A/N - Sorry that this one is so short but it's mostly filler anyway and with Christmas right around the corner I haven't been righting much.

Happy reading and merry Christmas.

Wings Of Freedom

Chapter 9

Eren felt the comforting blanket of sleep, leaving him but refused to open his eyes. Eren's sleep schedule had been so messed up lately, on account of them running from the Titans and he had been through so much lately, so he wasn't quite ready to surrender his momentary paradise.

CRASH!

"Ugh!" Eren grunted as something heavy, landed on his chest and his eyes flew open. Eren then blinked the gunk out of his eyes until he could see clearly and he looked to his chest to see the metallic sheen of his Dragon's scales, reflecting the light back at him "whhhhyyyy?" Eren drawled out comically as he lay there under the weight of his, now larger Dragon.

It had been four days since Eren got back with the medicine and the Dragon had grown substantially, and given a few more days she would be as big as a German Shepard. Additionally, the Dragon's scales had begun to harden up more, meaning they were now hard and sharp, making them look even more metallic and reflective, and her horns, claws and spines were growing out. Eren was actually a little concerned about the last one though, seeing as there was still a space between her shoulder blades where her spines refused to grow.

Eren groaned as he tried to sit up and the Dragon hopped off him, only to prance around and use her snout to try and get Eren moving "alright, alright I'm up" Eren groaned as he begrudgingly rose up off his bed of blankets and to his feet with a terrible case of bed head. Eren then heard chuckling and looked over to see Armin, sitting up against the wall, under a blanket, with a thick book in his lap "that's what you get for sleeping in" he joked and Eren smiled at his friend with relief. Armin had slowly been recovering from his infection and looked much better then before. His arm and leg were still in splints and his skin was still a little pale with dark bags under his eyes, but Armin looked much better and he gave Eren a bright, if tired, smile from where he sat.

Eren gave a yawn and scratched his limbs "hay, morning Armin. How you feeling today?" he asked and Armin sneezed "not one hundred percent yet, but better" he answered with a bit of a nasally voice as he wiped his nose. Eren smiled at his friend "glad to hear it" he said, but then his Dragon tried to hop up on his shoulder, causing Eren to tip over "whoa!" he yelled as he fell and just barely caught himself on the wall as the Dragon fell off. Eren breathed a little heavy before looking to his Dragon "carful, you're getting too big for that" Eren said as he straitened himself up.

The Dragon whimpered a little before fixing Eren with a determined glared that made Eren's eyes widen with nervousness "now hold it right there" he warned the Dragon as she brought her front in low while raising her rear and shaking it like a cat ready to pounce "don't you dare!" Eren warned again but the Dragon jumped for his shoulder, causing Eren to yelp and duck out of the way. The Dragon wasn't willing to give up though and jumped after him again "ahh!" Eren yelled as the Dragon chased him all around the cave and Armin laughed hysterically at the two "looks like she's as stubborn as you" he managed to get out between fits of laughter.

Eren yelled as the Dragon chased him into a corner and Erne looked around feverishly for an escape but was only able to turn in time to see his Dragon charging him "no, no, no, no, no!" he yelled as she pounced on him, his legs sticking up in the air as she burred him under her scales. Eren's legs fell to the ground and he let out a muffled groan "a miphl meph mph mphe" Eren muffled voice came out from under his Dragon as he tried to get up, but the Dragon pinned him "w-what?" Armin asked as his laughter finally subsided and he heard Eren groan again from underneath his Dragon "I said, a little help here please" Eren thought to his friend and Armin blinked a little while rubbing his head, it was still very weird communicating like this but he shook it off "sorry, I'm not sure how much help I can be right now" he said while eyeing his splints.

Eren gave a frustrated groan as his Dragon snickered, but then Mikasa walked up to them while chuckling "alright, that's enough. Unless you don't want this bit of meat I was cooking for you" she said, teasingly to the Dragon, who immediately hopped off Eren and sat excitedly, in front of Mikasa, who then tossed her the food.

Meanwhile, Eren gasped for breath as he sat up and glared at his Dragon "man, how much bigger is she going to get?" he pondered with mild irritation, but still couldn't help smiling as the large reptile, pranced about happily. Armin hummed as he thought it over "who knows, I'm still trying to just make sense of all the weird things that have been happening because of her" He commented but then smiled as the Dragon turned her attention to him with an almost sympathetic expression and nuzzled the recovering boy and he laughed a little "but I do know one thing. We wouldn't have made it this far without her" he added and the Dragon seamed to chirp in acknowledgement of the praise.

Mikasa nodded in agreement as she helped Eren stand back up "yah, and who knows, maybe if she gets big enough then she could fly us to Wall Rose" she said and Eren pondered that thought as a certain dream came back to him and he looked out of the cave and envisioned himself among the clouds on the back of his Dragon and he remembered the feeling of freedom he'd had "yah" he said absentmindedly with a dreamy expression.

The Dragon seamed to notice what Eren was thinking and looked out with the same thoughts, her wings flexing with anticipation. She had been practicing her flying a lot and could manage to fly to the cave from the ground now, but not much more yet. Still, she was eager to fly with her Rider and was half tempted to charge out of the cave with Eren on her back, but she was no where near ready, and so she resigned herself to charging out and practicing her flying.

Eren and Mikasa walked up to the edge of the cave as she snapped her wings down and gained a little lift "she's certainly eager to fly" Mikasa commented as they watched her go "I'm just glad the Titans ignore her" Eren said as he watched her fly round, close to the ground, while the Titans payed her no mind. Eren then looked to Wall Rose and his mood turned a little sour.

Mikasa noticed his worried expression "hay, what's wrong?" she asked and Eren seamed to snap out of it a little "oh, it's nothing" he played it of as he walked back in. Mikasa fallowed him with a frown "Eren" she said sternly and Eren stopped and turned back to face her "what's wrong?" she asked again and Eren hesitated for a moment before sighing in defeat "it's just...well I'm worried what'll happen to her, once we get to Wall Rose" he said and Mikasa blinked with surprise.

They both heard Armin humming in thought "Eren's right, there's no telling what the government will think of her, and we don't even understand what she's fulling capable of" Armin agreed, causing Eren to cast his eyes to the ground with worry. Eren then felt a hand on his shoulder a looked up to see Mikasa "hay, we have plenty of time to figure that out" she said and Eren smiled a little with relief. Mikasa then smirked slightly "but as for coming up with a name for her, I think it's safe to say you're running out of time" she joked.

Armin grinned sheepishly as he rubbed his neck "yah, it's getting kind of old, not having something to call her" he said and Eren gave an exasperated groan and he facepalmed "I'm trying, but she won't respond to any of the names I try, aside from smacking me in the face with ether her tail or one of her wings" he moaned as he ran his hand down his face, causing his friends to chuckle a little "well I'm sure you'll figure something out eventually" Armin said as he turned his gaze, out of the cave.

The others fallowed suit and looked out at the wall in the distance. They were still so far away, but they were still alive, and they would get there eventually.

[Scout Regiment H.Q.]

Commander Erwin Smith was sitting at his desk, looking over reports and planning the next mission into Titan territory. He was relatively new to the job, since the previous Commander of the Scouts stepped down, so he was still acquainting himself with the position he had worked for so long to achieve.

But even so, his mind wasn't on his work. He glanced over to another set of reports from the Military Police and Garrison regiments. Reports of crops suddenly growing in abundance, despite the famine and the sick and injured, suddenly waking up cured, and then there were the roars.

Erwin paused as he remembered it. A deafening roar that echoed out after Wall Maria fell. Erwin had heard it along with so many others and apparently it had come up again a few times, just not to the same extent. Erwin was puzzled by all of this. He was certainly happy that no one was starving, even if the nobles were scared of the sudden surge in population but Erwin wanted to know what was causing all of this. Did they have an ally out there somewhere or what. Erwin didn't know but he could feel it was important.

A knock came to Erwin's door, snapping the Commander from his thoughts "come in" he called and one of his most trusted men, walked in, Mike Zacharius. Mike walked in with a stack of papers in his hand and Erwin groaned slightly "more requests from the nobility that we draft the refugees?" he guessed and Mike gave a similar reaction "yes, they're getting nervous about loosing all the extra food" he answered with venom at the nobility and their orders.

Erwin sighed, if not for the sudden abundance in crops, he probably wouldn't have been able to fight the crown's new policy of drafting refugees. Granted Erwin wouldn't say no to new recruits but he wasn't about to sign of on the crown's panic induced and thinly veiled purge.

Erwin took the papers and looked over them. It was just more of the same, only worded differently and thankfully it appeared his fellow Commander, Dot Pyxis and their superior, Dhalis Zachary, were also opposed to the crowns policy, so he should be able to overrule it. Erwin sighed as he filled out his own response and set it aside for later "this is getting old. We need to be focusing on more important matters then the irrational fears of nobles who don't even know the people the rule over" he lamented and Mike nodded "agreed, but there's more" he said and Erwin looked through the rest of the papers and his eyes widened in mild surprise "a request for aid from the Military Police?" he questioned, it wasn't every day that the M.P.s swallowed their pride and asked the lowly Scouts for help.

Mike nodded in agreement "yah, apparently there's some squirt with O.D.M. Gear, down in the underground and he's been costing the nobles a pretty penny and humiliatingly the M.P.s" he said and Erwin interlaced his fingers as he hummed in thought someone who's able to out maneuver the Military Police in O.D.M. he pondered and was little impressed by what the reports had said. Erwin then gave a small smirk as he formulated a plan "let the M.P.s know we'll take care of it, so long as we get final say on the manner of punishment" he said and Mike gave his superior a suspicious glance "I know that look. You're planning something aren't you?" he said and Erwin chuckled a little "you'll see soon enough" he answered and Mike gave a salute before leaving Erwin with his thoughts.

A/N - Again, sorry that this one was so short but it will pick up once the holidays are over.

Now, apparently I don't understand how polls work on this site, because I haven't figured out how to put the two I mentioned before up, so anyone who can explain that to me, please do so, I am still very new to posting on this site.

Additionally, while I did say that I try to only post one story at a time, I was feeling inspired and writ a Dragon Prince one-shot, while I was having trouble with with this chapter, so since it's just a one-shot, I'll go ahead and put it up. Be warned, it is mostly fluff.

And that's it from me, please leave a review.

Thanks for reading. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.