The scouts' final test was not outlined in any books; in that respect it was not officially sanctioned. Nevertheless, every recruit knew the details.

It was not a test anyone could study for. No one could cheat, either. The last test was the settling, when daemons decided which forms they would take from then on.

Some older scouts had still-unsettled daemons, but such incidences were rare. Usually, daemons settled around the same time recruits chose which branch of the military they'd go into. Traditionally, scouts had birds: wings of liberty living up to the name. Commander Erwin had an immense, dignified golden eagle. She was huge and more than once Armin had seen her turn in the midst of battle to swing her steely talons forward and gash a titan's eye out. Corporal Levi had a black gyrfalcon - if Erwin's Desdemona was like a broadsword, Levi's Kes was like a stiletto.

So, there were two eponymous scouts with bird daemons. If it wasn't a bird, a small daemon would do - snakes, lizards, insects, even cats could be acceptable, as long as the human could carry them into the air with the tactical gear. Grounded scouts were as good as titan fodder, so if someone settled as a horse, or a larger dog, that was the end of their scouting career. Most scouts in that situation went to the wall guard if they wanted to stay in the military, or to manufacturing if they didn't. Even if they'd been potential police before, the unicorn guard didn't give second chances.

Eren had ground his teeth and sweated long into the night talking to his daemon Adala, until Jean cursed and threw pillows at him to make him go to sleep. Armin had worried for him, but he knew what Eren was after. A bird, Adala, Eren had insisted. Make sure you settle as a bird! Even if it's not a very big one - any bird would do - do you think you can feel what you'll settle as yet? Adala had swatted or pecked or bitten him as her form required, and when she'd finally settled he'd actually cried with joy.

"Do you know the species?" Eren had asked him, of course.

"No. But she has webbed feet, so she's some kind of water bird." Armin indicated the paddling feet with a finger, without quite touching. "Maybe she lives on the sea."

"Wow," Eren breathed, with brightness lighting up his green eyes. "Thanks, Armin. The sea! I hope - I hope so. When we get there she can swim. How about that, Adala?"

The memory made Armin smile.

There was no trouble to identifying Mikasa's gyrfalcon, though the tiercel was white instead of black. "You had to pick the same as Corporal Levi, Sadao?" Mikasa had said, her black eyes burning with disdain. He and Eren had assured her that it was a noble daemon and suited to her, though Sadao had said with equal disdain that there was no choosing involved at all.

The others from 104 were settling too. Armin watched them all, glad for his friends and anxious for himself, stroking Elke with his fingertips. Jean's daemon Champagne was seen more and more as a fierce little terrier with pricked ears and wiry hair; she'd be small enough to carry in a special harness, and so Jean's future with the scouts was assured. Krista's daemon Mamman mostly appeared as a hare, distinct in form and wariness from a domestic rabbit. Sasha's Harold seemed to be leaning towards the shape of a squirrel. As for Armin's own daemon…

Elke. For his entire life she'd been a calculating voice in his ear, and stuck to small forms: sparrows, moths even, now and again she'd appeared as a cat. Now she was favoring rat shape.

Armin was working hard to be objective about it.

It was common knowledge that daemons reflected the person attached to them. Elke was a sleek rat with small well-formed ears and muscle under her fur and she changed from that shape less and less. Because she was a part of him, she knew his feelings, though Armin only talked to her about the matter once, under his covers in the barracks when he was sure everyone else was asleep.

"Are you really doing this to me?" he'd whispered. "Don't you remember after the wall fell? Rats stole food from us. They were dangerous, especially to the children. Rats run and hide in the shadows when they're scared."

They both remembered Armin paralyzed with fear, only watching as Eren was snatched away from them, swallowed alive.

But Elke, out of everyone, was never inclined to be sympathetic towards him. She twitched her tail at him - her hairless tail, so close to Harold's luxurious, furry one, nothing like it at all.

"Go to the library and do some research," she had said, unmoved. "It's beneath you to talk like that to me without doing any prep on your own."

The barracks did have a library, although it was rare that anyone used it. In fact, it hadn't even been intended to serve as a library in the first place. It was an empty common room crammed with rough-hewn shelves, with just enough room for a couple of wide tables. Mercifully, its windows faced to catch as much sun as possible, but anyone reading would need to carry a covered lamp or risk straining their eyes.

Armin only had to step in the door to realize he wouldn't be enjoying solitude with his books. Squad Leader Zoe Hange raised her head at the sound of the door, and fixed him with a friendly smile when he just stood there, waffling.

"Don't mind me. Armin, isn't it?" He was sure Leader Hange knew his name, but he nodded anyway, taking a step forward to the seat she'd kicked out for him. It was too late to back out noiselessly now. "Sit, sit," Hange waved a hand at him, smiling. "There's enough room for two, or three or four more, if we didn't mind warming the place up and breathing each others' exhalations. I won't bother you too much."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Leader Hange. If I had known you were in here…"

"Think nothing of it! It's important to me, you know, to get to know Eren's friends. It's important to me to get to know all the scouts I can. You demonstrated some quick thinking in the aftermath of the Trost attack."

"It didn't work," Armin said. "If you and Corporal Levi hadn't arrived at just the right time, we would have been executed."

"Nevertheless, you showed courage." Leader Hange smiled at him. There certainly was something warm to her, something that put you at ease. And yet, Armin had seen Hange at Erwin's side, whispering in his ear. He couldn't quite take the smile at face value no matter how Hange's eyes crinkled at the corners.

"What are you reading?" Armin asked. It seemed like a safe topic.

Hange sat back at once and waved a hand over her book. "Ah, it's an account of the flora around this region - well, outside, anyway, in the forest. I fancy myself an amateur botanist, you know. I can't say I have much of an occasion to use the knowledge, since I'm no wilderness doctor and I'm not brewing teas and tisanes, but you never know what comes in handy! Now, what were you here to read?"

The outpour of chatter had gone on so sonorously and then changed tacks so suddenly that Armin sat for a moment with his mouth open before he was able to respond. "I was looking for a book on daemons," he said lamely, forgetting to prevaricate. "Do you know if we have any stocked?"

"Ah," Hange looked at him kindly, eyes still crinkled up though her mouth no longer opened in a smile. "I know everything we have stocked, seeing as I organized this library myself."

At once she got up, turning to the shelves. Armin realized it was rude to sit while his superior officer searched the books and hastily got to his feet and followed after. But it seemed Hange hadn't needed his help; she was already pulling down three thick volumes from a corner shelf. "I'm not surprised," Hange said conversationally as she turned back to the table, and Armin awkwardly walked backwards, realizing he'd gotten up uselessly. And that Hange was still talking. "I recall being quite anxious myself about settling when I was your age! You are at that age, aren't you? I recall being worried, at the time. I had a friend in the scouts, Mike Zacharius, and he settled as a horse. He's in the garrison now, they find him useful, but he's no longer the terror with the tactical gear that he used to be. You can't carry a horse, you know. But it's useful to have friends and allies in every branch, you'll find that soon enough."

"You keep in touch with him?" Armin said lamely.

"I write every two weeks!" Hange beamed. "You lose enough friends in this business, you'll find it's for the best to hang on to the ones you have, even when they're far-flung." Thump, thump, thump, the books dropped in front of him and Hange took her seat again, leaning over the table and clasping her hands under her chin. There was somehow a predatory cast to her posture, a sensation that she might suddenly vault across the table and go for his throat, or just make the conversation uncomfortable, as she hit him with the question: "What's got you concerned about settling?"

"Not concerned," Armin lied. "I just… well, Elke has settled, I think, or will be soon, and I wanted to learn more about her form… I've never seen your daemon, Leader."

"His name is Berenger. And he doesn't turn quite so many heads as Erwin's or Levi's birds." Hange leaned back in her chair and looked at him, seeming very much at ease. "But you can meet him now."

Hange reached out and put her hand on the table. A lump flowed down from her shoulder, down her sleeve, and then a head peeped out from where the cloak lapped over on her arm and Armin felt a little jump in his heart at the sleek head, the tiny round ears, not quite a rat's head, but close to it somehow. "Do you mind if I ask his form-? Your form?"

"A polecat," Berenger said for himself, in a dry voice. The little animal had a tenor pitch and lolloped down from Hange's arm onto the table, where he sat up on his haunches to regard Armin. He was cute more than anything, with a black bandit mask covering his eyes, and his face otherwise white. He had a long grey-dun body with darker feet and tail tip. Hange moved her hands into her lap and smiled benignly.

"Yes, you'll find he's quite talkative when called to be. I'm sure yours is the same - now where is she?"

Armin found Elke suddenly trying to escape his pocket. She scrambled onto the table, tiny round ears cocked forward, and scurried over to give Berenger a very familiar sniffing. Armin found himself blushing at the presumption. He didn't want to give Hange the wrong idea of his professionalism, and looked up to apologize.

Hange was smiling fondly at him though, and the words died on his tongue.

"I know what you're thinking, I believe," Hange said. "I myself felt disappointed when Berenger took this form. It's not quite magnificent, is it?"

Berenger lifted his head and produced a credible snort in response. "Magnificence is the last thing you should be wishing for from your daemon."

Hange laughed. Berenger was sniffing all over Elke now, and Elke sniffing him back; they were grooming at each other a bit, even, like cats. They both had miniature dextrous hands and were coming each other's fur and licking at each other. Armin, watching, felt embarrassed at the implied intimacy and clasped his hands together tightly under the table.

"Polecats are domestic animals," Hange said. "And in times past, humans used them to hunt rabbits. The practice is not so much in favor now, and they mostly live wild. They're curious and playful and good hunters, and they get into everything when it's possible. When I looked into daemonic symbolism behind polecats, what I found was quite flattering! All hunters are keen observers. They're stealthy and clever. You'll find that symbology occuring with many small predatory daemons like this. Particular to the ferret they say is a knack for seeing the hidden reasons behind things - along with a taste for vengeance." Hange shrugged. "That's not humanity's best trait, in my opinion, but we do have a predilection for it, don't you think?"

"I can't think of too many positive things people say about rats," Armin said, with a sudden tightness in his throat. "I remember them from… from when we had to flee Shiganshima. Rats ate people's supplies. You couldn't leave babies unattended, sometimes they'd get at them. They spread disease-"

"Rats are very human animals," Hange cut across him gently. Elke hunched down in the middle of the table now and Berenger curled against her as they spoke, in voices too quiet for their humans to hear. "By which I mean, they're a species that has thriven close to us, living alongside us. People might find rats loathsome, but the truth is we wouldn't have so many troubles with them if we didn't make an environment that was comfortable for them. You'll find people villainizing crows for many of the same reasons. They're also cunning animals, sociable with their own kind, and have no trouble living close to us or taking advantage of us now and again."

"What would you say," Armin said, steadily, "Are the good things about a rat daemon?"

"You'll have to check the book to find out more - I don't know off the top of my head. And they do have a bad reputation, you should brace yourself for some poor reactions, I won't deny it." Hange cocked her head, so birdlike all of a sudden. "But most rodents have some things in common. Think of a rat as a quick-living creature. New generations are produced quickly, and that increases their survivability. They adapt to new situations very well and make the best of what they get. They can deal with change and they will always survive. And with their ingroup, they're sociable creatures and capable of getting along well with each other. They're capable of solving problems when they come up."

"You don't make it sound so bad."

"Because it isn't. Daemons are neutral. There is no evil daemon. There's good and bad sides to every animal. Think of a knife - it can be a murder weapon or a tool for food preparation. It depends on you, and which way you turn it."

Armin sat for a moment, taking it in, and nodded. Hange leaned back and eyed him with an expression of satisfaction.

"None of that is so bad," Armin said, when he realized she was waiting on a response.

"Enjoy your research," Hange said, pushing her chair back. Berenger popped his head up and darted back to climb her sleeve again. "You'll find there's a great deal to learn. It's time for me to be getting to afternoon drills, though. Make sure you don't lose track of time."

Armin stood, too, to see her out. "Thank you, captain," he said at the door. He couldn't quite look her in the face yet - it was a bit embarrassing to have needed comfort, as if he were still a child. He hadn't been a child since he'd seen the walls crumble.

"Come chat with me about daemonology anytime," Hange said. "It's a pleasure to see a young scout wanting to further his education. You have a good daemon. You'll find that survivability is key."

Notes:

Eren's daemon is a great shearwater. It is indeed a sea bird.

This fic was written as a gift for a friend, who requested Hange with a ferret daemon.