Chapter One: It's Been HOW Long?
Reina
I WAKE UP TO THE jolting feeling of riding a horse. Albeit I am not riding it myself, the wagon I lay in mimics the horse's movements. A woman's voice, which sounds to be in her twenties, says,
"This is an amazing discovery! A young girl who appears physically to be twelve found outside the wall! Too bad she's dead."
Who could this other girl be? I am only five, from what I remember. And I am alive. I think to myself. The woman I heard speaking unwraps the cloth from around my head. When she see's my eyes are open, she screams and jumps back. Didn't she know I am alive?
"S-she's alive! The girl's alive!" The woman stutters.
"Hanji, stop messing around. She can't be." This is said by a bored, droning but smooth, voice.
Moving closer to me again, the woman-whom I presume is Hanji-unwraps the rest of the covering on my head. I look around to see two bug-eyed guys who look similar.
"Of course I am alive," I whisper in the faintest of voices. "Why would I not be?" I look down at the rest of my body. As I speak, my voice gets stronger. "Could you, ma'am, remove the rest of my wrappings? They are quite tight."
"So polite!" Hanji squeals. "Not many people are anymo-" She is cut off by an elbowing from the younger man. "Oh! Right. Bindings." She grabs a knife from her pants. Slowly and carefully, she slices the bindings from my chest down.
"Thank you. I am presuming that you are the Hanji that was spoken about?" I ask her.
"Yes." She says, looking a bit dazed, from what I do not know.
"I am Reina Arlem. It is very pleasing to meet you." I pause. "Who is this twelve year old you were speaking of?" I ask. "I am only five so it cannot be me-"
"Five?" The older male asks. "You're five? You must be lying. No five year old would have a twelve year old's body." He practically snarls.
I look down at myself. Woah! Since when do I have things sticking out of my chest? "What in Yui!" I say. "When I fell, I was only five. Does this mean seven years have past since I, I guess, went into a coma?"
"Suppose so." Shrugs the younger one.
"Wait," I say, "I have to stop calling you young and old one in my mind. What are your names?" Out of the corner of my eye I see Hanji's mouth twitch at the corner.
"I'm Eren." Says the younger one. "And this is Captain Levi."
"Nice to meet your acquaintance, Eren and Levi." I bow my head slightly. In the process, I see something in the corner of my eye. I look behind us and say, in horror, "What is that thing!" Everyone else looks as well. A huge, human looking figure was running towards us. It's body was deformed, however. He had no lips, no hair, and no stomach.
"Aberrant titan! Approaching right flank!" Levi yells, drawing two swords while standing up. He then jumps off the back of the wagon. Eren follows him, and Hanji stays. I watched with fear tinged curiosity while they hook onto the titan's body parts. It seemed like they were flying! Eren and Levi were the only ones fighting, though; for what reason I do not know. Somehow Levi gets captured in the titan's hand, and my eyes widen.
"They need a distraction!" I say, and nimbly jump out of the back of the wagon. I run over to the huge, 15 meter titan. "HEY! TITAN! YOU WANT SOME NICE HUMAN FLESH? YOU WON'T LIKE THAT OLD MAN! HOW ABOUT SOME NICE YOUNG MEAT?" I scream this, and the titan looks down at me. He forgets about Levi, dropping him. His loud, earth shaking footsteps come closer to me. I watch as Levi regains his fight.
The titan's foot lands right in front of me; his large shadow falls over my face as he bends over. I grin, almost evilly. "Not so fast." I run between his legs, very fast. This causes him to trip, as his hand followed me. His massive body falls, barely missing me.
No. It didn't miss me- my leg's crushed! "Ahh!" I scream in pain. I bite my lip until it bleeds to direct the pain elsewhere. The titan shifts slightly, and more of my leg cracks. Salty tears burn down my face. I watch with blurry vision as someone cuts the nape of the neck off the titan. It starts to disintegrate, but I don't pay heed. My leg is consuming all of my consciousness right now.
My addled vision shows me that one of the men is racing towards me. I block out the pain as he touches my leg and says, "Are you alright?" The worry-laced tone is already familiar. Eren looks at my face before inspecting my leg again. "I think it's crushed."
"No, idiot! Of course it isn't!" I grit out, somehow letting the sarcasm seep into my words. As Eren picks me up, cry out. "Careful!" I whisper, my voice breaking. I bury my tear sodden face into his shoulder as he runs to the wagons. Every step has my stomach being left even farther back.
I am settled back onto the hard bottom of the wagon. Hanji leans over and says, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Yes!" I gasp, my body almost convulsing. "M-my leg! Ah!" I bite my lip again. To keep my mind away, I start singing a song my father taught me. "Hark! How the bells. Sweet silver bells. All seem to say throw cares away. Christmas is here bringing good cheer to young and old, meek and and the bold. Ding dong-y dong, that is their song with joyful ring all caroling-" I am cut out by a burst of pain from a jolt in the path. I skip to my favourite part. "Gaily they ring while people sing songs of good cheer christmas is here. Merry merry merry merry christmas. Merry merry merry merry christmas." I hold the last note.
"You're good." Levi says, who I just notice is there. "What, did you take classes?" He sneers, thinking he's all that.
"No. My father taught me." I manage to squeak out.
"I'll have to set the bone." Hanji says as everything starts going dark. "Is that alright?"
"Yeah..." I manage to get through my lips before I'm submerged in total darkness.
