The next day came and went, and Eren was less and less sure about the dream theory he previously had.

So eventually, the week had come to an end, and he had to admit - somehow, for reasons unknown, he was stuck in his ten-year-old body almost ten years in the past. It still didn't mean the whole surreal experience couldn't end just as abruptly as it started. But there wasn't anything Eren could do about it now. Which annoyed him like feeling out of power to make his own choices always did.

It also didn't help that as refugees they were unable to move freely outside their camps for the first two weeks or so. It made sense, both from a political and medical standpoint. But staying in that place made him feel unnerved regardless. He almost looked forward to working that some refugees weren't yet forced to take part in. The government was playing nice still, afraid of public unrest. But Eren knew that with the start of the harvest season they wouldn't hesitate before assigning women and children to work for food.

At this point, Eren, unable to concentrate on anything in the closed space of the refugee camps, started to overthink politics. That was a bad sign.

That's why as soon as that restriction was lowered, he took his friends as far away as possible on an improvised 'field-trip' in the woods that he pretended to plan all along.

Mostly, he hoped it would help him to clear his head, away from the crowded place that was their temporary home. Teaching his friends some survival skills was just a nice bonus. Armin was reluctant at first to go straight into the dangerous unknown of the forest. Though when Eren noted how it would be good training for when they'll be exploring the outside world, the boy quickly agreed.

Now Eren looked over the bushes, trying to see any trace of moss or any water-loving plants. He recited the rules of survival in his head: the first thing was to find a shelter. But they clearly could skip that part as they were going to come back before the sunset. Then, water and food. And so he searched for water, that was obviously somewhere near - the morning forest looked too green and felt too cool, the air too fresh for a hot summer day. The hordes of mosquitoes were another proof.

"Eren," Mikasa took him out of his thoughts. "Are you sure you know where we are going?"

He understood her doubts: to everyone else, it probably looked like he lost something and now was searching for it under every bush and every leaf on their way. Trust Eren to lead the way and he'll never admit that he got lost. Mikasa didn't yet have that unconditional trust in him she will get in the future. And it was more of a good thing than bad. Eren had needed people to question his choices before and he needed it now. No matter how he hated being doubted by someone he cared about.

Maybe he should have explained his plans beforehand. It's always been his problem.

"I don't really know these forests." He admitted. And then added just to reassure her: "But I am pretty sure there is some water source around there. I promise I am not lost."

He really couldn't imagine getting lost anywhere inside the walls. Compared to the wilderness outside, these places didn't feel all too wild to him like they used to. And compared to the world around their small island, it was a safe haven.

His friends, though, had never been outside the walls. He couldn't blame them for varying the isolation the woods gave. It would be a good practice for them to get used to that solitude.

Eren waited for Mikasa to ask about his method for finding the water so he could show off with his knowledge about survival. She didn't ask though, only looked at him like waiting to hear something from him. It made the whole situation a little too awkward for his taste. He didn't get her sometimes.

Thankfully, that was when Armin came back, wriggling through the thorny bushes tall enough to be considered trees. Or more likely, he was so short still that these bushes looked like grown trees compared to him.

"Here it is, Eren! A cattail like you said!" Armin handed the stick he found to Eren.

A cattail, right. That wasn't really how Eren said it. If only because he never could remember what different reeds were called. When he explained what plant they needed to find to Armin, his words were: 'it looks like a brown sausage on a stick'. And, indeed, it looked just like Eren had described.

"Good. I was right. There is water nearby." He looked down, noticing that the ground under his shoes was a little lighter - likely mixed with clay. Should have noticed it earlier. "Step carefully. It might be a swamp."

They moved further into the forest. Only to realise that not far away from where they'd been searching the woods receded and the sludge field opened before them, previously hidden by the tall-growing dog-rose and honeysuckle bushes. The reed, cattail, he remembered, covered all the space, crowding out any other plants.

Eren raised his head to try and see something over the wall of reed but obviously was too short for that now. Ugh, he felt almost powerless against the now seemingly gigantic nature. He missed being as tall as a building.

While his friends were trying to ward off the mosquitoes and flies and not to get stuck in the mud at the same time, he, not caring too much about dirt, climbed the biggest rock he could find around. It still was barely high enough to see anything behind the reed. Eren caught glimpses of water, though.

"It's a pond." He waved his hand to get everyone's attention. "The water is stale, so better not drink from it."

Mikasa nodded in agreement, but Armin looked thoughtfully to where Eren said the water was. "But it's summer. And the pond hasn't dried out. So there must be some water inflow."

He looked at Eren like expected him to either approve of his observation or object to it.

"Yeah," Eren agreed, "It might be an underground stream. But if it's not, that means there is a good source of water nearby." It was worth noting.

He jumped off the rock. "We'll need to find it later." He decided. "Now let's do what we have come here for." He looked around for a stick big enough for digging, ignoring his friends' questioning looks.

"Uh, so what exactly have we come here for?" Armin asked, and reasonably so. After all, Eren didn't tell his friends about his plans when asking them to follow him.

"I'll teach you how to get food, of course!" He smiled, knowing his answer would only create more questions, and returned to his task.

"And why did we need to find cattails for that? We aren't going to eat them, right?"

Eren picked three long sticks from the ground.

"No. We'll dig out its roots and eat them," he said matter-of-factly. Mikasa didn't seem to have any objection to his plan as she took the longest stick Eren handed her.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea. What if it's poisonous?" Armin tried to change his friend's mind.

"I promise you, it's safe to eat." Eren gave him another stick. "Besides, aren't you tired of eating the same food?" Eren knew he was. And that's probably was the only reason why, after a second of doubt, Armin nodded:

"Fine. But if you say it's safe to eat, you'll eat it first."

"Sure." Eren knew that Armin from the future would never agree on something he considered risky like this. As a child, though, he still trusted his friends too much and not enough relied on his own judgment.

With some effort, they dug out the thin white roots from the soggy ground that smudged their hands and faces with dirt and yellow clay. They washed the food and themselves in a stream they found later.

Eren dug a hole in the ground and started a fire in it with cattail fluffy dry seeds as a kindling, while Mikasa and Armin searched for tinder. When their improvised bonfire grew strong enough, they sat around it, frying the pieces of bread they took with them on fire.

"Why did we need to dig a hole for the fire?" Armin asked when the flame had almost died down. Eren didn't look at him, too distracted by putting the roots they dug out under the still-hot coals. When it was done, he opened his mouth to speak, but Mikasa answered for him before he could: "That way the smoke from it stays close to the ground," she explained. "So the fire won't get noticed."

Eren simply nodded. Sometimes he forgot Mikasa grew up in a hunter's family. To think about it, she hadn't really mentioned anything about her early childhood to them. Of course, she had a clear reason for that. But, for sure, she still remembered something from that time?

"Mikasa," he asked, curious, "Have you ever gone fishing? Or learned how to do traps?"

"No." She shook her head, сlearly surprised at the sudden question. He could see, though, it prompted some thoughts inside her head.

It was past noon when the roots had cooked and were ready to eat. They all took one for each of them from the barely hot pile of ash and coals. Mikasa immediately took her first bite without complaints, getting her mouth covered in soot. Armin, on the other hand, wasn't convinced yet to eat something they just dug from underground.

"Are we really sure it's not poisonous?" He asked, watching with concern how his friends ate their portions. "Does it taste normal at least?"

"Come on! Where's your adventure spirit?" Eren joked and took another bite from a soft plant. Before Armin got even less enthusiastic about eating his portion, he said:

"No, 'course it's not poisonous. And it tastes kinda like a baked potato. Right, Mikasa?" He turned to the girl.

She shrugged indifferently, not bothering for an answer, and kept eating, which didn't help to convince Armin as well. Eren smiled despite himself. The whole situation reminded him of a similar argument in the past.

He learned a lot of things about survival: some of them - from his own experience, some he inherited with all the memories of the past titan shifters. But the fact that cattail roots were perfectly edible he found out from Sasha when they had to spend a week in the forest as a part of their training. She even used the same words to convince them to help her with digging - 'it tastes like a potato when baked'. And if Eren remembered right, Armin had been just as reluctant to eat unknown food as he was now.

"Eat it," Eren said with the same intonation he'd used when tried to feed Armin his portion of bread two weeks before. "We don't have much time before the sunset now and there are still things we need to do."

It wasn't a full truth. It was summer, so there was still a lot of time to do everything and come back to the camp before dark. The main reason why Eren suddenly wanted to leave, was that with the good memories of the past, the troubling thoughts came to him as well. The ones he'd hoped to escape in death. Now, though, after that death, he knew it was a foolish hope. He thought about Sasha again. In some way, her foreseen death was what set him on his path - the knowledge that nothing could be changed however he tried. Eren had promised himself back then, that she would be the last of his friends who died for his goals. But in the end, the promise had been for nothing.

"What are we going to do after eating?" Armin finally took the food, while Eren was thinking. He seemed either eager to accept a new quest or just noticed how Eren fell into uneasy thoughts not for the first time today. He probably recalled what Eren asked Mikasa previously: "Are we going fishing?"

"No, we don't have any fishing gear on us." Eren shook his head. "No, I'll teach you about different herbs you can find around here. Which of them are dangerous, which are required in medicine or used in cooking. That kind of stuff."

"We won't have to eat it too, right?" Mikasa asked with rare humor in her voice. Eren knew there was something else in the words. His friends didn't question his sudden knowledge and weird behaviour yet. They likely reasoned it was better than if he closed from them completely or got mad at the entire world as they expected. But they did notice that something changed. Eventually, Eren will need to come up with a reasonable explanation. For now, though, it seemed they gave him the benefit of doubt when he claimed to know things he hadn't before.

"No, I don't think we can feed ourselves with herbs for long. Besides, they don't taste that good by themselves. But we can sell them."

The truth was that Eren knew they couldn't really survive only on what the forest could offer them. It was still summer yet, but autumn and winter were soon to follow. They could try hunting in winter, of course, but teaching both Mikasa and Armin would take too much time. Besides, hunting was prohibited in these places for most people, and he wasn't looking forward to getting caught. The best way they could use the goods of the forest was by converting them into money. It would be a tricky task to hide the coins. But still better than trying to store some food for the winter only for it to be taken from them.

"Ah, just look at how cute you two are!" The elderly white-haired woman, that stood behind the counter, exclaimed when they entered the shop. Armin flinched in embarrassment, but Eren just greeted her and gave the most polite smile he could manage.

He supposed they did look cute - two ten-year-olds walking around holding hands. They probably had been called cute at least once before. Thought maybe not. If there was anything he remembered about the past, it was that Eren the ten years old wasn't really happy about all the hand-holding looking cute stuff. Eren the adult though didn't care that much as long as it worked on people and made them feel bad for two orphans.

The old woman stood up to greet them, still smiling as Eren put the bundles of herbs he'd carried on the counter - mint, wild thyme, sweet-amber, and many others.

As soon as he did that, her smile changed and a calculating gleam appeared in her eyes.

"Oh, thank you, dear!" She said in the same sugary voice that now sounded even less genuine. Eren stood there politely as she went through the herbs they gathered. Armin looked around, curious; his nose twitched at the strong smell of herbs and old wood.

"And I hope you got the mint and chamomile that I was asking for…?" She didn't look up at him, but Eren nodded anyway.

"Yes, ma'am."

She hummed, pleased with the herbs' quality when she finished inspecting the bundles.

"Now, let me get your payment." Eren looked at Armin with reassurance. His friend nervously smiled back at him, still uncomfortable when dealing with people he didn't know well.

"Thank you, boys, for helping an old woman. It hasn't been so easy to keep a good stock of ingredients for someone as old as I am." The old herbalist complained as she did every time while counting the coins. Eren pretended to listen as he always did. He knew the woman was lying. The only reason she was using their help was that it was cheaper and took less time than getting everything by herself. And the only reason why Eren even worked with her was that the woman was the only one who would agree to buy anything from unknown kids. Even if she would underpay them by a lot like she did every time. They needed money, so Eren kept pretending he didn't notice the gigantic difference between market price and their payment.

"Here you are," she held out the coins for him. Eren reached for it.

"Oh, dear!" the woman suddenly exclaimed. Eren flinched away. "You have blood on your arm!" He quickly hid the hand with money in his pocket. "Did something happen? Did you get hurt while searching for herbs in the forest?"

"Uh, no! It's fine, really," Eren breathed out, trying not to panic. He for sure didn't need anyone to see him getting magically healed. He couldn't believe he forgot about that part of his power. "It's just a scratch! Maybe I got it from wild-rose bushes?" He smiled again to look more convincing. He didn't turn to see how Armin reacted but knew that the boy didn't believe his words.

"Well, if you say so," the old woman agreed easily. "But you kids should be more careful. The streets are not safe like they used to be. Especially with all these… refugees walking around the streets." She muttered the last words like she felt offended even at the mention of these people. And it was clear she only wanted to complain and waited for something to prompt that conversation.

Armin looked down, obviously hurt by the woman's words, but didn't say anything. The way the general public saw them wasn't news to Eren so he played along.

"Of course, thank you, ma'am! We won't go near any of them. Goodbye!" He took Armin's hand again, nodding frantically and moving to the exit.

When they went outside, Eren let go of his hand again and hid it in a pocket again. He hoped Armin wouldn't give it too much attention.

"I don't remember you saying you got hurt." The boy brought it up against Eren's hope. "Let me see."

The thing was, Eren didn't remember getting the scratch himself. Noticing the pain lost its point when he didn't need to care for getting hurt like others, so he learned to ignore it pretty quickly.

"It's nothing. I just didn't notice it. Let's go already." He brushed off his friend's concern.

"Wait, Eren. Let me see." Armin reached for his hand. Eren supposed the scratch got healed already, so he raised the hand.

"See, it's nothing. Probably not even my blood…"

"Uh, it doesn't look good." Armin interrupted him, "How didn't you notice it?"

What? There wasn't supposed to be even a mark left. He turned his arm around to look at the small trail of dried bloody crust on it. How? Eren held his breath, panic overflowing him in a moment. His other hand searched for the key on his neck - a habit that was long forgotten.

He clutched it with his fist, calming down. No, everything was right. The key was the proof his father gave him the titan power. And him not healing… Well, it was just as much of a proof of Ymir's will over his life. After all, he used to get hurt a lot during his training years. He would have noticed if his injuries disappeared without a trace. If not for Ymir's plan. Of course, it made sense.

He turned his attention to Armin, who seemed to be in a stupor, unable to decide what he was supposed to do.

"You are right, I should probably do something before it gets infected." Eren hid the tremble in his voice, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Let's go?"

"Eren, when did you start getting scared of blood?" Armin asked, a bewildered look on his face. He came up with a good excuse and Eren wasn't going to deny it.

"Ah, I'm not sure? I guess I always was?" He smiled. "So, now that we have our money, what do you want for dinner?"

It looked like Armin didn't mind the sudden change of topic, ready to ignore whatever just happened.

"Uh, I don't know. You should choose."