Been a while since I last updated, sorry. With college up my tail, I needed to redirect some of my Fanfiction attention into school.
Now then, I know I haven't introduced any AC characters, but we will get a mention in this one.
Responses:
august . sapphire: It's okay if your not good with games, i'm trying to make this as original as I can.
x jasmin x: Thank you for the compliment of chapter 2, I hope your fanfic's are doing good.
Nick 479: I'm not sure about Achilles, but i'm sure he'll fit in somewhere.
Now enjoy the chapter
Chapter 3: Aftermath
(Carla and Grisha's frantic reactions at Eren's house)
For the first half of the night, Carla was making a rut in her living room. On the other half she was just lying on the couch with her eyes refusing to shut. Dawn rises from behind the distant mountains. Completely distraught from her missing son, and her lack of sleep, she stomps out of her home, and shouts "Where are you EREN!?"
Grisha came home at his usual time, late. He found his wife on the couch in complete disarray. Carla told Grisha about his son's absence, and all he did was lock himself inside his office. He spent the rest of the night thinking of what possibilities have happened to his son. He wouldn't stop fiddling with the key around his neck, "Oh no, could the order have found him? If anyone finds him, please let it be the creed. Help me Desmond!" Grisha rattles all of that in his head over and over again.
In the morning, Grisha's hands were covered in sloppy ink and his wrists are littered with small pieces of feathers.
The upcoming sun ascends, and a horse gallops its way towards the house. Grisha opens the door to see who's on the way. Carla was still sobbing on the grass, so she didn't notice. Grisha saw a small stain of yellow hair atop of the horse, so it wasn't Eren. It was Armin
"Hey Carla!" Armin Gallops to her.
Carla was still under trauma, but she jumps the moment she hears her name, "Eren!" she suddenly erupts.
"No Mrs. Jaeger, it's me Armin." He then takes notice of Carla's swollen, red eyes, "What's wrong?" Armin is completely clueless.
Carla bursts out more tears, digging her nails in her hand. Grisha comes down to explain things to their guest, "Armin… Our son hasn't come back from hunting. Have you heard from him at all?"
Armin wishes he had the answer to this, but all he can offer to the table is, "No. No I haven't." with a quick brainstorm that suddenly jolts into his gun, he does have an alternative, "But I know where he would go to hunt. I'll go check there, and give you something."
Carla then sits back up, smiles, and gives Armin a bow, "Bless you Armin. You always were a kind heart."
Armin grins with his sincerest acknowledgements, "Okay, I'll get going."
(Back with Eren and his new friend Mikasa.)
The morning glare, pierces through Eren's eyelids. He awakens with no complaints, but he cannot move. Looking up to the visible stars, he can tell it's still early. Back down on Yggdrassil, he stares down to the angelic beauty nestling on his shoulder, Mikasa. Strands of her long, dark, and pure hair lays feathered on his hood. She still bares Eren's red scarf around her neck. Eren admits that it looks better on her than it did with himself, "She really is something." Eren believes.
Eren adjusts his interest to the dying fire of Mikasa's parents, the crooks, and horses. Nothing but ashes from this point forward. Eren removes his draped hood away from his chest, and tugs his shoulder out to wake up his new friend. Mikasa takes the whole hood and whorls herself inside its warmth. Eren really wants to let her sleep longer, she really needs it, but they need to get going.
"Mikasa wake up, we need to go." Eren shrugs the back of her shoulder
"Leave me alone Eren." Mikasa mumbles.
Eren tugs Mikasa out of her stumpy ball so she can embrace the sunlight, "Com'mon Mikasa you can sleep as long as you want when we get to the house. Let's get going."
"Huh…Okay." Mikasa unfurls out of her coil, and stretches her back out. She directs her attention to the fire that's going out. She can tell that her parents are at peace.
Eren breaks her moment of satisfaction with a question, "Hey I almost forgot to ask. What's your last name?"
"Oh, it's Ackerman."
"Mikasa Ackerman?" Eren returns the favor, "I'm Eren Jaeger."
Mikasa then takes Eren's words with a hint of astonishment, "Jaeger? You must have German heritage." Then she assumes something that can help them connect deeper, "Did you come from the east too?"
Eren begins to hesitate, it's hard to explain, "Well truth be told, I was born here, but my parents? They're from the east." Eren douses the black cremation spot, "Well not too far east."
Mikasa marks her face with a laughable grin, "Neither have I. I haven't been to my home."
Eren turns to align their gaze's, "Home." His face turns into a whirl of doubts. Leaving Mikasa confused into why he's smiling and nodding now with a chuckle, "Home isn't where you were born, it's where you're safe." Mikasa's face turns more pleased, "My home isn't in the east, it's in Verspruchen. It may be small, but that's where I know I'm safe.
"Safe…" Mikasa wouldn't move from hearing those words, in her mind she thinks to herself, about her home, "Eren, you are my home now."
Of course Eren is staring out into the woods, trying to recap where they are, "Alright, the road I came back from is this way. If my horse is still where I left him, we should be back sooner than you think." He turns his interest for Mikasa's agreement. She nods.
"Well come on. Let's get going." Eren insists, waving his hand
(Armin gallops over to where they last met.)
Armin knows Eren all too well; he's a good man, an excellent marksman, and he knows the woodland frontier just as he knows their town of Verspruchen. When Eren goes to hunt in the autumn season, he'll go to the northern region. It's the best area with the thickest game.
Spurring to his destination, his mind jolts to a promise Eren made to him. The town's best hunter told Armin that he'd teach him how to hunt. So far it's been two months since the promise was due, and nothing. Armin is a patient and kind hearted man, but he's worried why Eren hasn't fulfilled his promise.
Aside from Eren, there was Mina Carolina, Armin's crush, and all the bullies. He's hoping that if he knew how to hunt he wouldn't be seen as a loser, and a wimp.
Away from his train of thought, Armin found Emerald. He's just lying in the fields, tied up to a tree with nothing to do. Armin dismounted off his horse "Courageous" so he can see what's happened to Eren. Armin is no tracker, but he can tell that Emerald's been eating the grass all around him. That tells him that Eren has been gone for a while.
Armin hears twigs snapping and vague panting. He turns towards the forest, hoping that it's Eren, but it's not just Eren. Mikasa is sprinting out of the woods with Eren bleeding over her shoulder.
"What… the Hell?" Armin gasps, running towards this unknown woman, "What did you do to Eren?!" Armin suddenly accuses Mikasa to be the butt of ridicule.
"Not now, we need to get Eren to his fathers, where is Grisha?" Mikasa counters Armin's shock. He doesn't take it lightly, he's completely surprised that this girl knows Eren's father, and his profession.
"He's ugh duh he… He's this way! You take Eren's horse." Armin could barely believe he just said that to a woman he doesn't know, but she has Eren's body so that gives her some trust.
(Some time before)
Hiking back to where Eren left Emerald isn't hard, but the only thing that's making it hard is that he's got a hand to hold. At least he kept a hatchet from one of the crooks last night.
"Tell me something." Eren isn't making a question.
All Mikasa responds with is, "Hmm?"
"When I was being strangled by that guy, you took a pause. It's was if you were daydreaming."
"Oh, well that was…" Mikasa then takes a moment to remember what she was thinking of at that time, "When I saw you getting strangled, I realized something." Mikasa's gaze fades into melancholy, "This world is cruel." Her face gradually grows more subtle, "But it's also…" Mikasa's doesn't have the strength to speak her next set of words. So Eren pushes them out with his impatience.
"But it's also?" Eren repeats to keep Mikasa's thoughts afloat, as he rolls his hand.
Mikasa turns her head to Eren fast. "This world is also very beautiful." She shows no hesitation anymore.
Eren stops in his tracks, to let those words sink into his mind, "Mikasa… I can't agree more with what you think," Then he puts a hand on Mikasa's shoulders, and gives her a little talk, "This world being cruel and all, but let me give you something I learned in my life." Eren puts both of his hands on her shoulders and turns her gaze to the direction of his green eyes, "You fight. If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. You can't win unless you fight." Mikasa's face is completely swollen in heat, such inspirational words.
Mikasa looks to the ground, "Those are very good words." Mikasa hazily whispers.
"Thank you." Eren then tries to change the mood of the moment. "Believe it or not I wasn't always like this." He scratches the back of his neck.
"What do you mean?" Mikasa turns completely clueless.
"Well…For a while, I've always been a… how shall I say? An ass." Eren admits with a hint of hesitation in his eyes. Mikasa can hardly believe it. She doesn't say a thing, just gives Eren a look of confusion. So Eren continues his point, "When I was nine; I always got into fight's, argued with my parents, hit people who upset me, I was just an emotional cannon."
"What happened? Did you go through a crucible?" Mikasa is real interested in this topic.
"Ugh well…" Eren avoids eye contact so he can think straight, "Think we can talk about that part some other time?" Eren offers.
All Mikasa does is nod yes with a grin.
Eren changes the new subject by pointing to the device slung underneath Mikasa's wrist, "So what's this…" Eren hesitates to find the words he needs to describe this hidden blade, "This contraption?"
Mikasa appears just as clueless as Eren, "I don't really know its name, but I know how to use it," Mikasa then rolls up her sleeve to show a better look at this hidden blade, "All you have to do is attach this underneath your wrist, and hook this piece of string to your ring finger." Mikasa instructs her methods while she speaks. "Once that's done, pull out you're palm like this," She jerks out her wrist, and out comes the blade.
"That's amazing." Eren was completely impressed by this contraption.
Then all of a sudden, an odd tingling sense warned Eren of an ambush around them. Another group of bandits are right on top of them, Eren can see them. He has to think fast, or they'll run low on time. Eren turns to Mikasa, and makes an excuse to hand her his hunting knife.
"Mikasa, you've turned into a real nice girl," Eren doesn't show any sign of deception in his words. Mikasa starts to blush underneath her scarf so he can't really see it, "I want you to hold onto my hunting knife for me, okay?" Mikasa accepts the blade, and tucks it under her other sleeve. Eren then nods in satisfaction, "Because you never know when you're going to get…" Eren then pulls out his kunai knife from under his sleeve, and darts it to the tall bushes. "AMBUSHED!"
The man hiding underneath the green brush is struggling to remove the knife lunged into this throat. Eren then grabs Mikasa's hand and dashes for the dead body. Three more of the group uncover themselves and fire their musket rifles. With Eren's quick thinking, he and Mikasa take shelter behind their human shield. Eren's right shoulder was scraped by a musket ball, and seeps of blood floods the sense in his body with pain. Eren falls to the ground with his entire arm in pain. Mikasa freezes in place, completely unscathed. Eren then lifts up his hatchet with all the strength he has left, and tells her in very quick words, "Fight! If you win, you live. Figh…" Eren then lays his head conscious.
Mikasa doesn't hesitate, and she unfurls her hidden blade. Completely fit in her battle stance, the crooks charge in on her with empty muskets in hand. The first to lunge was parried by Mikasa's own hands. She grabs his musket and jabs the rifle's butt in the man's face. Completely in control of the gun she stabs the guy behind her in the throat, copper red ooze spewing, and piercing the flesh in ribbons. Mikasa kicks the man who the musket belongs to, and smashes his face with the gun.
Mikasa suddenly was kicked onto the ground, by one of this big guy, He pulls out his war axe, preparing to swing. Eren who's barely awake reaches for a flintlock pistol in a dead man's jacket. Wadding grass and dirt in his fists to move closer to the pistol, the only inspiration is to see Mikasa survive. Obtaining the gun, Eren aims for the big guy in the back of his head. The small of freshly lit gunpowder stabs Eren's nostrils. The big man falls to the ground, with blood dripping from his skull. Mikasa races for Eren's side.
"You're gonna make it Eren. Com'mon!" Mikasa then hoists his lumped body and dashes to the south.
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