Word Count: 2,235
"Are you sure it was a good idea to let that Jean guy track down Armin and Annie? I mean, really, how much can you trust a centaur?"
"Eren, for the last time, he seemed like a pretty okay entity. He apologized when we first met, he came when I called, apologized again, and left without complaining. Which is what you are not doing right now."
"But he's not human!"
"And so, technically speaking, are you."
Eren snarled and began to walk more heavily. "I hate it when you use that argument. And you know just as well as I do that I am still human."
Mikasa stopped and crouched down to Eren's level. "Yes, you are human, considering your history, intelligence, and situation. But, objectively speaking, you are still a wolf, if only on the outside. We don't know about Jean's history or situation, but judging from his intellect and empathy, I think we can safely assume that he's at least close to human."
Eren stared balefully into Mikasa's unwavering grey eyes, then huffed a short gust of wind in her face and broke her gaze before scampering ahead.
"Hey!" Mikasa objected, blinking furiously as she scrambled to her feet. "You can't just hate Jean for no good reason forever, you know!"
"Yes, I can! He's an arrogant bastard!"
"We've talked to him for a collective of ten minutes."
"So what?"
Eren could hear Mikasa's exasperated sigh and felt a twinge of guilt for frustrating her this badly. They usually got along just swell, but there were still times when they got on each others' nerves. Still, he had to give her kudos for putting up with his childish antics for this long. Sometimes, he felt like he would have kicked himself out to live alone in the woods if he were dealing with himself.
The thought of that made him slow down so that Mikasa could catch up with him just by walking. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, staring at his feet because he didn't want to look at her.
She said nothing in return, but he could still tell she had already forgiven him. She always did, no matter what.
When Eren finally looked up again, it was significantly darker out than it had been. Night was falling. "Hey," he said. "Let's stop for the night."
"Are you tired? I can keep going; I can carry you."
Eren shook his head. "No, you need to rest."
"I'm fine."
"You have a broken arm. And, it's dark. And, you never sleep enough anyway."
Mikasa sighed. "All right."
The brown-coated wolf sat vigilantly by the last few dying embers of their fire. They had stumbled across a small cave where they could stay the night. It was full of moss and probably had its fair share of creepy-crawlies hidden in the crevices, but was calm and otherwise empty.
Eren stared up at the ceiling, where a sliver of moonlight slipped into the room through a crack. It wasn't much, since the moon was simply a fat crescent hanging in the sky, but he could still see well with his improved night vision.
Something outside crashed into a bush, and, with a groan, fell down with a loud clang! Eren stiffened, but didn't leave the fireside.
Whatever had crashed groaned again, louder this time. Mikasa stirred in her sleep, but did not wake.
Screeeeeech. Whatever was outside was likely covered in rusted metal and getting up, as it creaked and screeched and groaned. Eren wrinkled his nose slightly and began to consciously sniff at the air, but couldn't sense anything different than usual. Other than Mikasa, all he could smell was damp moss, the morning dew, and dirt.
Clank. Kssh. Crack. It seemed as though they were getting up, however slowly, and the sounds likely came from metal hitting more metal. Particularly more a rounded plate metal, since the sound was fuller, leaving only one possible explanation as to what it was.
The blind knight had stumbled upon them.
Eren curled his toes and changed from sitting to a crouch. He pricked his ears and took a few stealthy steps forward, tiptoeing swiftly around the fire and toward the crevice that was the entrance to their shelter. An ember popped in the makeshift fireplace, causing the wolf to flinch, but not for long enough that he broke his stride.
He squeezed halfway through the crack, then allowed his eyes to adjust from dim lighting to even dimmer. He glanced in the direction where he remembered the sound coming from, and saw the faint silhouette of a tall, armored girl without a helmet, kneeling in the brush and head tilted mournfully up at the sky.
Eren pulled himself the rest of the way out of the cave, then trotted almost soundlessly around the knight, observing her.
From all perspectives, had he not known the Blind Knight was a girl from his dream, he never in a thousand years would have guessed that she was a girl, though perhaps that stemmed from the genderless armor she wore. The only thing that looked even remotely feminine were the long, dirty strands of ponytailed hair that were half tucked into the girl's padding, spilling out in a snarly mess in the process, and half plastered all over the dull, rusted armor itself with mud. And even then, Eren guessed that if she hadn't been blind, the knight would have kept it clipped short anyway.
He approached the Blind Knight from the back, despite the fact that she was, well, blind and couldn't see him no matter what. He sniffed her matted hair lightly, but she reacted instantly, sweeping a hand harshly out behind her, just barely missing the tips of his ears. Eren jumped back, teeth bared and ready to attack if she did.
"Who's there," the Blind Knight whispered, her voice, hoarse with assumed disuse, the second thing that gave away her gender. She tensed, then swept a bit of her long, unkempt hair out of her face as she shifted into a position that would allow her to run the second she had to. "I know there's someone there; I felt you, and my senses don't lie to me." Her voice was louder, but hoarser, than the first time she had spoken.
"Relax," Eren hissed. "And pipe down, will you? I have someone important to me sleeping in the cave and besides, I understand what you're going through." As he spoke, Eren trotted around the Blind Knight so that he stood in front of her and caught the tail end of her hostile expression falling away.
"You're blind, too?" she whispered, hand paused midway to her face, almost as if she were going to touch her eyes.
He shook his head, then remembered she couldn't see. "No, but I have also been changed by magic, and I'm also looking for someone."
The Blind Knight reached out her hand and Eren compliantly stepped forward so that she could feel him. But she almost immediately pulled away and her expression twisted into one of suspicion. "What's your name?" she asked.
"Eren Jaeger."
The knight folded her arms across her chest and began to laugh a coarse, doglike laugh. It rang clearly through the cold, midnight air; some of the nearby nesting birds awoke and fluttered their feathers in distress. It quite surprised the wolf, causing him to step back, though luckily, it didn't last long.
"Quite trusting aren't you," she said teasingly, reaching her hand out and flicking the air just in front of his forehead, a motion that was probably intended to hit him.
Eren decided not to respond to that. "And your name is…?"
"Ymir," she said, her voice reverting to a raspy whisper.
"No surname?"
"Don't remember."
"You don't remember your own surname?"
"Nope."
Eren sat down as a breeze blew through the trees, rustling the leaves softly. "So, what happened to you?"
"Are we exchanging tragic backstories now?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Ymir pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them best she could. "I fell into a rosebush."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I climbed a tower, some jerk face stole my helmet, and pushed me out the window of a tower with a beautiful girl in it. There was a rosebush at the bottom, and I went blind when I fell in it."
"I drank out of a pool and passed out, and when I woke up, I was halfway to being a wolf."
A pause.
"Sounds kinda stupid when you sum it up so shortly like that, doesn't it," Ymir snorted.
Eren smiled. "Yeah, it does." He laughed. "My fiancée is sleeping in the cave in front of you. She's a Cursed, too, but in a cool way. Hange says she's from Mulan, and that that makes her really strong and stuff."
"Hold on, I've been wandering around blind for the last year; can you explain this cursed thing, who Hange is, and what Mulan is?"
"Wow, I can't believe you got along blind for an entire year," he commented, then quickly caught Ymir up on all he and Mikasa had learned in the past few days. "And I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on fairy tales as Hange is, but you sound like you're from Rapunzel. You know, girl with long, blonde hair–"
"'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair,'" Ymir recited, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I know the gist of the story. My only question is why."
"Dunno," Eren answered. "And finding out isn't particularly high on my list of things to do. What's at the top is killing the Witch who cursed me like this."
"Well, there's this weird blond dude who visits Christa's tower every few days to check up on her. I'm pretty sure he's no witch, but from what Christa has told me, he seems like a pretty skilled warlock. Maybe there's some correlation…?"
"Who's Christa?"
Ymir's face broke into a sappy grin. "She's the beautiful, blonde angel who lives in a tower far, far away. I'm gonna marry her when I find her again."
"Aren't you a g–" Eren began.
"So what?" Ymir snapped. "There's nothing in the way of love."
"It's weird. And how do you know she loves you back?"
Eren ducked as the blind girl suddenly lifted her hands to box his ears, resulting in a rather loud clap ringing through his head afterwards. She scowled, obviously displeased that she missed, but unable to do anything about it.
"You're weird, you little twat; you're a human in wolf's clothing. No one sees you as really human except for maybe for that fiancée you mentioned earlier. Which reminds me, what's a girl doing engaged to be wed to you, anyways? You're an animal."
Eren growled softly, his neck fur bristling with annoyance. In all honesty, he had no answer to Ymir's question. Mikasa was perfectly capable of living just find on her own, leaving him to grow into feral lone wolf in the woods, getting married to someone else, and overall acting like he had never existed. Yet she chose to stay with him.
"What was that? Speak up, doggie."
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I don't know."
There was another long silence that was less awkward than it was tense.
"So what's with this Christa girl? Why's she so important to you?" Eren asked, finally breaking the silence.
The sappy grin returned. "She was the first person in a long time to treat me like a real person. Just because I'm all dressed up like a knight don't mean I am one."
A slave, he realized. So that's why she looks so foreign; she's literally not from here. Then, he deflated a little inside. That must mean she's not connected to Ilse after all. Rats.
"She hasn't seen me in over a year." Ymir's grin faltered. "I wonder if she still cares about me." She turned her head up towards the stars, though she couldn't see them, Eren could tell she missed them dearly. "After all, I still care about her."
Eren softened, then stood up and stretched his muscles, gone stiff from the cold. He walked over to Ymir's side and began pushing her in the direction of the cave entrance. "C'mon," he said kindly, "Let's get you safe and warm. We're going to go find Christa tomorrow."
The knight thrust her arms out in front of her so that she may feel her way around. "We are?" she asked, her tone hopeful.
"Yup. We are," Eren answered, pushing her into the cave wall so that she could find the entrance herself. His mind wandered back to what she had told him earlier, about the warlock, most likely the shapeshifting Witch anyway, visiting Christa every few days or so. Perhaps, if they were so lucky…
"And you'll live happily ever after," he continued. Even if it's the last thing I do.
Author's Note xxi. That last bit was meant less as a "rlly into this yumikuri thing" and more of "I'm gonna fight that bitch and become a MAN or die whichever comes first" kind of thing. Though I assume you all picked that up; you're smart people. Kind of a dialogue-heavy chapter here. Been a while since I had one of those. Eren's not often in the company of chatty people, but man, it's been a looong time since I last wrote Ymir. Like, months. I don't write her often. Such a shame, such a shame. I like her crappy humor. Kind of a shame I don't write more yumikuri.
Also, it was kind of nice to have a spat between Eren and Mikasa in the beginning. I actually have a hard time writing long-term conflicts between the two, partly because I'm too attached to them as a pairing, and partly because I feel like Mikasa would just either forgive him quickly or try to talk it out. Granted, Eren's a stubborn little shit, but still.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to follow or favorite, if you like what's been going on! Leave your thoughts in the reviews (if that's what you're into), and as always, have a greaaaat daaaay~~