What's good lads and ladies, welcome to Chapter 8, I feel like I've gone over a lot of what I've needed to in this section of my story so it may just kinda skip a bit. You'll see a lot of bonding between Eren and Reiner as they become closer. Bit more of Ereannie coming into play as well as some bertxymir and reinerxchrista along the way (But mainly Ereannie). I'm not as unsure of how to play out Annie's character before I rewrote this (Which was sitting at a comfy 5K views until I deleted and re uploaded chapters (Now it's about 290 views which I'm still very grateful for). Just as long as at least 1 person is pleased then I'm happy. Now, onto Chapter 8.
Chapter 8: Relief, Grace, Ice, Pain and more Pain
"Eren come on! We're nearly there." Annie shouted over the wind. They were currently climbing the steep mountain. About 3 quarters of the way up.
"Gee, you've been pretty talkative lately Annie." Only around you, she thought to herself. I'm not growing attached to him, am I? *sigh* As much as I hate to admit it, he's not the worst person to hang around. Even if his stupidity never ceases to amaze me.
"Yeah, well this challenge does require more communication than I'd prefer."
"I honestly don't mind."
"Cool." Annie thought it was best to keep the cold demeanour in place. They continued until they reached a particularly high ledge. Too high to jump or climb.
"Yeager, give me a boost."
"Sure thing." Before Annie could react Eren picked her up bridal style and prepared to toss her up.
"Eren, wai-!" Too late, Eren had already tossed her a good 10 metres up and she started falling. Annie crashed onto the ledge and lay on her back, staring at the sky. When did he have that strength? Kid fought a fucking bear, why am I surprised. She got up and looked down at Eren with an angry expression.
"You do realise 'boost' and 'throw' are two completely fucking different words? Boost means I step on your hands and you lift me up slowly. Not fucking launching me 10 metres into the air." Eren was looking at his arms in surprise.
"Uhhh, sorry Annie. Did not mean to do that."
"Whatever, take my hand." She outstretched her hand to pull him up. He accepted it and she hoisted him up.
"Sweet, thanks Ann… GAH!" She shoved him hard into the rock wall. Eren groaned as he slowly peeled off the wall, face first onto the ground. "That was for throwing me too high."
"Fair enough," he muttered. She picked him up and slung his limp body over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. She moved towards the summit with her still groaning partner.
"Annie, I think you broke something, I feel like a noodle, a noodle that's being dragged into the depths of hell to be eaten." She smiled at his comedic remark. Even with a broken body, Yeager still had the mind to keep the mood light. Climbing the last small ledge, Annie could see the flags, none had been taken, they were the first ones here. Annie stumbled forward, nearly dropping Eren before snagging their flag. She sighed before dumping Eren in the snow and sitting down. An hour passed before Mikasa appeared with Jean in tow.
"Eren!" Mikasa ran over and embraced Eren's still limp form in a titan hug while Jean walked over and grabbed the black flag.
"Mikasa, my body's bad enough, I don't need this right now." She reluctantly let go.
"What happened to you, is anything broken?" She glared at Annie. Annie glared straight back.
"No nothing's broken but I can't move my body."
"That's not good, probably nerve damage." She glanced at Annie. Annie nodded to say that was the case.
"He'll be fine in a day or two, hopefully."
"Hopefully? You could've paralysed him for the rest of his life."
"Don't worry Mikasa, I'm fine, I have a good feeling that Annie's right."
"No you're not fine, what that bitch did to you was unforgivable." Meh, I've been called worse, Annie thought
Reiner suddenly appeared over the edge. "Hell yeah, who's the alpha ma…" He spotted two pairs already there. "Oh."
"Don't worry Reiner, we didn't come last at least."
"True. Hey, what happened to Eren?"
"Sup Reiner."
"Hey man, what the fuck happened to you."
"Annie threw me into a wall… Hard." Reiner frowned at Annie.
"You broke my bro, not cool."
"He threw me 10 metres into the air…"
"What?"
"It was an accident," Eren confessed.
"Hmmm."
"So what problems did you run into?"
"Wolves, you?"
"Wolves and a bear,"
"Fuck dude, sounds rough."
Bert appeared over the edge, carrying an unconscious Ymir. "Hey guys! Ymir's still alive but she's not waking up, I'm afraid she might be in a coma."
Reiner and Krista walked over as Bert placed Ymir gently on the ground.
"What happened?" Krista looked worried.
"Uhhh, she was hit by an avalanche." Bert pursed his lips and nodded his head.
"Are you serious?" Reiner asked.
"Yeah, we were taking a mountain path when a massive quake came out of nowhere and triggered an avalanche, well, that's my theory. Anyway, Ymir shoved me to a safe zone but I couldn't save her from being smashed." Bert's eyes filled with water. Reiner looked down in guilt.
"Well at least she's alive, if she wakes up, I don't kno…" Ymir's eyes suddenly snapped open.
"Ahhhh! Feels like I've been hit by an avalance."
"Uhhh, you were."
"Oh that explains it. Hey, Bert, you made it ok?"
"Yeah, sorry that I couldn't pull you out in time."
"Good lot of use you are," she huffed.
"I'm sorry!"
"Heh, chill out I'm only playing."
"Bert, is that you?" Eren called. "Hey, uhh, can someone turn me towards Bert." Annie started getting up only to be blocked by Mikasa who stared daggers and rolled spaghetti Eren over to face Bert.
"Thanks Mikasa." Annie frowned and sat back down.
"Hey Bert!"
"Oh what's up Eren. Hey, why are you limper than Reiner's dick?"
"Oi!"
"Uhhh, Annie can explain."
"Fuck off, why is it always me?"
"Fine, she threw me into a wall and yeah, nerve damage, I can't move my body."
"You gonna recover?"
"Annie estimates a day or two."
"Oh, good. Hey who are we waiting on?"
"Connie and Sasha." Reiner answered. "That's if they're still alive, whatever the case, they're last place."
Connie appeared over the edge, eyes wide in fear. "Someone save me! Please!" Everyone stared at him in confusion. Suddenly, a starved Sasha leapt up and latched onto Connie's leg. "Ahhhhh! Someone get her off me, get some food anything." Krista grabbed some leftover dried beef jerky and slowly waved it under Sasha's nose. She let go of Connie's leg and leapt at the food, snatching it from Krista's palm and started ripping the poor jerky to bits. Connie sat up clutching his leg.
"Hey uh, Connie, it's good to see you man but you guys came last." Connie slowly turned his head to face Reiner.
"No, no no no no no no no NO! I AM NOT FACING THE PUNISHMENT WHEN I'VE HAD THAT THING TRY TO EAT ME FOR THE PAST 3 FUCKING DAYS!" Connie yelled. Reiner held up his palms.
"Whoa, chill."
"No, I am not going to chill. Not when I was nearly eaten alive."
"Oh, quit complaining Connie, I was just messing around, and hungry," Sasha cooed. Connie rolled up his trouser pant to show the blood coming from the bite marks on his leg. He exaggeratively gestured at the wound. "You call that messing around?!"
"Oh yeah, hehe, sorry." Connie shook his head and worked on bandaging the wound.
"Alright." Reiner spoke up. "Now that we all have our flags, we can start heading back." Everyone except Eren nodded their heads (He couldn't). Annie slung Eren over her shoulder and walked towards the edge to get a look how far down they needed to go.
"Annie, I think I'll be taking Eren." Annie turned around and frowned.
"Pretty sure he's my partner for this challenge, go blow horseface over there."
"Oi!" Jean said, hurt.
"Challenge is over, hand him over."
"You don't tell me what to do." What Annie didn't realise, was Eren slipping down her back.
"Uhhh Annie?" She didn't hear him, still arguing with Mikasa.
"Annie!" She turned her head.
"What?" She realised too late. Noodle Eren crashed to the snow and rolled to the edge. As he went over he looked at her with a betrayed expression (Like when he's telling Reiner to be a soldier and fight Annie during training). Annie mouthed a 'Sorry' before witnessing the pasta boy fall off. All the cadets gasped and ran to the edge. Eren tumbled through the air and hit many hard and jagged edges along the way down, bouncing back and forth (Why do I like sending my characters down mountains?). Boof! He hit the snow and the sound echoed up to the soldiers. They all slowly turned to face Annie.
"Well Annie, I think Eren might be paralysed for a bit longer than 2 days." Reiner remarked. Mikasa turned, her expression could've killed anyone other than Annie.
"You killed him." Annie peeked over the edge.
"Looks fine to me."
"Why shouldn't I shove you off this cliff right now?"
"Because I'm not going down without taking you with me. I'm heading down to see if he's alive."
The rest just watched her head down the mountain to retrieve her partner before shortly heading after her.
"There's no way he's alive…" Connie stated.
"Yeager's tough but there's no way he could go through that unscathed." Bert agreed.
"Shut up guys, he's alive." Mikasa snapped.
"I reckon he's still alive." Reiner agreed with Mikasa.
Annie reached the base of the mountain and headed towards where Eren made impact. Wasn't hard to spot considering the Eren shaped hole in the ground. She walked towards it and looked down. Eren was a metre deep in snow and still groaning and moaning. She sighed in relief, he was still alive. She wanted to throw an insult at him but in reality, she was the one who dropped him, defenceless, down a mountain. "Annie, I couldn't feel much but that really hurt." The others approached and looked down to see him, surprising still alive.
"You're alive! Aha! Connie, you owe me dinner." Reiner celebrated. Bert reached in to pull Eren out until a burst of steam hit him dead in the face. "What the fuck!" Bert stumbled back, swatting at his face. The steam stopped and they looked back to see him unconscious. That steam. Reiner and Bert thought. They looked at Annie, eyes wide. She was just looking at Eren, nearly just as surprised. Many were rubbing their eyes, passing it off as an illusion. Bert reached in once more, more cautious this time and slowly hoisted Eren out of the hole. His fingers twitched but he remained unconscious. Impossible, Annie thought…
Well that's Chapter 8. Wow, 2 chapters in 2 days, that's gotta be a record for me. Hope you enjoy it, feedback is greatly appreciated. I had a good plan for this chapter so it wasn't as hard to write and I actually found it quite fun to write this one. Hope you share my amusement and have a good time reading it :D. My Quik Mafs had lead me to the conclusion that: More Chapters = More views – shitty author who doesn't upload. Nah, I feel more comfortable writing this story rather than what I previously had and I'm glad I made the choice to re-write. I'm going to work on pumping out more chapters to catch up to where I was up to with the addition of my humour and weird ass ideas. See ya next chapter.
