Slightly panicked, Linden asked, "You see a titan?"
Aleo shook his head and pocketed the map. "No, not yet..."
Clumsily, he drew two sword blades from his non-damaged sheath. "But we might, so get your gear ready, and let's get past these woods before the sun sets."
Linden nodded, and put her hands on her blade handles, drawing out two blades. Cautiously, they entered the forest, staying on the dirt path which cut right through it. Leaves crunched under their boots as they walked, weapons ready, neither speaking. Then, a rather loud snap of a branch came from their right, and Aleo froze. "Stop," he hissed through clenched teeth.
Linden stopped suddenly and looked towards the sound of the noise. The woods remained silent. Then came another snap and a rumble as a tree fell to the ground. Loud, erratic grunts and breathing could be heard as the ground began to shake. Down in the woods, slowly lumbering through the dense trees, a 5 meter class titan stumbled towards the two scouts. Aleo looked at her. "Run!"
Panicked, she grabbed him by his waist harness and, using the 3D gear, hoisted them into a large tree. Aleo squealed and latched onto a branch, clinging to it for dear life once she let go of him. Without his gear to save him, he was deathly afraid of heights. He glowered at her as the titan stumbled up to the tree, and began pawing at it in an effort to reach its prey, to no avail. "What the hell?! We could have easily outrun that thing!"
"Me yes, but what about you?!" Linden retorted.
He frowned, she had him there. There wasn't a chance he could have outrun the titan. "Whatever..." he grumbled, looking down at the titan. "Well, now we're stuck here, with a titan beneath us, and the sun is about to set and leave us in the dark. So...what are we gonna do?"
"Well, before it gets dark, I say we try our best to kill this one before others come, get the gas, and get the heck outta here."
He looked down at the titan again. "Okay. You're the one with the working gear, so you'll have to kill him." He looked at the swords in his hands. "Not much I can do, unless...okay, I have a plan. But I need you to be REALLY quick when we execute it."
"What is it?" she asked, staring at the titan.
He gripped his sword handles tighter, his knuckles turning white. "I'm gonna jump down from here and cut it's eyes. But since I'll be close to its mouth, the SECOND I blind him, I need you to cut his nape. Alright?"
She was terrified of this plan, seeing that she wasn't good at doing these tricky maneuvers and stuff, but she nodded and said, "I'll get behind him first." She pointed to another tree behind it.
"I'll attack from there. but I got to go there fast so he doesn't have time to react. Right as I hit the tree, you jump down and hit the eyes."
"Got it," Aleo said. He adjusted the grips and crouched, ready to pounce. "Go!"
She leaped at the tree, launching the grapples at it. She turned around in midair and landed on the tree in a crouched stance. Linden prepared to launch herself forward. As soon as her boots touched the tree, Aleo jumped. The titan groaned and reached up to grab him, but missed. Aleo sunk the blades deep into its eyes, and twisted. The blades snapped in two with a metallic cracking noise. The titan screamed in pain, clawing at the blades in its eyes, as Aleo jumped to the ground and landed with a thud. "Now, do it!"
She pushed her legs against the tree, letting the grapples release, and aimed at the titan's neck. She shot them towards the said area and landed a deep blow at the nape. Linden rode the titan's body as it fell to the leafy forest floor, jumped off, and fell over onto the ground. Aleo let the shattered blade tangs fall from the grips and shakily got to his feet, titan blood steaming off his clothes. "Nice job," Aleo praised her. "Now let's get the hell out of this forest."
She shakily got up, and looked at her chipped blades. "I did it... I actually killed a titan." she breathed.
Linden had no doubt in her mind that she was trained well, but she never had confidence on the subject of actually killing a titan. She always sort of stayed away and let the others get at it. She'd never killed one before, and although she was inwardly proud of herself, she was still shaky from the action and her heart was pumping hard.
Aleo led them out of the forest, and there, at the end of the path, was a village similar to the one they had been in the night before, only smaller. In the middle was a dusty, vine covered brick building, with a torn and tattered scouting legion flag mounted atop it, flapping in the light breeze.
"There it is," Aleo said proudly. He began walking faster towards it. "C'mon, the sun is setting. Let's fuel up and make camp, we won't be able to see anything once it's dark."
Linden breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the flag, and replied "Right!" She walked over to the station, too tired to run, which she would have done if she had more energy, and switched out her gas with some new gas, and the blades as well. "I'm so glad we made it this far." she marveled.
Aleo replaced his damaged blade sheath and restocked his gas and blades. "Yeah. Now we have a real fighting chance." It took a while, but he finally found some canned food among the dusty supplies. "Here," he said, giving her a little pouch of cans. "If you sort these out and figure out what's still good, I'll see if there's anything else we can use."
She took the pouch and peeked inside seeing a few cans, all without labels. "Alright! Boy am I hungry. I wonder what might be in these tin containers of delight?"
"Save me some!" Aleo called from the other room, digging through random crates and boxes of old supplies.
"Fine! If you insist!" She laughed, and then proceeded to open one of the cans of food. Inside were some beans. "My favorite kind of ration! Hey Aleo, I found BEANS!"
He mocked surprise. "Oh boy! The most scrumptious delicacy in the world!"
As she opened another can, she replied "Ohh you know me and my love for beans!" She looked down into the can and found a potato.
Aleo came back out, two packs of supplies on one shoulder. In his arms he held two flintlock muskets and a baggy of ammo and powder. "Hey, lookie what I found."
She looked at him. "Awesome! I haven't used one of these since training!" She put down the cans and held one of the muskets.
Aleo began toying with his, setting the packs down between them. "Not much use against titans, but I didn't want to leave these babies here to rot." He cocked the hammer. You any good with it? I don't remember much of the rifle training, I spent most of that time playing with cannons they brought in for us to use."
"I'm a decent shot. While dinner cooks, how's about we try out a few shots?"
He smiled and looked at the empty cans next to the cooking food. "I'm down for a little competition," he said cockily.
She grinned and said "You're on!" She then pointed to a chimney atop one of the nearby houses. "We'll try to hit that chimney!"
Aleo opened a window and set the ammunition on a small table by it between them. "Alright. We each get five shots, whoever hits most wins!" He said, ramming a round down the barrel.
She got her musket ready as well and asked, "Who's first?"
Aleo quickly took aim and fired off a shot, the musket letting out a thunderous boom and a puff of white smoke that drifted off. He grinned at her. "Me."
Linden went to the window and aimed as well. "No matter who goes first, I'll still win!" She then pulled the trigger, and missed the target.
Aleo raised an eyebrow and loaded the firearm again. "Really now?" He aimed again and fired, taking a chunk of brick off the chimney. "I was the one who hunted for the meat we ate in training, you think you can win this?"
They had great fun firing at the chimney, Aleo winning, and then they went to eat. Linden stirred the beans in a pot that was found among the supplies. The potato was cooking in the flames.
"How's the food coming?" Aleo asked as he fiddled with their packs, attaching an extra gas tank to either side of each so they'd both have a spare set of canisters. Once that was done, he moved to polishing the brass barrel of his rifle.
She took in a deep sniff of the food's smell and replied "It's coming great. Almost done now, and it smells DELICIOUS." She was obviously quite excited for the food.
Aleo grinned and slung his new musket over his shoulder. "Well, while you do that, I'm gonna take a leak," he said. As he neared the door he paused. "You think we should barricade this tonight, or no?"
"Might as well. Have fun by the way!"
"Will do," he called from outside.
For about a minute it was quiet, then he called from outside again. "Uh, Linden? Can you come here please? This... you need to see what's out here." He sounded frightened, but also a tad curious.
Worried, she replied "Coming." She stepped outside and asked, "What is it...?"
What she saw was absolutely terrifying, and the oddest thing a soldier could see. Aleo was backed up against the building by a 4 meter class titan. For a titan, it looked fairly normal, no deformities like most others. It wasn't attacking him though, only studying him with a curious look, head tilted to one side, as it watched the boy who was training his rifle on it.
Seeing Linden, he said quietly. "It's an abnormal, I think. Don't...don't startle it."
She stood there frozen for a moment but calmed herself and replied quietly! "Yeah, I won't. Should I go around slowly and attack?"
Aleo shook his head, slowly lowering his rifle. "No...no, not yet." Slowly, he started sidestepping, and the titan didn't stop him, just followed him with it's gaze. Soon, he was by Linden, the titan watching the both of them. "Has anything like this been seen before? Like, did Hanji ever mention anything?" He asked quietly.
"I overheard her talking with Captain Levi about a journal that was found in an old tree, left by a soldier in a similar situation to us, only way worse. A titan didn't attack, and even spoke. I didn't hear any more because Levi shooed me away."
"Damn," he said. He looked up at the titan. "I guess it's a good thing Hanji isn't here, she'd probably scare it off." Slowly, he took a step towards it, one hand raised up and out. "I wonder if..."
"Idiot, do you have a death wish?" She whispered, terrified, but too afraid to suddenly reach out and pull him back.
"Shh!" He shushed her. "Don't scare it off, do you know how useful this thing might be?" He stopped a few feet short of the titan. It was couching, so it only stood a foot or two over him. "Hey there buddy," he said in a soothing tone.
It tilted it's head and reached it's hand down, prodding his with one of its fingers. It showed no sign of aggression at all. He looked back at Linden. "Come on, I don't think he's gonna eat us."
Looking utter mortified, she whispered harshly, "Sorry, But I'm not going near that thing!"
Ironically, she was loud enough to gain the interest of the titan, which began shambling towards her, remaining crouched. Aleo drew his hand grips and locked in a pair of blades, but didn't draw them. He watched, because if it didn't attack, his assumption it was a docile aberrant would be proved.
Linden however immediately put her hands to her blades and drew them. "Oh shit, it noticed me!"
"Hey, easy! I don't think it'll hurt you, just...just don't fight it. Let's see what it does..." Aleo called.
"But what if it DOES attack?" Linden was starting to panic.
"Then I'll kill it! Just calm down!" The titan stopped before her, towering over the girl, eyes wide in its ever-curious expression. Linden stared right at it, completely terrified, and fell to her knees. Breaths came in short gasps. 'How do I breath again?' she thought to herself. It knelled in front of her, and with one hand, picked her up off the ground. It wasn't forceful like most titans though, and it only held her at eye level, making no attempt to harm Linden. Aleo released the swords but ran over around the titan to face it. It didn't notice him, just kept Linden suspended in mid air by the collar of her jacket.
Linden didn't say anything, just stared at it, as it stared at her. She was utterly confused by the actions of the titan, and why Aleo was acting so strange, risking her life like that. So many thoughts added with her terror made her pass out.
When she came too, she was back inside the building, laying on a bed roll Aleo had acquired, his cloak draped over her. Aleo was by the window, cleaning his rifle, and lo and behold that same damn titan was outside it, watching him disassemble the musket and clean each and every part, it's expression unchanging.
"Uhhhg..." she groaned as she sat up.
Aleo came over to her when he heard he wake. He knelt beside her. "Hey, you're awake. How you feeling?"
"I feel scared." She replied meekly.
He sighed. "I don't blame you. But hey, he didn't hurt you did he?"
"No..." she admitted reluctantly.
"Told you he wouldn't. But still..." he took a breath. "I'm sorry for putting you through that. It was stupid of me...can you forgive me, you think?"
She looked at him, and thought to herself how he must feel about it, and replied, "Yeah. Of course I forgive you. You're my friend."
He looked relieved. "Okay, good." He got back to his feet and retrieved the pot of still warm food. "Here, you should eat," he said, handing her the pot.
"Thanks," she replied, grateful for the food. She ate a few bites and then asked, "What happened while I was out?"
"Well, big guy," he motioned to the titan, "seems intent on staying around. Uh, other than him following me while I got stuff to make you a bed, you didn't miss much."
"Interesting..." she said, as she ate more of the beans. Then she added, "Maybe we should write about this on a crate or something. In case we do die... someone might discover the information." Then thinking ending it like that would upset her friend, she added, "Not saying we will die. I'm still intent on reaching the Wall."
Aleo nodded in agreement. "But I didn't find any notebooks or anything...and I doubt anyone even remembers this place is here."
True, but maybe we could write on a crate with the charcoal from the embers somehow." she said. "It might not do us any good, but we can do it anyway. Better to at least try on the off chance someone comes across this place like we did."
"True, but I'd rather not think we should consider that possibility," Aleo said. Suddenly he got an idea. "Hang on." He disappeared into the room over and returned with an arm full of maps a moment later. "We can use the backs of these and the charcoal from the fire."
"That will work! But before we start writing on any of them, maybe they had a map we could use instead of the one we have currently. Any maps of the close area up to the wall?
"He looked through them, and frowned. "No, none that I see."
"Ahh poo. I hate using the map we currently have." Linden thought complaining about the little things might bring back a bit of normalcy to them. She took one of the maps and a piece of charcoal and started writing about her observations of the titan.
"We should be fine though, all we need to do is go north. It's literally impossible to miss the Wall," he said with a laugh.
She smiled. "True. That thing is huge. When I was little, I always imagined that if I could climb it, I could touch the stars." She sighed from the feelings of nostalgia, but frowned as she remembered her dream.
"Well, we'll finally get to," he said. "Not like there is a gate for us too...hey, you alright?" He asked, seeing her frown.
Shaking it off, she replied "I'm just thinking of my dream."
He sighed. "Oh...yeah..." he laughed..."I was afraid my dream would be a reality when we found him," he motioned to the titan outside the window, who had since become inactive after a few hours with no sunlight.
She looked out the window. The titan seemed quite sleepy. "Well it didn't, and we have a good chance of getting back home. I can't wait to see the look on our team's face when they see us alive!"
Aleo smiled. "Hey, maybe they'll let us retire early..."
"That would be nice..." she said. "We should probably get some sleep though. It's late."
He yawned and found a dusty old couch to lay on. "Good point. We'll head out at first light, agreed?"
Linden yawned. "Agreed. Hey, this is your cloak. Do you need it?"
He shook his head. "Nah, use it as a pillow or something."
She folded the cloak and rested her head on it. "Goodnight."
Aleo yawned and rolled over on his side, using his arm as a pillow. "Goodnight Linden."