Chapter 4: Cruel HypothesesOn the third night, Léon and Amaranta had been unable to avoid a solitary eight-meter-class Titan that seemed to have followed a shallow river upstream from the plains into the woods they were using as cover. It seemed to be looking around it into the woods for something. Its behavior was mindless yet unusual – all Titans they'd hitherto encountered had been more like pack animals than solitary hunters – and it seemed as surprised by them as they were by it.
With the help of their ropes tied to their saddles, they'd succeeded in binding first the Titan's legs to immobilize it, followed swiftly by lassoing each of its arms and securing them to the thickest trees they could reach. This left its huge yet light mass on its belly in the river, diverting the water's course out of the bed and into the forest either side. It thrashed its head and hissed into the water, its limbs threatening to break the ropes that bound it. Light from the waning crescent moon was barely enough to go by, and turned the Titan's movements into more shadow than body.
"Decapitating didn't work last time," 'Mara said as they paced on their horses near its head.
"I remember. Everything we cut seems to regenerate," Léon agreed. "There has to be a more precise, more sure way of killing them. Right now all the Survey Corps can do is slow them down, or decapitate and hope." He directed his horse to jump over the Titan's strained arm, and walked as close as he dared to its upper back. "Our children cannot continue this war with a dossier of nothing but hope."
Whenever they could – whenever their lives weren't in jeopardy – they would try to test theories on a Titan or two. Even if it was mere observation, they'd gather what information they could before it became too risky and they had to flee or kill. Their methods often involved blinding or otherwise incapacitating the Titan long enough to quite literally shred it to pieces with their horses and swords, and over the past year or two as their relationship with the Scouting Legion became stronger they'd begun to try to narrow down what it was that finally killed them in the end.
Their focus now rested on the neck area and spinal cord – or what they could see of what constituted their spinal cord, since often it evaporated too quickly upon death. At some point, something in the cord was severed and that spelt the end, but where precisely that was unclear. The last few Titans they'd hunted had been the recipient of a systematic travel of the blow of Léon's sword from the spine's tail upward. The one he stood over now would have its spine severed on the nape of its neck – the only area they hadn't tested. 'Mara on horseback watched from its head, one rifle resting in her lap and the other in her hands ready to riddle the entire length of spine with so much buckshot that none of it could heal. They could never be too cautious.
Léon dismounted from his horse onto the Titan's back, which rocked its shoulders in its attempt to dislodge him. His sword was drawn and he tried to keep his footing. One of the trees that secured its arms began to crack and split, and the noise echoed around in the clearing.
"Léon, hurry," 'Mara insisted, bringing the rifle in her hands up to eye level.
Léon struck once, but an angle he hadn't intended due to the Titan's bucking.
"Léon!"
He tried again, seeking the consistently right-angled cut he'd performed on the others, but another buck created the same effect. A wedge of the Titan's neck sluiced off into the water and the entire body fell suddenly still.
"Is it…" he heard 'Mara begin.
"I think so," Léon agreed in disbelief. He rapidly tried to replay what he'd done but the body was already beginning to decay. The heat and steam forced him off the Titan's back and his feet began to sink into its flesh. He grabbed his horse's reins and bent to rinse his sword in the calve-high river.
"What did you do?"
Léon was about to answer her when a large shadow blotted out what little light they had, descending on 'Mara's back. "Behind you!" he yelled.
The words barely finished leaving his mouth and 'Mara had turned ever so slightly, as if to assess her opponent, and then seemed to fall from her horse – one hand on its bridle and one in a stirrup kept her and the rifle that'd been in her hand from the water. The huge dark mass skimmed over her horse's ears and fell toward Léon, who scrambled out of the way with his own horse as it landed on the Titan's corpse.
Only when he was up in the saddle and the two of them had bolted to the treeline did he stop to look at the mass. It was another Titan, and far from being concerned with the humans it was hellbent on devouring what remained of the eight-meter class they'd just slain. The steam disturbed its stringy dark hair and muffled the noise of teeth and nail tearing through meat, and made it difficult to tell its size though Léon concluded that it was smaller and wirier than average.
'Mara had her rifle pointed at the new arrival and cocked it. Léon reached out a hand as best he could with their troubled horses and lowered it. He felt like he was reaching through their collective fear. "Wait," he said.
"We should leave," 'Mara's tightened voice said.
"It's not interested in us, look."
As what little remained of the dead Titan floated away on the river, restoring the water to its original path, the newcomer rose into a crouch on its back legs and stared at them with huge, pure black eyes set into a contorted, demonic face. Blood dripped from its jagged teeth and strips of flesh dissipated to nothing between its long nails. It did not move toward them, however.
"It would have eaten us by now if that's what it had wanted," Léon continued.
"It is a Titan, right?" 'Mara seemed to ask of herself more than him. "It must be. But why does it seem to have intelligent thought?"
Léon did not have an answer for her.
A few more moments that felt like hours went by in which the trio stared at each other, none of them seeming to know what to do. Then, the Titan snarled loudly at them, startling their horses into rearing and skittering. As they calmed them Léon watched as the Titan turned nimbly in the river and sprang into the trees on the opposite side, disappearing into them.
"What just happened?" 'Mara asked as the calls of the Titan died away into the woods. "Why did it spare us?"
"I don't know." Léon thought back to when they'd first stumbled into the eight-meter class, and how the Abnormal Titan had seemed to jump out of the shadows like it'd been there waiting all along.
"You don't suppose that Titan had something to do with the one you killed moving even at night? It seemed to be looking for something, and why was it all the way out here by itself?" 'Mara speculated, reading his mind. "What if it lured the other one here?"
"I love you my darling, but that seems a little far-fetched even for you. Let's just concentrate on the fact that we're alive," Léon said.
They retreated farther into the trees, but in light of this new Titan their comforting shadows and closeness had been diminished. Léon and 'Mara kept looking around them, expecting there to be yet another Abnormal Titan lying in wait for them.
"Léon," 'Mara began slowly. She got down from her horse to check it for injuries and the security of its tackle. "That Titan…it could be important to the cause. I've never heard of or seen any like that – traveling at night, potentially luring another for food, sparing humans. There was something in its eyes. What if we were to pursue it?"
"To what end?" He got down and began to do the same for his horse.
"To study it, of course, if not capture it. It's only just left, so it may not be that difficult to catch up if we hurry."
Léon stepped over tree roots to meet 'Mara between his and her horses. His eyes adjusted to take in her face. "My love, that could keep us out here for who knows how many more days. I agree with you and would relish the opportunity to study – you know I do." He stepped forward and ran his hands down her arms, holding them lightly at the elbows as if to keep her from bolting. "But we would be gone that much longer from Mercedes. Not to mention that the Titan may not decide to spare us a second time."
"You know more than anything I want to go home to our little girl," 'Mara said, her face frowning as if she was about to cry. Her hand rose and held the side of his face, warm and slightly damp. "But you were right – we can't just leave a dossier of hope for her to go by. We can't offer only cruel hypotheses. This may be our only chance to discover something concrete – crossing paths with this Titan is a stroke of good fortune that we'd be foolish to pass up. Isn't the risk worth it if it means we can pass on crucial information to the Survey Corps, and she'll stand a better chance of survival?"
Léon frowned and averted his gaze. "This feels like a cruel hypothesis of its own," he said sadly.
"Yes. But the truest ones often can be."
A Note from the Author: Some of you may recognize the description of the Abnormal Titan Leon and 'Mara just encountered - it is indeed intended to be Ymir's Titan form, in the early years when she was wandering alone outside Wall Maria.
