On a regular day, the scenery around her could have been called idyllic.

Warm light shone through the green leaves above her and made the colour look even more vibrant. And the sound of Liam's hooves hitting the ground was almost drowned out by the melodic chirping of birds that accompanied them.

It was a beautiful forest. There was no denying that.

Antonia wondered if she would die here.

The broken branches and the damaged bark of the trees standing at the outer edge of the forest had told her that Ben and Emma had managed to lead the titan here.

She descended from Liam's back once she realized that it would be impossible to find further traces of her friends if she did not skip to ODM gear.

As she stood next to her horse, she dumbfoundedly realised that she had no idea what to do with him. Should I try to tell him to go back to the formation? Should I have him stay here? Where are Ben's and Emma's horses?

Her thoughts were interrupted as Liam's muzzle poked against the side of her head. She looked at the animal's gentle eyes and decided that she could not bind him to a tree here, not if she could not be a hundred percent sure that she would be able to come back and get him.

"Go to Hange and the others for me, okay?" she said to the horse before giving him a clap to send him off, sincerely hoping that he would somehow be able to understand what she meant and obey her wish.

Then, Antonia finally made use of her omni-directional gear and shot herself up onto a thick branch that looked like it had recently lost a lot of its leaves by force.

Not too far from her, she could see two cuts on the bark, like a bright scar had been inflicted on it.

Grapple hooks.

Impatiently, she followed the traces of subtle destruction that had been inflicted on the bits of nature before her. She thought that it was a shame that a titan this big left no footprints. Why is that though? Maybe Hange has an idea…

On the other hand, she felt grateful that it was not required of her make herself an easy target by staying on the ground.

She wished that she was faster as she moved from branch to branch, from tree to tree, trying to quickly assess whether or not her comrades might have been here.

But while she was flinging herself through the air at an impressive pace, she still felt like she was moving through a thick mass of jam.

She could feel the combination of anxiety and exhaustion in her bones and she desperately tried to push that feeling away.

In addition, she noticed that her movements became less precisely. As she pushed herself forward, she felt twigs hitting against her, leaving small cuts on her face and the back of her hands. And whenever she flung herself on yet another branch, she felt her knees tremble under the effort of withstanding the impact of her landing.

Her joints were aching, and her muscles were screaming.

But it really did not matter if she was tired. She had to stick it out. She'd rather die from exhaustion than stop before she had done what she had to do.

And eventually, after what felt like at least an eternity, Antonia saw the titan. And with that, her body rewarded her with another wave of adrenalin strong enough to push all her tiredness away.

She had to disagree with Hange. It really was not a beauty.

Despite its height, the most striking feature of the titan were its big, dull eyes that were as blue as the sky. A wide grin seemed to be its resting facial expression. On a human, Antonia thought, its face might have been pleasant, but on the titan, it looked nothing but unnerving.

She slowly slid down on a thick branch, careful not to make a sound or a movement that might be caught in the monster's peripheral vision, and frantically looked around for Emma and Ben.

Her hand clasped around the pendant of her necklace and she tightly gripped the little stone between her thumb, index, and middle finger, feeling its edges digging into her skin.

Not too far away from her, she saw a boot that had been stuck between a couple of branches. The green leaves surrounding it were stained with blood.

She immediately knew that the foot of whom it belonged to was still in there. And since there was no body anywhere in sight, she concluded that at least one of her comrades had been eaten.

Antonia wished that she could just turn around and admit that she had not been able to do anything. But she knew that she had to get closer, she just had to make sure that neither of them had made it, otherwise, she would never be able to live with herself.

Carefully, she made her way to the ten-metre figure – and finally understood why she had not caught its attention yet.

Its eyes were fixated on a young man with a pale face and light brown hair that was cowering in the crown of a tree, almost fully disguised by green leaves, and just out of its reach.

Ben.

When he saw her, his facial expression that had been the epitome of dread, changed. After this, he would probably say that he had never been happier to see anyone in his whole life.

If there was an 'after this'.

Unsure of what the best approach could be Antonia used her ODM gear to move upwards. If I'm up high enough, it can't reach me. Then I'll get to him.

"I'm out of gas! You have to be careful, it jumps!"

Ben shouted once he deemed her out of the titan's reach.

Antonia felt like someone was squeezing her heart. These were not the best circumstances for an escape. Yet, the alternatives did not look any better than the slim chance of the two of them getting out of here.

When the hooks of her gear sunk into the trunk next to him, Ben started to wave towards the titan and shouted obscenities into its face. While it did not seem to mind the foul language at all, its unnerving smile never faltering, Ben's performance was enough to keep its attention on him and enabled Antonia to land next to him almost smoothly.

For the first time ever, Ben hugged her.

"I can't believe you're here, Tonia." She saw relief, gratitude, and tears in his eyes – she quickly looked away.

"Emma has been – " Ben's voice broke.

"I know."

"We didn't know that it was an abnormal and when we thought we had it, it just jumped and caught her. I tried get back to where I thought the formation would be, but I think I went into the wrong direction and now I'm out of gas. I'm so, so sorry, Antonia, I wish I would have -"

"Ben." She interrupted him rudely.

Antonia did not feel equipped to deal with this situation. Neither with the abnormal below them, nor with her comrade's emotions.

"We have to get out of here."

He looked at her with a blank face, blinked twice, as if he had just realized that now indeed was not a good time to discuss what had happened, and then regained his composure.

He gave her a short nod.

"Good. You will hang on to me and I will try to get us back to the others."

"How much gas do you have left? Will it be enough to get the two of us there?"

There was no point in lying to him.

"We might have a chance." She gave him a half-hearted smile.

"Tonia…"

"Don't waste your breath, I don't want to hear any of that."

"But you could –"

"Nope. I don't think Shadis would send anyone back to get you out of here. The risk is too high."

"I know that. But you should still go alone."

Antonia rolled her eyes.

"If we don't manage to catch up to them, I will whistle for Liam and he might get us out of here."

"Liam?"

"My horse."

"Oh."

"Come on, hang on to me." She gestured behind her and without further discussion, Ben did as he was told.

Antonia was glad that he was a rather short and slim person. Yet, she could feel his weight on her back and knew that their chances were really not thrilling.

"Toni?" Ben whispered urgently into her ear.

"Yes?"

"That is a really terrible name for a horse." He said gravely.

She let out a small laugh that died in her throat when she glanced at the titan that was still intently staring at them.

"Let's go."

Antonia shot the hooks into the bark of an oak tree, squeezed her arms against Ben's legs, hoping that this would decrease the air resistance, squatted down, and jumped forward with as much force as she could.

The momentum was rather impressive.

If I don't shoot the grapple hooks too far away, they get deep enough into the trunks to hold our weight and we can swing most of the way.

It was not an elegant solution, but this way, they would save gas. At the same time, they'd be incredibly slow, and the more time passed, the further the formation got away.

Yet, it was probably the only chance they had. Or at least the only she could think of.

But it did not get them far.

We would have needed to get so much further up, Antonia thought as she saw one big blue eye right next to her.

It was merely a second, nothing more than a heartbeat, but the moment stretched out for an eternity. She heard its teeth snap far too close to them. She could feel the heat emitting from its body.

The titan had jumped far higher than she had thought it capable of, eager to devour them mid-air, like they were some fish hanging on a rod – and it missed them.

But before Antonia could understand what had happened and feel relieved upon having escaped death due to sheer luck once more, she felt the impact of the titan's hand hitting against them from behind.

It may have tried to grab them, but instead it threw them against a tree.

Antonia resisted the urge to let go of Ben's legs so she could use her arms to soften the impact of the collision with the dark brown trunk. Instead, she tried to turn her body to one side, hoping that she might just break her shoulder and not her neck. So that she would not let go of Ben.

Retrospectively, after spending more nights than she could count going through what had happened again and again, Antonia was sure that she must have failed to put herself into the position that she had planned for the impact. She was sure that the outcome would have been different if she had freed one arm and only held on to Ben with the other one.

Because then, she would not have hit her head and lost consciousness. Then she would not have let go of Ben.