Intro
Within the Walled City that holds the last bastion of humanity, an unending war to live is waged. In this world, giant man-eating beings called Titans stalk and prowled the world beyond the high walls searching for any way in. Long ago, Mankind reigned supreme over the lands. From the oceans of burning sand and rock to the South, rolling plains in the East, the icy woods and tundra to the North, and great waters of the west, Mankind ruled all. But that was over a hundred years ago. Within a generation, all the great kingdoms and nations of Man fell. Countless people were devoured by the creatures that shared the same face as they. Now a hundred years later, the Wall City has seen relative peace thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of the Survey Corps affectionately referred to as the "Legion". But with this peace, action has stagnated and slips the masses into passive acceptance and slowly the fear that gripped their ancestors fades to placid mundanity. But the Titans are not the only thing that holds Mankind in bondage. Within the Walled City corruption festers and rots the city within and love and hope languishes to an unrequited dream as tragedy strikes without warning for those that dare challenge for something more. For the young Auruo Bossard (Oluo Bozardo), a 20-year-old scout of the Survey Corps, he dared to dream that he would not be bound by the fate of Mankind's stars. But would he be able to change the course of the insurmountable wall called destiny before him? The tide of fate is unknown and ever changing, for this is a tragic story of destiny, brotherhood, regret, sacrifice, and love. Witness a tale of an unattainable love, a cruel and relentless world, the rise and fall of a dreaming, flawed man, the war for freedom and the hope of a kindhearted girl with a heart for another. A tangle of the red strings of fate slowly unravels as more and more are cut with the sting of time with only a dream keeping those few that remain together,
The Kingfisher's Dream
Prologue
Why Must This Be So?
Everything was dying. The world was shattering and crumbling to dust. Even though the bloody sun scorched the air to that of a fiery furnace, Auruo breath was chilled. He felt cold, numb from all feeling. Perhaps it was the sweat that glistened on his brow or the the exhaustion that absolved him of any warmth in his heart. But whatever it was, the air he breathed was frigid. Its grey fog kissed his nose as if trying to comfort the hurting, doomed man. His heart, it slammed against his rib cage. His brain beating against his skull like a drum, it frantically asking a barrage of questions that could not be answered. His mind, which had guided him wisely all these years now tried to get the man to flee. But flee to where? The one that warmed his heart was in absolute danger. Long ago did he realize that warmth in his heart was hers. But for how much longer would she be there? He looked downward as he flew above the forest glade. His body froze in complete disbelief of what had just happened and what he saw.
Not a moment ago, his comrades were slaughtered, cut, slain and spat away in passing without remorse, without hesitation. Their severed bodies lay hanging and strewn across the blood soaked fern. Everything was falling apart. Their faces were stiff with the fleeting warmth of their bodies. Would they become the nourishment that sustained this hellish forest? He dared not think of such thoughts at this time. Their eyes were half open, mouths agape with slick, metallic blood dripping out. How would he tell their beloveds of their demise. How would he look them in the eye and tell them he could do nothing to stop fate. He would not. Auruo could do nothing.
He felt like screaming his lungs out, but he could not.
Barely recovering from the shock that stricken and froze his actions, he replaces his dulled blades and exhaled violently, readying himself for his next forlorn attack. He propelled from where he landed early back towards the forest clearing from his latest strike.
As he propelled above the forest floor he saw Petra gliding away from the Female Titan with the same face as his, disbelief.
Her voice was frantic, screaming and asking repeatedly, why had the Female Titan healed so quickly? Her eyes were like saucers for they stretched widely with pure fear. Her voice and body was laden, drowned in an emotion, a primal feeling. It was something they all thought was once dormant in them, but it was as real and alive inside them as their skin and flesh is.
Fear.
Silence overtook the two surviving scouts for a moment.
The only sounds that had now reached Auruo's ringing ears were his strained breathing, the ghostly wind, the deep thuds of the Female Titan's steps as it staggered forward, and Petra's awful screams of despair and desperation.
Her voice broke him like glass. He could see her gliding dangerously close to the forest foliage below. Her eyes were wide with absolute fear and despair.
How? How did the female Titan heal so quickly? With such swiftness that rivaled even the most cunning serpent, it had killed their squad mates, but more importantly, their friends.
She was whimpering.
Auruo had not seen her that afraid, this primal fear since her first mission, so many years ago. He had never seen her so stricken before. Her face made him even more scared, not because her fear was so contagious or anything, but because he knew how helpless, how useless he was. At that moment, as he propelled frantically towards the auburn-haired girl and her pursuer, he felt like nothing. He had saved Petra so many times, comforted her through so many trials to continue on even when hope had faded. But now, he could no longer help her. Now luck was not on either of their sides. He felt so incredibly small and worthless. He was right above the Female Titan now as it bolted towards her. His face white with terror.
"Petra! We need to regroup!" He screamed, his voice cracking and high-pitched as he pleaded with her to ascend from the forest floor.
'God! Please Petra. Please, get out there!' He screamed inside.
She could not; her fear had finally doomed her.
Both of them could do nothing but watch as the Titan barreled down towards her at full gallop. With less than a gait away, the Female Titan slammed forward with its foot directly in line with the helpless, fear-stricken auburn-haired girl.
'Petra, get out of there!' He cried inside.
"Petra now!" Were his desperate pleas as he screamed her name one last time, drowning the bird calls with his desperate and futile cries for his friend.
Time slowed as his nightmare approached, unchallenged. Then it happened, a fate so cruel as to leave nothing but abyssmal despair. A single thug was heard, crackling the very air itself. His ears blistered and died with that single nauseating beat. His spine rippled with distress. His bruised heart passed into shadow; his stomach emptied onto the forest floor below as he felt hot tears begin to form.
Everything grew quiet as birds flew away from the nightmarish disturbance. A splash of crimson shot up the tree trunk as the Titan loomed overhead, signifying the final blow to the demise of the man's dreams.
"Petra?" he uttered. His voice was cracked and broken and at that moment, the last remnant of the pseudo-Levi persona was dead, forever gone.
'No! No, no, no, no, this cannot be happening! Please, don't do this to her, anyone but Petra!' He screamed inside, holding his breath until he could no longer, gasping for air.
That silence that followed was unending, until Auruo heard a crackle from afar. Eren's screams echoed from behind. The fool, the brown-haired teenager fell for the trap. Eren's screams only intensified Auruo's anguish as he stared back down.
His eyes meet only crimson.
He had prayed for a long time that he would never see this. The death of everything he knew, everything he ever loved or cherished. Everything, she was gone. But like his every other pray, it was left unanswered as her blood now dripped down like dew from the dented tree trunk. From where she was supposed to be, all Auruo saw was crimson and the foot of the Titan. The fleshy foot of the female Titan drew away from the soaked tree trunk. A red stain was all that remained of her. A blotch on an unremarkable tree in a forest of giants was her last mark on this world. All he could see from where he was above was her. Her body was bent and broken; her head hung back, lifeless. Her eyes were cold and dull, far from his memories of her gentle glow that kept him alive and happy all these years. Tears dripped from his tired, heavy-eyed face as he gazed down upon the beautiful but now bloodied face of the woman he would sacrifice his own happiness to see her smile.
He could no longer breathe; his lungs could no longer draw any air, not even for him to scream.
'No, this can't be real,' He uttered, internally.
Denying it only made him break more.
His throat was scratched up and numb from screaming her name, the last things he knew she heard, his voice. Auruo could only watch as her body became limp, covered in the same crimson that escaped Eld and Gunter and countless others before them. He had seen that liquid all too often. He had always had the same reaction to the sight, indifference. It had numbed him. But now? Now he felt disgust, a sickness in his belly that made him choke on the air, gasping for breath. Now, now he felt something else, hopelessness. It was as if he was in a different place. That monster had crushed her, his friend, his love, his everything as if she was nothing, as if she was but an insignificant ant under one's heel. His face itself was the true portrait of despair, sorrow, and loss.
He was in an ultimate shock for those few moments he glanced down upon her, trying to reassure himself that maybe, just maybe Petra was still alive. But he couldn't lie to himself, he knew the truth. He couldn't place his trust onto hope. For it had forsaken him like so many times before. No matter how much he wanted to say otherwise he knew.
Petra Ral was dead.
He had cruelly witnessed her murder with his own eyes. He, himself alone saw the death of everyone he ever had the heart to care, save for family whom he knew would never see again, and the one companion whom he had fought beside for half his life. He held back every tear, valiantly. But it was not enough. A single righteous tear fell from his sullen cheek. It took every ounce and fiber of his being to resist the temptation, the easy urge to break down and weep and turn mad.
For weeping would be for another time, not here in the forest of death.
He exhaled and with that he felt something leave him and realized what it was, his will to live on. His purpose to survive was dead. His life was over. His face etched in sorrow froze in place as did the world. The world around him slowed and disappeared into white as he remembered, remembering everything he regretted, everything he lost and everything he loved. He exhaled as he saw the world he knew flash before him, Petra. He closed his eyes, squeezing his blades until his knuckles turned white. He was finished, at that moment as his breath left him, he knew, he would not leave this forest alive. A voice called for him. It was his own. The words he uttered all those years ago rang true with in.
"Fight, even if it's hopeless you fight and fight and fight until you can no longer fight again."
His eyes opened suddenly and then narrowed as he felt a new feeling surge within him. Instead of the helplessness that chained him like a caged bird, he was filled with a fueling, raging anger he'd never felt before. This anger, no, this rabid, berserk wrath powered him up for a final, desperate strike.
He grappled onto the nape of the Titan's neck and rappelled down at full speed.
His fear flaked from him.
He powered into overdrive.
His sorrow bubbled away.
He clinched his teeth.
His mask he shielded himself with broke in two.
A tear dissipated into the air.
His sheltered heart for her, it faded.
"Oi," He uttered; his voice was dangerously low, laden with furious anger.
"Die!" He hollered, his voice booming with wrath.
Clenching his shining blades harder than ever before, he let out the loudest, most passion-filled scream he could, and launched himself at the Female Titan with a speed surpassing even Levi's. He lost all thought and reason as one and only one image, one face formed in his mind, Petra. With his screams, he had gathered up as much strength as he could to avenge her death.
But he knew, he was going to die. But better to die for the ones you love than to live a coward, left behind by those that passed.
Lay us down, our brother.
He heard their voices, the voices of the company he lost so many years ago.
He lifted his blades above his head. He swung his blades as hard as his arms allowed. The blades sung a sonnet of vengeance and gore-filled battle, of a life spent pining away at the love and hate he felt for her. The blades fell true upon the flesh of the still Titan.
'This is it. Death!' He screamed in his mind. His eyes reddened with blood lust.
But as he and made contact that furious anger and passion was cut short, dissipating into the wind. As suddenly as it began, his attack ended. His blades shattered right in front of him. His attack rang through the forest with a high metallic pitch. His eyes widened in disbelief as the world slowed. His back faced the Titan as he flew away.
A bead of cold, numbing sweat fell.
The Titan had hardened its skin, breaking his blades like it had broken his soul. He was first to actually hit the Titan's weak spot, but still it failed.
"How? My blade can't pierce it," He uttered, his face frozen in a storm of disbelief, loss, and anguish.
He had killed dozens of Titans before, all with ease, but now, when his skill was needed most, it failed.
And then it happened.
In a flash, the air around him was launched in the direction he was facing, down a forest path. Like a wind tunnel, everything was sent forth.
It all happened in almost an instant as he floated in the air from his attack. All he could feel was a massive, energy-filled force slam into his body. All air left in his lungs was immediately squeezed out of him as blood shot from his mouth. The Titan had kicked him straight on, sending him plummeting to the ground across the forest cleaning, far away. Feeling his insides crushing and his bones shattering beneath him, everything began to blur into a inky scarlet. The light of the forest darkened with each passing moment until he landed on the forest floor on his chest.
Some Time Later
The soft feeling of grass tickling his nose, arousing the man to open his eyes.
His body grew limp as he barely kept his eyes half-open. He looked dead but still for some reason he had just a gasp of life left in him. Was it fate or luck that allowed him to land facing in such a way that allowed him to gaze upon his dead love?
Perhaps.
The light from the sun echoed through the treetops to bath the auburn-haired girl in amber light, like a Goddess or a spring wisteria ready to bloom. Regardless, he laid there, his gear scattered across the forest clearing. Blood oozing from his mouth, and it was not from his tongue.
A long while passed, and yet he still lived, just staring at his love. It was as if death would not take him, for something still needed to be done, something to be said.
A while back, massive thuds resounded about in the trees. Eren and the Female Titan had engaged in fighting and had disappeared off somewhere deeper into the forest. Auruo, although he could not muster the strength to move as he saw his commander, the man who effortlessly stole the heart of his love disappeared as well, off to hopefully avenge them. He graced a weak smile as he felt strangely content, knowing that his revenge for Petra would be fulfilled, ironically by the absurdly short man he emulated not our of respect but jealously and whom he saw as a rival.
Laying there in the bloodied fern and hornwort, Auruo took the time to think, about his now ending life, his family, his friends, his lasting legacy, but most important to him, the woman he could never hold, Petra.
He thought he loved her for a long time, but as he lay dying in the fern and grass he realized something else. He was not just in love with that warm and motherly auburn-haired girl but he was also enchanted by how kind she was to him, to everyone, a rarity. And as he lay there in the grass, time stopped as he looked back on his life and how he met and fell in love with Petra Ral.
He sighed.
The world around him turned white and blue as he reminisced about his life as it flashed before him. Remembering all the things he lacked, regretted, loved, and cherished. He smiled. He smiled weakly as he raised his arm towards the woman he loved, asking the same question he asked himself all too often, why? Why must this be so?
...
"Why, you ask? Why must this be so? It is because we make choices, choices of which we are blind of the outcome. But one thing you must always take to heart, never regret them."
Author's Note: That is just the prologue. The next chapter takes us back 10 years to the first time the two meet officially.