Ten Months After Departing The Treehouse


Morrigan spent a month in the castle, taking any safety she could and using the time to rest and regain her energy. Traveling on foot in a wasteland ruled by giants wasn't very good on a growing teenagers' body.

She found clothes though she did not wear them; opting instead to tear them up into strips of fabric and creating torches and tourniquets, stashing the materials away in her pack. The teen managed to gain weight for the first time in a long time, her ribs no longer poking through her skin, and a thicker layer of muscle laying beneath and covering her arms and legs, her stomach even becoming a bit soft, and squishy; something that unexpectedly delighted her. She'd never been soft anywhere before, and it excited her. Her hips had also begun to widen, bones no longer protruding, her body took this short month and whatever nutrients it could and used the energy to fill the young woman out a small bit, no longer gifting her the lanky, gangly body of a prepubescent teen who'd only grown up and not out, and hinting now towards who she would be with time.

It was the day after the entire ordeal with the bandits that she found their horses, kept in a crumbling stable deeper within the walls of the castle. Two of them, to be exact. Animals that Morrigan had never encountered before, though it was an easy guess seeing as not many animals were kept for humans to ride…. well, actually only one as far as she knew.

She kept them fed with what was in the stables, but as her time to leave came upon them, she knew that she didn't have enough deer blood left to make it very far, so at night as the animals slept, she led the russet brown gelding from his stall, taking him far away from the barn and ending his life swiftly, sending the animal off with a prayer to the Gods, hoping for his swift entrance into the fields of the afterlife.

She collected his blood and as much as his meat as she could; wandering the woods that began a short way from the castle; finding a strong, slightly flexible branch and stringing it with horsehair

With the other horse…. Well, it was safe to say that learning how to ride a horse- bareback no less; was quite the challenge at first. But once she had gotten the hang of it- it was smooth sailing.

The horse she had kept alive was a mare, grey with white splatterings all over it, its mane and tail black save for a streak through the former, about the width of her hand. She'd kept this one alive for it did not shy away from her blood-stained hands, and instead leaned closer to her, knickering for a treat.

It was upon this horse that the woman set off, after having to teach herself how to put on the saddlebags and blanket, forgoing the actual saddle to fully feel the motions of the horse underneath her and to better give directions.
And for a month they alternated between walking, running, and meandering; her horse streaked with blood as well to hide their whereabouts from the titans' greedy noses.

But before leaving, she left a message in the blood on the walls, scrawled in her bad handwriting, but she knew her mother would be able to read it, were she able to make it this far.

"Almost there. Go home. -M.A."

A month Morrigan spent no longer doubting the existence of the walls - oh no, the men had verbally confirmed that for her; but she was now doubting whether or not the walls were worth finding. At this point, she kind of just wanted to find her mother and return back to their home in the trees.

These stupid walls weren't worth the effort, with their cowards and their mouse-people.

Walls that-

wait…

Morrigan squinted at the horizon ahead of her, before her eyes widened, her heartbeat picking up as she dug her heels in, the horses' meander turning into a headlong sprint through the tall grasses that surrounded them in the wide-open space that was all she had seen for days.

It was. It really was! The walls!
The moment seemed like a dream, as she began the long stretch, previous misgivings thrown out the metaphorical window as she thought of the answers to an entire almost seventeen years of questions she was going to get; but as she got closer, she saw that all was not as it seemed; even from miles away, she could see the massive, gaping hole that sat where she assumed the gate once did.

As she processed this, her hands pulled back on the reins, arms trembling as the horse reared, slamming her to the ground with a pained gasp, the air refusing to enter her lungs as dread tore its way up through her stomach, a feeling she'd kept chained until now. The horse pranced around her but did not dash off.

"I think I know where all the titans went…" She murmured softly from the ground, staring up at the bright blue sky in wonder, her quiet alto reverent and solemn, pure uncertainty filling her body, her skin tingling like it was about to burst. She only allowed herself this brief respite though, before she kept on, dragging herself to her feet and knowing that though that entrance was sure to house…. So many titans…. It was also her only shot in. Her only shot into finding out if all three walls had been breached.

It took her a day to reach the walls, which stretched on either side further than she could see. She never brought the horse above a trot, metaphorically dragging her feet as she dreaded what she would find.

She avoided the titans, knowing this was her last shot at getting to civilization.

She poured a fourth of a jar of horse blood she had kept in a saddlebag over the horses' mane and rump, before tying the animal to a tree a bit away from the entrance to the walls, loose enough for the thing to get away if she weren't to return. Half of the jar was poured out onto her hands and hood, rubbing the deep burgundy liquid through her hair and under her armpits, ears, and behind her knees, before running her hands down her face, leaving two crimson prints there.. She had only one large omni-blade left, and that wasn't enough to dispatch titans, only slow them down. So this really was do-or-die.

'The southernmost city of wall Maria is Shiganshina.' Her mothers' voice seemed to carry on the wind. And the woman looked up and down the massive rip in the massive structure.

The wall was falling apart, and she couldn't even imagine what could have happened to cause such a mess, though it gave her an advantage, leaving her enough foot and handholds to let her travel to the top of the wall without alerting or being bothered by a single titan.

But what she saw atop that wall bothered her more than any single titan ever could

The city was demolished. She could see about five or six titans- between four and eight meters tall wandering among what structures still stood, and she started walking along the wall, further inward, towards the innermost section of wall Maria.

The titans paid her no mind and for that she was thankful, but they also seemed to be heading in the same direction as her. And deep, in her gut she knew that wall Maria was also compromised. Five or six small titans did not a Great Migration equal.

And she was unfortunately right.

The titans were moving at a faster rate than she, and she watched about half disappear into the gaping maw that marred the surface of Wall Maria.

They weren't her people, not really, and yet she felt a harsh, tearing pulse of grief pound through her body, one that brought her to her knees and drew out a sob from her chest.
Could she really keep on like this? Keep going on just to get disappointed time and time again?
How many breached walls were she going to find?

It looked as though this wasn't a recent happening, but the upchucked balls of remains the titans produced still smelled of death, disgusting, mucousy membranes falling apart, whole families falling out, half-digested by stomach acid, skin spotty in places it had sloughed off, bare muscle showing through and bone protruding at impossible angles

It was a harrowing thought, her first experience with other people not only for the first time in a year, but her entire life, being this. Bloated corpses devoid everything- neither souls nor light to be found. But it was while staring down at this disturbing sight she saw something glinting, the sun moving behind her head; shining on the handle of a metal blade, one that was almost familiar to her.

'There… underneath that fallen wall….' It was a soldier, killed by the felled structure with their lower body barely showing, one half of their ODM gear exposed.

They still had three blades left., 'Lucky idiot probably died quick.' Morrigan thought sadly, before beginning her descent down the wall, not seeing any structures even close to being tall enough, and opting to test her chances with a flat out run down the structure. She was right at the hole into Wall Maria, and she needed those blades if she was going to survive to Trost.

She started down the wall with a confident pace, she'd done the stunt dozens of time in trees just as tall as these walls, but what she didn't have to account for in the forests was human debris; for as she hit the ground, her foot slipped against the broken shards of a large clay pot, slicing her heel to the point of drawing blood, and she skids to a stop on her ass with ah hiss, grabbing at the injured foot and sucking in a sharp breath.

Her feet were calloused, the cut barely drawing enough blood to stain the ground, but enough to smart and cause her a large irritance. An open wound of her own was also quite enough to nullify the effects of the animal blood that soaked her hair and cloak. At least until it was covered.

She scrambled up, running to the rotting corpse that sat trapped, and started fumbling with the unfamiliar mechanisms, the only things she recognized being the actual blades themselves; and it was during this struggle, in her panic, she failed to notice the six-meter titan rounding the corner behind her, and she continued to fail until it was already practically right on top of her.

But upon turning around, she did not falter due to fear, nor did she bother even looking before jumping from her position, flipping backward and just out of its massive arms' reach; before she ran at the beast, wincing at the sharp sting of her foot, but for the most part able to ignore the feeling as she launched herself atop the first-floor roof of a structure, avoiding another narrow snatch at her waist with a twist.

She had managed to secure one blade- the handle having just barely been attached before she was forced to jump away.

At this point, she wasn't scared. She was pissed. Pissed that she had been stupid enough to get hurt, this far into her journey,she was in the walls and she had the audacity to put everything at risk? The fact that she was up there wallowing in her self pity was almost laughable now, as she began to slice at the titan- severing the tendons that controlled the muscle movement from the shoulders to the biceps, the Titans' arms hanging limply as it still headed towards her, it's gait lumbering and slow as it healed.

How dare this… this THING try and prevent her from confronting the people that made her live this way!?

Morrigans' movements were furious as she attacked the titan. And instead of a neat slice taken out of its neck, it was pulverized, torn apart and diced; mashed beyond recognition, her mind racing, spewing every profanity she knew, screeching and snarling like a wildcat cornered in its den.

And the next titan, a six-meter, that rounded the corner met the same fate.

And the next.

And the next.
Four in total, until she was out of breath but still on edge; her ears straining for any sound that could be perceived as a threat.

But she heard nothing but her own heart beating in her head and throat; though she didn't move for a good quarter of an hour; before she returned back to the body and retrieved the last two blades, about to turn around before noticing the patch upon the arm of the jacket the corpse wore.

Two wings, silver and blue crossed against each other in an embrace. A patch her mother had- a patch that meant something.

It was then that Morrigans' ice-cold disdain for the people that failed her mother began to slowly melt, a slow, quiet drip that was too small to truly acknowledge. Too slow to really count.

But she could acknowledge that these people had their own homes to protect. And if this was one city… Only the Gods knew what was left. And her mother was one person, no matter how skilled or how much of an asset she was. She could almost understand how they could leave her.

Almost.

The teen leaned over and tore off the patch, along with the name patch below it, which read S. KIRSTEIN, tucking them into her already stuffed pack and looking down at them. Though she couldn't see their face, just their left leg and shoulder she felt something tugging at her heart.

'This is someone's family.'

Morrigan put the extra blades in the sheathes, and took advantage of the quiet, tearing apart the Scouts' jacket with a reverent apology, using the fabric to dress her foot, before wrapping the dressing with a strip of fox-fur, and then dousing the tops of her feet with the blood she kept in a separate waterskin.

'Hopefully, that's good enough…'

And with that, the teen walked back and retrieved her horse, walking through the remains of Shiganshina solemnly, and through the other gaping maw of Wall Maria with a determined set to her jaw and a blade in each hand; hoping to the Gods she didn't screw this up royally.