Eren knew what he was doing wasn't exactly the best idea.
He knew that riding on a stolen horse with a stolen maneuver gear outside of the walls wasn't really the best of best ideas but,
But, Eren had to go find Annie himself. He just had to.
He still had to clarify many things with her.
He still had many more questions to ask her.
Like her freakin betrayal for instance.
She said she betrayed humanity because she was evil. That wasn't enough for Eren. He needed more. Not only that, her excuse was just pathetic.
Evil?
Because she was evil?!
No, there was more than that, he knew that there was more than that.
So he decided to look for the answer himself.
He held onto the reins, ears and eyes on alert.
He escaped the walls by blending in with a group of survey corps soldiers.
He silently managed to split up with them and now he was riding on the territory of titans.
Except, there were no titans. Eren didn't even see a single one.
Which was a bit strange but lucky.
He couldn't risk bringing too much attention to himself.
The only thing he could do now was continue his little search for a certain cold hearted, blonde, traitorous, indifferent, female titan.
Eren sighed already exhausted with doing nothing.
Where was he even going anyway?
He pulled on the reins and stared at the huge plains of grass in front of him.
He blinked before groaning in frustration.
The horse grunted in return before nudging the ground with its nose, maybe looking for something to eat.
Eren gazed up at the sky that was dyed blue, with strips of fluffy clouds, lazily drifting across the bright canvas.
If he was Annie…
Where would he be?
She was tired, hungry, and worn out.
She seemed to be in a hurry to escape before Levi could catch her, she seemed to be…
Scared…?
Eren shook his head quickly as if trying to throw that idea away.
Annie scared?
Why should she be scared?
She was definitely not afraid of Eren.
That little sparring match proved that very well.
Then Levi?
He did cut her up all by himself before so it was pretty reasonable but…
But Eren didn't think that, that was the case.
Annie was more cautious of Levi.
She wasn't scared of him.
Eren frowned, resting his chin on his hand.
That expression.
The expression that she made when she first saw him right after her escape…
Was that expression…fear?
Maybe she really was afraid of him.
But,
But why?
Before Eren could ponder the thought any further, a distant sound finally reached his ears.
Even the horse stopped its little hunt for some fresh grass to perk its head up and try to detect that strange sound.
It sounded like thunder.
Like the strong roll of thunder with some claps of lightening.
Eren whipped his head back, raising an eyebrow.
There wasn't any titans around, at least, he didn't see any…
The same clap of thunder.
This time it was closer.
Much closer.
Eren could feel his heart pound against his chest like a drum.
What was that sound?
He gripped the reins and flicked it up before bringing it back down.
The horse heeded his commands and quickly burst into a sprint, running away from whatever that thundering noise was.
Except, the sound didn't fade away into the air.
It only grew louder and louder and louder…
Eren's eyes widened, finally realizing exactly what that booming noise was.
Those weren't just sounds of thunder.
Those were footsteps.