It's pretty late where I am now so I'll make this short and sweet.

Thank you for the 18,000 reads on this story guys too! Never imagined it would do this well.

Here's Chapter 14 sorry for the VERY long wait.

Enjoy!

Chapter 14

(Eren's POV)

Dawn's presence is already creeping through the basement hatch when I wake up. My fingers throb slightly from the growth they have been doing overnight but other than that you wouldn't think I would have lost some limbs yesterday. Not many people can say they can grow back an arm after all.

I sit up and stretch making my joints crack. Relaxing, I gaze around the room getting a full look at our little dwelling. Not much to look at besides a few boxes but it kept us safe at least.

I breathe the musky air in trying to wake myself up, we should probably get moving.

Kicking back the blankets of my makeshift bed, I glance over a Mikasa. She's still sound asleep.

I've always noticed when she's asleep, even as kids, how peaceful she looks. During the day she always tries to look mature and brave but when she's like this, she looks like she should. Like a young girl. Radiant and innocent.

I avert my eyes from her face thinking about something else. I'm not in the mood to think about Mikasa. Her argument with me last night is like a bad taste in my mouth.

Standing up wobbling slightly, I find myself some peach preserve and honey in the supply boxes. With the last of the slightly stale bread, I manage to make breakfast for the pair of us. I set some bread and honey down beside Mikasa, careful not to wake her. I remember my father bringing back some honey from the inner wall once. I think it was her who ate most of it; she's always had a sweet tooth.

I smile to myself before remembering the horses need feeding.

Grabbing some horse feed from the back of basement and wolfing down my breakfast at the same time, I wonder over to the wooden hatch to the house above. I check back at Mikasa who is still sleeping before climbing up the steps to where the horses are. It would be a shame to wake her now; after all it will probably be a long time till she sleeps properly again.

After feeding the horses I settle myself down on what looks like it once was a wooden chest. Now it's more like a pile of planks and shrapnel pilled up in the corner of the house.

Until sitting down, I didn't realise how cold the air was. The old cottage isn't exactly open to the rest of the world but it defiantly isn't wind proof, I fell the icy chills go down my neck every now and then.

I fold my arms across my chest wishing I brought my jacket up but I don't feel like going down there and probably waking Mikasa up. You would think anyway that the survey corps could design a warmer shirt or something than the piece of white cloth we have now.

Ignoring the cold I look out the nearest window at the slowly rising sun. Large moving shapes on the horizon signal that it's not just me starting my day at this time. I narrow my eyes trying to figure out how many titans there are in the distance but the basement hatch door swings open distracting me.

Mikasa appears nibbling the piece of bread and honey I left for her, her eyes staring past me to what I was looking at before.

"About half a dozen," she says meaning the titans.

It's like she was reading my mind.

"Yeah," I agree, "I think we can sneak past them though. You still think we should head towards the next supply area today?"

"It is the only option we have," she says coolly, taking another bite out of the bread.

It seems Mikasa has forgotten the fight we had yesterday or she might just be ignoring it ever happened. Probably the second option.

She finishes her breakfast off and we both prepare the gear and horses to leave. Mikasa looks at the map and makes markers on which direction we should go.

The plan seems to consist of finding the nearest supply stronghold to the wall gate, making it easy for Levi to pick us up on the next survey expedition in roughly one week. Or that's the idea anyway.

By the time we are actually ready to leave our safe spot, the sun is already fully in the sky. I pull the makeshift wooden boards back that we placed last night from the door and Mikasa leads the horses out.

She stops just outside the doorway onto the overgrown street of the village, keeping one eye on me. Probably making sure I don't run off on her or some crazy idea. At least it's good to know she's still got my back despite the shit I said last night. I mean I don't regret some of it but there are some soft spots I know went too far.

I hop onto my horse next to her and she gives me a concerning look.

"You okay?" she asks in the mothering tone I know too well.

I sigh, "As okay as can be."

She nods and we ride.

It must be about late afternoon when we finally get close to where we are heading.

At midday we stopped off at closure of trees to eat and rest the horses and Mikasa took down a lone 4 metre who spotted us. Other than that we have had a usually quiet day.

We haven't talked much. Mikasa has been concentrating on the path and I have been on lookout, it was a comfortable silence mostly, ignoring the abrupt stop we made to argue about the map.

"It's should be just up ahead, down past those buildings," Mikasa says pointing up at a few houses ahead. Looks like some kind of Hamlet.

"What kind of building is it? Another house?" I ask.

She looks at me and then back at the map, her face serious while she studies it.

"A Church."

I screw my face up in confusion. I never thought the church was popular anywhere other than the inner wall. Guess there was some people who still had faith in things like that. I'm sure Pasteur Nick would be pleased. I can't say I agree with it but all the experience I've had with it is from insane preachers and the king. Not the best thing to learn off.

We carry on riding down the overgrown dirt track that goes through the Hamlet, studying the area as we move.

The few houses look like they were once owned by slightly richer people which I don't expect. I wonder what kind of business they had round here.

Mikasa puts the map away and turns her attention to surroundings as I am.

"It's very quiet," I say trying to make some sort of conversation.

"More worrying than anything," she replies with a poker face.

"It could just be a lucky day of peace you know."

Mikasa's face remains blank, "We can't assume that."

I clench my jaw to stop myself from lashing out, could she be any less cheery.

She pulls on her reins next to me making her horse halt.

"Eren look," she calls making me stop too.

I do as she says, looking to what she's on about. A dear carcass lies at the side of the road. Mikasa gets off her horse with one hand on her blade, better to be cautious.

She kneels beside it poking it with her weapon.

It can't have been dead more than 24 hours, the blood around it still looks fresh and fly's buzz around the open wound on its stomach. The contents of its insides are strewn over the grass, its throat ripped open. Despite that it looks far better than its smells.

"That's not a titan's doing," I state, it's a stupidly obvious thing to say to be honest. Titans don't eat animals after all.

"Wild animals," Mikasa declares pushing herself up and stomping back over to her horse.

I can tell the sight makes her uncomfortable.

"Come on," I say riding forwards again.

She nods in agreement her movements slow. She's either angry or upset; it's hard to tell with Mikasa, she might even be both.

"Have you never seen something like that before, nature like that?" I ask her.

She looks at me like I'm stupid. "Of course I have. My Dad use to go out hunting and bring back game regularly. I've seen a rabbit get torn apart by a fox out of my window once. It doesn't bother me in that aspect it's just-,"

She stops talking, like she's processing her thoughts.

"I've come to realise its normal for things to be this way. It's normal to kill for survival, that's how we live right? I just have to remember that. It's all just nature after all. I shouldn't have acted so strangely back there. Letting my emotions get the better of me is weakness."

I stare at her finding it hard to reply to that statement. I knew that's how she was when I met her at first. I didn't know she was so passionate about it now still.

"It's okay to think about that Mikasa. You can still have emotions like that and kill for survival. You're only human."

Mikasa's eyes suddenly widen.

"You're the same Eren. You kill for titans for survival correct, with no regrets," she says, not questioning it.

I look at the ground, she's got me there. "Yeah, I guess so," I reply solemnly. I hope she's only talking about titans here.

Mikasa looks at me sadly realising she hit a nerve within me.

"Sorry forget it," she's says softly, riding forwards.

I follow her giving her a comforting smile. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that girls mind.

The church looks better than I expected from the outside.

Yes most of the windows are smashed and bits of mahogany door are strewn across the outside path, but despite that, it still looks like a church. Even some of the stained glass is intact, little shards hanging onto the sides of the stone frame windows.

The sunset makes the whole place look slightly eerie.

Mikasa is the first to jump off her horse, keeping her hands on her blades as she walks towards the open doorway. I'm guessing the site of that deer has put her on edge, or more on edge than usual I should say.

I climb down from my saddle too, grabbing the supplies we have already to take inside. It's getting dark so there's no sense unloading it all later when it's pitch black outside.

"This is the right place," Mikasa says poking her head from round the side of the archway. I didn't even realise she had gone in without me.

"Thanks for waiting for me," I say sarcastically making Mikasa roll her eyes.

I look at her for a second hoping she might have made a joke back but that's asking for too much out of Mikasa.

"It's getting dark come on Eren," she orders tying her horse to a post by the door.

Yep, she has no humour at all.

I walk ahead of her into the church, squinting my eyes into the darkness by the back wall. The sun is setting too quickly to see anything now.

I set the supplies on the floor.

"Hey Mikasa, have you got the lamp?" I call back outside.

Behind me I hear her rustling through her bag, rattling sounds echoing into the church hall. I wait a minute trying to see further into the church but it's too shadowy.

Mikasa appears next to me, lamp in one hand, and her bag in the other.

"There's an iron door, left to the altar," she says looking down at a map in her hand.

I look to where she means, seeing the outline of the door frame.

I leave the lamp with Mikasa and wander forwards guided by the light reflecting off marble floor.

Stepping over a broken pew, I think of how weird it is 5 years ago this place could have been filled with choir music and the sight of people worshiping.

It's not like I would have ever come here myself at my own will, but it still would have been interesting to see. Like I said, religion had less attention back then than it does now.

I reach the door and I attempt to twist the handle but it doesn't budge. I check behind me to see Mikasa wandering around on her own. I don't need her help to open a door.

Rattling the door knob violently, it ends up breaking off in my hands, pieces of rusted iron clattering to the floor.

"Eren?" Mikasa calls out hearing the noise.

"It's fine, the damn doors just stuck. Give me a sec."

I feel myself beginning to get agitated. Why would anyone place an iron door in a church anyway?

Using my growing rage I slam my shoulder into the door over and over even when I begin to feel like jelly.

"Stupid fucking door," I mutter though gritted teeth.

It takes me multiple times of my charging at the door to open it. I end up knocking it off its hinges.

The whole thing smashes into the wall making a thin cloud of dust rain from the ceiling.

"Did you get it open?" I hear Mikasa ask from another part of the church, her voice like an echo.

I look down at the fallen iron slab that once was the door.

"You could say that," I say.

Mikasa doesn't reply but I hear her sigh. I think she understands I may have complicated things a little.

I walk into the black space of the room feeling round in my bag for the lamp before remembering Mikasa has it.

"Mikasa, bring the lamp!"

Something clatters from the church hall and I know she's dropped it. She can be clumsy sometimes, she doesn't care to admit it but she is.

"Er, just a minute," she says and I smile, sensing her embarrassment.

Forgetting the need to see, I walk further into the darkness, my fingers brushing the cold stone wall.

There's the familiar damp aroma in the air but also something amiss that makes my nostrils flare.

It's not a welcoming smell.

I trip over a gas canister making me stubble slightly and I leave the sensing of the wall. I tread tentatively into something sticky and wet on the floor. What is this?

My hand incisively covers my mouth to stop the stench that suddenly assaults me. It smells like the deer carcass we saw earlier but a thousand times worse.

Alarm bells go off in my head.

"Mikasa don't come in here!" I exclaim warning her but she's already at the door, the orange tint of the lamp coming with her.

I focus on her eyes and I see them widen in horror at the floor around me. I don't want to look down either but I can't help it.

My eyes force me to take in the mass number of animal carcasses that pile up around the room. Some fresh, some having been left rotting for years.

I notice a small hole in the corner of the room gapes open to the forest outside. Blood smeared all over the stone sides.

"This is a wolves den," Mikasa says her eyes fixated on a fox's head which lies at the tip of my boot.

I shuffle away from it, walking into what I now know is more clotted blood. My toes curl up in disgust making me feel even sicker, the smell making everything a thousand times worse.

"We need to leave," I say walking over to Mikasa. "That fox only looks a couple of hours old. If it's the same pack of wolves that killed that deer we saw back there, they could be back from a hunt any minute."

She nods and I stride quickly over to the door. I turn to try and block it off somehow but Mikasa hasn't even left the room yet. I spot her digging through the chewed supply crates in the corner. Is she stupid?

"Did you not hear me? I said we have to go right now!" I say my voice becoming louder every word.

She continues to rummage around, "I dropped the lamp and the oil leaked out," she says her tone stressed.

I realise what she's saying and I rush over to the boxes helping her look for some oil. We both know going outside at this time without vision means we might as well be dead. If we can't see anything a wolf would easily be able to snatch us off our horses.

We both delve desperately into the supplies.

I find the oil first.

I make a grab for it but I let it slip from my sweat slicken hands onto the floor.

Reaching down quickly to get it, my whole body tenses up.

The oil pot lands into the dried hands of a human skeleton wearing a tattered survey corps uniform, the wings of freedom torn and battered from years of wolf gnawing.

I can't breathe.

Without thinking I snatch up the oil and grab Mikasa's hand, dragging her out of the room. She slaps me telling me to let go but I can't. I don't want to be near that. I don't want to end up like that either.

We reach the horses just when the first wolf cry echo's a few miles away. It won't be long until they pick up our scent.

In training they always taught us about how deadly the Titans are and I know firsthand that they were wise to tell us that. But never telling us how to escape wolves is another thing. They never thought to teach us about one of humanities historical enemies.

My Father use to tell me about how it was the military garrison's job to control the numbers but that was five years ago. Without human interception the dogs have breaded like wild fire.

I'd take a horde of Titans over a group of wolves any day, especially today, when a pack of them are locking eyes on their next meal, which happens to be two horses and two young soldiers.

I hope you guys enjoyed it and please give me feedback of maybe what you liked or what you want to see more of. Always appreciated!

I also want to know whose POV you enjoy more. Mikasa's or Eren's? I like to alternate but is one of them better than the other, I can't personally tell.

Also the cleaning of the other chapters is still in process. Sorry about that too. As you can tell I'm just so prepared here!

Thank you again and see you soon!