We were conducting an experiment on Eren. Hanji wanted to know just how long his stamina was.
"So all I have to do is run till I can anymore?" Eren asked looking at his hand ready to bite. Hanji nodded excitedly. Standing around Eren was Hanji and hew squad, Levi and I, and then Mike.
"Kira. Mike. You two will be on titan guard." She pointed to us in turn.
"What does that mean exactly?" Eren asked.
"We'll be dealing with other titans that get too close. Levi's assigned directly to you." I said it like a warning and I was pretty sure he got the message. He looked to Levi for his permission. Corporal nodded and we all backed away.
"You have your goal in mind?" Hanji asked while taking her steps backward. Eren nodded lightly.
"Yes." He bit his thumb. One moment I was looking at human Eren and the next a 15 meter titan.
"Woah." I breathed. Mike grabbed my attention. I really hoped Eren could control his titan.
Mike and I road on either side of Eren. Hanji had decided the best results for this experiment would come from running on flat level ground. Open ground. It would difficult to deal with titans with our 3D gear so limited. Levi road behind Eren as he ran.
Eren's titan ran for just under two hours before getting too tired to continue. During that time we only came across three titans, none of them variants and easily killed by Mike and I. We slowed our horses to a stop beside Eren's steaming titan form.
He was totally exhausted.
"Hah, incredible results." Hanji mused looking over the data and taking Eren's vitals.
"We'll need to rest for a while. The horses are just as exhausted." One soldier of Hanji's squad told us. We all nodded in agreement.
"Eren are you injured in any way?" I asked him gripping the strap of my medical bag that went across my chest.
"No I don't think so. I'm just tired." He yawned and laid down on the grass.
"Go ahead and sleep. We'll be resting the horses for an hour at least." I told him. He barely replied with a nod before closing his eyes.
I feed Dusk, my mare, a few carrots while praising her for being a good horse. She whinnied happily nudging my shoulder. I walked her around so she would dry. She was being fidgety for some reason. There was a cool breeze blowing in from the north. I turned to Levi.
"There's a storm coming." He frowned and looked around. One of Hanji's members agreed.
"She's right. The winds blowing from the north. How long till you think it gets here?" the girl asked me. I frowned think.
"It's hard to tell. Sometimes storms come out of nowhere other time we can see them come for hours. We'll just have to wait and watch." There was a thin line of dark clouds on the horizon. "But from the looks of it I don't think it will be long." I stroked Dusk to keep her calm. "Dusk thinks it will be here soon and that we should take cover." I stared into her black eyes.
"That's a horse."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." I glared at the soldier who flinched. "Animals can sense the weather and other things far before we mere humans can." Mike inhaled deeply.
"I smell rain. Maybe we should leave now? Get a head start on the storm?" I shook my head at him.
"Horses are still too tired. They'd just end up getting to worn out and we'd be stuck even longer." The clouds on the horizon had grown considerably.
"We'll leave at the end of the hour. Hopefully the storm holds off until then." Levi decided for us. I'm sure he was getting tired of our chatter. I sat down by Eren's sleeping form. Gently I ran my fingers through his hair like I did when he was little. He'd grown up so much since I had last seen him when he was three.
"Why do you care so much for Eren?" Hanji asked quietly taking a seat beside me. She offered me half her sandwich.
"Thanks." I said taking a bite. "I delivered him. I lived in Shignashira too. I babysat him a few times afterward when I had the time. I consider him a sort of family is all." Eren stirred slightly in his sleep.
"Levi's right you are motherly." She smiled at me. I felt my eyes widen in shock.
"A blessing and a curse I assure you." I thought for a moment. "He said that about me?" Hanji nodded. I looked over at Corporal who was tending to his own horse.
"I'd always just thought of it as being protective." I thought out loud.
"Same thing isn't it?" Hanji asked me with her face tipped back towards the sky. "A mother wolf is protective of her pups. She is doing as a mother should and being motherly."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"But he mostly complains about you being stubborn and not following his orders."
"I follow his orders!" I hissed back in a loud whisper. "But some of them are impossible. He really expected me to leave that fight with Annie without any injury?"
"Ah, yes, Levi can ask too much sometimes."
I finished my half of the sandwich. We should be leaving soon. I looked out to the horizon. The clouds were getting bigger.
"I think we can make it back before the rain gets here if we leave now."
"I think you're right." She stood up and started shouting out orders. I woke Eren. He would ride with me back to HQ.
It was a swift ride back. We wanted to beat the storm. We did, but just barely. It was drizzling when HQ came into view. We made it inside after tending to our horses just as it started to down pour. I skipped dinner that night, instead I read a book in my room.