Hello everyone,

EphemeralSummers here. I just finished watching Attack on Titan and I absolutely fell in love with it. I loved it so much, I wanted to make a fic about it. Just a note here to say that this fic follows the anime, and when the plot approaches the end of the anime I will most likely start following the manga.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to be able to update every Thursday. I really hope you enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Attack on Titan or any of the songs mentioned at the bottom of each chapter.

Prologue

Am I dreaming?

The boy looked around. The clearing was rather small and it was the first piece of open land he had encountered in miles. In the amount of time he had been traveling, he had almost forgotten what the sky looked like. He felt the familiar prickling of rain drops hitting his skin and he looked down to watch the droplets roll over his arms. The forest had been so densely filled with trees he had not even been aware that it was raining until that point. He stared at the ground. He noticed that the grass was slowly becoming saturated with water, and he concluded that the rain had started fairly recently. It wouldn't be long now until puddles dotted the surface of the clearing.

Or is this my existence? He wondered as he sat down, deciding to give his legs a rest.

He had been walking for so long, and his legs were beginning to tremble with exhaustion. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember the last time that he wasn't walking. What a shameful existence that would be, he thought to himself, a life full of walking. He glanced downward toward his bare feet and noticed that the rain, which was now a complete downpour, was washing away the blood and dirt that had accumulated on the soles of his feet. Now that he was free to think for a moment, he noticed the intense agony that his feet were causing him, and maybe it would be a good idea to rest now.

But when he glanced back toward the path he had come from, a note of fear struck him again. There would never be enough distance between him and the place where he had come from, so he attempted to get up and continue walking. However, as soon as he tried to stand up, his legs trembled and he collapsed to the ground. He didn't have a choice, the clearing would have to serve as his resting point.

He laid his head down and began to calm himself down. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing in and out. In and out. In and out. He continued to focus on breathing until he lowered his heart rate to a suitable level. Fear was not something he had the luxury to feel; he only had time for survival, and in order to survive he had to rest.

I will move again as soon as my legs are able, he told himself, and for now I will wait. Is this my reality?

He couldn't help but wonder if this was his world. He listened intensely for possible clues, but he only heard the sounds he was familiar with. Distantly, there was the sound of a fox digging its burrow. Somewhere off to the side of the clearing, he heard a rabbit darting across an open path. There were sounds everywhere. A family of deer wading through the grass. A flock of birds rustling in the trees. Rain tapping against the ground.

Suddenly, all of the sounds stopped. A new sound erupted through the forest; the indisputable sound of splitting wood. The boy listened to the dying gasp of a tree as the wood bent and turned against its will. Finally, the deafening crash could be heard throughout the forest as a tree collapsed. Then, everything was quiet for a moment. After a moment though, more thunderous noises ensued. They continued to occur in a rhythmic fashion, gradually approaching the boy. The ground began to quake with each individual eruption of noise, and it was only until they were nearly upon him that he noticed what they were: footsteps.

Cautiously the boy opened one eye, and what he saw surprised him so much he let out a small gasp. When he looked up, he saw nothing but skin. When his vision adjusted, he realized that a huge, magnificent creature stood before him. The creature stood at roughly five meters tall, and its size seemed to blot out the sun entirely. The world grew dark for the boy in the presence of such a creature, and when it stared at him with its large, gray eyes he finally understood.

This is not the world I was born into. This is merely a dream.

For a moment, the boy decided to gaze up into the creature's eyes. The creature's face was rather impressive to the boy. It possessed all of the qualities of a face the boy could think of - it had eyes, a nose, cheekbones, a mouth, a chin, a forehead, and so many other small details, but its size was simply overwhelming. He could not fathom how such an intricate face that was so large could exist. The creature bent down to examine him closer, and the boy noticed how absolutely remarkable the creature was. This sort of creature, the boy believed, was just too remarkable to exist.

I am dreaming.

The boy closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come. He felt that if he fell asleep now, he would awaken in his true reality. He was also too exhausted to think to do anything else, and it wouldn't be too long until sleep took him away from this strange world.

Just as he was nodding off, another sound stirred his memories. He heard more footfalls, except this time they were faster, and there were more of them. The vibrations were sent through the earth and when they reached his ears they were just a soft whisper. The sound continued to tickle at his semi-conscious brain, and just as he was on the border of consciousness he remembered where he had heard such a sound before.

Horses maybe, he thought as he was pulled into the depths of sleep.

"It's all a mystery, let it come and let it be," - Blackmill, Let it Be