthday. And skygaze.

"Hey there, squirt!" A familiar voice called out to him. His eyes darted around while searching for the owner of those words. No doubt about it, the second-most awaited person had finally shown their face.

"You finally made it, Faye...and don't call me 'squirt' again or I'll have to hurt ya!"

"Pfft! Sure thing, squirt. Anywho, Mom and Dad wanted me to let you know they were gonna herd you back to the house when everything was ready. I catch you anywhere near the house in that time and you're getting a good ole' fashioned elbow drop. Got that?" Swan responded by sticking his tongue out, seemingly pleasing Faye on account of the smile on her face. "Good. See you later...and happy birthday, little brother."

With that, she left him to continue his pastime. The sky was just so calming, as if looking at it for too long would lull you to sleep. And it was working; with the party festivities surely not to be done for awhile, Swan saw no reason he couldn't take a quick nap. If his family needed him then they'd know where he was. It was pretty much where he always was whenever he had the time for it. He closed his eyes, hopeful that when he reopened them that it would be for a fun time.

That was, very unfortunately, not the case. At all.

First was the sound, it was as if it was supposed to rain but...the sky was just clear not too long ago. He couldn't have been asleep for that long, right? And then he opened his eyes, and once they scanned the area there was one detail that stuck out. One very big detail. There seemed to be a bunch of steam coming from beyond the wall, and with it...a hand? That was certainly not supposed to be there. Just what was going on here? It couldn't be a titan; titans don't get that big. The wall was so tall, and titans were never that tall. Maybe...maybe he was dreaming? This had all the makings of a dream, for sure! There was something unbelievable going on and no one seemed to be doing anything but staring at it. And it was steaming with no skin on it, what kind of tomfoolery was this!?

"Th...that's obviously just dream-speak. That can't be real, there's no way that's real." Nothing more than faint reassurance to keep him from panicking. But, how can one not panic, when the hand suddenly reveals that there was a face to go along with it? And then it all came together: this was most certainly not a dream, and they were most certainly in a lot of trouble. But as he rose to his feet, his eyes fixated on the titan throughout, things got much worse. The titan seemed to kick an entire hole in the front gate with ease, which of course would let titans in. Titans inside, meant people were going to get eaten. This was a very bad thing indeed, but there was one detail he found himself ready to add.

He was not getting eaten by titans. Not ever, and most certainly not on his birthday!

He turned tail and began to run, taking note that others had also decided that being titan food did not sound pleasing at all. He had to get home, maybe Mom or Dad would ber able to make sense of all of this. Worse comes to worse then they'd just have to find shelter somewhere behind Wall Rose. Before he could get his thoughts prioritized some random bystander bumped into him, knocking him flat on his face. The world was...spinning? Or maybe that was just him?

"There you are!"

"M-Mom?"

"Swan, are you hurt? We have to get out of here, quickly!"

"Dad?"

With his mother's help, Swan stood tall once more before the trio began to run from where the chaos was. Before they got far however, there was a loud sound from behind them. They turned around and stared what appeared to be sudden death right in the face...and boy, was it not pretty in the slightest. There was a massive boulder heading straight for them and, from Swan's perspective, it looked as if they were all goners. He was too scared to move, and even if he were to find the strength to do so, where would he even go? That boulder covered a lot of space, there was no way he would be able to-

"Move!"

His thoughts were suddenly cut off by his father, pushing the young child out of harm's way as fast as he could. Once more the young child found himself on the ground, loud sounds all around blaring as he was down. Once the initial shock of the situation faded he quickly looked back to where his parents were previously standing...only to find the large boulder now occupying that space. All that the poor child could do was hope that this was just a very bad dream. No, this was nothing even resembling any type of dream. This...this was a pure nightmare.

"Get up!" Eyes darting towards the voice, he had little time to react before he felt himself being forcibly dragged along. Luckily it was no stranger that had grabbed hold of him; his big sister had come to his aid at last. "We've gotta get you to the boat!"

"Faye...Mom and Dad, they...they were-"

"We'll have to worry about that in the future, Swan. Right now it's best we don't stick around for too long. We'll definitely have to let Lexa know what happened, but for now the top priority is to get you on that boat."

"But what about you?"

"I'm...I'm gonna help with the evacuation effort. I'll catch up with you afterwards, okay It'll take some time of course but hey, what doesn't these days?"

"But-"

"None of that 'but' talk, squirt! Now hurry up, they'll be leaving soon and I'd really like a certain someone to be with them when they do." She was right, there was no point in arguing with her; she was the soldier among them after all, not to mention she was older. If getting on that boat was what she wanted of him then that's what he'd do. He'd be a lot happier if she joined him.

Suddenly a thundering crash had come from behind them; another titan had seemingly broken through which was sure to cause even more chaos. Swan turned to investigate, clouds of dust shadowing something large. Another titan, only this one was much smaller than the other one. And yet...it looked more menacing in a way; eyes seemingly glowing red while steam flowed from its' mouth as it yelled. Truly a terrifying sight, especially when Swan thought to himself that this titan had to be the one responsible for what happened to his parents.

That lone memory would certainly be one he would never forget.

The boat ride was silent. On his end, at least. Huddled on the side of the boat by himself, alone with his thoughts was not exactly how he envisioned his birthday turning out. There was just so much to process, everything that had happened in just a short span of time. Everyone seemed to be shaken from the ordeal; a few people here and there looked at him with pity and concern since he had seemed to be all alone. It sure seemed that way with his parents dead and his oldest sister staying behind to help, Lexa being the only member of his family who he could say was fine. His mind slowly drifted away from his family and onto the future. Namely, what was he to do once the boat arrived at its' destination? He didn't know of anyone away from him but Lexa, and she was probably too busy with training to keep watch over him. Hopefully the soldiers stationed there would know what to do.

"I'll kill them all!"

Turning his head would reveal another boy who, from first glance, wasn't much older than he was. Soon accompanied by two other children, he went on about how he would kill every single titan until there were none left to speak of. The hopeful aspiration certainly caught Swan's attention, especially after all that had happened. Could they even do that? Just kill all of the titans and be done with them forever? There were doubts about being able to achieve such a goal, but if anything he found himself aspiring for the same thing...somewhat. Killing the titans would be a great service for mankind, but his sights were set on a particular titan. It took his parents away from him, and one day he wanted to be the one to kill it.

Looking to the sky once more he would find it to somehow be even more appealing than before. There were less clouds in the sky, and the differing colors made for such a pleasant view. It looked so calm and peaceful when down below it was anything but.

How could something so pretty exist in this ugly world?