Chapter 2: The Three
They made the Survey Corps sound like an adventure. Over the next two weeks the trainees talked about their years in training, what they thought it would be like in the coming year, and their hopes for the future.
Sometimes it was only four of them who visited the bar, sometimes all six, but among them, she always saw Erwin and Nile. The two were inseparable.
And she wasn't entirely ignorant about why they were visiting either. Even if her mother hadn't said, "I think they like you," while nudging her to their table, Marie could tell. She could see how their faces lit up, how they asked her how she was doing instead of just placing an order.
Other boys had looked at her that way before, and a few of them had been customers. She was never quite sure though, whether they liked her for herself, or because she happened to be a friendly barmaid willing to talk to them. Her friends said it was because she was pretty, and she knew her long hair was something trainees didn't often see among their peers, but still...
She wasn't surprised that a trainee close to her age, one that was close to graduation, would start thinking about courting a girl, but she wasn't sure that she should be that girl.
These six would probably transfer to Shiganshina or somewhere around Wall Maria after graduation if they were joining the Survey Corps, and that meant if there was going to be any lasting relationship with any of them she would have to move to wherever they were posted. It wouldn't be like the training camp, where they were just a quick ride away.
Marie liked it here in Wall Rose, and she was an only child. Her parents were still healthy, but she didn't know about the future. Staying here would be best for their sake.
"Do you want to go out to the Titan Forests?" asked Erwin. "We were thinking of going somewhere on our last day of break. The bar is closed that day, right?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Marie could see her mother watching, amused. She'd told her mother that the trainees were in the top of their class, but not that they wanted to enter the Survey Corps. Her mother probably thought an MP would be a good match for her. Stable job, and with good pay if he moved up the ranks. After all, only the best could make it in.
"Who's going?" she asked.
"Well, it was supposed to be four of us," said Nile, "but Werner and Brett decided they'd rather rest up before training starts again. So it's just Erwin and me. But we'd love your company."
The two of them. That might not be so bad. Then it wouldn't really be a date.
"We plan to take a carriage out," said Erwin, "and then go for a walk down the trails out there. One of the instructors says there's a good one northeast of here that isn't too crowded, and he's willing to loan us a map."
Marie glanced at her mother, who gestured for her to go ahead, and inwardly sighed. Not because she didn't want to go, but because she was afraid of what her mother would make of the trip afterwards.
"It sounds like fun," she said. "When did you want to meet?"
Erwin's face brightened immediately. "We'll flag down a carriage in the morning, so we can spend the day out there. We can pack a lunch..."
"I can take care of lunch," said Marie. She waved vaguely behind her in the direction of the kitchen. "You guys pay for the carriage and we'll call it even."
"Sure! Let's do that."
"The door's still open, even at week's end," said Marie. "Just call out when you get here. We have a few customers that stop by and pick up orders for bread or pies on the day we're otherwise closed."
-AoT-
The day of the trip, Marie made certain to pack their lunch early, and to fill the basket herself lest her mother get involved. Her father didn't hover nearly so much, though he did remind her of how to throw a man and kick him while he's down. They were basic lessons for dealing with unruly customers who might be inclined to try something with a young barmaid. Or at least, he had treated them as basic lessons before he'd allow his daughter to go work the bar.
He also asked her if she wanted to borrow his shotgun for the day. Her father was licensed to keep one, and being a bar owner it was good for security. He'd taught her to use it too, but that wasn't what she wanted to bring on a sightseeing trip with two trainees. Maybe if they were going hunting, but she didn't think this was going to be that kind of trip.
Maybe she should have asked. If she bagged something, she could take it home for cooking.
The faces of Erwin and Nile popped in her mind and she wondered how they'd feel about that. Most barmaids didn't go hunting. Truthfully she didn't much either. But if you had a gun and you were hungry, hunting started looking pretty good. Especially if business was bad. It wasn't right now, thankfully, but fortunes change.
When she heard the knock at the door and spotted Erwin through the window she shouted, "I'm heading out, Mama, Papa! I'll see you later!"
She caught her mother wishing her luck as she opened the door, bell jingling, and she saw Erwin and Nile on the other side. The sun was bright and she shaded her eyes with her hand. This was the first time she'd seen them in daylight, and she hadn't realized how tall Erwin was. Nile was fairly average, but Erwin was taller than her dad.
"We got the carriage," said Nile, which she could see behind them, and he held open the door for her.
The inside was large enough to comfortably seat four. She sat on one side and the two trainees planted themselves opposite her, and she wasn't sure if that was for her comfort or because one of them would not forgive the other if he took the initiative to sit next to her.
"Do they have picnic grounds out there?" she asked, as she felt the carriage start moving. "If not, we can eat along the way."
Erwin glanced at the ceiling, clearly trying to recall, and Nile flatly said, "I don't know."
"We should have brought a blanket or something to sit on, just in case," said Erwin.
Nile shook his head. "We'd have to haul it around afterwards. It wouldn't be convenient. It's not like we could fit it in a lunch basket."
"A thin one might fit in a rucksack."
"It's all right," said Marie. "I didn't bring anything that can spill. We should be fine eating in here."
And they were.
The trip out to the forest was easy, the carriage taking the worn path carved by the many carriages before them. They couldn't entirely avoid dropping a few crumbs, but she'd packed sausage rolls and dried apples, things that kept and did not make a mess. When they arrived at the carriage station, the sun was up high and the air was warm, making it feel a little closer to summer than spring.
Nile paid the driver and Erwin unfolded a map in front of her, so she could see the layout of the trails. "Where do you want to go?" he asked.
She peered up, and the trees were so tall they seemed to go on for forever. Then she looked down again and ahead of where they stood. There were other carriages waiting, having deposited their customers and remaining ready for whenever someone wanted to head back. Just beyond them was an inn for overnight travelers, and furrther out, a path plunging deep into the mammoth forest.
"Going inside there... it's like getting eaten," she said.
Nile chuckled, and she saw he'd rejoined them. "The trees aren't titans," he said. "And they're tall enough to make even titans look small."
"Have you ever seen one?" she asked. "A titan?"
He shook his head.
"We have models for training," said Erwin. "They're made to be the same height as the real ones. Everyone has to practice against them, even if they have no intention of joining the Survey Corps. It's so if the walls are ever breached the soldiers will know how to fight them."
If the walls ever were...
"We're not really in danger of that, are we?" she asked.
"I doubt it," said Nile. "Otherwise the Garrison would never get away with slacking as much as they do. One of our instructors said that the titans often pound at the walls, but they're too thick for them to break though. Apparently if you're on top of Wall Maria you can see them milling around below."
"So how tall are they?"
Erwin pointed at a thick branch a meter or so over the roof of the inn. "A small one might go up to there. A big one, three or four times the size."
Her eyes bugged. The tree still had plenty of trunk left to go before reaching the upper branches, but at least those didn't move. The idea that there was something that large that chased people, that ate them... No wonder humanity moved behind the walls.
"So did you pick a route?" asked Nile.
Marie shook her head. "Did you guys have a preference?"
"Only if you don't," said Erwin, again offering her the map.
She studied it and said, "Let's take this one."
The map called it the Wildflower Trail.
-AoT-
Marie chose it because the trail wound along the outside of the Titan Forest and because of the name. It was spring, and the trail lived up to the promise of its naming, with gorgeous beds of wildflowers lining the edges of the forest.
"It's like a lake of flowers," said Marie, looking at the waves of white, pink, and lilac that stretched as far to the west as she could see.
The early afternoon sun shone down and the air was comfortably warm beneath its light, cooler in the shade beneath the mammoth trees. Marie loved the smell of the flowers and the forest; earthy, clean. There were others on the trail with them, some families, some couples, but the three of them were the only ones who stopped here, right where the flowers met the forest.
They grew tall, almost to her waist, and stopped only where the path had been worn down by many human feet. And still they were so incredibly dwarfed by the nearest trees only a few meters away.
"I guess there's nothing quite like this in town," said Erwin.
"It looks like they go on forever," said Marie, "like they could stretch all the way to Wall Sina."
"Did you want to stop and pick some?" Nile asked.
She looked around and saw that some people had, but she shook her head. "No, I think they're better this way. They wouldn't look as good sitting in the bar. No one would know how beautiful they really are."
It was their height, the sheer numbers of them that made them what they were. At home she could keep them in a vase, but they weren't bred to be decorations. They probably wouldn't last nearly so well as those raised and cut by a florist.
Still, she cradled one in her hand and stroked the silky petals, taking care not to break it away from the rest of the plant. It was good to have come out here, to remember there was more than life in bars and streets full of people.
"Do you have a favorite type of flower?"
It was Erwin who asked, and she glanced down, pretending to be absorbed in the one she held.
She realized that he probably wanted to know for a reason, and she wondered if that meant he wanted to give her flowers.
That would be... nice, she thought. Maybe it wouldn't have to mean anything, but it would be nice. No one had ever given her any before, even the other trainees who had flirted with her in the past. They talked a good game, but in the end nothing changed.
"White calla lilies," she said. "They look like bells and remind me of home."
The bell that rang every time the door to the bar opened, but pale like snow.
"Are there any here?" Erwin shaded his eyes with his hands and looked out over the flowery expanse.
"Doesn't look like it," said Nile.
"There aren't any," said Marie. "I just meant they're my favorite in general."
She tried to hide the disappointment she felt. Marie had hoped his question meant she would receive flowers later, when they got back, but maybe that wasn't really why he'd asked at all.
A/N: This chapter ends a little sad, but don't worry, Marie will getting a surprise next chapter. I hope people are liking her, considering that she hasn't been portrayed in the manga or anime, so we don't really know her personality. I really want her to be her own character rather than a nebulous girl that Erwin and Nile have fallen for. (And I like the idea that she knows how to use a shotgun because she works in a bar.)
While I made Marie a waitress at her parents' bar for this story, I don't think it's actually said that she worked at the bar where they met her. She could have been another customer.
If you haven't followed any of my work before, I tend to post a chapter each week on Saturday nights according to my time zone (west coast US) so everyone has a new chapter by Sunday.
