A/N Originally, there was no A/N here, but I feel like a MAJOR apology is needed. This was SUPPOSED to be updated last week, but it seems the dumbass in me said we were going to NOT actually update the story on the 11th... THANK YOU to the one who kindly informed me that I had not updated... (I'm sorry!)


The boy blinked and squinted up at the sky, it was colored a myriad of blues and yellows from the rising sun. He sat up, stretched and observed his surroundings before he frowned, confused. Why was he in a meadow? How did he get there? Where was the forest he came from? There it was: behind him. Where was his mother? His father?

Like water from a stalactite in an old cave, memories trickled back to him: the image of the blood smeared across the window, the almost black fingerprints against the wood of the sill, the foul scent of something metallic. They resurfaced in his mind like lanterns in fog, slowly walking to the center of his attention, unforgiving and relentless in their approach.

The boy turned over and propped himself up on his hands and knees as he heaved, panting and choking as he sobbed. Grief had not made itself known to him before, but now it was suffocating. He didn't know what to do. His mother and father were gone. His world was entirely demolished by their absence. He didn't even get to say good-bye.

Questions poured through his mind in a waterfall of misery. How was he going to live? Who would be waiting at the door for him to come home? Who would sing him to sleep when his nightmares held him fast in the shadows of his fears? Where were his friends?

That last question caused his head to snap up, as though they might be standing just a little ways off, waiting for him like they always had. After a fruitless search, the boy continued to crumble.

They weren't there. He didn't even know if they were alive. The entire village had held the silence and the heaviness of death, an atmosphere he had not recognized until the fates of his parents were made clear.

The child cried until tears no longer flowed and his throat was raw from the sobs that seemed to rip his emotions out of him like the teeth of a wolf. He cried until his head felt as though it would either collapse in on itself or explode from the immense pressure of grief that stretched on endlessly and consumed him whole. He cried, and cried, and cried until the wails petered to whimpers, which then weakened to sniffs, and finally to nothing.

His whole body felt numb. Numb and cold even as the day's too-bright sun beat down on him with the warmth and happiness he used to relish. Even as the tall grass whipped against his face in the cool, gentle breeze that dried his tear streaked face while it tugged playfully at his hair and at his scarf. His hands were clenched in fists that grasped at nothing but were white from the latent effort to just hold on.

It wasn't until an old voice called out to him from a little ways off that he noticed he was no longer alone. His head whipped around to face the older man walking toward him. The boy rubbed his swollen eyes to clear them of the lingering tears, and scrubbed at his puffy cheeks to rid them of the remnants of the rivers that flowed. Once the elder was near enough, he called out again.

"Hello." His greeting was croaky, but it held a music to it that was gentle and warm. "Are you lost out here, young one?"

He crouched down with his elbows resting on his knees in front of the boy, not too close, but not all that far away. For a while, the boy didn't answer, untrusting. He studied the elder, his brown and silver streaked hair that floated in with every gust, the twig and vine basket strapped to his back, the wrinkles and laugh lines adorning his face. The boy didn't sense anything particularly dangerous about this person, so he responded with a tentative nod.

"I assumed. There aren't any settlements near here, and you are all too small to be out and about on your own. Where are you from? Do you have a name?"

"I-" the boy tried, but erupted into a coughing fit. His throat was still raw. "I-my home-it's…." Before he could go on, he was stopped by another fit and a painful headache. He clutched at his hair and pulled, trying to lessen the pain by gaining a new one. It did not work.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" The elder reached out to the boy, lightly grabbing his wrists and forcing him to let go before he did any damage. "Tell me, child."

"My-my head…" the boy whimpered.

"You look as though you've been crying for quite some time. You're most likely dehydrated. Here, I have some water. You should drink." He procured a metal container and pressed it into the boy's hands. "Take it. It'll make your headache go away and give that voice of yours voice back."

The child took the water and downed it. The cool liquid soothed his throat, but not entirely, and his head stopped its throbbing. He gave a weak smile of thanks.

"Better?" The boy nodded. The elder took his bottle back, and unstrapped his basket to lay beside him. The lid bounced a bit, sliding over the top to make a crescent window to see into the basket. The boy immediately recognized the plants inside as wild rose, purslane, garlic and plantain: all medicinal herbs.

"Now, tell me why one so young is so far away from home? You are obviously no normal runaway, as they never go more than a mile or two out." The man's old grey eyes were creased with concern.

"It's gone," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"Gone? What's gone?" The elder leaned forward, the concern seeping into his every feature.

"Mother. Father. They're gone, too." The boy felt the burning behind his eyes and knew that if he hadn't already cried the last of his tears, they would be flowing out of him, again.

"Do they have names?" The boy nodded.

"Carla and Grisha. They…they were the doctors of our village." It felt so…wrong, coming from his mouth, to refer to his parents in the past tense.

The elder was silent for some time after that as he processed this information. When finally he did speak, it was in a quiet voice that held no pretense of a promise of what was to come.

"I am sorry to hear that, my child." The elder's voice rang deep with sorrow. "If…if there were ever a way I could undo what has been done, I would do it now. No child should be left without parents so early in life. What about the rest of your village? Would they not take you in?" The boy shook his head, slowly.

"I don't think they're there anymore…" he mumbled as he was dragged back to when he first arrived back at the clearing, before he went home…before he saw what he wished he had not had to see.

The elder did not say anything for a long time after that. He seemed to be deep in thought, even as he nodded along to whatever it was running through his head. It seemed as though lifetimes had passed before he resurfaced from his thoughts and addressed the child.

"Did you have a destination in mind? Some family to stay with until you can set out on your own?" he asked, though it was obvious he expected not. When the boy shook his head 'no', he nodded. "I didn't think so…. You could come back with me. I haven't got much to offer, but I do have food and a roof. You would be safe."

The boy's eyes went wide. Could he be serious? He nodded slowly, still cautious, but what other choice did he have?

"That's good." A relieved smile stretched across the man's lips. "We should probably get you to my village then. It's just a little ways in that direction." He pointed in the direction he had come. "Can you walk?"

The boy nodded, but as he rolled onto the balls of his feet into a crouch and started to extend his legs, he realized his mistake. His legs wobbled dangerously until they collapsed beneath him. He was braced for impact with the unforgiving earth, but it never came. Instead, the elder's hands had caught him just after he began to fall, and lowered him to the ground again.

"I'll take that as a no, then." His eyes wrinkled as he gave the boy a small smile. "No matter, I can carry you."

After another nod from the boy, the elder slung his basket over his shoulders, replacing the lid and strapping it into place. Then, he scooped the boy up so that he was sitting over his shoulders. The boy locked his legs loosely around his neck and he curled around the elder's head to keep his balance as they went.

The pair had started no more than fifty paces from the edge of the forest. They had made it less than half that distance before someone burst into the clearing, running at full speed.

"Hey!" he called, voice still distant but easily heard. There was an urgency woven into it that caused the elder to halt in his steps and turn to face the newcomer.

"A Runner?" the boy wondered aloud. He had never seen one, but had heard of them and knew a little about what their jobs were. His friends had, on more than one occasion, told him stories of the tales they had carried. It seemed to him that these people were never the bearers of pleasant news.

The Runner's paces grew steadily slower and shorter as he neared, until he was standing only a few steps away. He was panting, but that was quickly subsiding as the Runner regained his breath.

"Head home and alert your neighbors. Humans are riding."

The boy felt the elder stiffen beneath him as they both felt the fear that came with the mention of the ancient race. Though it was rare for anyone to come into contact with them, the child had often heard tales of their natures and he wanted nothing to do with them.

"How far off?" The elder asked, his voice surprisingly strong. The boy glanced around, afraid the humans would suddenly appear, pointed teeth bared, covered in the blood of his people and ready to slay him, too.

"They keep changing their direction, so it's hard to say for certain whether they'll come this way. If they stay on course though, you don't have much time to get away."

The elder nodded and the Runner took off again, continuing his duty to spread the warning. As soon as he ran a few paces, the elder put the child on the ground.

"Wait here," he demanded as he sprinted a safe distance away from the boy, heading toward the forest.

Just as the boy started doubting whether he was actually going to come back or just keep running and leave him helpless at the mercy of humans, the elder stopped. He was just at the edge of the tree line, digging in his pocket. Once he found what he was searching for, he withdrew his hand to display a small knife, which he then pressed into the pad of his thumb. His eyes met the child's just as a bolt of lightning snapped toward the skies, and a mist-shrouded giant stood in his place.

The giant knelt, leaning forward on his knees to reach for the boy, nudging the child toward him with slow and tiny twitches of his fingers. Amazed at the level of control, the boy nodded and started to stumble forward.

Suddenly, the boy heard thunder...only it wasn't thunder. It was quieter, rhythmic and rolling longer than any thunder he had heard.

The warrior titan gave him a more incessant nudge, and the boy tripped forward. He fell and watched the elder lower his hand over him, careful not to crush him just as the source of the thunder came into view.

The boy sat up and peered through a gap between the titan's fingers. From there he could see them: the humans. Terror coursed through him, and he fell back, settling around the elder's thumb. He silently wrapped his arms around the warm appendage, taking comfort in the heat and strength it held. He felt it twitch back and knew that this elder would not let these humans kill him. Not while he was alive.

At first, it had seemed like the humans had missed them. The boy drew a shaky breath and released it slowly as relief spread released the tension in his legs and shoulders. But then the thunder slowed and grew louder, as though more sources joined the existing ones. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn't help. The humans were advancing, unrelenting in their approach.

The boy heard them talking. He couldn't understand their words, but when they stopped, his heart did too. He couldn't move. He couldn't see beyond the protective fingers, but he knew the humans were going to attack the elder…probably killing him in the end. Humans were not the most merciful creatures.

When the thunder suddenly picked up speed and spread out, slowly circling around the two, his grip on the giant's thumb tightened. He curled up to the appendage in a defensive ball, much like a chipmunk in the crook of a tree, and sucked his lower lip between his teeth to keep from shouting. Maybe, just maybe, they'll leave them alone. Please, if there were ever a higher power watching over them, please let them make the humans go away.

Tiny explosions, the screech of metal on metal, unintelligible shouting…the sounds assaulted his ears as he trembled. The elder's hand remained steady, but through the fingers he witnessed the humans riding on deer-like creatures, large knives in each hand. He watched as things shot out from them and lifted them out of view, heard the sound of skin being sliced and expulsion of steam, and could only imagine what they were doing to the elder's giant form.

He felt and heard the giant's movements as he attempted to ward off the human enemies, but even without seeing it, he knew his protector was slow in his size and old age. He heard happy cries from the humans…and that couldn't be good. He felt as the thumb lifted a bit off the ground when the elder leaned to his side, but then it returned to it's position a moment later.

The worst happened after only a few seconds later. The boy could only watch as it played out. One human, the same who spotted him at first, lifted off his mount and attacked his defender's hand, quickly slicing through the muscles. The fingers forming his protective cage relaxed, nearly falling on him as the giant's arms were slice through as well.

He was left completely exposed.

Another human rode in on her mount, grabbing him by collar of his sweater and pulling him up with her. He fought her, he really did, but in doing so his arm collided with her blade. The pain was immense and he relented. The human didn't even seem to notice his injury as she was too focused on moving away from his protector to pay attention to much else.

Through eyes nearly shut from the searing pain, the child looked back at the giant, and saw was horrified at the damage he had taken. He was not dead, but he could have been if he hadn't somehow situated himself to where his neck was shielded by a relatively low tree branch. Instead, the monsters had resorted to cutting through every important muscle they could to ensure he would be unable to move for a while. Already, hot steam was exuding from his wounds as the elder's giant form healed.

The humans were already riding away from their victim, gaining distance on their deer-like mounts to pull up beside him and his captor. The one who spotted him first was the first to catch up, exchanging foreign words with the woman, before falling silent.

The last thing he saw before his vision went dark was one of the giant's eyes open in time to watch him get stolen away.


Dearest Reader,

Hello, again!

Thank you for reading this far into my Fanfiction. I do hope you are enjoying it. Yes, I do realize this chapter was rather short, but the next will be longer, I swear! (Update: and on time)

You all should really REALLY thank my beta for this chapter...I had a heck of a lot of corrections to make, so the quality all goes to them. (Update: as does the actual update, because in all honesty, this would probably still be sitting as a document on this site, never made available to the public until June 11th...)

If you feel so obliged, I would love to hear your thoughts/theories(though there is not much to go on)/questions/comments/concerns/observations/etc. so feel free to review or pm me, because I am open to either. :)

Thank you so very much for reading :D

Until next time

~Clumsy Owl

A very special thank you to all who REVIEWED, FAVORITED, and/or FOLLOWED! It really means a lot to me!

Guest: Thank you for your review ^^ It made me smile. Yes, the kid is Eren, and yes, he is outside the walls :) I hope you continue to enjoy the coming chapters.

Not So Human: I'm so sorry! I actually plan to keep this on a monthly update, so I understand if this fic becomes forgettable... And Hanji can really only speak some german, though that is going to be explained in Chapter 4. THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEW ^^

Pink Blood: Sorry about the bold lettering. It is really only there to keep me from getting confused (I'm quite prone to that, sooo...) And I AM REALLY SORRY ABOUT THE CLIFFHANGAR! I wrote this chapter within a week of the previous update :( I'm sorry! But thank you for your thoughts ^^

guest777: I'm really glad you like this story ^^ Haha all will be explained in due time, but I can't answer any of your questions like this just yet. Thank you for your review ^^