A vast stretch of waterbody laid in front of me. Was this the thing which Armin had always talked about, was this the 'sea' that we had so eagerly read about? Must be it! The beauty and the vastness was nothing compared to what I and Armin had pictured, the real sea was vast, far vast than any comprehensible mind could describe. A wind blew, a harsh moist wind and along with it came the smell of rotting flesh. Rotting flesh? My mind tried to wrap around the absurdity of this reality, then I scanned my surroundings, I wish I wouldn't have. Around me was sprawled over a hundred miles, the lifeless bodies of my friends, my grandmother, my favourite people. A sob threatened to leave my throat, bile rising in my chest, my stomach turning in revulsion. Then the ground shook, a resonance of magnificient scale, I almost lost my balance and then I saw it, the face of a giant, towering about 12 feet over my form, my eyes widened to impossible length.
"Ellie wake up, Ellie, Ellie!" a distant sound reached my ear and then my face connected with the solid cold wooden floor. Wooden floor?! My eyes flew open, frantically searching my environment, I heaved a sigh, I was only dreaming. A smile broke through my face before I remembered that I was on the floor. As soon as I got up and dusted myself, a fist connected with the backside of my head, I turned around, head clutched in agony. There behind me stood my paternal grandma. I gave her a cheeky grin and she grumbled something about lazy immatured girls. I squealed and hugged her in a death grip wishing her good morning. She tried to be really angry but surrendered at last and returned my hug with a huge grin of her own.
A new day started again. Though today I was having an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something was about to happen. Must be that dream. I must be tired, a good sleep after today's work sounded just wonderful. With new motivation filling my heart with a soul lifting feeling, I stepped out of my house, treading the familiar path towards the small forest where me and my friends joined everyday to collect wood.
I should probably introduce myself. Hi, I am Ellie Trans! I know, a weird name right? Wait till you hear the rest of it. I am just your average 12 years old teenager at the age of budding. Curious, beautiful , a rebel and outright bashful. I live in a small town called Shinghansina, with my grandma. My grandpa had died when I was really young still I miss him a lot. I have many friends over here though my best buddies are Armin, Mikasa and Eren. All of them are really sweet kids, really! But my personal favourite is Mikasa. Man, I just love her glares! My parents are these really rich people and they live behind these walls, beyond the walls of Rosa. Ya we have walls built around our towns, the main reason being that there are these humungous creatures called titans that roam around the forests surrounding these walls. These walls are here to protect us, from them. You see we are all just normal people, really normal but we have some exceptional people among us as well. We call them the 'survey corps' real brave men who get out of these walls and try to find ways to counteract the Titans. They are like the heroes of our caged homeland.
I was there, the dreaded forests of lumberjack. Ya we had named this forest as such, funny really. I looked around trying to pin point the direction of my fiends, then I spotted them, the lazy Eren lying on our flower field and Mikasa trying to wake him up. I sighed, went inside the forest and extracted my share of wood, cutting them into thin splinters. I tied them all up with a rope and placed them on my back, tying the end of the rope with my midsection. By the time I had strolled out of the woods, I noticed Mikasa and Eren waving their hands towards my direction. I waved back at them, picking my pace and joining them. The rest of the trip back home was nothing special, just the usual, Eren pouting about joining the Corps while Mikasa reprimanding him all the way.
We came across the town bullies picking on Armin, he was not weak, may be strength wise he was, but not when it came to knowledge. Reading books and gaining knowledge was kind of forbidden in our place, something about we being titan fodder. It hurt but we could not say anything, we were not such brave people who could change the laws. So me and Armin did a sort of ransacking through Armin's grandpa's mini library and found out a book on the world outside the walls. Hence the sea talks and dreaming of going behind the walls. We were stupid but we were contended. I saw as Mikasa flew by my side and the bullies ran away. Ya Mikasa was the scary girl of the town but my best friend none the less.
We soothed Armin's hurt face and then made our way towards our houses. I parted ways round the corner, waiving them off and went into my house.
Later we met up at the river side where we were chatting about our day. Mikasa never talked too much, even though this was our daily ritual. She was still my best friend. The best thing about her, she never complained only listened, never judged just gave advices here and there. A beautiful soul to be with. Strong and fierce, feminine and soft. She was everything that I was not and I was proud of her.
Armin and I were discussing about the sea adventures and then I went as far as retelling my dream, editing out the dead bodies part, their eyes were shining with wonder, they were happy and amazed. I gave them a small smile. Then it all started, the nightmares of eternity.
It started with a strong spark, a pulse in the noon sky like electric waves and then an earthquake followed, rumbling down the entire foundation of Shinghansina. We were thrown off balance, landing on the pavement floor below us. What had happened? We rushed towards the town centre and then we saw it, a sight that froze our blood in our veins.
A red meaty hand that reached over the 50 metres long wall came into our view at first then it was followed by a face, a meaty face without any skin, only flesh. I instantly knew what it was but the fact that scared me the most was that it was the same titan from my dreams. Everything seemed like it had stopped at first, halted with time and then it began, a chuck of the wall came flying out of nowhere and hitting the town's bell and killing hundreds in a second. The commotion began, the people I knew all my life ran for their lives, I felt helpless, so helpless as I have never felt in my life before. The smaller sized titans started to pour in like the rats they were. The worst came when the real horror began, the titans picked up the people of my dear town and gulped them down like water.
I had never known true fear before this. I never cared how my face looked like after the million blood drops that covered my body. The same feeling from my dream came back, my head spinning in anguish and my body rejecting the food that I had ingested before. I could not hold back any further and threw up, my guts threatening to spill from my body. My body stood paralyzed and my eyes growing to the size of saucers, stretching further till it hurt. I could not feel anything anymore but when I noticed Eren running from the corner of my eyes, my body was sent into auto pilot, my feet pushing me forward of its own accord towards my house. I never really prepared myself for what greeted me, my grandma was crushed under the huge boulder from before.
I could not take it anymore I sat down beside her, taking her wrinkled hands in my hand and broke down. No sound came out of my throat or maybe the sound of the chaos was so profound that my parched throat paled in its comparision. I felt the ground shake but I could not move. The footsteps thudded and increased in frequency but my body was frozen to the spot. I closed my eyes, smiling at the sky, I was ready for my end. I did not want to live after my grandma had passed away. But destiny seemed to have other plans, an angel zoomed by above my head, a black angel, his hair spinning with his move and his cape of the glorious corps swishing with his mid air spin. Then a fountain of blood poured on me, I realized it was not my blood but the titan's. A thud behind me proved my suspicion. The man zoomed away however, probably towards his duty, to save the ones that were alive. Before I could comprehend much, I lost my conciousness, only remembering being picked up by someone or something, I will never know.