Chapter 6:

MONDAY - DAY 17 - 8 AM

Mya and Asher walked down the dirt road towards the giant building where breakfast was being held. As they walked closer to the main entrance, more trainees and other higher-ups were seen either talking amongst themselves outside, or were busy entering/leaving the building. Many people were dressed casually, wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt, while others were dressed in usual military fashion, consisting of jackets and complicated belt attire.

Although it was breakfast time, Mya and Asher weren't there to eat. Instead, they had been up for hours, and were there to pick up lunch for later.

Mya yawned, groaning loudly as she slumped forward next to Asher, who also looked just as tired.

"Uhhhh, … I thought that my days of getting up at 5 AM were finally over," said Mya in a tired tone as she walked.

Asher nodded, his eyes blinking more than usual.

Mya looked up at Asher. He looked like he got even less sleep than she did.

"You look exhausted," she said plainly.

"Well, five hours of sleep does that to you," he replied, looking down, giving her a cold expression.

"I'm sorry. What caused you to get only five hours last night?"

"One of my next-door neighbors sleep-walks sometimes. I could hear him bumping into stuff in his room."

"Wow, I mean, that's tough for you, but I've never met anyone who's sleep-walked before."

"Well, now's your chance," said Asher, trying to sound happy, but being too tired to make it sound more convincing.

Because Mya was tired, it took her a little longer than it should have to notice that the people around her were acting odd again. She liked that many people seemed to back out of the way almost instantly once they saw both of them walking down the path of people, but soon Mya noticed that as they backed away, their faces seemed to be mixed with wide eyes and slight alarm.

After she caught a third group of people giving her the same look as before, she managed to wake up a little. Her eyes darted around before glancing downward.

"Mya.." Asher whispered, sounding a little more alert as well, "I think everyone is staring at you."

"Yeah, I got that," said Mya with a bit of tone in her voice.

Asher and Mya continued at the same walking pace, inching more and more towards the main entrance. As they did, each group of people they walked past seemed to slither away from them, then whispered around themselves. Mya found it annoying rather quickly.

Nearly fully awake now, Mya held her head up, making sure her back was straight and shoulders tiled back. She walked past a person that looked to be a Commander. As they made eye contact, he gave her a slight nod of approval as they slowly got further away. Mya furrowed her brows.

"Hey.." Asher said to her through his teeth, "… let's book it to the building.."

Mya gritted her teeth as well while looking down and up again at the crowd of people that seemed to never end. Each new face stared down at her with mixed emotions. Some shock. Some with a nod of approval.

As soon as she spotted the doors, Mya quickened her pace they quickly walked through the doors.

MONDAY - DAY 17 - 10 AM

Mya sat on the grass as she yanked off her long boots, revealing her sweat-filled socks and winkled pant legs. It was another warm day, but even though Mya had spent her morning dressed in full 3D maneuver gear, swinging through the trees with Asher and the Captain, she still found herself sweating through her tall, long boots.

Now it was time to move to a new location where she would be learning how to use her blades. But before moving, Mya needed to make sure her set of blades were intact and attaching properly.

As she sat on the ground, Asher sat several feet away on a tree trunk that had fallen over several year before. He was also checking his blades, but kept glancing over at Mya every few seconds.

Mya had a pretty good idea why. She had kept the same annoyed look on her face ever since they left the main building. Only gave short answers, not even bothering to attempt a conversation.

After several more seconds of silence with the sound of Mya unsheathing her blades and then putting them back into their slots, Asher spoke.

"So… that was a pretty strong reaction from those people outside of the main building," he said, trying to sound casual. "Any idea why?"

Mya glared over at Asher before darting her eyes back at the blade in her hand. She sighed, hunching forward.

"Well.. I may have… lost my cool with this girl the other day.." said Mya in a low tone.

"Lost your cool..?" Asher pondered for a moment. "When?"

Mya quickly explained what happened the other day when she encountered and then waited for Asher's response.

As she looked up at him, she noticed that his face was turning red. He put his hand over his mouth, letting out a weird snort. She realized he was trying hard to hold in his laughter, but was failing.

After the snort, Asher seemed to give up on hiding his face and burst out laughing. Mya looked away, her brow quivering as she bit her lip in embarrassment as Asher continued laughing for several seconds.

"Oh, that's good…," said Asher as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "No wonder everyone was giving you weird looks! Man, I wish I could have seen that! What did she look like?"

"She was … tall… and had tan skin, and was pretty muscular…"

"Taller than you?"

Mya nodded.

"Woah, … she didn't hurt you or anything though, right?"

"No, she was going to though. She had her group of friends behind her that was going to watch me get beaten to a pulp."

"So, you just slammed her into the ground before she could do anything?"

"Pretty much."

Asher straightened his posture. "The bullies around your town must have turned the other way when you were coming down the street.."

"Actually, I-"

Mya paused. She wanted to tell the truth, but hearing the truth out-loud would just make it more painful. So, she improvised.

"I never had to deal with many bullies where I lived. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so, not too many people around to deal with."

"I see," said Asher in reply. "Where are you from?"

" Karanes District. My family owns a farm, so we sell food at the marketplace in town."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"It's time-consuming. Finding time to relax was always a challenge, but it made getting a day-off more enjoyable."

Asher nodded and looked off into the trees in the distance.

Mya suddenly felt compelled to ask Asher about his background.

"Are you from the Trost district?"

Asher looked back at Mya. He didn't seem too excited to answer the question.

"Yeah. I'm from Trost."

The conversation seemed to decimate, leaving Mya wondering what she should say next. But before she could think of anything she heard footsteps coming their way. She looked up to see the Captain walking past with blades strapped at his sides.

"Let's get moving," he said.

Mya quickly put her boots back on and shoved her blades into the equipment attached at her hips, as Asher did the same. Then they headed off to the new location.

Several minutes later, they arrived at a place that looked all too familiar to Mya. It were she had first learned to use maneuver gear: the maneuver gear training grounds.

However, this time around there wasn't anyone in the air, which was almost better. Mya didn't want to see any more accidents happen, and she certainly didn't want anyone watching if she made a mistake herself.

Around the tall trees stood tall dummy titans that were the same ones as before. Their napes had been sliced through multiple times, leaving Mya to wonder if she was going to be left with enough material to practice slicing.

The Captain, who was a few feet ahead of her, stopped and turned around.

"We'll practice here for awhile until mid-day. Nobody is scheduled to be here until later, so take advantage of that," said the Captain.

Mya looked at the Captain as he spoke, but something caught her eye past his shoulder.

As if on cue, two soldiers were seen running towards them.

"Captain!" they yelled.

The Captain turned as the two soldiers sprinted until they were right in front of him. They took a moment to catch their breath before speaking.

"Captain Levi… (gasp) there's been a situation. In the Northern Trost District… (gasp) Titans .. are in the city."

Mya's eyes widened.

The Captain looked more concerned. "How many?"

"At least four," said one soldier as the other wiped the sweat off his forehead. "None seem to be abnormal, but … we don't know how they got in, Captain. Many soldiers have been scouted out to search for a breach, but so far there has been no sightings of a massive hole. Commander Erwin was requested your presence at Trost to help take down any titans as they locate the hole."

"Alright," the Captain to the soldiers.

The soldiers nodded and then ran off.

The Captain turned to Mya and Asher. "Practice is over. Head back to castle for now."

"But Captain," said Asher. Mya looked up to see that he looked a bit shaken, "..my family is located in the Northern Trust District… I can't just sit around if they might be in danger."

Mya recalled Asher briefly saying where he was from earlier. She thought from his expression that perhaps he didn't have a family. Or that Trost was filled with only bad memories. But now she could see he was very worried.

She looked at Asher who looked at the Captain. There was a brief pause as no one spoke. Mya waited for the Captain to say "no", but even though he held the same, slightly annoyed gaze that he held the day that Asher requested to refresh Mya's maneuver skills, he once again let Asher get his way.

"Alright," he shot out grappling hooks from his equipment towards the tall trees beside them, "We'll need horses to get there. Meet me at the stables".

The Captain released a large amount of gas from his tanks and sped off into the trees. Asher and Maya promptly followed.

Mya landed on the ground and ran towards the castle where the horses were. She turned to the left to see the Captain by his horse and Kathryn nearby. She handed him gas tanks that he switched out with the older ones on his equipment. Mya glanced at the saddle which held other gas tanks as well.

Asher ran past Mya to his horse and threw on its saddle. Mya spotted more gas tanks that were in a separate pile.

"Mya," said Kathryn loudly. Mya turned.

"Help Asher load those tanks on his horse!"

Mya nodded as did as she was told. She quickly carried them over to Asher's horse as Asher tightened the saddle. She then handed them over to him so he could properly attach them.

As soon as they had attached the last tank, Mya could hear the Captain.

"Asher!"

Asher got on his horse and galloped forward. Then they both sped off away from the Castle and down the dirt road towards Trost.

UPDATE:

Hello! Thank you for reading my fic!

I just wanted to let you know that I am in the middle of the next chapter and hope to be posting it here soon!

It's been fun writing again, and we're only skimming the surface of whats to come!

So stay tuned for titans, exciting missions, friendships and romance!

Hope to post it here soon!