Eight Months After Departing the Treehouse.

It was a long time before Morrigan saw another sign of human life, though she did not despair. She was used to being alone with her thoughts, and she spent a lot of time in her own head.
She thought of the kinds of people she would meet. Of what her father was like, if he was still alive. According to her mother, life spans weren't long in the Scout Regiment.

Erwin Smith….

Every time her mother spoke on him, Morrigan saw it in her eyes. That tender, gentle thing that softened as she thought of the man that left her for dead, the man she still seemed to love desperately all these years on. .
While Morrigan refused to allow herself to feel anything other than cautious resentment and apathy, telling herself and her mother that she didn't care whether they all lived or died as long as she and her mother were safe, while her mother just called her a moody teenager.

She also felt...anger. Anger that her mother, a kind, strong, skilled woman was the one that they managed to leave behind. And with child no less, though no one could have known at the time. They still didn't know.

That is what killed Morrigan the most on the inside. That she was about to show up to this group of people, and convince them that she wasn't just some freak that escaped the woods; which was most definitely a lie. She knew that it was going to be a severe learning curve, growing up in the forest vs. a bustling city. She had no idea how others acted, and she couldn't lie to herself even to think it would all be okay.
She knew they would fear her, as her mother told her they would; because anything outside the walls was unknown and therefore… terrifying. A threat.
Morrigan had never considered herself a threat to anything before this bullshit wild goose chase, but now she realized quite who she was, or...who she could become.

Her mother had shown her hand-drawn art of the ODM gear they used when she was a scout, pieces of which were scattered around the treehouse in different various shapes and forms, and Morrigan may not know how to use it in practice, the theory remained with her; though she didn't really think it would help her in any way. She was lithe, swift with her climbing, able to get from ground height to the fifty-meter mark on a tree within a few seconds fast, to the point where her mother questioned whether or not all soldiers should be raised in the trees.

And the teen found that Titans truly weren't a threat, when you weren't raised to fear them. Her mother was taught to fear them, which is why they never attempted to find the walls together. Her mother was too afraid of them, of losing Morrigan to them.

They were just huge, bumbling, disgusting creatures that ate people for no reason. Simple as that.

They were the cats, we were the mice. The reason most people died to the things was that they allowed themselves to succumb to fear, and they relied on everything but themselves to get them through hardship.

They truly were mice that hid behind walls that at this point, walls Morrigan was pretty sure her mother had lied about.

Walls that she once again thinks she sees, only to draw near and be disappointed, though no less interested in what it was she saw.

Tall, a tower made of grey stone and a beaten down, a weathered and falling apart wall surrounding it; the entire ambiance was depressing to say the least, but it was also one of the most human looking things she had seen in months. But though it was human she wasn't going to assume it was safe. So when she approached the ruins, it was upon light feet and low to the ground, using the time she would spend as a child playing hide-and-go-seek with titans to her advantage whenever she could. And for this she could be grateful; for when she peered through a low opening in the tower, she nearly gave away her position in shock.

Three men sat around a fire, not talking but eating and drinking out of jars, their faces scruffy and bodies large. They were all of considerable size, either in height or weight, and she could see the dirt around their necks and hands in the firelight. A fourth spot sat open and unoccupied, and she only had a moment to wonder where that person was, and why these people weren't inside the walls when she felt a grip upon the back of her neck, hot, rancid breath against her throat as a sizable body pressed her against the cold stone of the tower.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a live one here boys!" The man hooted through the window, and Morrigan was dragged by her neck around the tower and through the entrance; the foul-smelling man throwing her to the ground in front of the fire and catching the attention of his just as disgusting compatriots.

"Well sheeeeiiiit Joe, where'd you find this one? Pretty gal like that shouldn't be this far outside the walls! Especially with no one around to keep her safe." The one on the furthest left said, words dripping honey though they felt bitter to her ears.

Well, she was right that it wasn't safe, and she needed to get out. Now

"Well Neil, I found her peepin at ya through the window like some kinda pervert."

Her eyes scanned, the room full of massive crates and covered items that meant nothing to her. A single door leads only god knew where, and the exit behind her was blocked by "Joe."

"Joe" who's hands had gone from her neck to her shoulders, digging in painfully as he groped them, hands slowly moving down as though she wouldn't notice. She did. She noticed as his fingers pressed into the sides of her still-developing breasts. Her mother hadn't lied to her about the harsh realities of the world, it was just unfortunate that her first example of living humanity was also its worst.

"Is this what everyone within the walls are like?" She asked softly, and the men looked at each other, chuckling to themselves as if she'd told a hilarious joke.

"Honey, don't act like you're not from there too... but again, we need to know…. What. Are you doing. Out here?" Joe asked, standing and coming closer to her, his breath close to making her gag as she stared at his rotting teeth. Her silence seemed to upset him, and he reached for her shoulders as though to grab them and shake her. She knew she had one chance to get herself out of this predicament and she took her shot then; grabbing his right arm and turning, twisting out of her captors' hands and swinging the other. Joe was slammed with his full body weight into the other man and they were both knocked to the ground, dazed. The move worked purely on a physics-based level; seeing as they outweighed the malnourished girl by far.

Morrigan used the confusion to her advantage and sprinted through the door, up long winding stairs that lead to the tippity top of the castle tower though she could hear the struggles of the four men giving chase behind her, long legs taking leaping bounds, going up to four stairs at a time as she let pure adrenaline fuel her actions.

It went up, and up, and up, nearly making her dizzy with how long she ran in circles to reach the top, her mind racing a mile a minute as she tried to figure out just quite what she was going to do when she reached the top; and when she eventually hit the door, cold early morning air slapping her face. And as she ended up on the far side of the crumbling towers' roof, facing off against four men at least as tall as her 178cm; she knew that it was going to have to be whatever she had to.

They started to fully process what she looked like in the dawns' light, their eyes searching now not in disgusting lust towards her teen body, but in curiosity and confusion. Their questions came as they spread out and began to advance on her, slowly, step by step.

"Why're ya dressed like that, dollface? Ain't no one who can afford furs makin' them into outfits like that…" The one she had thrown said with a chuckle that was none too friendly, and Morrigan thought of the blade on her hip, the length as long as her hand and the handle of worn leather. Her mother had entrusted it to her on their first outing together to hunt, and she always kept the blade sharp enough to end an animals' suffering quickly.

She tried to think of any other way to end this that didn't involve using it, though.

'Maybe humanity deserves to die.' She thought bitterly, stacking her odds against the men.

If she got their blood on her, titans would be on her from leagues away, and the last river or stream or even pond she had seen was at least ten or so miles behind her, a long enough distance that she wasn't sure she'd make, soaked in human blood. And if they spilled hers, the same would happen.

She could always try and jump, but looking behind her, even she could realize that's not something she could make work either. She was far too high up, if she didn't die she would break many things, and there were too many windows and ledges for her to risk running down the side.

She was fully trapped and began to panic, eyes skittering every which way before coming to a decision, allowing her body to do the last thing it could; which was to scream. Scream as loudly, and painfully as she could, loud enough that the men were covering their ears, shouting at her. When she stopped, they all looked at her, realizing very quickly what she had just done.

"Every titan within miles is going to be heading to this tower right now. You can either focus on me or focus on saving your own asses. Pick. One." Her voice was low, growling, and she was half-crouched, her steely eyes scanning them, upper lip raised in a snarl.

Two of them scrambled downstairs, while Joe and Neil -the one she had flung- stayed. Their bruised egos seem to prevent them from thinking very rationally. They both outweighed the malnourished girl by many pounds, but she was willing to bet that they certainly weren't smarter than her.

"Are you fuckin' stupid girl? Are you tryna get all of us killed?" Joe yelled, but he stopped at the smirk he saw slide upon her lips. Her face went from a cornered rabbit to that of a feral cat, her teeth exposed and the sharp canines of something that was used to tearing meat directly from the bone glinted at them. It was then that they realized that they may not be encountering someone from within the walls.

"No, not all of us. Just you." She retorted, voice soft yet matter-of-fact, which enraged the men even further. They ran at her, and she deftly ducked underneath their arms, checking over the wall lining the tower roof, seeing that the first of the Titans had arrived.

Joe lunged at her, and using every ounce of her strength, she crouched and felt the air whoosh as his arms missed her shoulders, and she hopped forwards onto her hands, legs bunching before she donkey-kicked him over the wall, his friend watching as he was launched; plummeting six stories below to the waiting maws of the titans.

This angered him enough for the man to attempt the same feat, but instead of ducking as the man had assumed, she jumped over his arms and slammed his forehead into her knee, before using her right arm to push him past her left side with a hand around the back of his neck, her mothers' self-defense lessons coming in handy as the man tumbled headfirst over the wall, his screaming cut short as he either snapped his neck on the drop or it was done by the giants below.

Morrigan risked a glance downwards and finally saw the reason the rest of humanity hid. She saw a titan, eyes bulging and grin huge. It was only about four meters tall, but that really didn't matter as Neil struggled against it; his thrashing useless as the thing lifted the man to his mouth, his full torso entering before it bit down. She could hear the disturbing, disgusting sounds from here, and she covered her mouth; turning around and muffling her sounds of shock.

She did not mourn these men she knew meant her harm. She mourned the inkling of innocence she once held, whose trickle had begun to slow upon being confronted with such a gruesome, morbid sight.

She sat there, mouth covered as she waited for the carnage to finish. She heard three distinct voices screaming, titans stomping around and the occasional mild tremor of the tower, but nothing came through the door leading to the roof of the tower; and after an hour of silence, she stood up, peering over the edge once again. The area was now clear of titans, the ground below bloodstained but empty. Keeping this in mind, Morrigan made her slow, silent descent to the ground floor.

The stairwell was entirely clear, and it was soon that she found out why; for a 3-meter titan sat crouched in the doorway gnawing on the spine of one of the unnamed men. It didn't even turn to her; her scent still successfully masked and allowed her to sneak up on the monster. The execution was thankfully quick, and after pushing the thing out the doorway before the stench of the steam could fill the tower, she shut the door firmly but quietly, leaning against it with a shudder and sliding to the ground.

She felt….. Numb. As though her body didn't want to process...anything that had just happened.
So she didn't. She moved as though in a trance, restarting the fire that had been disturbed during the scuffle, and beginning to go through their crates - if just to keep her mind and hands busy.

She read the labels on items-but most things were a guessing game as to what they were. Jars of jams, jellies, pickled eggs and pigs' feet, sacks of wheat and flour; it seemed to be enough provisions to last a while- and seemed to have already been picked and gone through for quite some time.

'Were these men… living here?' She questioned, eyeballing the crates warily. Why would there be people living outside the walls aside from her and her mother?

The people of The Walls were going to have a lot to answer for when she found them.