The Awakening

by SniperGirl0907

The gods have been gone for too long: cursed to exist as giant voiceless monsters, they have awakened to find humanity at the edge of extinction, & at the mercy of the creatures known as 'titans'. Now, with the help of a young adventurous girl, a brave courageous mother, and their equally intrepid friends and family, they must find a way to save all mankind.

5. Chpt 4: Secrets & Mysteries

I don't own Attack on Titan: just my OC's and the plot.

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The Awakening

Chapter 4: Secrets & Mysteries

The next morning, Shiganshina, the Jaeger residence:

"Well? ..." Grisha turned to his two colleagues, "What do you think?"

The two older gentlemen gazed down at Ariana, somewhat at a loss what to think: "... I have to say Grisha, I'm totally stumped: I've never seen anything like this before" one of the gentlemen sighed as he scratched his head.

"I too must confess" the second doctor sighed, "I've never seen anything even remotely similar"

"I've just finished going through every piece of medical text I could find on the human eye" Breck added as he placed one of his medical books down on the table: "There's nothing that explains this, or what might cause something like this to occur"

Turning back to Ariana, Grisha knelt down, and addressed her: "Ariana: you're absolutely sure, you don't remember what happened before you fell asleep in the forest?"

Last night was... different, to say the least.

As Ariana thought back to the events of last night, she wasn't too sure what to think: the only thing she knew for sure was that one minute her eye was in pain, and the next she woke up in the palm of a fifteen-meter tall blue-eyed titan, able to see just fine. She remembered talking to him, and then darkness came and took her again, and the next thing she knew she was being woken up by Eren, who, along with her family, friends and everyone else she knew, had been searching the forest looking for her.

Did any of that really happen? Was the titan even real? The memory of last night's events felt more like the memory of a dream, rather than real life; but one thing was real. The fact that her left eye, instead of a deep shade of brown, was now a vivid shade of bright sky blue; there were many people in this world that had bright blue eyes, but this? This was totally unnatural for a human eye, and when the sun hit it at just the right angle, it almost seemed to light up and glisten.

When they saw her eye in the torchlight, Grisha and Break were as amazed as they were perplexed: they didn't know what had caused this sudden change, or if there might be any other side effects present: to be on the safe side Grisha asked Tyto and Freya if Ariana could sleep over at his home, so as to monitor her throughout the night (as well as let her get a good night's sleep), while Breck went to the city hospital's library, and started combing through every pertinent medical text to try and find an explanation. The rest of the night passed by uneventfully, and no other symptoms transpired; during his search, Breck told another two of his colleagues about the 'strange condition' so as to have a couple of second opinions: not quite believing him, Breck brought them back to the Jaeger home so as they could see for themselves. And sure enough, they too were stumped by this oddity.

Ariana shook her head: "It's just like I said Dr Jaeger: after all that walking I got tired so I found a place to rest for a while; and then when I woke up, Eren's there telling me he's been looking all over for me. I don't even remember falling asleep" She explained innocently.

"...Okay" Grisha nodded as he stood back up, while Ariana's parents watched on in concern; "Well doctor? What do you think?" Tyto asked as Ariana fidgeted about on his lap.

"To be honest Tyto I don't really know what to make of it?" Grisha sighed as he took off his glasses and wiped them with a clean handkerchief: "This is totally unprecedented"

"But, don't your eyes change colour when you're young anyway?" Freya asked offhand, "Ariana's eyes were blue when she was born, and Hawk and Ashlyn's were grayish before they turned brown too"

"Yes, but a baby's eyes can take up to six months or even three years to change colour: this happened in the span of a much shorter time period. And we don't know what triggered it" Grisha explained as he put his glasses back on.

"What concerns me is that colour," Breck bent down for a closer look: "Hold still Ariana..." he frowned as he carefully held her head, and gently peeled back her eyelid for a closer look at the eye: "It's so unnatural; I've never seen this in any other animal never mind another human; and the way it shines when the light catches it? ..." he frowned as he turned her head so the morning sun shone on her eye: the iris lit up and sparkled as if it were a cut blue topaz, glistening every vivid shade of blue imaginable: " ...That's totally bizarre" he sighed as he let go of her and stood back up.

"It's strange for sure, but I don't think there's any immediate concern at present" the first doctor pointed out.

"Indeed" the second doctor bent over for a closer look: "There's no injury to the eye itself or the surrounding tissues, there's no sign of infection present, and Ariana's sight is completely unaffected... I don't think there's any need to go to the hospital at this point"

"I agree" Grisha nodded, "There's really not much we can do except be mindful of it, and if any other symptoms or conditions arise, just come back and we'll see to it"

"You'll keep an 'eye' on it, right dad?" Eren chipped in with a cheesy grin.

"Ah yes" Grisha couldn't help but smile, "Exactly".

"Mum can we go out and play now? This is boring" Ariana whined.

"Okay, but stay in the street..." Freya stated as Ariana and Eren flew out the door, and ran over to Armin and the other kids outside; she then turned to Carla, who had been watching the examination from the other side of the table: "...And how are you holding up dear?" she asked worryingly, gazing down at the bruises on her wrists.

"Oh I'll survive" Carla sighed with a weak smile, as she rubbed her wrists, "It's my own fault really, I should've asked someone to come with me: but in the stir of the moment I just-, went on instinct"

"You should really consider yourself lucky" Breck commented as he packed up his medical bag, "It's not every day you're saved from human traffickers by a bear"

Carla's story about how she got those bruises on her wrists had gone unquestioned, much to her relief: though she still didn't feel comfortable about it, it was a safer alternative to telling the whole truth, and telling everyone about the real creature that saved her.

She explained how she had gone down the road and was thrown from the saddle when a deer spooked the horse, and then right after getting back up, was pounced upon by a gang of men that bound and gagged her (which was true), and how, when they were carrying her to their wagon, a bear came charging out of the bushes and attacked one of the men, and in the fight to try and fend it off their buddy, the other men dropped her and she managed to wriggle free from her bonds, legging it back the way she came.

Everyone found her sitting on the verge by the side of the cart after getting Ariana back: and when they saw the state of her cloths and the look in her eyes, they knew something bad had happened; seeing the forming bruises on her wrists and ankles, Grisha nearly panicked when she told him about the men: but after calming him down, and Gustav letting him have a swig of brandy from his hip flask, Carla assured him she was okay. Eren had been just as worried too; though, he was much more relieved than his father: and after a long night of dreamless sleep, he woke up unconcerned and just happy to know she was there.

"You know?" Tyto stroked his beard in thought: "It's really not surprising"

"It's not?" Carla blinked in surprise.

"Oh no: that section of road you described last night? The one near the Marian river? There's an old bear den about a quarter mile up from the left-side verge near the bridge; and I know for a fact there's a sow with her cubs in there at the moment. It could be that she smelt they were too close for her liking and decided to see them off. Sows are very defensive of their young and they will attack if they feel threatened"

"In this case it worked to your advantage; quite a stroke of luck I'd say..." the first doctor smiled as he checked the time on his pocket watch, "Well, I've got to be getting back to the hospital: illnesses to cure, injuries to treat. Let me know if anything comes of that eye eh? Well? Cheerio," he waved goodbye as he stepped out the door.

"I really got to be getting started on my rounds too" the second doctor nodded as he too saw himself out: "But, next time I write to the academy in Mitras, I'll ask if anyone can shed any light on our 'mystery changing eye colour'. See you later Grisha, Breck"

"'Bye" Breck waved as he picked up his bag and took his book, "And you take it easy Carla, alright?"

"Alright" she smiled in relief,

"We really ought to be going too: there's a ton of chores to get through before the day's out," Tyto sighed as he and Freya stepped through the front door, and outside to where Hannes, Bryson, Claude, Gustav, Bren and Derek were waiting: "Thanks for everything Grisha, Breck. After all the trouble we put you to last night, at least allow us to make you dinner sometime"

"That's really not necessary" Grisha respectfully declined as he grabbed his hat and medical bag, "I'm just glad everything turned out okay and Ariana's safe; you know where to find me if anything crops up, okay?"

"Sure thing" Tyto smiled,

"Alright..." he nodded, before turning back to Carla, and placing a kiss on her cheek, "See you later darling, and take care"

"Of course" she smiled as he walked off up the street, "Bye darling" she waved, before turning back to the neighbors: "Well thank you for your concern, I'll be fine, really"

"You're sure?" Freya asked concernedly, "I can make up some bear repellent anytime you know?"

"That's okay, really" she waved off politely, "Honestly, I just want to rest, and do something to take my mind off last night"

"But of course" Tyto nodded as he and the others started walking down the street, "You know where to find us if you need anything" he waved good bye,

"Always" Carla smiled as she close the door, "Bye"

"I better go and see to those grocery orders" Freya sighed as she placed a kiss on Tyto's cheek before taking off back to their home, "See you later!"

As they watched the children playing nearby, the men all stopped by the Inn, and watched Ariana with mixed thoughts: "So I take it the ankle-biter ain't got anything terminal?" Gustav grunted. "Nothing that warrant's a trip to the hospital, and since she can still see okay there's nothing we can do; if it's not broke, don't fix it I guess?" Tyto shrugged as he folded his arms.

"But still," Breck sighed as he frowned in bemusement, placing his bag down by his side and folding his arms: "There's no explanation as to how her eye spontaneously changed colour like that; and what she described doing beforehand didn't make any sense either: not remembering that you fell asleep? It sounded more like she fainted"

"But, what could have caused that?" Bren asked offhand,

"Your guess is as good as mine Bren, there's a whole plethora of things that can cause someone to faint"

"But what would cause someone to faint and change their eye colour during the time their unconscious?" Claude chipped in, "As men of science, we can't rule anything out: but at the same time we have to be open to the possibility that we might be looking at a completely new condition that medical science has not yet documented," he pointed out eagerly: "Such fascinating times we live in, eh gentlemen?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely riveting" Hannes yawned as he stretched his arms up over his head, "Well, sorry to have to leave so soon gents, but I got a ton of paperwork waiting for me back at the Garrison: last night's escapade has put the MP's on alert"

"Oh yes, those roughians," Claude remembered, "Any luck on determining their identities and whereabouts?"

"Are you kidding?" Hannes stared at Claude in slight bemusement, "Guys like those are a copper piece a dozen here in the outterlands: This ain't the interior Claude"

"Ah yes" she sheepishly remembered, "More remote and more forest to hide in: I always seem to forget just how big Maria is"

"Well in any case: a couple of my guys and some of the MP's went up there to check out the road earlier this morning: they said something happened up there alright; I don't know how big that bear was, but it tore a pathway straight through the trees: one of the guys said it looked like a titan had ripped through the whole area"

"Seriously?" Bryson deadpanned as he folded his arms,

"Hey, I'm just saying what he told me, I ain't been up there..." Hannes sighed as he rubbed his brow, "But these human traffickers? They are a real problem: every time the MP's put one gang out of business, another moves right in and picks up where the previous lot left off; I swear it's like they multiply like rats or something" he sighed, before walking off down to the main street, "... Well, catch you later guys"

Bren then changed the subject: "...If it's not too personal, can I ask: what was that 'altercation' between Ariana and Rowan all about?" he glanced over at Tyto. "Yeah," Derek frowned in curiosity, "Hazel, Clay, Ash and Dale looked pretty distraught when they got back last night; they mentioned something about Rowan and the wall cult, and how they're going to kill them. Is everything okay?"

Tyto was quiet, as he carefully scanned the faces of his friends with an unreadable poker face; he glanced over at Gustav, who merely stared back at him with a knowing look: he had a good idea what he was going to say next, and casually shrugged as if to say: Hey, it's your call. Breathing a deep sigh, Tyto decided to go with his gut instinct: "...Can you guys keep a secret? ..." he asked frankly.

That got everyone's attention: glancing at one another, the men realized something serious was at hand here; all except Gustav who remained uninterested; "...What's this about?" Bryson asked cautiously: wondering where this was going.

"...Meet me in the cellar, tonight; I have something to confide in you" Tyto gestured to the Inn, "And if Miriam asks, just tell her it's a game of poker between good friends" he simply replied, before heading inside with Gustav, leaving them standing outside the Inn, wondering what was going on.

"Unless your here to drink don't be loitering around my doorstep!" Miriam sternly snapped from behind the bar inside.

Following Gustav around to the rear side of the inn, the old man stopped: looked all around; and when he was sure no one was eavesdropping, he looked Tyto square in the eye, and leveled with him: "...You sure you can trust them?"

"It's a gamble, I know" Tyto replied honestly: "But I'm already gambling my life, and that of my family just by living here Gustav; and they're my friends. Considering the time, trouble and danger I put them to in helping me look for my daughter last night, I have no right to deny them an explanation"

"But what if they're not as trustworthy as you think you are?" Gustav frowned skeptically: "What if they figure there's something in it for them by ratting you out?"

"You and I both know that's not true," Tyto sighed, knowing Gustav was bluffing, "I know why you ask that question and I understand where your coming from; but if anyone's a good judge of character, it's Miriam: and if she picked up anything about them that told her they weren't worth her time, then I know they wouldn't have been worth my time either"

Gustav couldn't help but smile, "Eh, ya ain't wrong there: that ol' witch can pick up a bad bone from over a mile away..." he regarded him with another serious look, "...Look Tyto, I'm okay with knowing your 'family secret': Miriam, Rosemary and Lucille too; but that don't mean everyone else might be comfortable knowing about it. Are you sure you want to bring them in on this?"

"Everyone has secrets Gustav" Tyto stated, "No matter how mundane or boring our lives might get, there're always going to be those few things we don't want others to know about; the question is, for what reasons?"

As Gustav pondered on Tyto's words, around the front of the Inn, out in the street, Ariana was suddenly the center of attention as her cousins and friends were checking out her left eye. "Wow..." the Cooper twins breathed simultaneously as they gazed at her eye in wonder: "It's so blue"

"It's like, the bluest blue I've ever seen!" Belle Smiled, "And blue's my favorite colour!"

"So, you just went to sleep and you woke up with it looking like that?" Jaye raised an eyebrow; "Uh ?Kinda?" Ariana shrugged casually, "Meh, good enough for me" Josepha waved off with a shrug.

"So? ..." Ariana sheepishly changed the subject, "You guys really spent the whole night looking for me?"

"Well duh?" Hawk deadpanned, "Uncle Tyto and Aunt Freya were freaking out over it when they realized you didn't come back; the rest of the family too when Clay told them what happened"

"And then Aunt Miriam got everyone else together and we all came to help" Gale filled in,

"My mum nearly got kidnapped by criminals and was saved by a bear!" Eren exclaimed, before adding "But that's not your fault Ariana, so don't worry about it okay?"

"Hey that reminds me," Armin suddenly remembered, "Is Hazel okay? She looked really upset last night when she realized you weren't home"

"Umm? ..." Ariana dropped her gaze, still feeling uncomfortable about the fallout from last night's events, "...She's still up in her room" She pointed to the top-most window at the front of her house, "She's still really upset about not trying find me after breaking up that fight"

"What was the fight about anyway?" Eren asked curiously,

Ariana paused a moment: she wanted to tell him the truth about why Rowan flew off the handle like that, but catching a glimpse of her cousins giving her a stern shake of the head told her to think better of it: "...It's-, kinda complicated: I'm not really allowed to talk about it okay?"

"...Okay" Eren dropped his gaze in disappointment.

"But-" Ariana didn't want him to feel dejected, "It's nothing to do with us, its grown-up stuff, you know?"

"Okay" he smiled, before suddenly remembering: "Hey, where'd Rowan get to anyway? I'd like to crack his skull for what he did to you last night!" he scowled with a clenched fist.

None of the cousins said anything, as they awkwardly glanced at one another.

Up on the roof of the Grayson home, Rowan sat by the chimney stacks with his knees tucked beneath his chin, and his arms wrapped around his legs; staring out across the rooftops at wall Maria, watching the birds fly over the wall, and wishing he could join them. To just spread his arms out, have them turn into wings, and take up off into the blue sky; souring far away from all this.

To say he got a stern chewing out for punching his little sister was an understatement, and that wasn't even the half of it: the fact he lost it so badly and lashed out really worried his parents; but then, it wasn't like they weren't aware of the reason why he said the things he said.

It had haunted him at the back of his mind for some time now: wrestling with it every night before going to sleep, and having his dreams invaded by the idea of having lived a lie. Not an evil or a bad lie, but a lie never the less. He thought back to that night on the roof top six months ago, and what Ariana said about how differences are part of what makes the world work; part of him realized the irony in it: here he was, terrified of the idea of being different in a way that meant he had to die as far as the wall cult were concerned; and on the other hand, part of him was angry that he couldn't think of a way to change his circumstances. To find a way to be free, to live the life of an ordinary person and just be another faceless individual in the crowd; he hated this, he seethed at the idea of being something to be feared and hated, to be tied to a steak and burnt alive: he hated having to live under a false name, and to not tell anyone of the things he and his family did behind closed doors; he hated not being allowed to be honest, and just tell his friends the truth.

He hated everything about himself, and as he watched the birds fly away, he loathed them for their freedom.

As he heard his brothers climb out of their bedroom window and up onto the roof, he hugged his legs tighter and buried his face between his knees and his chest: not wanting to let them see how upset he was; for him, it was weakness, allowing others to see you at your worst, to see you brought so low. And with his mind still reeling from the events of last night, he was in no mood to talk to anyone, not even his own brothers.

Ash and Dale didn't say anything: they merely climbed along tiles to the opposite side of the chimney stacks, allowing him to keep his personal space, and sat down behind him, gazing out over the rooftops towards the city's inner gate.

"...We're not here to chew you out if that's what you were thinking" Ash stated frankly, "After last night, I think you get it"

Rowan didn't reply,

Getting straight to the point, Dale heaved a heavy sigh: "...You do know you're gonna have to apologize to Ariana sooner or later, right? You can't hide up here forever bro"

Still no reply

"...What I want to know is" Ash thought aloud, "Why didn't you say anything?"

Rowan raised his head up, but didn't reply as he listened,

"Why didn't you talk to us about how you were feeling? About what uncle Evrard told us, and about our real parents; why couldn't you just talk to us?"

"...I didn't think I had to..." Rowan replied frankly: though he was calm, his voice was laced with tired bitterness: "...I thought you guys felt the same as me"

"...To be honest?" Dale sighed, "I don't really know how to feel about it? I mean yeah they died in a horrible way by some really horrible people. But-, I don't remember them, I don't remember their names or their faces, I don't know anything about them... How can you miss someone, if you didn't know them to begin with?"

Rowan snapped his head round and stared at Dale in astonishment; he hadn't considered that before.

"Look" Ash chipped in, "Dad lied but being our real dad, I get that, but how is that a bad thing? He's always been there for us, and so has mum; uncle Evrard, uncle Falken and uncle Eraman, and aunt Bestla, aunt Skadi and ant Ran: and Clay, Hazel, Josefa, Jaye, Ashlyn and Hawk, and Ariana as well. So what if we're not blood? I don't think that counts, it never has, if it did I don't think we'd be here" he turned round to meet Rowan's gaze, "So tell me; how is this life, with 'these people' so terrible?"

Rowan didn't reply, he didn't know how: seeing the look on his face, Dale decided they'd made their point, and as he stood up, he simply added: "...Look, just don't leave it too long with Ariana okay? She won't be mad at you forever"

"Catch you later bro" Ash sighed as he got up, and followed Dale back to the bedroom window, leaving Rowan alone on the roof.

Gazing up at the sky, Rowan knew he had screwed up, and it was inevitable that he'd have to make amends sooner or later; but how? He was never good at making up for anything; one after another he'd lose his temper over something, go away to vent, and when he had calmed down enough he'd say he was sorry. And that had always seemed to be the pattern of his life, but this time it was different, how could he make up for this?

Down on the ground floor of the house, sitting at the table staring down into the cup of tea that was steadily growing cold, Evrard sat alone: contemplating his own mistakes, and weighing up the damage they had done. "There's no use in lamenting over it now..." Freya sighed as she folded her arms, gazing at him as she stepped into the room, "What's done is done: we can't take it back"

"I know... " he sighed as he took a sip of his tea, "And it was wrong of me to be so rash"

"So why did you do it?!" Freya sternly gazed at him as she approached his side, "You knew we were going to tell the children about the Crow clan when the time was ready: and we specifically said, as their adoptive parents, we'd be the ones to do it! So why the hell did you go behind our backs and tell them, when we told you not to?"

Heaving a heavy sigh, Evrard met her gaze: "Look, you remember back in January when Ariana, Eren, Armin and the Willum girls tried climbing wall again for the umpteenth time?"

"Yes?"

"Well?" he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck: "... After we got back with the kids, Bryson pulled us aside and told us about what really happened on their latest 'adventure'. Apparently the kids were spotted trying to climb the wall, and it really pissed the cult off this time, so much so that they ordered the Garrison to conduct spot-checks on the main roads leading into the city, looking for them so they could arrest them! Hannes covered for them of course and later that night I asked him about it, and he confirmed it...And that's when it struck me: what if you left it too late to tell them the truth? What if you didn't tell them about the wall cult sooner? And why we have to avoid grabbing their attention at all costs. Never mind the fact why we have to hide our true heritage..." he gestured to the door that led down to the basement: "I just-, I was worried that the children didn't fully appreciate the danger the cult poses, and how careless talk could easily cost us our lives"

Freya started at him, somewhat taken aback at first, before pressing him: "...Does Miriam know as well?

"She asked Hannes about it the next day: she was going to put the girls to work in the guest house as punishment for running off anyway, but after hearing about how they came close to being arrested, I think she made her mind up to keep them on a short leash" Evrard replied offhand as he downed the last of his tea.

Freya pondered on her brother's short-sighted decision; she couldn't fault Evrard for his concerns, she knew, as a father he tried to do right by his wife and children, as well as the rest of the 'extended' family. But his own stubbornness and surety made him his own worst enemy at times, and he didn't have the knack for thinking about the long-term, and how the consequences of one decision could reverberate over time; and come back to haunt him. Letting her frustration go, she softly told him: "...There's was a reason why we didn't want Rowan to know what happened just yet...He takes everything so personally; and we knew he wasn't ready for the truth about his real parents: not until he was of an age he'd be able to deal with it with maturity and a little more wisdom under his belt"

"I miscalculated..." Evrard propped his hand on his elbow, "When I told him, I thought he was taking it well...At least, I thought he was dealing with it, and these last few months I just thought he was coming to terms with it, you know? Grieving quietly in his own way and making his peace with it..."he sighed in deep regret, "...But that wasn't the case was it? If I'd known he was bottling it all up and seething about it, I would've done something I swear-"

"I know you would," Freya sighed in her own regret, "But you know Rowan as well as I do: you know he doesn't know how to handle his feelings well. He's like a bird trying to fly, he's flapping his wings but not beating them the right way to get off the ground. And now, for the first time in his life he is truly aware of the hurt he's inflicted on Ariana, and he's terrified he'll make it worse by not finding the right words to say 'I'm sorry'"

Evrard glanced up at his sister: and with an honest look in his eyes, he told her, "...I'm sorry too...I know it doesn't make up for what happened, but I'm sorry I misjudged this decision, and I'll make it up to you however I can"

Freya couldn't help but smile as she reached out her hand to his, and as their fingers intertwined, she patted the back of his hand and gazed down at him understandingly, the way only a sister could: "...Next time? Just talk to me first, okay?"

"Okay..." he kissed the back of her hand, "Just-, promise me, if we're going to decide on telling the children anything else that may be pertinent to ensuring they survive this walled world, just let me know so I don't land my foot in it again, alright?"

"Deal" she nodded, "Now come on," she beckoned him up out of the chair, and pointed to the kitchen: "The potatoes aren't going to peel themselves: get to it"

---

Meanwhile, deep in the Marian forest:

As the giant trees loomed over the forest, shrouding everything below in their shadows: the three gods were gathered around Javorin's tomb; Herne and Javorin stood to one side while Hecate crouched down, carefully inspecting the engravings: running her clawed fingers along each pattern and hieroglyph, determining their form, function and magic's.

"Well?" Herne asked offhand, "Anything?"

"These are concealment charms" Hecate replied offhand as she stood back up, and took a step backwards to look at the tomb in full: "And quite a few different ones; someone went to a lot of trouble to ensure we weren't found by anyone"

"But how long ago was that? Their magics have long since worn off, and there's barely any trace of their original power left" Herne gestured to the engravings.

"So we're looking at hundreds of years gone" Javorin sighed, "Not tens as I had originally assumed"

"No" Hecate sighed in a frank tone as she folded her arms, "It doesn't look that way"

"Okay" Herne tried to keep the mood positive, "So we've been asleep for a few, maybe several hundred years, it's not the end of the world"

"But what world is this?" Hecate deadpanned, "The ambient Manna is 'off' somehow, like something bad happened on a grand scale, and it's left a scar on the energies of this place"

"You felt that too?" Javorin glanced at her, "I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but now that I think about it, that's exactly what it feels like; the Manna has since recovered and reachieved a level of balance over the last few centuries, but still..."

"Something's out of place..." Hecate finished: letting out a sharp 'Tsh!' between her lips, that sounded like steam escaping a giant kettle, before changing the subject: "...By the way, that child you 'encountered' last night: are you sure her memories were legitimate?"

"As legitimate as only a child's mind can be at that age," Javorin nodded. He had told them about his 'encounter' with the human child last night, and explained how he put her to sleep so as to peek a glimpse at her memories, in order to see what that state of the world was; the rest, he decided he'd keep to himself...for now. "It wasn't a vast lifetime's worth of experience, but I believe what I gleaned will serve as a suitable starting point"

"Um?" Herne grabbed their attention, "Before we start, our 'guest' has just woken up? We should see to her first..." he pointed over to a large bower some twelve meters behind them. Sat in the thick undergrowth, nestled in a giant patch of ferns, the forth god (or goddess rather) that Hecate sensed last night, stared up at them in a mix of confusion and worry: afraid to stand out as she tried to make herself look smaller by pressing herself into the greenery.

"I got this..." Javorin smiled as he approached her, and knelt down at the edge of the ferns: "Good morning" he greeted her with a friendly smile, "I know this goes without saying, but how're you feeling this morning?"

"...Weird..." was all she could squeak in a young teenager-like voice, "And these plants weren't here last night"

"No, I grew them for you so you'd have somewhere more comfortable to sleep" Javorin explained gently, "After all, you're body isn't exactly designed for laying down in the 'conventional' manner"

The new acquaintance was quite unique, even compared to Herne: she was seven meters tall, and was part bird part humanoid; with a fair beautiful face, neck and shoulders, and a chest that was covered in soft fluffy feathers, making it look like she was wearing a giant cowl. She had long slender hips, thighs and calves, but the rest of her was mostly avian: with long digigrade legs from the ankles down, ending in a pair of grey dove-like feet with three toes and short sharp claws, two wings that were so large that the tips of her primary feathers touched the ground, and a long flowing tail that stretched over ten meters behind her. But her head and back sported the most impressive plumage: with a head of long wavy hair-like feathers that fell all the way down her back, and two massive flank plumes sprouting from the backs of her shoulders, trailing all the way down to her tail. Her entire form from skin to feathers was the purest shade of white imaginable, like freshly fallen snow upon a mountain top, with a dazzling rainbow pallet of iridescent colours shining in the dappled morning sun; and pale ice blue eyes that glistened like spring water. She had no extensive tattoos that covered her entire body, except for her face and neck, which were more simplistic compared to the elaborate patterns the others had.

"I wouldn't know. I've never 'slept' before" she replied nervously, before suddenly realizing: "-Wait, is that what that was? When I shut my eyes and I just-, there was darkness, and the next thing I know the sun's out and its morning, and I'm here...Huh...That's weird"

"Weird?" Hecate echoed in confusion, "You mean you've never 'slept' before?"

"Well it's not like I ever needed to?" she sheepishly replied, half wondering if she was saying the right things "I mean, I never actually tried it, or, rather, I never got the chance"

"I take it this is your first time assuming a corporeal form?" Javorin asked curiously.

"A what?" she stared at him weirdly,

"A body" Herne corrected, "This the first time you've ever had a body?"

"Uh I guess?" She glanced at him, wondering what he was talking about, "I mean, I never needed one for where I was before"

"Before?" Javorin squinted, "Where did you live?"

"Everywhere across the skies of the world!" she perked up "Although, I mostly liked to blow through the lower atmosphere, you see so much more of the ground that way"

Javorin wasn't sure what meant by that at first, until he suddenly realized: "Ah, you must be one of the Tempus gods"

"That's it!" She nodded in excitement, "I used to create all kinds of weather systems, but my specialty was always rainbows; I have a real knack for those" she added with an air of smugness.

"Great, if we need to water the plants we'll give you a chant" Hecate deadpanned.

"Huh?"

"Oh don't mind her, she's just not keen on any other gods stealing her elemental spotlight" Herne grinned,

"Oh, you're a water goddess?"

"Close," Hecate regarded her with a poker face, "I'm more of a 'night' goddess: if the emblem of Sourock wasn't a clue?" she gestured to the black symbol on her chest, which seemed to resemble a skull with pointed moths wings: the symbol of the god of death,

"Oh, okay" she nodded naively: not quite understanding what she was implying by that.

"So, what's your name kid?" Herne approached a little closer,

"Elysia: sister of the Tempus gods, cloud herder, rain caller, and child of the western winds" she smiled, "And your Herne, right?"

"Yep, and you've already met Hecate, obviously"

"Obviously" Hecate deadpanned under her telepathic breath,

"And I'm Javorin" the blue-eyed god smiled as he stood back up, "Now, you managed to walk all the way here from your tomb last night, which is impressive given that this is your first time in a physical form; think you're up for stretching your legs again?"

"I think so?" Elysia frowned as she tried to stand up, but she didn't correct her balance quick enough and ended up falling tail-over-head, head-first into the ground; with a frustrated chirp, she blew some stray feathers out of her face, "...Nope, I'm not"

"Here, let me help..." Javorin chuckled as he helped her back up, though it wasn't easy with so many feathers making it hard to support her properly; after getting back up on her feet, and correcting her balance to account for her center of gravity, she was walking around one of the giant trees with ease. "...There you go," he smiled.

"Great, the brat knows how to walk, now let's go already" Hecate sighed sarcastically as she started walking off out of the grove of giant trees: "I want to see what this 'wall' is" she called back.

"Did I make her mad?" Elysia asked innocently, not sure what to think of the older goddess's attitude.

"Nah your okay kid, she's just like that with some gods; she's 'particular' that way" Herne assured her as he took off after Hecate on all fours,

"Come on, why don't tell me more about yourself?" Javorin gestured for her to follow him,

As Elysia started chatting about the weather and how she used to create everything from squalls to hurricanes, Hecate stifled an annoyed sigh and 'Tch'; folding her arms and trying to ignore, what to her was giddy incessant prattling: she kept her eyes forward and pretended she wasn't there.

"You don't do kids, do you?" Herne smirked as he kept pace with her, "Not even the divine ones"

"Ugh!-" she grimaced, "Their worse than demon spawn! Constant incessant prattling non-stop, screaming at all hours of the day and night, making a mess wherever they go, and sassing you to no end! Why humans or our kin were ever allowed to breed, I'll never know!"

"Heh, well then it's a good thing Javorin got that kid back to her folks eh?" Herne smirked, "And, you do know he loves kid's right? Being the overseer of mankind, it's inevitable he's gonna want to stop and help one or two along the way; it's the nature of his divine duty after all"

"Don't remind me" She grimaced, "If I smell any of those mortal brats I swear I'm going to-

"Hey hey, watch that mind of yours: you are in the presence of the overseer of mankind..." Herne teased her, thumbing over his back at Javorin, who was staring into the back of Hecate's head with a reprimanding glare.

"Besides, Elysia's okay, sure she's a little green round the wingtips: weren't we all at one point or another?" he added offhand,

"That was a long time ago," Hecate huffed in annoyance, "Thank the all-father..." she added under her breath.

The four gods walked on through the forest, their footsteps growing lighter and less noisy as they used the long trek to readjust their weight and stances, until they were able to walk without shaking the trees and only creating a soft muffled thud that didn't carry far or echo through the forest. And just as well, as Javorin could sense through the earth that they were within range of the edge of the forest, and he could feel the footfalls of human feet and animal hooves.

But there was something else he could feel too. With every step he took his energies rippled outward and bounced off the ambient energies of everything around him, both on top of and below the earth; the same way a bat used its ultrasonic squeaks to locate and catch moths: Javorin had an omnidirectional picture of the world, allowing him to 'see' over vast and wide distances, without having to use his eyes all the time. And for the last ten minutes or so, he had been feeling the 'echo' of something vast up ahead; not a mountain, but something unnaturally flat and dense: it was undoubtedly man made, it felt like a giant wall of some kind: could this be the wall he saw in the girl's memory?

His musings were soon answered when they came to the very edge of the forest, and there, towering over fifty meters high, was a vast pale chalk-coloured wall. Stretching from one end of the horizon to the other: the vast structure appeared to be solidly built, with thick bulkheads supporting it every forty meters or so. The four gods stood there in silence for a moment, as they took in the sight of this imposing yet impressive wall.

"Well, I have to say" Herne thought aloud as he scratched his head, "I know the humans have built some pretty impressive things in their time, but this really takes the golden apple"

"It's-, big..." was all Elysia could say, not too sure what to make of it; "Think of all the updrafts that thing would create: not good for making a consistent breeze"

"We're not interested in flying kites, brat," Hecate stated in a flat monotone as she approached the base of the wall: "So, there are suppose be these 'titans' on the other side of this thing?"

"According to the child's memory: but it's only through word of mouth, she never actually saw one" Javorin corrected,

"Okay, then lets fly up over this thing and see what we can find" Hecate shrugged as she summoned her power, and in the blink of an eye, her massive form shrank down rapidly into a raven with violet-purple eyes.

"Eh, alright I guess?" Herne smirked as he too summoned his power and shrank down into a sky lark,

Javorin was about to summon his preferred animal form, when he saw Elysia was now looking very nervous: "its okay," he assured her, "You've seen birds in flight, right?"

"Uh, Yeah?" she swallowed hard,

"Just picture one in your mind, focus on its energies, and concentrate your power into shifting into its form" he explained in an encouraging tone.

"B-but!-, I-I-I don't know how to fly!" she stammered, backing away nervously,

"WHAT?!" Hecate exclaimed in disbelief, turning back into her giant form, and stomping over to the smaller goddess, glaring her in the eyes as she began backpedaling into the trees: "You, a weather goddess who's spent her whole immortal life literally with her head in the clouds, and you don't know how to fly?!"

"I-I was a gust of wind in the sky! An elemental spirit for all intents and purposes!" Elysia squeaked in fear: "I-I-I never needed wings to get around so I don't know how to use them!"

Laying a hand on her shoulder, Javorin gently pulled Hecate away, and knelled down next to the terrified goddess, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder: "It's no problem, really; we'll just cast an invisibility charm over you, and come back and find you when we're done, okay?"

"O-okay" Elysia nodded, somewhat relieved Javorin wasn't mad.

"Alright..." Javorin stood back up, made the sign of an invisibility charm with his left hand, and held the other up over Elysia's head: 'Let that which is seen by all mortal senses, be gone from sight and sound and smell:

To a human, Elysia would have completely vanished from sight, but to the gods she was still half visible: recognizable, but now semi-transparent, with tiny flecks of blueish-white light hovering around her as part of the charm's aura. "Find somewhere up among the trees and wait there for us, we'll be back for you when we're done" Javorin told her.

"Okay..." Elysia sighed as she started walking back up into the forest, "See you guys later"

Without another word, Hecate turned back into a Raven, while Javorin assumed the form of a hawk, and together, the three gods took off up into the sky, and soared over the wall: "How in the all-father's name does a weather goddess not assume a winged form at some point in her life?!" Hecate huffed as she ruffled her feathers in agitation, "-And you can forget about asking me to give her flying lessons! A goddess, even a brat-goddess, should know how to use a damn pair of wings!"

"I wasn't going to ask you anyway" Javorin deadpanned, "We'll worry about flying lessons when we get back; for now, let's see what we can find out here..."

Beyond the wall, the landscape stretched far and wide into flat open prairie land, broken up by sparse copses of pine trees, and flanked by rolling mountains that stretched from the western to the southern horizon; aside from the songs of sky larks and pine thrushes, and the occasional wailing 'skee' of the buzzards circling high overhead, the whole landscape was eerily quiet.

As they passed over a small cluster of pines, they soon spotted something that got their attention: "...What is that? ..." Herne blinked in surprise: "Don't know, but it looks like an oversized human" Javorin replied offhand, equally surprised.

Circling around over the creature, it did, indeed, look exactly like a human; except it was over eight meters tall, had no visible genitalia, had a protruding pot belly with unnaturally skinny limbs, and seemed to be lumbering along with an awkward gate, slightly uncoordinated, as if it were very drunk. But what really caught the god's attention was the expression on its face; its lips were contorted into a rictus grin with its eyes wide open, as if it had been frozen in the middle of laughing; but more disconcertingly, its eyes looked dead, devoid of emotion despite its creepy smile, and seemingly staring straight down into the uncanny valley.

"Okay, that's definitely new..." Hecate frowned as she stooped down, and transformed back to her original form: the other two followed suit, and having heard them land with three consecutive thuds, the lumbering creature stopped and stared at them. Although none of them admitted it, having it stare at them with that unnerving smile, gave them a great feeling of unease and discomfort.

Summoning their power to see its aura and surrounding energies, the gods were taken aback by what they sensed: the creature's life-energies were nothing like that of any other living animal or being: they were totally distorted, warped, and unnatural. They were many in number too, so much so that it was almost impossible to tell where one ended and another began; as the energies unnaturally warped one over the other, folding in on each other, only to reappear and repeat their pattern of unusual cycles, while at the same time giving off some kind of faint discharge that floated up into the sky like smoke, in the form of trailing embers.

"...Whatever it is, it's nothing of the natural world" Javorin frowned in concern,

"You think?!" Hecate scowled at the creature in disgust, "Look at it! It's got chaos magics running everywhere throughout its form, this is nothing of nature or the spirits"

"So it was created artificially," Herne huffed in exasperation as he facepalmed: "I swear, if this is some kind of homunculus or a failed attempt to create a golem, I'm gonna-

"It's a not a homunculus or a golem," Hecate cut him off, "This is nothing like either of those: whatever it is, the magics used to create it were powerful, but crudely put together: whoever did this only had a basic understanding of what they were doing. It's sloppy and reckless"

"Could it have originally been a human? And could its soul still be intact? If so, there could be a way to reverse the magics power" Javorin suggested as the creature turned around and continued on its way, slowly staggering away,

"The fact it looks human suggests it probably was at one point" Hecate shrugged, "But since we're here looking for answer's, let's find out"

In a blur of movement, Hecate charged the creature from behind, and with a solid low sweeping kick, knocked its legs out from under it, letting it fall onto its back: Javorin and Herne then quickly grasped it by the arms and kept it restrained, while Hecate stood over it and held up both hands in front of her. Summoning her power, her hands radiated a purple aura as a complex circle of runes and strange hieroglyphs appeared out of thin air, and started rotating around her hands; her eyes began to glow a vivid shade of violet, as she gazed past the tangle of uncoordinated magics, and looked deep into the center of the creature's being.

"Well?" Herne grunted as he held the creature in place: it didn't make much of an attempt to free itself as it just sat there, lazily wriggling about like a dying fish out of water, not putting up much of a fight; "What can you see?"

Hecate didn't reply as she stared down at the creature for a long moment, carefully inspecting it all over: until finally, her eyes became emotionless, and her face was void of any expression. Javorin knew that look, and he knew it was never good news. It was the face that told him there was no hope to be found, and that there was nothing they could do: seeing her expression and getting the hint, Herne sighed in disappointment. They both let go of the creature's arms, and let it awkwardly get back up onto its rickety feet.

Hecate lowered her arms and the circle of glyphs dissipated like cigarette smoke on the breeze: she then held up her right arm, and her hand gave off an opaque black aura that consumed the creature, burning it with violet-purple flames and turning it into ash in a matter of seconds; its energies becoming unraveled as they became absorbed by all the ambient energies of the earth and air.

"Whatever that thing was, there's no way any god in their right mind would allow a human to create something like that, and allow it to exist" Hecate frowned as she watched the last of its ashes get blown away on the wind, "...And to answer your question; It's hard to say: if it was human at one point? Whoever it was has long since passed from the mortal plain...All that was left was the empty shell, and the magics animating it". Turning to Javorin, she noticed the troubled look in his eyes: "...What?"

"...When that girl saw me in the forest, she thought I was one of these things: and that I was going to eat her" he frowned,

"So? What human doesn't think a giant's going to eat them? The Jotunn certainly kept everyone on their toes back in the day" Herne shrugged,

"No, she had been taught by her elders that these titans specifically eat humans, and only humans: but they have no digestive system and they eventually regurgitate their victims after a while; they just, eat them because they want to (as strange and crazy as that sounds). This knowledge is an established fact to her and her people... or at least, that's what they believe..." Javorin explained; looking around the landscape, he was dismayed to sense more of the creatures in the far off distance, nowhere near within visual range: but those weird distorted energies of theirs stood out against the skyline like the smoke of several large bonfires.

Looking back, he saw the wall was a good few miles behind them: as he gazed at the seemingly endless structure, he suddenly noticed that part of it formed an elongated horseshoe-shaped crescent that jutted out by a few miles, with what looked like a large gate set into the wall at its furthest point. There were dozens of the 'titans' lumbering around near it, some were just lazily clawing and pawing at the base, while the rest simply stared up at it aimlessly, as if waiting for something or someone to come over the top. "What's that?" Herne thought aloud as he too noticed the additional structure. "Let's go and see..." Javorin replied as he turned back into his hawk form, and took off with Hecate and Herne following suit.

Flying high over the top of the horseshoe-shaped wall, the gods saw it was connected to the rest of the wall with another gate set into the 'inner' wall, and all along the top were large cannons mounted on wheels that ran along a system of tracks. Down below, spread out into every square inch of the space inside, was a vast sprawling town (or city?). The architecture of the buildings was one they hadn't seen for a good number of centuries: post-medieval/pre-Tudor maybe? It was defiantly pre-renaissance, with a distinct Bavarian style (from what they remembered of the human's changing trends and regional cultures); in any case, it was defiantly not what they remembered being around, when they were last awake.

"Wow!" Herne grinned offhand, "At least we know we're somewhere in the middle of the European kingdoms"

"I say we split up and check it out" Hecate suggested,

"Agreed" Javorin nodded, "We'll reconvene later: in the meantime, see what you both can learn"

"Sure thing!" Herne grinned as he stooped down to check out a bakery,

"No sightseeing!" Hecate called out, "The same goes for you too," she glanced at Javorin skeptically, "I know they're humans, but try not to get too lost in your 'work'?" she deadpanned.

"Hey, don't sneak off to find some shade either: dusk is a long way off, and it's not even lunchtime yet" he smirked, "Catch you later..." he added before stooping down, aiming for a market square below, leaving Hecate alone to her own devices: "...Great..." she deadpanned, glancing around at the teeming urban-scape below and wondering where to start first: "...Wonder if they got any decent shrines around here? I could really go for an offering of wine round about now"

---

Meanwhile, out in the forest:

Having walked a way up into the forest, Elysia had found a wide clearing in which to wait for the others to return: she figured, with them having assumed bird forms, that they'd be able to spot her more easily from above through the hole in the canopy. Having found a soft patch of grass in which to sit down and rest, she gazed up at the blue morning sky and the birds circling overhead, glanced down at her drooped wings, and sighed with a mournful string of chirps: "...This doesn't make any sense" she thought aloud, "What's the difference between flying and being part of the wind? I never needed wings before, so why do I have them now?"

And that's when it suddenly struck her: "Wait a minute, why do I even have a body at all?!" she stared off into space, as her face began to reflect her growing perplexity: "I never had a body before, so why do I have one now?! Why did I need to take a physical form in the first place? What did I need to do that meant I had to be on the ground?"

But as she racked her thoughts, trying to remember why, she suddenly came to an alarming realization: "...I don't remember..." and as her train of thoughts began spiraling down the line of lost memory, something else occurred to her: "...But, I don't remember what happened to me before I ended up in that tomb either"

Gazing down at her body and wings, Elysia couldn't make sense out of her memory loss: it felt weird, but horrible at the same time, as if a huge gaping hole had suddenly appeared from nowhere in the middle of her immortal life, and had taken out a large chunk of her being with it. She felt helpless, lost, unsure what to do, or how to get what she lost back. But then she suddenly realized: what did she have to begin with? She was a weather goddess, and like the weather itself she never wanted for anything or aspired to be anything, she merely went wherever the wind blew, creating whatever weather she and the other Tempus gods wanted: totally on a whim, and yet keeping within the laws of her divine kin to maintain and keep balance within the natural order of the world. It was a very basic existence really: totally devoid of the trapping of mortality and civilization; totally free from all cares, complications, worries and doubts.

But now, she had worries and doubts: and it didn't feel nice at all.

But then, she suddenly recalled the incident that transpired last night: after waking up to find herself trapped within a stone box of some kind (a tomb, Hecate would later tell her), she panicked and broke out; she then ran, which was a new experience too, she never had legs before so how did she know how to use them? Or how to keep her balance? Or, how to breathe for that matter? In any case it didn't matter at that point in time, she just wanted to get away from that horrible dark place, and found herself running through a forest. Again, a very weird and new experience, as she had only ever blown through forests as a breeze, never had she trampled grass and plants, or accidentally pushed over trees (except for when she was helping to summon a hurricane). She actually felt earth beneath her feet and the coolness of the night air on her face, and it nearly freaked her out.

But then, she heard something up ahead, and stopped running; gazing out through the dense undergrowth, she saw there was a wide brick road, the kind humans used to travel on: and there in the middle of it, a gang of four men had attacked a woman and tied her up. She knew from previously watching human's way up in the sky, that this was not a good thing: the woman was in some kind of trouble, and they were going to do something bad to her.

Without thinking, she charged the men: shouting at them to go away, and sure enough, as she burst out of the undergrowth they fled in fear. Seeing they had abandoned the woman, she wasn't sure what to do to free her, and that's when she felt the sharp hard things in her mouth (teeth: she reminded herself): carefully as she could, she gripped the woman's wrists between her lips, and chewed through the ropes, before doing the same for her ankles.

But the second she was free the woman was up like a bolt of lightning and running away, terrified of her. But-, what happened? What did she do wrong? She just saved her life, she wasn't going to hurt her; in desperation she was about to call out to the woman, telling her to stop; when suddenly the woman stopped in the middle of the road and just stood there for a moment, before slowly turning around, and staring at her.

She called out to her, telling her she meant no harm; apparently the woman understood this, as she cautiously approached her, and when she was close enough she bent down to have a closer look at her. She'd never been this close to a human before, never mind having saved one from certain danger; the woman gazed up at her, and spoke:

Who are you?

I'm Elysia, What's your name?

I'm Carla, do you have a name?

I already told you my name, it's Elysia: I'm a Tempus goddess; you probably never heard of me, we don't come down here to the ground very often. So, it's okay if you don't know me.

Well...Thank you, for saving my life

That's okay: I never saved a human from anything before so this kinda new for me I guess?

It was then she heard Hecate's voice drifting on the wind, echoing through her mind, telling her to come to her,

What is it?

I-...I'm sorry, I gotta go: someone's calling for me...It was nice meeting you, Carla.

Carla

That was the first human name she'd ever heard: and in a way it filled her with a sense of accomplishment to know she'd met her first ever human face to face, and did something to actually help her. Before, she would have simply passed her by on the breeze, not stopping to do anything but blow through her hair and clothes, and rustle the leaves on her way back up into the sky. But last night, she did something no weather god or goddess had ever done before...

Maybe being in a physical body wouldn't be such a bad thing after all?

Looking up at the sky and sensing the wind blow over the canopy: Elysia frowned in determination; wings were meant for flying, and she was going to learn how to use her's. The other gods all had their powers intact, so why shouldn't her's be intact too? She'd seen countless birds souring on her warm thermals, gliding into her headwinds and speeding along on her tail winds: if they could use the winds to help them fly, then so could she...

Standing up and pacing over to the middle of the clearing, Elysia stretched out her wings: they were so big and so broad, right away she felt the breeze rustle through them and she felt every individual feather move; "Whoa..." she smiled in amazement, she could actually feel the wind, this was so different, and it felt incredible; all over her body she felt the air all around her. Gazing up into the hole in the canopy, she wanted to be up there among the clouds, she wanted to join the birds, and as she started to flap her wings she felt just how strong and powerful they were, and how much of a downdraft they were creating. She could do this, she knew she could: if she could save a human all by herself, then she could fly all by herself.

"Hey you winds!" she called up to the sky, "Take me up with up!"

And without warning, a sudden powerful downdraft of air shot down through the canopy, and scooped Elysia up like a giant invisible hand; making her tumble uncontrollably. Feeling the wind between her feathers, and feeling the way the wind slipped over her wings and tail, she started flapping hard to try and keep the lift; but it was such hard work! The wind was so powerful, and it was straining against her so much: but as she saw the ground approaching fast, she panicked and called out desperately: "HEY! I'M ELYSIA! I'M ONE OF THE TEMPUS GODS! DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE YOUR OWN GODDESS?! QUIT BEING OUTTA CONTROL AND OBEY ME!"

As suddenly as she had been blown up and discarded like a dead leaf on the breeze, the wind suddenly smoothed out, and whipped itself beneath her; holding her wings out straight to maintain lift and keeping her tail level to maintain control of her direction, Elysia managed to correct herself just in time, as she sailed down to the ground, nearly running head-long into a giant tree, and ending up tail-over-head in a fern patch. Quickly getting back up and spitting out a mouthful of ferns, she returned to the clearing, and gazing up at the sky, frowned in determination yet again: "...We've got a lot of work to do" she huffed stubbornly. Stretching out her wings and fanning her tail again, she got ready to call the winds back down.

---

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the forest:

Last night's events had left West somewhat on edge, as he carefully treaded through the undergrowth with his musket in hand, and his ODM gear strapped on. The strange noises he and Pascal heard out in the forest had long since stopped, but that didn't stop them feeling as though they were vulnerable. Against Pascal's advice, West had decided to go and check the forest out, making sure to arm himself with a musket, knife, ODM gear and a few smoke capsules in case he needed some cover to make a speedy exit.

Remembering the way to the strange 'tomb' he found in the grove of giant trees yesterday, he decided to make a quick stop there along the way: he just couldn't help but be curious. Walking through the giant trees, he soon found the hollow the tomb was standing in.

But when he cleared the ridge and gazed down into the hollow, the sight before him nearly made him jump back in shock.

The 'tomb' had been opened: its lid had been broken into three pieces and was lying discarded around the base, while its right side was cracked with a chuck seemingly knocked out of place and lying discarded next to the other pieces. Looking at the damage, it appeared to have been broken it from the inside, as if something had forced its way out; cautiously approaching it, West saw that, indeed, it had been hollow inside; but when he came closer and peered inside, his jaw fell and his eyes virtually popped out of his head when he saw what was scattered around the bottom of the 'tomb'.

Giant feathers: dozens and dozens of giant white feathers, many of them several meters long and as broad as a door or cart bottom: pure white as snow and shining with every iridescent colour imaginable. Picking up a three meter feather in one hand, West couldn't believe what he was looking at as he ran his fingers over it, just to make sure it was real and that he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. What kind of bird had feathers this big?! How big was it? And where had it come from?

That was when it hit West like a punch in the face: the state of the tomb, and the fact it had been broken from the inside; could only mean, that something forced its way out.

With a knot of dread beginning to form in his stomach, West decided to listen to his instincts and get out of there: in case the giant 'mystery bird' decided to come back. But as he studied the feather in his hand, part of him debated whether or not to show it to Pascal. Without evidence to back him up, the discovery of the tomb and its occupant would simply be the ramblings of an ex-con (who was well versed in telling tall tales to begin with). With proof in hand, Pascal at the very least would have no choice but to believe him; and for good reason, what was there to say this giant avian creature wasn't a predator? One that stalked the skies like any other hawk or falcon, and swooped down on unsuspecting prey; prey like humans? The thought of it made a wave of fear go right through him, and without further hesitation West made a dash for the cottage: the giant feather still tightly gripped in his hand.

---

Later that day, Shiganshina, early evening:

"So, you really don't remember anything that happened before I found you?" Eren asked Ariana as he watched the sun set over the top of wall Maria,

"All I remember was walking through the trees, getting tired and sitting down to take a rest" Ariana shrugged, "After that, I hear you calling my name, and I wake up with you at my side...There's not really anything else Eren"

"Okay" Eren sighed, "It just sounds so weird is all"

"I know..." Ariana sighed,

The day had come and gone uneventfully, albeit Ariana had been confined to playing only in the street, and to not wander far from the house. She didn't argue: hearing the concern in her mother's voice this morning, and still wondering to herself if whether last night's events really happened the way she remembered them, she decided to keep her sense of adventure on the back-burner for today, and instead had spent the day with her cousins and friends; either playing or helping with the odd chore here and there. Now, it was evening and the sun was setting, dipping down past Wall Maria, and letting the shadows of twilight claim Shiganshina: while the sky was lit up in hues of orange and pink; and Ariana, Eren and Armin were perched on the roof of Ariana's home, watching the birds sour high overhead, still illuminated in the fading light of day.

"...You've been quiet all day Ariana," Armin pointed out, as he clung to the chimney stack, half-scared of being up this high from the ground, "Is everything okay?"

Thinking about it, Ariana admitted: "Mum talked to me about what happened last night; she wants me to make up Rowan..." she then frowned bitterly, "But I don't want to make up! He hurt me, and I'm supposed to be okay with that?! Like hell I am!" she exclaimed angrily, "He does this every time he gets angry, he loses it with me or someone else, and after cooling off, he comes back and says he's sorry. Well not this time: he's gotta learn that he went too far, and that saying sorry is not enough this time"

"Good" Eren nodded with approval, "A thug like him has gotta learn his lesson, you can't just do stuff like that just because you get mad"

"That's what I told my mum, but she told me to listen to him and to give him a chance: but I told her, what's the point?! Rowan never listens when he gets mad, so why should I listen to him? I don't want to listen to anything he has to say ever again! I hate him!" she fumed,

"Um?" Armin sheepishly interrupted, "What did Ash and Dale say?"

Ariana was quiet for a moment, as she thought about what her brother's had done to today: "...They tried talking to him, but I don't know if he listened to them or not; I don't know and I don't care..." she frowned as she pulled her legs up and hugged her knees, staring up at the sky: "I don't want Rowan to be my big brother anymore" she frowned.

---

At the same time, not too far away:

"...Well? I have no words" Herne grimaced as he ruffled his feathers, "...No words to describe this...This is beyond bad, beyond terrible, it's-"

"The second circle of hell?" Hecate scowled,

"Eh, I wouldn't go that far..." Herne sighed in dismay: "Although to be honest, it feels more like we've gone back in time..."

This day had been weird to say the least: and not in a good way.

After flying back over the wall and deciding to check out this vast city, which turned out to be called Shiganshina, the three gods had spent the majority of the day flying from place to place, listening and observing the day-to-day routines and rituals of the people. From bustling market squares to quiet shop fronts, from the well-preened uptown houses and their rich residents to the poor and downtrodden of the slums. The gods had been just about everywhere within this city; and what they had seen, had horrified and appalled them to no end.

This whole place was more reminiscent of the dark ages, compared to the world they knew before.

Theirs was a world of many people's from many cultures all across the globe, all different and varying in their ways, creeds and customs, and yet by and large, all abiding a natural contentment for each other, and the world in which they lived. It was an age of harmony, peace and enlightenment: when philosophy and the arts played an integral part in the understanding and progression of human culture; challenging new and old ideas, and what defined humanity's morals and immoral principles. It was also a time of great technological innovation: when humanity was making tremendous strides in the fields of science, broadening their own understanding of their world and thus broadening their own comprehension of how and why everything works the way it does; while at the same time maintaining a certain respect for the magical arts and their roll in the equilibrium of the world.

All the while, the gods and their divine kin watched over it all. From the time humanity first crawled down from the trees and took its first upright steps across the African grasslands; they had watched the trials and tribulations of this strange yet fascinating being play out across many ages. And all the while, they were always there to offer council and guidance: every human, from the richest to the poorest, the powerful and the weak alike, all came to seek their eternal wisdom and to find understanding in their own existence, among many other things. And over the ages mankind continued to progress and move forward, they bore witness to the incredible achievements of this remarkable species; their resourcefulness, ingenuity, determination and curiosity knew no bounds, and it showed in the amazing (and sometimes horrifying) feats they were capable of pulling off.

But this?

This felt more like an entirely different world altogether, or a bad dream that felt like a cosmic joke: This world was of a time long ago, back when humanity was still finding its way and did not possess the moral compass it had before hundreds of years later: back when greed, corruption, vanity and ignorance could easily poison the human heart, and turn good people cruel.

Today, the gods had seen more than their fair share of medieval reversion: ignorance and fear fueled by lack of reason, religious arrogance backed by the absence of logic, and heartless cruelty where compassion and understanding should be. Now, that wasn't to say every human within the city was worth damning, most of the populous were by and large moral by nature, and were good people in general: but without an evolved morality to offer guidance, the populous were for the most part, blissfully ignorant of all that transpired around them, and simply learned to 'get along' with the cruel nature of this world: it was every human for themselves, and it seemed to have been that way for a long time now.

For Herne and Hecate, it had been an eye opening experience that came with mixed feelings: but for Javorin, it was so much worse. As the Overseer of mankind, it made his heart break to see his charges had fallen so low, and lost so much of their former selves. Quietly and without saying a word, he cried: glistening silver tears running down his feathery cheeks, as he sensed the auras of the city all around him. A race of people who lived their lives with pride and utter surety, safe in the believe that theirs was the only life they had ever known, or could ever want to know; and yet, their fear and cruelty simmered beneath the surface like a poisonous witches brew: festering in the misery of the weak, and rejoicing in the brute mindless strength of the strong. He reminisced on how long it had taken them to get to the point they would have gazed at another race, and regarded them as their brothers and sisters: now, the potential for that wasn't even there anymore.

And even worse, no one remembered them, or any of the other gods for that matter: there were no shrines to honor their names or deeds, no followers to offer prayers, blessings or aid to their duties; even their names didn't exist in this new backwards world. They were totally forgotten, erased from memory; and it cut deeply through all of them.

As his silver tears continued to spill from his radiant blue eyes, Javorin felt Herne put his wing around him (or as much as a sky lark could put its wing around a hawk), in an attempt to try and offer what little comfort he could give. Hecate for her part, simply said nothing and just watched the sunset; today had left her feeling bitter and harsh at the state of things, and she knew her abrasive attitude would be of no good, so she kept her ebony beak shut, and just continued to simmer in her own frustration.

"...I'm-...so sorry brother" was all Herne found he could say, "...This-...I don't know what to say?"

"...its okay brother" Javorin hugged him back with is wing,

"No..." Hecate seethed bitterly, "This is not okay, this is not the humanity we remember: this is not the race of beings we spent so long and hard guiding and counseling to ensure they didn't bring about their own destruction, or that of the world. We did not sacrifice practically half our own immortal lives, to see them reduced to vermin!"

"But what happened to allow this to occur?" Herne thought aloud: "Whatever it was, we weren't here to stop it"

Javorin gazed down at him in shock, suddenly realizing: "...Is that why we were locked away in those tombs?" he thought aloud in dread, "Someone or something wanted us gone, so as to do-, this?!"

Snapping out of her anger, Hecate stared at them both for a moment: as the wheels in her head started to turn, and she contemplated Herne's line logic: "...You might have a point" she offered offhand in a dark tone, "Maybe not all this per se: but when you consider how many curses and evil magics we forbade from being summoned; it's not impossible to think that somewhere, someone thought we were becoming too much of a nuisance, and decided to make us 'disappear' so as to be left to their own devices..." her eyes then began to glow purple with ire,while purple flames began to lick off her black feathers as her temper began to rise: "...It takes a lot of gall to curse a god like this: and I swear, if I ever find the one who did this to us? I will damn them to a fate far worse than death"

"Okay, easy! We're trying to go unnoticed remember?!" Herne held a wing up in front of her; Hecate calmed herself, and the purple flames disappeared and her eyes returned to normal. Breathing a deep calming breathe, she mentally reprimanded herself for nearly losing it like that. "...Okay, we've seen a lot today; but nothing that's offered any clues as to how this all happened: nothing that's given us any real starting point from which go from. I say, we reach out to the ancient ones, and ask them for a little help. At this point, we really have nothing to lose" Herne suggested.

"...That's not a bad idea actually" Javorin nodded as he wiped his tears away with his wing, and with a deep cleansing breath, pushed his sorrows to the back of his mind: "Shall I recite the incantation?"

"Sure" Hecate shrugged, "But they better give a good sign"

"Okay, gather round..." Javorin stepped in front of Herne and Hecate, and spreading their wings out, the three gods formed a triangle: summoning their power to align their aura's with each other: the gods then gazed up at the sky, and focused on the evening star; radiating their combined powers upwards, reaching out to the world beyond this mortal plain of existence.

"Great all-father, blessed all-mother, we beseech thee: we ask that you offer us guidance, in this, our hour of need. Please, show us the way to that which will yield the knowledge we seek: to guide us along the path that is hidden from us, so that we may find truth"

For a moment nothing happened, and then: a feeling of calm came over the gods, and the evening star seemed to shine brighter for a second or two; they felt a sense of presence, as if an omnipotent force had brushed itself against them, making itself known only to them,

The cellar

They then felt compelled to move in a singular direction: to where and what for they didn't know: but they knew not to question the wisdom of their 'elders', and together they took off, heading west across the city. Soon, they came to a large neighborhood perched on the side of a low hill near the inner gate, with a wide street running right up and over it: at the bottom of the hill on the left side of the street, there was a large Inn and guesthouse with a forge next door, and a small livery at the back. Next door to the Inn was a large house (probably part of the Inn at one point long ago), and sitting on the roof next to the chimney were three small children: two boys and a girl. Javorin recognized the girl right away: 'You?' he blinked in surprise, keeping his thoughts to himself: 'how are you going to help us?'

Javorin stooped down with Herne and Hecate following close behind, and perched on the corner of the roof, a few meters away from the children: they glanced over at them curiously, while the birds simply stared back at them.

"Huh?" the young blond boy stared at them weirdly.

"A raven, a sky lark and a hawk all perched together?" the girl stared at them as she rubbed her left eye, "That's really weird"

"Weird birds" The brunette boy agreed,

"Something's up" Hecate frowned: "The incantation led us here, but I don't sense these kids are the ones to help us. So what are we looking for?"

"Down there..." Herne looked over the edge of the roof; following his gaze downwards, they watched a tall red bearded gentlemen step out of the house, and make his way over to the Inn, "I think he's the one we're meant to follow: I sense the incantations magics pointing towards him"

"Come on, let's see where he goes" Hecate flew off the roof, and swooped down to perch on the Inn's hanging sign above the door. Javorin glanced back at the girl for a moment, before following Herne off the roof. They watched the gentleman enter the Inn, and flying down to perch on the window ledge, they saw him speaking to an old woman behind the bar: she served him a tankard of ale, and they stood there chatting about something. Getting the feeling that this fellow wasn't their man, Javorin stepped back and glanced around, until he suddenly spotted a small window underneath a long wooden bench beneath the window ledge, with a small candlelight glowing from the room inside. It had to have been the Inn's basement; 'The cellar' he suddenly realized.

"Hey, look" he directed their gaze as he flapped down to the ground, and approached the window, "I think this is it?"

The window was slightly open ajar, and as Hecate and Herne joined Javorin at his side under the bench, they heard voices drifting out from inside; peering in through the window, the three gods saw seven men seated around a table, with a few candles to offer light and tankards of ale and mead in hand, surrounded by large stacks of piled up barrels on one side of the room, and a large wine rack covering the entire wall on the other side of the room, stocked with wines, whiskeys, brandies, and all other manner of liquor. And as the largest of the gentlemen talked, the others all listened in a mix of fascination and surprise.

"So? You guys are Celts?" Derek blinked in surprise as he took a swig of his mead.

"Believe it kid," Gustav took a large gulp of his ale, "How'd you think Tyto and the rest of his lot are such good hunters?"

"We've heard of the Celts" Breck confessed, glancing over at his brother, who was equally taken aback: "But, I thought they were all wiped out decades ago?"

"You and everyone else within these walls" Tyto explained, "And that's the way we prefer to keep it, least the wall cult might come looking for us"

"But, what are the Celts?" Bren asked curiously as he lit another candle, and placed it in the middle of the table

"Before the titans appeared and started eating humanity to the brink of extinction: there were many different breeds of people that lived all over the outside world, like the Asians that came from the east. Well, the Celts originally came from the west, and when humanity retreated behind the walls, they came in with everyone else: the Asians too. But people didn't take kindly to these different breeds living amongst them: and so the royal family ordered the Asians and Celts to be wiped out, so as to create 'peace' within the walls; the Asians tried to fight back but it didn't go well for them, the Celts however went into hiding, and have called the Marian forests home ever since" Gustav explained.

"I've heard it rumored that the Celts were originally a nomadic hunting peoples" Claude offered, "Traveling from place to place, following the herds and the cycle of the seasons: but when they retreated behind the walls and went into hiding, many opted for migrating at night, and seldom ever ventured out near villages and towns, for fear of being easily picked out"

"That's how it was back in my grandfather's day" Tyto replied, taking a sip of his cider: "But since then we learnt to adapt to this walled world by hiding in plain sight under false names and hiding our heritage from everyone else. Some of the clans still choose to live in the deepest parts of the forests where few seldom ever go: whether they are still alive is anyone's guess, it's too dangerous to go looking for them"

"So...You and your family are the last of these 'Celts?'" Derek blinked in surprise, "I mean-, wow: an entirely different kind of human living within the walls? That's something"

Bren smacked his brother up the side of the head, "For Maria's sake Derek! You make it sound like he's a weird kind of animal or something!"

"Its okay" Tyto waved off, "The idea of an entirely different culture living amongst the populous is a little hard for some to fathom: but I assure you, we are here, and have been around for a very long time"

"Honored and humbled that we are that you have confided this secret in all of us" Bryson stated: "I don't quite understand how this ties in with what happened last night?"

Taking a deep breath, and another sip of his cider, Tyto explained: "...Ash, Rowan and Dale, as you all know are our adopted sons: we've told you that their family were killed by 'an unknown gang of men' and that we took them in when Ash turned three. What I told you was true, but I didn't tell you all the details... Ash, Rowan and Dale are the last of the Crow Clan, one of the southern clans whose base camp was located a few miles past the tree line of the Eastern forests: not long after Dale was born the whole clan was attacked one night. The attackers killed every man, woman and child in the camp, no one was spared, except for one hunter managed who to get away with the babies in his arms; Evrard, Falken, Eraman and myself were out hunting that night, and by pure luck we ran into him; after quickly explaining what happened to the clan: we took the children and stole away into the forest, while the hunter lured his pursuers away, sacrificing himself so that we could get away unnoticed..."

"That's horrible" Bren stared at him wide-eyed: "But, who killed them?"

"You didn't know who they were?" Derek pressed him,

"On the contrary" Tyto further explained, "We knew exactly who they were: they were the ones the royal family had commanded to wipe us out not long after we retreated behind the walls with the rest of mankind. They have remained in the shadows of humanity for the last hundred years, and are the reason we still hide in the deepest reaches of the Marian forests...I called them an 'unknown gang of men', because as far as the rest of humanity is concerned, they don't know they exist: the number of people who're actually aware of their existence are probably very few, and have in all likeliness, been sworn to secrecy to never reveal them. In any case, they are the Wall Cults greatest secret: and the most dangerous of their followers"

The men all glanced at one another in concern, "But, who are they?" Claude pressed,

"We Celts call them the dark riders: others call them the faceless ones, many in wall Rose call them the night hunters, and in some parts they go by the name of shadow reapers. Call them whatever you want, but they are all one and the same. The wall cult call them their 'Disciples': and they are the strength and might behind the wall cult's power. Basically, their own privet army that was formed with the intention of wiping out both the Celts and the Asians, and over time they started wiping out anyone else that posed a threat to the peace within the walls, as well anyone with a serious grudge against the cult"

"I've heard of the shadow reapers," Breck frowned, "It's one of the oldest superstitions around: many people out in the remotest parts of wall Maria have spoken of seeing strange people dressed all in black and riding black steeds deep in the forests on moonless nights, usually at a distance...At first I thought it was just country folk superstitions: ghosts and fairies and the like; but the way some people talk about them? It's as if their terrified a pack of wolves will come to attack in the dead of night: such conviction in their belief and surety of what they knew, it made me wonder if maybe there was something to it? ...Though, I thought it was something more along the lines of a gang of criminals"

"You'll forgive me if I don't quite take you at your word Tyto" Bryson added skeptically, "In all my years in the military I never once heard any scuttlebutt from the MP's of any 'dark riders' or 'shadow reapers'; the MP's may be corrupt but most of them are not stupid, they'd have seen or heard something"

Knowing he had a point: Tyto sighed, "Look, I'm not forcing you guys to take my word for it; with no physical proof to offer I know there's not much I can do to make a good argument here. All I know, all I can offer, is that Ash, Rowan and Dale's family are not here because of them: and there aren't any graves to go and pay our respects to... My family, my people have lived in fear of the Disciples for the last hundred years: we cannot leave the forests because of them, and even though everyone is convinced we are gone from the world, they still continue to hunt us as though we were vermin...Every year that passes we grow smaller in number, and our culture washes away like melt-water in the rivers; sometimes, I can't help but think the gods are laughing at us...Think of me whatever you will Bryson, but I'm telling you: the Disciples are real, and if you ask the wall cult about them and mention them by name; they will come for you..."

"But if you've been hiding from them all this time, how do you know so much about them Tyto?" Claude pressed him,

"Before we retreated behind these walls, we Celts were known as the people of the secret places; we traveled where very few had ventured before, and when my clan first arrived within the Marian forests we soon learned of all the secret places that no one knew about. From these secret places, we would observe the rest of humanity from a distance, learning the ways of this walled world and learning to hide in plain sight, and along the way, we observed the wall cult and its Disciples. From their secret nocturnal hunts and gatherings we learned their strategies and skills: we learned how to avoid them and how to throw them off our trails. And on the rare occasion, some of them would talk of things they were not meant talk about beyond the walls of their churches and sanctuaries: such as the fact, that the reason no one knows about them is because they leave no one alive to tell of them; anyone who sees them even by accident, is cut down and killed on the spot, and they always take the bodies so to not leave any evidence of their presence. Some night-time disappearances of people out on the roads at night are often the result of a run-in with the Disciples, and not human traffickers as many have been led to believe... What we Celts know of the wall cult we keep only to ourselves, and pass down to our children orally: but I'm sharing this with all of you for two reasons; one, because each and every one of you are good men with good hearts that I have come to call my friends, and I don't want to see anything happen to any of you. And secondly, because it is part of the reason for what happened last night, and why we put you to such trouble,"

"Ariana and Rowan's 'altercation?'" Bryson raised an eyebrow,

Taking another sip of his cider, Tyto explained, "... Back in January, after you told us about Ariana, Eren, Armin and the Willum sister's latest attempt to climb the wall: Evrard took it upon himself to tell the children the truth about the Crow clan, and how it was the wall cult that killed them. We had intended to tell the children the truth eventually, but when they reached an age they'd be able to handle it properly. Needless to say we didn't approve of Evrard's decision, but at the time the children seemed to handle it okay, and we decided not to push the subject, least it might upset them... What we didn't know however was that Rowan took it badly: he'd been secretly angry over it for months, and last night it-, all finally blew up, and Ariana was on the receiving end of his temper"

"Oh..." Bren to another swig of his drink, "I guess he didn't feel like he had anyone to talk to huh?"

"Rowan's not one to talk," Gustav huffed as he poured himself another glass of wine, "That boy? He keeps his feelings locked away and just leave's them to fester: believes its weakness to show your feelings to everyone else. And to say he can never find the right words to talk with in the first place is an understatement"

"Rowan's never been comfortable with sharing his feelings with anyone; part of me wonders, and dreads, if he remembers seeing his parents die that night: and that somehow, some part of that horror scarred him on a deep level, and refuses to let him move on" Tyto sighed, "I don't want to push him into anything he's not comfortable with, for fear I might make things worse; which doesn't make disciplining him easy, and after what happened last night I'm seriously worried he might be approaching a line, that once crossed, he won't be able to come back from"

"Well? He's only five years old, I mean, it's not like he's turning into a hardened heartless soul already?" Derek offered, "Look, I know what happened last night was serious, and I'm sorry that it happened to you Tyto; but, their just kids, won't they move on a forget about all this by next week?"

"That's what I told him," Gustav frowned, "Their just kids, they'll bounce back from this: but no, there's no telling Mr worrisome here"

"I know I sound like I'm blowing it out of proportion," Tyto sighed as he ran his fingers through his long hair: "But Rowan is thoroughly convinced the wall cult are looking for us, and are out to get us any way possible. He thinks Ariana's going to spill the beans on us to the other neighborhood kids, then they'll go tell the cult, and they'll come to get us... It may sound farfetched, and it's highly unlikely the cults going to come looking for us in the middle of a major district, but secrecy is the only thing keeping us alive, and Rowan is now painfully aware of that fact"

"But I don't understand: why does the wall cult have out of you? Why go to such lengths to wipe out an entire peoples?" Bren asked in bemusement,

Finishing the last of his cider and pouring himself another cup, Tyto went on to explain: "...I don't understand it all completely, and part of me wonders what is really truth and what is not; But my father and grandfather told it like this...When mankind first escaped the titans and hid behind the three walls, the first king to rule this new kingdom wanted to create an everlasting peace that would last forever, but to do that, everyone had to be one and the same: that way, there would be no conflict arising from any differences between the various peoples. It sounds impossible, but apparently he found a way... He gathered everyone within the walls to the newly built capitol, and there, before the remnants of humanity, the king stole everyone's memory of the outside world, and the lives they had there before the titans came. No one remembered what lay beyond the walls, nor was anyone encouraged to want to remember: but for some unknown reason, both the Asians and the Celts were unaffected by this 'memory theft' and to the king this was a serious problem. He tried to gain their loyalty and silence by offering them positions of nobility within his court, but they refused, and as a result the first king exiled them from society and had them hunted down; a task he entrusted to the wall cult, who charged their most loyal followers with the job, making them into the Disciples"

Everyone but Bryson stared at Tyto for a moment, half wondering if he had lost his marbles, or if this was one of his jokes.

"The king, stole everyone's memory of the outside world?" Bren couldn't help but smirk, "Uh yeah, I can totally believe that"

"Eh pull the other one Tyto" Gustav waved off as he swigged his wine,

"It doesn't stop there," Tyto added, undeterred by their skepticism and holding their attention: "... My grandfather went on to tell me, when his father and his grandfather retreated into the forests of wall Maria, along with all the other clans to escape the Disciples, they traveled far and deep into the wilderness; as I explained before, they went into places no one in the walls had found yet; they discovered many secret and hidden places, many of which became their new homes, but one place in particular, was far more than just a hidden glen or a valley"

He reached down to his calf, and unstrapped the hunting knife from his boot, laying it on the table before them, "According to them and many of the other elders, the clans stumbled upon a hidden land: one that could only be found beyond a great stone gate at the foot of a single solitary mountain at the very heart of the Marian forests; once on the other side, they found a vast green and lush land that was surrounded on all sides by mountains with a huge deep lake at its center; in this lake there was an island where the tallest and mightiest of all the trees in the world stood: it was said to be so tall and its branches reached so far up into the sky, that it was said they led to other worlds up beyond the stars and the clouds. On the eastern side of this lake, the tallest of the mountains stood apart from all the others: at the foot of the mountain there was a massive gate that was only accessible by boat, that lead deep into the heart of the mountain. And there, they found a city that had long been abandoned and forgotten; it was said to have contained all the knowledge of mankind, and everything you could ever wish to know about the world beyond the walls; essentially, it was the city of humanity's lost memories, a place you could stay for the rest of your life learning everything about the world, and never live to know all there was...Suffice to say it was quite a discovery: but my grandfather and the elders, fearing the wall cult might find this hidden land and destroy the city of lost memories, decided to leave and seal the gate: making sure they left no trace they were ever there. But in order to find it again, they created a secret map that lay hidden in plain sight" he drew the knife from its hilt, and placed it in the middle of the table.

The knife was a large typical clip point hunter's knife, long and broad with a handle made from a stag's antler: except the blade had an intricate swirling pointed symbol of some kind, running along both cheeks on each side engraved into the metal, and filled in with a black enamel. Everyone glanced down at the knife in a mix of curiosity and bemusement; they had never seen a symbol like that before, nothing even remotely similar had ever been seen anywhere.

"What is that?" Claude frowned as he picked up the blade, and carefully inspected the design.

"Part of the map" Tyto gestured to the knife, "It was broken up into many pieces, and each piece was entrusted to the leader of each clan: over time, with the wall cult still hunting us, many of the clans decided to pool their pieces together and hide them in safe places around the forests, while others, like myself, kept them with us at all times. From my grandfather to my father, and from my father to me, and eventually my children: this fragment of that map will be passed down and remain hidden; until the day we decide to return to the hidden land, and use the map to find our way there again"

"Wow" Derek breathed,

"This is really part of a map?" Claude breathed in astonishment, "Quite a cleaver way to hide it too, having it on the side of a hunting knife"

"Quite a story I must say" Breck thought aloud as he scratched his head, "Definitely a good bedtime story: a secret land hidden somewhere in the wilderness of the Marian forests, wherein lie's a city with all the lost memories of mankind; I can definitely see how the wall cult and royal government would get riled up about something like that"

"Yeah but come on" Bren sighed in disbelief, "No offense Tyto, but that's all it is, a story; and unless you actually went there and brought some part of it back as proof. I'm afraid I just don't buy it, and that fairy tale of the first king 'stealing' everyone's memories of the outside world? I'm sorry but that's just-, not possible"

"...Actually," Bryson gazed over at Bren, "I think Tyto's story might be true on some level"

Silence

"... Wait, what?" Bren squinted at him in disbelief,

"Really?" Tyto blinked in surprise: of all the things for a reasoned and rational man like Bryson to say, he hadn't expected that.

"Oh yes!-" Claude smiled with eager delight as he handed the blade back to Tyto, "The memory loss theory! Oh you must listen to him it's a truly fascinating idea!"

Clearing his throat, everyone paid close attention as Bryson explained: "...For a number of years now, I believe that the Royal government knows far more about the titans then they've been letting on: and I think, they have deliberately been withholding information from the military, and humanity at large for ulterior reasons. Let me start from the beginning... As you all know, after I was discharged from the Scouts I went to work at Penman and Sons publishing house in the capitol, where I first met Claude; well one day, we received a commission from the Royal government to publish revised versions of the standard issue history books, for all the schools in the three walls: part of my job was to proof read the books to ensure they came out okay...And as I got reading these books, I couldn't help but notice something-, rather odd... There were multiple inconsistencies and discrepancies describing the timeline of events following humanity's retreat into the walls: and further contradictions in how all knowledge of the outside world was 'completely' destroyed. None of it made any sense and it troubled me for a good long while: until one day it suddenly occurred to me; even if all documented knowledge of the outside world had been destroyed, there would still have been an oral history passed down from one generation to the next, which would be near-impossible for anyone to control. Facts can easily be disguised as fables with their original message still remaining intact (albeit thinly disguised). But the fact there is no oral history of the outside world, suggests only one thing, and it's the only logical conclusion given the facts at hand. That somehow, humanity's memories were altered: I don't know how and I don't know what by, but it's the only thing that explains why no one remembers the outside world... "

"Well? ..." Gustav scratched his head, "Crazy as it sounds, when you put it like that, it does kind of make sense" he stubbornly admitted.

"I know," Breck sighed as he took a sip of his mead, "It took me a while to get my head around it, but when I did: boy did I have a few sleepless nights. And in a way, it still bothers to think that could, in all likelihood be true"

"Okay? ..." Bren propped his head on his elbow, and sheepishly admitted: "That-, is actually an interesting theory: scary, but interesting"

"... I don't think it's just the lost memories the Royal government are covering up" Derek blurted out: now it was everyone's turn to blink in surprise at him: "I think the walls themselves are part of the mystery"

"Really?" Claude frowned, "How?"

Reaching for his satchel between his feet, Derek pulled out a small journal and a small wooden box: opening it and peering inside, everyone saw three small pieces of, what looked like stone from a brick, each the same pale chalk-white colour and sparkled slightly as Derek laid the box in the middle of the table. The inside of the box was separated into three sections, each with the names Sina, Rose, and Maria scratched into the lid above, with each piece sitting in its own section.

"As you all know, my job as an architect has taken me to various places within each of the three walls: and, while busy overseeing each commission, I became rather engrossed in a 'sideline hobby' of sorts..." Derek explained, trying to keep his nerve as he explained: "Each of these, is a sample of walls Sina, Rose and Maria"

"WHAT!" Bren exclaimed in alarm, while everyone around the table stared at him in shock,

"Samples of the walls?!" Bren fumed, "Do you have any idea what would happen if the wall cult caught you chipping away at them?! They'd burn you at the steak for sure!"

"Keep your voice down!" Gustav reprimanded,

"Trust me I'm well aware of the risks, and believe me, these were not easy to acquire" Derek tried to assure his brother, "But it was worth the risk, because I believe they would prove my theory correct"

"Your theory?!" Bren exclaimed, "When were you thinking of telling me this?!"

"I'm telling you now" Derek stated matter-of-factly, "And I didn't tell you before because I knew this is exactly how you'd react"

"*Ahem!*" Breck drew Derek's attention, "If you'd care to not leave us on tender hooks?"

"Oh yeah, right..." Derek got back to the subject at hand, and opened his journal to a page that had various architectural design sketches of the walls, complete with mathematical calculations scribbled all over the pages, and various notes squeezed in between:

"Ever since I was young, the walls had always fascinated me on some level: so big and vast they were, I couldn't put my finger on it but there was something about them that just seemed, 'strange', if that makes any sense? ...Anyway, when I went to study architecture at the university in Mitras, and I learned about calculating sizes and dimensions in bricklaying: I began thinking about the walls, and how they might have been built; the further along I got in my studies and the more I learned about the basics of building tall secure structures that stay upright, I began to realize something was very wrong... According to the history books, the walls were constructed a hundred years ago to keep the titans out: okay, but how? The books don't specify the construction techniques or the stone used to build them with: and it also struck me, how the hell did humanity keep the titans at bay while building one wall? Never mind three! This was way too big and profound to leave alone: I had to know the truth... So every time I traveled between the interior and the outterlands, I would secretly sneak away to take measurements of the wall and collect samples from each of the bricks: and what I found was staggering to say the least. According to my calculations (if their correct), taking into account the size of the bricks, how many were laid per square meter, plus the width, diameter and length of the walls: as well as current building techniques and transportation of the bricks; I estimate, that Wall Sina would have taken approximately three hundred and eight years to build and complete; Wall Rose would have taken just over eight hundred and twenty two years to complete, and wall Maria (brace yourselves) would have taken approximately, one thousand, three hundred and seventy six years to build and complete... Now you tell me, how did we keep the titans at bay in all that time? And then there's this..."

Derek pointed to the samples inside the box: "As an architect, I know each and every type of stone there is: what it's used for best and where it comes from, and this 'substance' is not stone at all: I don't know what it is or what it's made out of, but I can say with absolute certainty, that it didn't come out of the ground. And even the walls themselves don't look or 'behave' like an aging wall should; there's no brick joints or traces of peeling, and mosses and lichens don't gown on them, hell, even wall creepers refuse to go anywhere near them for food or a suitable nesting site...All these points raise some very serious questions: questions, we wouldn't be allowed to ask, least we'd be thrown into jail, or made to 'disappear': all we are told to believe, is that a hundred years ago these walls just appeared from nowhere, seemingly blessed to us by the 'divine architect and his three goddesses' as a bulwark against the titans... I'm sorry, hidden lands and altered memories are one thing, but this?" Derek tapped his journal with a finger, "This is proof something is going on in the royal government, there is something they know they're not telling us: and for whatever reason it is, their keeping the truth from humanity... I know this will never reach the public's ears, at least, not in my life time; but I will be damned if anyone forces me to accept the government's 'truth' as fact" he stated in a serious tone.

Bren stared at his brother of a moment, before bursting out into laughter: "...Great Sina, I thought you were crazy before!"

"Yeah, I thought Claude was the crazy one here" Bryson deadpanned, before turning serious as he gazed at the pages in the journal: "...But you've really done your work on this, haven't you?"

"I never leave anything to chance, and I never skip on the details" Derek stated.

"This could really prove the walls are not what history claimed them to be?" Breck thought aloud.

"Hey, I don't know what created the walls in such a short time span, or if they were even built to keep the titans out in the first place"

Silence

"...All I know..." Derek added frankly, "Is that there is much we don't know about, much that could probably serve a great strategic value in helping mankind to beat back the titans; but for some reason, those who seem to know the answers, are not telling us the truth"

"...It certainly looks that way" Claude sighed grimly,

"But the question is, why?" Tyto pointed out, "What could be so detrimental to the government and the wall cult, that they'd risk the very survival of humanity to keep their secrets from getting out?"

"Power; that's what" Gustav frowned, "At the end of the day, when all is said and done: power is the one thing everyone acknowledges and respects, and he who holds the fears of the world, holds humanity itself by the throat..." he gruffly stated before he took a swig of wine, while everyone listened: "The only reason no one challenges the government for answers is because they know consequences will be dire; the reason no conflict against the military has broken out, is because they maintain the peace within the walls through fear and intimidation: and by keeping everyone stupid and ignorant"

"...Where is this coming from Gustav?" Derek blinked in surprise,

"Experience lad," Gustav took another swig of his drink, "It's no secret the MP's are corrupt through and through, but the royal government is far worse. Its members are comprised of the king, the high cardinal of the wall cult, and several of the most powerful nobles in all the three walls: and the one thing on their minds is keeping the rest of us riff-raff within our own walls, so they can keep their fancy homes, gardens, wealth and privileges. Anything else? They couldn't give a shit about; I guarantee you, if walls Maria and Rose were to ever fall to the titans, they'd seal all the gates around Wall Sina and leave us all to die. They'd let humanity go extinct in a heartbeat, so they can keep their way of life, and keep lording over everyone who's left"

"That's a bit dark isn't it?" Tyto grimaced, "I mean, don't get me wrong I know the government is never reliable, and the nobles are a pretty obnoxious bunch (from what I've heard): but letting all of humanity die out just to keep their wealth and power? That just seems a bit too extreme, even for them"

"You wanna put that to the test lad? ..." Gustav leaned across the table, and gave Tyto the hairy eyeball, "When you've lived with privilege all your life, the idea of sharing anything with anyone seems like oppression: when you've had everything you could ever want handed to you on a silver platter, having to work your hands to the bone just to scrape something to eat seems like slavery; and when you've grown up never being told 'no' to anything you've ever done or wanted, suddenly the idea of people reining you in for your useless frivolities and demands, seems like tyranny ...Believe me, I see these kinds of people come and go in and out the guest house every other week: coming here to the lands where their luxury goods are grown and made to buy them up; we here in Shiganshina supply them with their tea, coffee, tobacco, fruits, sugar, silk, spices and more, and do we get a decent pay for our hard work and efforts? No, we don't: as far as those rich fat bastards in the interior are concerned, we're just slaves who are our own masters and have to be paid for our troubles, or else we'd stop trading and keep everything we produce to ourselves: that's the only reason we get any acknowledgement at all from them; if it wasn't for the farmers, Shiganshina would just be another downtrodden criminal-infested shithole like the underground district beneath Mitras"

"Uh, had bad dealings with the nobility eh?" Claude smiled sheepishly,

"Not the nobility per se" Gustav clarified, "One or two rich merchants might come into the bar thinking Mabel and Bemadette are whores for sale, and they quickly learn otherwise," He downed the last of his wine, and poured another glass: "...No lad, my gripe is with the Government and the Bureau of Internal Affairs..." He then got up, wandered over to the far corner of the room, pulled up a floor board that wasn't nailed down, and took out a small notebook: he then returned to the table, and opened the book up: "...Back in the day, when I worked in Industrial city, I used to make ODM gear for the military: each and every unit I built was all from scratch, from extracting and melting down the iron bamboo, to test-running the final finished product: I tell ya, I can still put an ODM gear unit together in my sleep. Anyway, one day I was going over some design blueprints when I suddenly realized the gear could be modified: after tinkering about with a spare unit I got a hold of, I found that the modifications would not only enable the gear's user to go faster, but actually enable the gas to last longer, by as much as over twenty percent..." He showed them the designs in the notebook.

Leaning in for a closer look, Bryson stared at the sketches in surprise: "You reduce the size of the outgoing valve in the device, while increasing the length of the gas flow siphon in the pistons?"

"Surprisingly simple eh?" Gustav grinned, "And cost-wise it would hardly break the bank; how the hell no one discovered it sooner was beyond me, but it would be a major game-changer for the military. Scouts would be able to outrun and escape the titan's quicker, while at the same time being able to go up to five times longer before needing to change their gas cylinders. Naturally, I shared this revelation with my boss, and asked to approach the Bureau of Internal Affairs for approval to have the mods implemented..." Gustav then paused a moment; his expression grew darker, as he carried on in a more slightly bitter tone: "...But ...He looked at the blueprints I drew up, took one look at me, and told me to get rid of them: naturally I was pissed off, what the hell was he thinking? I was about to rip him a new one, when I suddenly saw the look in his eyes; and for first time in my life, I actually saw fear in him...He explained to me: about seven years before I came to work there, there was an ODM gear builder who also had a thing for tinkering about; he stumbled upon the exact same modifications I did, almost down to the exact same numbers. Delighted with this, my boss approved his idea and let him go before the Bureau. He never came back to work the next day: weeks passed, but still he heard nothing from the guy. Wondering what was up he decided to pay him a visit at his house: but when he got there, he found the place completely abandoned. One of the neighbours filled him in: apparently, the day after he visited the Bureau, a whole load'a MP's showed up his place and arrested him and his wife, clapped them in irons and carted them off...A month later, he got visited at the factory by some guys from the Bureau, who came to tell him that if any of his workers approached him with any new mods for any of the military equipment, he was to report them right away to the MP's...Realizing what happened to the other guy, he lied and said he'd comply: and he told me to just walk away and pretend we never had this conversation; he didn't want to see me disappear too..."

Everyone stared at Gustav in wide-eyed shock, not least Bryson, who was more incensed than anything else: "Are you serious?!" he exclaimed, gazing down at the drawings in the book, and back up at the old man: "An important modification like this, and they sweep it under the rug?! What the hell-, why?!" he fumed,

"I asked myself the exact same thing," Gustav frowned as he downed another mouthful of wine: "For weeks I was outraged and pissed off at the idea that something like this could happen, that it'd get you in trouble with the government, how insane was that?! I wanted answers but I didn't know who I could go to? Then one day, purely by luck, I got talking to one of my boss's buddies on the factory floor and happened to mention my mods by accident... He goes all quiet, looks me in the eye, drag's me into one of the storage rooms: and there he told me everything; he knew about the other guy who came before me, and knew why he'd been arrested. Apparently, the MP's and the Bureau of Internal Affairs keeps a strict secret watch on all the goings on in Industrial city and the military: what technology is being used and who is permitted to use it; and if anyone further afield is up to anything they shouldn't be doing. They have authority from the Royal Government to arrest and detain anyone who creates 'unlawful and unsanctioned technologies' without permission from the MP's or the Bureau. Basically, anything (like the mods for the ODM gear for example) that can enhance the performance of anyone's job or aid the military in a major way, is seen as possible risk to the well-being of the peace within the walls: on the off chance that technology can be used to create a means of escaping the walls or even destroying them"

"So? If anyone tries to create any new inventions they're arrested and thrown in jail?" Bren blinked in surprise,

"Pretty much, though, I never knew what happened to the other guy: but I think it's a safe bet he somewhere six feet under" Gustav sighed,

"But, why?!" Bryson exclaimed in dismay, "Trying to escape the walls is one thing: but if there's a technology that could help the Scouts fight the titans and gain the upper hand, surely the government would permit the military use of such an invention?"

"I don't know anything about that, I didn't ask," Gustav replied, "But what I did ask, is why? Why hold humanity back from moving forward with progress and innovation? Why the need to keep us subdued and stagnant in our current technological means? And the answer he told me was simple. Power and rule through fear: without a means to safely explore the outside world and bypass the titans all together, mankind is restricted to staying behind the walls, and the walls themselves remain a powerful idea for the security of humanity. No one wants to go to the outside world if there is no guarantee of being able to stay alive, so everyone stays here where their safety is guaranteed; and without the choice of being able to do more or move more freely, everyone doesn't know any better. People are easier to control when you know what scares them: they'll do whatever you tell them to, because they believe they have no other choice. This is how the Government has ruled the populous for the last hundred years: by reaffirming the idea that the walls are the only option we have for our survival; and you know what? It works. And with the wall cult as their attack dogs no one dares to stand up to them"

Calming down, Bryson gazed back at the drawings in the book, and passed a deep sigh, "...So, what did you do?"

"...What could I do? ..." Gustav took a sip of his wine, "I went back to work and carried on as if nothing had ever happened, I didn't throw the mods away though, I've kept them this whole time: maybe outta sentimental reasons or maybe because, on the remote off chance they might be needed one day? I don't know: it just didn't seem right to abandon a good idea...I stayed on in Industrial city up until several years ago, when I finally retired and came back home to help my sisters with the inn. I hid that book down there beneath the floor, and it didn't come out again until tonight...Because like Tyto, I don't wanna see anything happen to you guys either, so don't go asking questions to the wrong people, okay?"

Claude passed a deep sigh as he wiped his glasses on his handkerchief: "...It's a real travesty when you think about it: the idea of keeping humanity contained for the sake of peace. Well? Peace is all well and good, but at what price? I don't believe peace should have to come at the price of our freedom, even if the titans are out there beyond the walls, we cannot let our fears dictate our fate"

"That's all well and good saying stuff like that" Bren pointed out, "But who would stand up to the government? You?"

"Oh good heavens no, not me Bren, I don't have the constitution for being the warrior-type; I'll leave the heroics to Bryson" he smirked, to which Bryson couldn't help but smile: while Claude continued, "...No, like you Gustav, I too believe humanity has become stagnated by the royal government's need to keep us all in the dark and festering in our own anxieties: but, from what I know of life growing up and living in the interior of wall Sina, I can tell you that people from the higher end of the caste system are seldom willing to change for any reason other than to protect their own interests. Don't get me wrong, there are some with good intentions, but sadly they are a very tiny minority that is overwhelmingly shadowed by their more 'selfish-minded' contemporaries... I remember quite well, there were so many people who came from humble beginnings, who through hard work, dedication, commitment and fortitude had managed to carve out a niche for themselves in the echelons of wall Sina's society. But, the caste system is too narrow and too particular for such people to be allowed to succeed: oh you may live among the upper classes with your own wealth and status, but it's always painfully obvious: you would never become one of them...That always used to make me so angry: I thought it was never fair; these people worked hard to earn their wealth and privilege, but no matter what they did they were still treated as though they were common beggars. It was half the reason I moved here, among other things...No, to truly take on the government and have any chance of winning, would require someone of exceptional intelligence and talent: someone with the fortitude and will to want to fight and see it through to the end, wherever it may lead; and who has the welfare of humanity as their goal, but is able to do it all without losing their own humanity in the process"

"I don't know Claude?" Tyto stroked his beard in contemplation: "Some people have good intentions in mind, and at their core they are good people: but when they go down the path of trying to achieve their goals, they can end up doing more harm than good. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if someone's going to take a stand against the government, whoever it is, will have to be prepared to pay close attention to what's going on around them, and be ready to change and adapt in a heartbeat"

"Not to mention the government wouldn't go down easy" Gustav chipped in: "The odds would be overwhelmingly stacked against you: and the fight itself would be riddled with pitfalls and traps left right and center. To take on people as powerful and ruthless as them, you gotta be willing to be equally ruthless: and that would mean having to sacrifice your humanity. Qualities like honor, etiquette and fairness don't count for shit when your life is on the line; there's no etiquette when you're hunting a colossal-sized boar and he's staring you down getting ready to charge and cut you up with his tusks. There's no fairness when you're staring down the jaws of a titan and are mere inches away from certain death. And there is no honor in letting yourself be killed just so someone else can live by their own selfish ignorant principles. If you wanna live you gotta fight, but if you wanna win, you gotta lay it all out on the battleground, and fight with everything you got. Because when all is said and done and life and death hang in the balance, it's the one thing we all boil down to, and the only way to ensure our survival"

"...That's, quite a speech," Bryson couldn't help but smile, "With that attitude you'd make a great Scout"

"Kinda old for that now ain't I?" Gustav grumbled as he took another swig of wine: "Besides, what do I know? I'm just some ol' fart who beats out molten metal for a living: the world's past me and I ain't got anything more to offer. Just like the rest of us in this god-forsaken walled world... If there's one I do right before I buy the farm, it's that I make sure my grand-nieces are prepared to endure the cruelty this world has to offer: that they stride out into the world with their heads held high, emboldened, confident, and smart enough to know how to survive"

"You don't mean that, surely?" Derek pleaded, "Yeah Gustav, you've got plenty offer: people trust and respect you, you got a lifetime's worth of knowledge, and you're a really smart engineer"

"Ah save yer sweet nothings for Mabel," Gustav waved off, "I don't need it: besides, with Bemadette as my new apprentice, at least my skills ain't going to waste" looking down at the notebook and closing it, Gustav ran a hand up along the spine as he contemplated: "...Maybe I'll show her how to put an ODM gear together?"

"She'd be good at something like that" Breck smiled, "Goodness knows that girl has a real talent for being able to fix virtually anything"

"Hey, I nearly forgot to ask" Bren suddenly realized, "How did you guys first meet? And when did you find out Tyto and his family were Celts?"

"Pretty simple really," Gustav shrugged, "Some years back I was out in the forest going up to one of the villages on the western outskirts of the farmlands, when a bear chased me off the road and up into the trees. I thought I was done for when Tyto here showed up, with Evrard, Eraman and Falken, and chased the damn thing off. After thanking them I was just about to leave, when suddenly that knife fell outta his satchel and I saw the symbol on the blade; I'd heard about the Celts long before meeting Tyto, and knew that they used to use a strange set of symbols to write with. Needless to say, the cat was outta the bag"

"Realizing we didn't have any viable lies to pass it off: we told Gustav the truth," Tyto explained: "It wasn't something we were comfortable confiding in him about, but, he said he wouldn't tell a soul, and we had no choice but to take him at his word. Though as luck would have it, our meeting turned out to be a bit of a blessing...You see: this happened a few months after the Crow clan was killed, and in response to the tragedy, all the remaining clans in the southern forests: the Ravens, the Red Boars, the Black Hawks and mine the Grey Owls, decided to come together and move to a safer location. But we didn't know where to go, and the wall cult knew we would only move to somewhere else in the forest, somewhere they could possible lay a trap to ensnare us. So after much talk and deliberation we made the bold decision to move into one of the major districts and hide among the people: but we had no money to buy homes with, the forest provided everything we needed to survive so we had no need of it up until that point. But Gustav offered us a deal"

"Back then, we'd just finished turning the old coach house into a regular house, and decided to put it up for rent to earn some extra coin: It was plenty big enough for all four clans to live together and still have room to spare for the kids; after explaining things to Miriam we cut a deal, we'd let Tyto and his lot move in for free, on the condition that they help out around the Inn and forge with whatever chores needed doing, in lieu of paying coin for rent"

"It was a gamble: but hey, it worked out for the best, and we've been here ever since" Tyto smiled at Gustav,

"Eh, it doesn't hurt to have the pantry constantly stocked with game and fruit brandywines" the old man shrugged, "Plus, you lot are okay" he added as he downed another glug of wine.

"Which is basically Willum speak for 'you're my best friend'" Derek teased,

"Hey, you use the F-word around me like that and I'll tan yer hide and wear it as a dress coat" Gustav grumbled in annoyance. Everyone knew he didn't mean it; that was just the way he was.

"...Heh, It's funny," Bryson couldn't help but smile, albeit weakly, "All of us here, sharing these secrets of ours; innovative, bold, and thought-provoking: and yet all with the purpose of trying to keep a dying culture alive, trying to find out the truth, and trying to make a positive change in the lives of our fellow humans. We could all end up being branded as traitors and heretics if anyone found out what we knew, and either be burnt at the stake or be hanged in the royal square before the king and the public...How did it get to the point where trying to do any real good in this world suddenly became so wrong? To want reason, sense, logic and compassion to triumph, is not acceptable? ...Sometimes, I can't help but wonder whether our days might be numbered: and whether it's the titans that are really the true threat to humanity?"

"...Hmmm..." Tyto sighed offhand,

Everyone sat in quiet contemplation for a long moment, before Bren changed the subject: "...Hey Tyto?"

"Hm?"

"...Do you think, one day, you and the rest of the Celts will come together, piece together that map, and go find that hidden land, and the city of humanity's lost memories? ...See if its real?"

Tyto was quiet for a long moment, before explaining frankly: "...I really don't know Bren; I don't know if such a place even exists, never mind it actually lying somewhere within wall Maria; I don't know how on earth that can even be possible? Maybe my grandfather and father did find such a place? But it was somewhere out beyond the walls, and the solitary mountain they spoke of? Maybe it was just wall Maria all along, and the mountain was meant to serve a euphemism of some kind? Either way, I don't know how many of us are left or how many of the pieces are still intact and safe? It might be that one day, the ravens will call us to gather, and we will piece the map back together, and we will leave this walled world behind forever leaving the rest of humanity to its own devices; but, I really can't see that happening"

"Why not?" Bryson pressed him, "If it means you and your people have a chance to gain your freedom, you shouldn't pass it up"

"Yeah, I mean: you guys might actually have a chance of escaping the walls, and if you're really good at hiding like you always are, you could slip by the titans completely unnoticed"

"Not to mention you'd be rid of the wall cult for good," Gustav pointed out gruffly, "You wouldn't have to live in fear ever again, nor suffer the prejudice or arrogance of other human beings in general. So what if humanity eventually ends up going down the drain through its own short-sightedness and stupidity? At least a few good humans will have earned the right to make it to freedom; so why can't you see you and your lot leaving? What's stopping you? It's not like you were considered part of humanity to begin with as far as the first king was concerned...Why would you want to stay in this cruel world?"

"...Because? ..." Tyto thought about it: "...This is our world...For better or worse, we are all human, each and every one of us: and we are all a part of this world; good and evil alike. It is neither cruel nor kind, it simply is what it has always been, and will be forever...Home: no matter how far we go or whether we stay where we are, we are all that we have: we rely on each other to survive. And in the end when everything is gone and we have nothing left, all we'll have is each other; many threads make one weave, and that is how the tapestry of our world stays strong...We Celts are a part of that tapestry, just as all of you are too, and every living thing in this world: we all have a thread in the great tapestry of life, and we are woven together in ways that are beyond our understanding...We wouldn't leave, because we know what it means to be scared, and there's no way we would let anyone suffer that same fear: would it mean risking death for us? Quiet possibly, but how could we call ourselves human, if we left the rest of humanity to suffer?"

No one spoke for a long while, as they contemplated Tyto's words; silently wondering, how someone like him could still hold compassion for humanity, given all that had happened to them? But then, were they really any different? Could they save someone who's evil from facing certain death, out of simple human compassion? Does letting someone who's hurt you live make you weak? Naive? Or would it prove you are beyond being petty and vengeful? Whatever the case, something about those words struck a chord deep in all of them; and in a way, it allowed them to believe that not all humanity was worth giving up on: that if people like Tyto could look past humanity's weaker flaws and still have the potential for good. Then maybe being a part of this world really wasn't as dark and hopeless as it appeared to be?

"Hey guys?" Derek smiled as he raised his tankard, "Why don't we make a promise to look out for each other? And anyone else who needs help? To keep each others secrets safe no matter how crazy or outlandish they seem, and just be there for one another through thick and thin"

Smiling, Bryson raised his tankard: "... To the Traitors and the heretics" he toasted,

"To the traitors and heretics" everyone laughed, clacking their tankards and one wine glass together, and swigging down the last of their drinks.

"...What the hell?" Breck frowned as something caught his eye through the tiny window on the other side of the room: "...Is that-, a raven, a sky lark and hawk?"

Looking over at the window, everyone was surprised to see, a raven, a sky lark, and indeed a hawk, gazing at them intently through the glass. But before anyone could say anything, the three birds took off like a shot.

"Huh, that's something you don't see every day" Tyto frowned in bemusement,

---

Meanwhile, in the Jaeger household:

As she sat in her favorite chair, gazing out of the window up at the coming night sky: Carla heaved another heavy sigh.

The events from last night hadn't stopped replaying over and over again in her mind: and more than anything else, the creature that saved her, had refused to leave her curiosity alone. All day long she'd been thinking long and hard about what to do: many options and possible scenarios had been contemplated, and weighing up the risks involved with taking any action had been thought through. But it had now reached the point her curiosity was to much, and she just couldn't leave it alone.

It was decided: tomorrow morning, she would head back into the forest, and try to find the human-faced bird creature.

Eren would be spending the day with Armin and his grandfather, and Grisha would be out of town all day too, and as far as they would both be aware, she was going to one of the neighboring villages out in the farmlands to get some rare wild mushrooms.

She'd have the whole day to herself

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All across the Shiganshina, the city was settling down for the night: the stars were now out in the deep azure sky, and the moon was rising up over the distant mountains. Not a single bird could be seen anywhere in the twilight sky...

Except for a Raven, a sky lark and a hawk: flying together, as they headed towards the Marian forests.

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A/N: Sorry the chapter's a tad bit long. But hey, there was a lot of stuff to squeeze in :) stay tuned for the next chapter, for there's going to be some god-titan fluff as our girls run into their rescuers once again; it's gonna be sweet all round ;) Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to R&R before clicking off! Bye!