"Fi?"
Zafrina Keaton looks away from the boy sleeping calmly under the tree to look at her adopted sister. With long black hair, Mikasa looks at her with a small smile on her face.
"You were staring at Eren again," She tells her. Zafrina blushes and looks down at her lap.
"Oops, I didn't mean to," She whispers. Zafrina sees Mikasa give her a knowing look from the corner of her eye before turning to look at him again, no longer trying to hide the fact that she was staring.
The three of them are just inside Wall Maria, gathering some firewood. They had settled down under the tree to cool off when Eren started to dose off. Not wanting to wake him, Zafrina and Mikasa stayed there for a while to let him rest. Looking over the field, Zafrina watches as the current moves along the stream, letting the peacefulness wash over her. Her smile immediately turned into a frown when she hears Eren gasping, making a few birds flee out of the tree. Turning to him, she can see his eyes wide open, flickering back and forth.
"Huh, Zafrina ... Mikasa...," He said, almost as if in a daze.
"We should be getting back," Mikasa says softly.
"What are we doing here?" Eren asks, looking at them in confusion. Zafrina shoots Mikasa a concerned look, before looking back at him.
"You were that deep asleep that you're still only half awake?" Mikasa asks, standing up and pulling Zafrina with her.
"No, it just feels like I had this really long dream or something..."
Zafrina holds her hand out, waiting for Eren to get up so that they could leave. He ignores it for a second, still trying to fully wake up.
"... What was it about? I can't remember." Zafrina looks at him for a moment, worried that something was really troubling him.
"Hey, don't worry. Maybe it'll come back to you later." Eren looks up at her face, and she notices tears in his eyes.
"Eren, why are you crying?" Mikasa asks while picking up the firewood onto her back. Fi picks up her as well while Eren touches his face to feel the tears.
"Huh?"
As they walk back through the town outside the gate, they began to enter Shiganshina District, their hometown. Zafrina could hear the priest preaching about the wall and how divine they were down the busy street.
"Don't you dare tell anyone I was crying. You too, Fr." Zafrina looks over at Eren and Mikasa. She nods her head saying that she wouldn't.
"I won't either," Mikasa said. "Still, crying for no reason ... You should have your dad give you a checkup."
"Don't be stupid! I can't tell him." Zafrina looks at him with an irritated look. She hated it when he's rude to Mikasa. She's just looking out for him, just like Zafrina would do. Fi could tell Eren saw her expression from the way his eyes shift to looking down a little guilty, but his face didn't change. Getting to the end of the tunnel of the gate, they're stopped by a voice.
"What are you cryin' about, Eren?"
They look up to see Mr. Hannes standing in front of them. Looking up at the blond man, Zafrina could tell from his rosy cheeks that he had been drinking.
"Did Mikasa get on your case about somethin'? Or did Zafrina?" He said, leaning down to look at us closer, his breath reeking of alcohol. I wrinkle my nose from the smell.
Eren instantly gets defensive. "Huh?! What makes you think I was crying?" He yells. Then Eren covers his nose with his hand, turning away from Hannes. "Whoa, you reek of alcohol."
We turn to look to the side when we hear laughter. The rest of the Garrison soldiers on duty were sitting around a crate, drinking and playing cards.
"Oh, you're drinking again..."
"You guys wanna join in?" Hannes said, looking at them with an amused grin.
"Actually, don't you have to work?" Eren asks, looking at Hannes with a confused face.
Hannes puffs his chest out a little. "Yup! We're guardin' the gate today. We're always stuck here all day, so we end up getting hungry and thirsty. So, what if a little bit of alcohol gets slipped into our drinks, eh? It's no big deal."
Eren looks at Hannes enraged. Uh oh.
"What if something happens?! Can you fight like that!?"
Here we go again. Zafrina thinks. Eren always gets mad when he sees the soldiers lazing around. Not a week goes by without him yelling at them, or at Hannes about them being prepared for anything. It's not like she didn't understand. Zafrina understood perfectly why he gets so worked up about it. It doesn't mean he has to continuously fight about it, with a soldier, no less. They're just kids. But she's not about to argue with him again about it.
Zafrina looks up when she feels her hand being tugged. Looking up, she sees Mikasa pulling her along as they walk past Hannes and the other laughing soldiers. Huh, guess I lost track of time.
As they walk up another path heading towards their house, Mikasa decides to speak up.
"Eren, forget about the Scout Regiment."
Zafrina looks up at her and back at him, knowing how the conversation is going to go. Eren once told her he was interested in joining the scouts one day but didn't want her to mention it to the rest of the family, especially Mikasa and Cala, his mother. At the time, she was just happy he trusted her so much to tell her that he wants to join the scouts but now Zafrina can see why he didn't want Mikasa to know.
"What? You think the Scout Regiment is a joke too?!" Eren looked over at Mikasa in surprise.
"It's not about what I thin- " She stops when the gate bell starts ringing.
"The Scout Regiment is back! They're about to open the front gate! Let's go!" Eren grabs their arms and makes a dash towards the main road. Once there, they climb onto a couple of crates and looked over the crowd of people standing on the side of the road. Zafrina took one look at their faces and knew something went wrong. All of the scouts were looking down or straight ahead, faces grim. One man, gold hair combed back, and thick eyebrows look up and connected eyes with Eren. Seeing his happy face, the man's expression darkened slightly before looking at Zafrina. They lock eyes for a second, and there was a flash of something in the man's eyes, widening a little before looking down again. Zafrina couldn't comprehend what she saw in the man's eyes when he looked at her. She soon forgot when she hears what was being said around her.
The crowd starts whispering, noticing the number of soldiers that returned was drastically smaller than when they left. There were many soldiers injured, something Zafrina saw Eren noticing as well.
"These are the only ones coming back?"
"This is what they get for going outside the walls."
Then, a woman runs out in front of the group.
"Moses! Moses! Have you seen my son Moses? I don't see him anywhere ..."
The man standing in front of her looks at her for a second before looking behind him and saying "Get it."
A soldier comes up behind the man and gives a concealed object to him. Without hesitation, he places it in the woman's arms. By then the woman is shaking. She looks down and unwraps it. Everyone could see it was an arm. Zafrina covers her mouth with her hand, tears filling up her eyes.
"This was all we could recover," the man said as the mother begins to sob. She falls to her knees and cries harder. Zafrina feels tears roll down her cheeks but she couldn't seem to look away from the scene, completely horrified.
"But ... my son ... he was helpful, yes? Even if he didn't achieve direct greatness ... please tell me ... surely my son's death helped humanity fight back, yes?"
The man looks at the woman in shock. Nothing was said for a minute as the wind blew softly around them.
"Of course!" The man stops short. "No. On this latest scouting mission, we ... no. Just like all the other missions ... we achieved nothing at all! Because of my incompetence, I've lost my comrades! We haven't found out anything about them!" By the end of his speech, he's crying on the floor in front of her while everyone watches in shock.
Everyone stares as the Scout Regiment leave, all talking to themselves. The image of the bloody arm is still branded in Zafrina's mind. She couldn't get the image out of her head.
"Talk about gruesome."
"You can say that again."
"That's where our taxes are going? It's basically feeding and fattening those things up now."
Zafrina looks over at the men standing a few feet away from them, glaring at them. How dare they? They're risking their lives for us! Eren grabs a stick from his pile and hits the man on the head. Zafrina covers her mouth to hide her giggling as the man turns around to yell at Eren. Zafrina quickly follows Mikasa as she drags him away from the man before he could say anything to us.
Once we were far away enough from the crowd, Mikasa throws Eren into the wall, making his firewood fall to the ground. Zafrina quickly grabs her arm, holding her back if need be. Fi knows how strong she is, and as much as Mikasa's irritated at Eren, She shouldn't have thrown him, or at least not that hard.
Mikasa looks at her and whispers a soft 'sorry' before turning back to face Eren.
"What's the big deal?! Now the firewood's all over the place!"
"Eren. Have you changed your mind about joining the Scout Regiment?"
Images of the bloody arm came back to Zafrina's mind, ruining her lightening mood. She could just imagine it being Eren's arm. Zafrina quickly threw those thoughts out of her head, closing her eyes so that she wouldn't start to cry.
Eren looks up, then looks over at Zafrina's face. Seeing her expression, he looks down with a dejected one, before saying "Help pick this up."
"It's not that bad of a mess."
Once all the wood was picked up, they head back to the house in silence. Walking through the door, Zafrina sees Grisha sitting at the table, writing something on a piece of paper while Carla is cleaning some plates at the sink.
"We're home," Eren said, dropping the firewood in a case along with Mikasa's and Zafrina's.
Carla smiles warmly before saying, "Welcome back."
Fi walks over to the sink with Mikasa and washes her hands with her while Eren and his mother talk. A while later, the three of them ate while Grisha packs up his suitcase.
"You're leaving, dad? Is it work?" Eren asks as he eats.
"Yes, some checkups in the interior. It'll take a couple of days," Grisha said back, zipping the bag up once he's done.
"Eren says he wants to join the Scout Regiment."
Everyone looks at Mikasa as she looks down at her food. Gisha and Zafrina look at her in mild shock while Carla looks in horror. Eren glares at her, irritated.
"M-Mikasa! I told you not to say anything!"
Carla walks over to Eren and grabs his shoulders. "Eren, what are you thinking?! Do you have any idea how many people have died outside the walls?!"
Like before, the image of the bloody arm pops up again, looking like Eren's. The thought brings her such pain. What if they could only bring back his arm? Or his leg? Or nothing at all? Zafrina's eyes begin to sting with tears as thought after thought goes through her head. Fi feels Mikasa grab her hand and squeeze it, giving her comfort she desperately needs.
Getting out of her thoughts, Zafrina looks up to see Grisha next to the door, ready to leave. Carla tries to get him to speak reason to Eren, but he doesn't, saying they couldn't tame a child's curiosity.
"Eren, when I come back, I'll show you the basement." Zafrina looks at him in amazement. He never lets any of them go down there. What is he going to show Eren?
Before Grisha leaves, Zafrina gives him a hug goodbye, something she always did when she first came to live with the Yeagers. Grisha chuckles, patting her on the head before walking down the cobblestone steps. Standing next to Eren, Zafrina waves goodbye to Grisha.
"Just forget about it."
Eren and Fi look at his mother to see her giving him a disappointing look. "Joining the Scout Regiment is a stupid idea!"
"Stupid?! People who don't mind living like livestock ae the stupid ones, if you ask me," Eren yells before running down the street without a backward glance.
Carla yells after him, but he's already around the corner and out of sight. Mikasa walks down the steps towards Zafrina so that they both could catch up to him.
"Zafrina. Mikasa."
Carla grabs their arms, looking them in the eyes.
"He gets himself into trouble so easily. If anything, ever happens, you need to be there for each other!"
They both nod their heads at her, before following after Eren. They end up seeing him at the other end of the street, running towards the usual guys messing with Armin, who Fi sees on the floor. Running a few paces behind Mikasa, she could hear the guys laughing at Eren before noticing Mikasa behind him. Without a second thought, they ran away, fearful of Mikasa. Giggling a little, Zafrina stops in front of Armin and gives him a sweet smile, getting one in return.
"One look at me and they ran off!" Eren said with a cocky grin.
Armin slowly tries to stand up saying, "No, it was Mikasa they saw ... ouch!"
"Armin!" Zafina says, looking at him in concern.
"Hey, are you okay?" Eren asks, holding out a hand for him to take. Armin looks at Eren's hand before looking down.
"I can get up on my own..." He says before slowly getting up on his feet.
Making sure he was okay, they walk down to the canal before sitting on the steps. They ask Armin why those guys were messing with him.
"I said humanity needs to venture into the outside world at some point, and they beat me up and called me a heretic."
"Damn," Eren grumbles, throwing a pebble into the canal. "Why does everyone look down on people just for wanting to go outside?"
Zafrina zones out again as Eren's question resonates in her mind. Why do people get mad and look down on others for wanting to go outside? She could understand what Armin is saying. Everyone behind the walls has had 100 years of peace, so why would people want to disrupt that?
As Zafrina continues to ponder about the outside world and how people react to it, she could faintly hear Eren throw a fit about Mikasa telling his parents about the Scouts. Suddenly, she's thrown out of her thoughts when a loud bang rings throughout the street, throwing them off their feet. Zafrina scraps her knees as they hit the cobblestone ground.
"Zafrina!" Eren grabs her arms, pulling her up, dusting her off and making sure she's okay.
"What was that?" Armin says, looking around him.
"An explosion?" Eren responds. Armin notices people pointing at something from the other street and instantly runs over to check what they're talking about. The others yell out his name, following him. When they reach him, they notice Armin and everyone else look at something in horror. Zafrina quickly looks over to see what it was and freezes in fear.
A hand. On top of the wall.
Slowly, something else rises next to the hand, forming to a head by the time it peeps over the wall.
That wall is 50 meters high ... how ...? It's one of them ...
"A-A Titan?!" Eren whispers. Everyone watching is still frozen, unable to comprehend what is going on. The head leans forward, before coming back up right before a deafening crash is heard. Chunks of debris come hurling towards citizens and houses, crushing everything in its path. Screams fill the air as the debris continues to destroy everything in sight. Once the smoke clears, everyone can see a wide hole in the outer gate, with large heads starting to peak through.
"It ... opened a hole in the wall ..." Armin whimpers as everyone is running and screaming around them.
"THEY'RE INSIDE!"
"THE TITANS HAVE GOTTEN INSIDE!"
"We have to run ... EREN!" Zafrina whips her head around to see him slowly walking in the opposite direction.
"My house is in that direction! MOM ...!" He says. Zafrina's eyes go wide, looking towards the direction of the house. Carla... Eren takes off towards the house, Mikasa and Zafrina right behind him.
Please be okay ...