I do not own Attack on Titan


I was walking by the training grounds when I saw Mikasa, Armin, and Eren at one of the Aptitude Test machines. As Armin cranked the lever to hoist Eren up, Eren's stability faltered and Mikasa barely managed to catch him before he went tumbling upside-down. My heart sank for him.

As I entered the girls' barracks, I heard Sasha say loudly, "Hey, what's this?"

My guitar flashed through the air, catching my attention. I had hid it under my bunk behind some of my bags. Apparently, I didn't hide it well enough.

Immediately, I rushed across the room and snatched my guitar away from her. The strings vibrated and left a gentle hum in the air.

I clutched the body close to me and growled at Sasha, "Do not touch my guitar."

The girls in the barracks watched with piqued interest.

Sasha exclaimed, "Whoa! You play guitar? Play something!"

I blinked in surprise, suddenly feeling bashful.

"How'd you sneak that in here?" Ymir asked without much inflexion in her voice.

There was slight repulsion in her tone towards my guitar.

I smiled sheepishly, "I have my ways."

"Play something please!" Sasha begged.

"O-okay," I stammered, sitting down on a nearby cot.

All the girls gathered around or inched towards the edge of their cots to listen to me. Fingers pressed on the frets to create a chord, I started strumming.

*Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Remember me to one who live there

For once he was a true love of mine

...

Have him make me a cambric shirt

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Without a seam or fine needle work

And then he'll be a true love of mine

...

Have him wash it in yonder dry well

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Where ne'er a drop of water e'er fell

And then he'll be a true love of mine

...

Love imposes impossible tasks

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Though not more than any heart asks

And I must know he's a true love of mine

...

Dear, when thou hast finished thy task

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Come to me, my hand for to ask

For thou then art a true love of mine

The last chord rang in the air. For a moment, the girls in the dorm held their breaths. And then all of a sudden, they burst into applause. I bowed to them graciously before Sasha knocked into me and hugged me with a vice-like grip.

"So pretty!" she cried. "We promise not to tell Shadis you snuck your guitar in here so long as you entertain us!"

"Okay," I choked out.

She grabbed onto my shoulders and said with a serious face, "Teach me to play guitar."

"W-well I—"

"PLEASE! I need to take my mind off the hunger!" Sasha wailed, rolling on the ground while clutching her stomach. "I don't think I can last very long…"

The dinner bell rang, and the girls jumped up to go to the Mess Hall. Several of them paid compliments as they walked by.

Ymir grumbled as she walked past me, "What a racket."

Krista chided her as they walked outside.

I finally answered Sasha after she'd calmed down, "Fine! I'll teach you."

She beamed up at me, and for the rest of dinner, I couldn't shake her.

*O*O*

The second wave of dropouts left that night. Seeing all the people I'd met so far still around made me happy, knowing that I wouldn't be lonely for the next three years. It turned out Eren made the cut, discovering he had a defect belt during his last aptitude test. Somehow pulling off his stability with a defect belt for only several seconds was a major feat, and afterwards, was the talk amongst the cadets. Once the last few recruits attempted their aptitude test once more, Shadis had us line up in a block.

"Well," he started. "Looks like we have our cadets. But this is just the beginning. You will work harder, think harder, and bleed harder than any civilian or farmer. You will look death in the eye at least once during the next three years, and hopefully, most will survive.

"Alright maggots. You'll be split into squads. These teams will be your squads for the rest of the year! So you better get along!" He pulled out a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket, and called out:

Squad one: Marlis Rowe

Reiner Braun

Krista Lenz

Alexander Segher

Squad two: Bertolt Hoover

Maurice Sadler

Barbara Farrell

Kia Farro

Squad three: Mina Carolina

Thomas Wagner

Traci Archer

Daz Elisson

Squad four: Peter Clarkson

Valentino Brams

Jean Kirchtein

Andra Teagan

Squad five: Marco Bodt

Naomi Peters

Nicolas Brent

Annie Leonhardt

Squad six…"

As soon as the teams assembled, he had us running in waves across an obstacle course. At the edge of the forest, old wagon wheels and potholes obstructed the one-hundred meter path.

Squad one was released and they burst onto the course. Reiner took the lead and easily jumped over the pitfalls and wagon spokes. With his sheer strength, he scampered up a wooden wall and disappeared down the other side. Krista was the one to pull up the rear of her squad, struggling through the deep pits. Shadis, perched on top of a horse, trotted along the course and grilled her keister for being so slow. By the time the other two members of her squad got to the climbing wall, Shadis released squad two.

Bertolt stepped agilely through the spokes of the wagon wheels and breezed through the potholes with his long legs. He too was scaling the wall long before the rest of his squad. His squad members were still trying to get out of the potholes as his lanky form vaulted the top of the wall.

The third squad didn't have exceptional athletes among them. They mostly were close together as they tackled the course. Squad four was more spread out, but none of them reached the climbing wall in under a minute. Jean struggled to find a grip on the flat surface of the wall. Even with the rope dangling in front of the flat boards that made the wall, it was difficult for him to pull himself up.

Suddenly, Shadis yelled, "SQUAD FIVE! GO!"

My surprise quickly was replaced by my take off, kicking up dirt as I ran. The girl with cold blue eyes and blonde hair nimbly sped ahead of the rest of us, but then the potholes slowed her down. The boy, Nicolas Brent, took a tumble as his foot caught a spoke. Shadis reprimanded him. Marco and I were side by side, running. I tried balancing on the edge of the adjacent potholes in the course, succeeding momentarily until Shadis's voice cut through the air.

"PETERS! THIS ISN'T BALLET!"

As luck would have it, I lost my balance and fell into one of the holes. I was halfway done with this section of the course, too. Marco managed to get ahead of me barely, and I worked my way out of the potholes. My breathing was already labored by the time I reached the wall. I was about to jump for the edge of the wall when Marco stopped me.

"Wait," he said. "Let me lift you up and then you help me."

Without a moment to spare, I agreed to his plan. Making a foothold with his hands, I stepped onto his dirty palms and lunged for the top. With effort, I managed to stand up. Leaning back to counter Marco's weight, he grabbed onto my wrists and managed to hoist himself up. There was a brief exchange of thanks before we jumped down from the wall and made a run for the last part of the course.

A muddy pond with floating logs packed over the surface was next. As soon as I set foot on it, my footing slipped out from under me. With a yelp, I landed on my back, the air knocked out of me. Marco quickly fell as well. Determined to get through, I crawled on my hands and knees towards solid ground, slipping and sliding on the slick wood. My hands kept slipping between the loose packed logs and I found muddy water splashing up in my face.

Marco was the first to reach solid ground and held out a hand to me. I graciously took it and we started for the last leg of the course. We had to walk across a narrow bridge over another pond, this time punching bags swinging to and fro across the bridge. Taking the speedy tactic, I rushed across the bridge and got smacked in the face with a bag coming my way. I cried out and landed in the pond.

"NICE JOB PETERS! IF YOU HAD LOOKED, YOU WOULDN'T BE TITAN FODDER! GET BACK ON THE BRIDGE AND FINISH UP!"

Floundering I hoisted myself back onto the bridge in an area the bags weren't swinging. Then, I advanced cautiously while dodging them.

Shadis bellowed, "PICK UP THE PACE CADET! YOU'RE SLOWING THE LINE DOWN!"

The narrow bridge was slippery from all the cadets who'd fallen in the pond. Just as I was about to cross to safe ground, I slipped and the punching bag came right for me. I crashed back into the pond, ingesting some dirty water along the way. Coughing, I waded to shore with it being only a foot away and stood with the other battered cadets.

Every single one of us was wet. We all looked like we decided to go rolling in mud like little kids. Mina stood shivering in the shade of the forest, her pigtails disheveled from the exercise. Reiner and Bertolt stood off to the side, their pants and part of their shirts dripping and speckled with debris. The only one who seemed the least perturbed about the situation was Marco.

He laughed, "Wow! What a workout! This beats the heat of the day."

His lighthearted mood managed to pull a smile from my lips.

"I'm just glad it's over."

Marco looked over at me, and his face fell. "Naomi, you're nose is bleeding."

"Huh? What?" I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, and a streak of red was painted across it. "Oh. I must have gotten it when the punching bag hit me."

From his pocket, Marco pulled out a soggy handkerchief. He offered it to me, and I quickly plugged my nose with it and tilted my head back.

"Thanks," I said.

"Damn!" Jean swore. "I nearly twisted my ankle on those logs."

"HEY MAGGOTS!" Shadis growled. "THIS ISN'T TEA TIME! GET BACK IN LINE WITH YOUR SQUADS!"

Inwardly, I cringed before following close behind Marco.


*A shortened version of the folk song Scarborough Fair