"Today's Not My Day, Monster Sighted?! (part one)"
"Wait….*pants*….Mikasa….*pants*…I need to… " Armin's breathed so fast.
"What's wrong, Armin?" Mikasa asked.
Armin was at the back of Mikasa and the others. They were running on a field for their exercise. In a minute, Armin suddenly collapsed.
"Hey!" Sasha noticed. "Everyone, stop for a while! Armin collapsed!"
Marco looked at the condition of Armin. Marco told to them that he fainted because he was so tired. Thinking of a better solution, Sasha thought of some ridiculous one. "We need to give him a CPR!"
"What in the world did you get that?" Jean asked. "Why don't we just bring him to the infirmary or something?"
"It's no use." Ymir interrupted. "We need to treat him now. For now, someone must volunteer on giving him some air."
Mikasa quickly took of her jacket and fanned Armin. Connie gave him some water. A few seconds, Armin looked fine somehow. "Thank you, everyone."
"Armin, Mikasa and I told you not to overdo yourself. You can say that you're tired whenever you're feeling tired. Don't try to push yourself on heavy tasks." Eren said.
"I'm sorry guys." Armin felt disappointed.
During their breaktime, Armin helped Reiner and Annie picked up some large and long logs. Armin asked Reiner a question.
"Um, Reiner…" Armin gripped his own hands. "How can you stay fit or alright after running and working so hard?"
Reiner stopped for a moment to look at Armin. "Eh? Why did you asked that?"
"Well, you see…I have a low stamina. During our everyday trainings, I'm at the end of the line most of the time. Maybe I'm unfit to be part of the Recon Corps, The Garrison, or even the Military Police."
Reiner gave a dozen of logs to Annie. Reiner took some steps closer to Armin. "Armin, maybe you're lacking strength and stamina. What I'm trying to say is that maybe you're lacking nutrition or you're not having a proper exercise ever since you were a kid."
"Maybe that is" Armin looked at his hand. "I usually read inside our house back then. I often play with Eren and Mikasa."
"So right now, you'll have to start on working hard." Reiner put his hand on Armin's shoulder. Armin agreed with his opinion. They continued on cutting some wood and piled each for a campfire evening. Carrying the logs, Armin stopped walking.
"Wait, Reiner. I remembered something. I think I left my notebook on the forest. You go now and I'll try to go back as fast as I can." Armin said.
"Ok." Reiner continued to walk straight while Armin headed in the forest. While running, Armin looked at the surroundings in search of his notebook. Upon remembering where he left it, Armin noticed a blue butterfly. "Wow, it's beautiful." When the butterfly flew away, he continued to run but suddenly, he tripped on a stone and fell on a mud pit. "It…hurts…" Armin's body was covered in mud. "Ugh, now what?"
Full of disappointment, Armin just continued to run and he finally found his notebook. While he was on his way, he got tripped again by a rock. "Ouch! Again?!" Armin's face was full of dirt and has small wounds. He couldn't see a thing due to that he can't open his eyes thanks to the mud. On his way back, he accidentally bumped in a tree's trunk. He felt a little dizzy because of the damage he dealt in his head. "Why am I so clumsy?" Without a choice, Armin just continued to walk on his way back in the camp. His movements were not stable. He goes left and right but he can't walk straight in the path.
When the sun's almost set, Jean noticed that Armin was not around yet. "Reiner, do you know where Armin is?"
"He said that he'll get his notebook on the forest and be back." Reiner said. Eren got a little worried when he heard that Armin's not back.
"He should be fine."Annie said. "He'll come back…maybe later." Annie went inside to help in arranging the tables.
During dinner, Mikasa noticed that Armin's nowhere to be found in the dining hall. Concerned, Eren kept on thinking where Armin could be.
Everyone was worried about Armin since it was night already. "I wonder where he is right now." Reiner said. "You said that he just went in the forest to find his book right?" Mikasa asked.
"Yeah, but I don't know a single thing about where could he possibly be right now." Reiner answered.
"I already talked to the others but they don't even know where he is right now." Christa said. "Maybe…" Sasha cut the discussion. "Maybe he was abducted!"
"Cut that crap out, Potato Girl!" Jean smacked Sasha's head by using his hand. "You're too old to believe that there are monsters or something."
"Yeah, but what if some exist?" Sasha was nervous.
"Hey, hey, calm down now." Marco said. "The best way maybe is to look for Armin outside so that our problems will be solved."
"I agree with that." Connie approved on Marco's idea. "Let's plan a team on searching for Armin."
Eren planned a search team. Annie and Bertholdt would be partners and search in the middle part of the training grounds for using 3DMG and killing titans, Reiner, Marco and him in the left side and Jean, Mikasa, and Connie on the right side. Ymir, Christa and Sasha will stay in the cabin. On Mikasa's party, Connie looked like he was out of himself.
"Are you afraid or something, Connie? You're holding tightly at the lamp." Jean asked.
"No, I'm fine." Connie said. "I'm not used on walking in a place full of high trees at night."
"Really?" Jean teased. "Maybe you're so scared that you might pee on your pants." Jean laughed.
"Oh yeah? I'm not scared about it. I'm more scared on how you look at-"
"You…" Jean covered Connie's mouth. Connie struggled.
"Will you please not fight this time?" Mikasa said. "A huge shadow could be disturbed because of you. It might show its huge sharp teeth and eat us."
Connie and Jean stared at Mikasa. "Hey, Mikasa, I never thought that you were that kind of person. Telling unbelievable but scary things like that will make us nervous." Connie said.
On the left side of the training grounds, Eren and the others shouted out for Armin. "Armin! Where are you?"
"I hope that we could find him here." Marco said worriedly. While walking, Eren noticed some footprints on their way. "Whoah. It's…mud." Eren examined it.
"It could be Armin…or something else." Reiner said.
"Reiner, please don't say something like that!" Marco said.
"Do you believe on Sasha's story?" Reiner asked. Marco shook his head. "Great, just believe that there are no monsters in this world except for "those" things."
Eren stopped walking. "Eren, ignore it." Marco said.
"Y-yes." Eren replied.
They continued to walk and noticed a jacket of a trainee in the ground. It's full of mud. Eren picked it up. "Do you think this is Armin's?"
"Maybe." Marco answered. "But, if that's Armin's , then where is he?"
Suddenly, a bush few meters away from them moved as if someone's hiding in it. "Shhh!" Marco said. Marco pointed on the bush. "Someone's in there…or about to come."
"I'll check it." Reiner volunteered but Marco said that he's the one that will go. Because of his trust on Marco, Reiner let him. Reiner and Eren who's holding a lamp waited for Marco that was walking towards the bush. Reiner and Eren positioned themselves in a trunk of a tree 10 steps away from where they stopped walking. When Marco touched and swayed the leaves, he screamed.
"Gaaaahhhh!" Marco started to run away and pulled Eren's shirt.
"H-hey! Wait!" Eren said.
The two of them left Reiner without realizing because Marco ran fast.
"Where are you going?!" Reiner shouted. Left behind and without a choice, Reiner let them go since his voice can't stop them from running. Reiner was brave enough to walk alone. He tried to get near of the bush where Marco was. When he put away the leaves he saw an unexplainable thing. Reiner couldn't believe on what he saw behind the bush.
On the other side of the forest, Connie grabbed a hold on Jean's sleeve while they're walking behind Mikasa's back.
"H-Hey don't hold on to my sleeve!" Jean warned.
"I-I can't help it! Because of Sasha's story, I couldn't help myself to be scared." Connie said while imagining the monster inside his mind.
Afterwards, they heard footsteps getting nearer to them. They saw a flash of light and seconds later, Marco and Eren showed up.
"T-There's a strange thing that I saw back where we are searching!" Marco shouted.
"W-What strange thing?" Connie asked.
"I don't know the whole details but when I saw that "thing", it's covered in mud."
While Marco's discussing the whole story, Mikasa noticed that Reiner's not with them. "Just a question, where's Reiner? I think he should be with you."
"Eh?!" Marco's surprised. "I didn't realized!"
"O-Of course b-because you p-pulled me away i-immediately and left R- Reiner a-alone." Eren was choked by Marco. Marco pulled him by holding on to the neckline of his shirt.
"I-I'm sorry Eren! I didn't notice that I pulled you in that way."
"Anyways, what about Reiner?" Jean asked. "You said you left him from where you saw that "thing" you're talking about."
"Crap! We should go back and find him!" Marco suggested.
"But what if the "thing" you're saying will appear?" Connie asked.
"If that thing appears, we should fight it." Jean answered. "I mean, we are trained to fight titans and protect these walls so why are we afraid of something that's smaller than a titan. Let's just imagine that we're fighting something that's far too small for being a titan."
"You're right." Mikasa pulled up her sleeves. "If that one's just like the size of a person or maybe a bit taller than Bertholdt, then it's alright for me to fight it without hesitation."
"Right…" Marco agreed. "…So let's go and find that "thing" and Reiner."
Everyone walked and began to search not only for Armin, but also for Reiner and to hunt down the "thing" that Marco encountered. They began to search and search until they saw Annie and Bertholdt on their way.
"Annie, Bertholdt, I thought you are searching on the middle part of the training grounds." Connie said.
"Yes but we didn't find Armin in there or any traces that Armin was in there...so far." Bertholdt said. "Also, we heard a loud scream so we postponed our search find out where that scream came from."
"Um, I'm the one who screamed." Marco pointed at himself."
"Since we are all gathered here, let's put all our efforts in search for Armin and Reiner." Mikasa said.
"Reiner?" Annie asked. "He's not someone who'll be left behind easily."
"Apparently, these two left him." Jean pointed at Eren and Marco.
"I'm sorry, Annie. I'm the one who pulled Eren with me to run away." Marco said.
"Let's save our conversations later. We should resume our search." Mikasa said.
Everyone headed back to where Marco and Eren were plus where they left Reiner and saw the mysterious figure that's covered in mud. While walking, Eren noticed some mud footprints on the ground. Connie had the idea of the "thing" Marco and Eren saw as the owner of the footprints.
"I told you before, Connie. It's only Sasha's way of scaring us." Jean said. "You should-"
"Ugh….ugh….."
"What was that?" Jean looked around.
"Ugh…ugh…"
"The sound's getting closer." Mikasa said. "I think it's this way." Mikasa, followed by Bertholdt and Annie, went to the right. A few seconds later, Eren realized that the three were no longer with them.
"Huh? Where are those two and Mikasa?"
Frightened, Connie started to pray. Jean and Eren tried to look around. While the three of them were facing on the north, Marco's facing south and that's where Marco noticed a huge shadow. Suddenly, their one and only lamp that Marco was holding went out of light. He didn't had the chance to see the mysterious shadow clearly.
"What happened on the lamp?!" Jean asked.
"It went out. It's not working anymore."
The strange shadow got nearer and nearer to them.
"Argh!"
"Ahhh!" Connie shouted. Since they don't know what it really was and because of its scary figure, all of them ran. They ran fast but the tall figure ran fast too.
"What are we gonna do? It keeps on following us!" Jean said.
"What's the matter?!" Connie shouted. "You're so brave a while ago and now you're whining about "that"?!"
"Hey, snap out of it!" Eren said. "We're being chased right now!"
At the other side of the forest, Mikasa, Bertholdt and Annie heard a big scream. Being curious, they followed the loud scream .
(To be continued)