Ch.2 A Stupid Way to Die
A week has gone by since Levi dreamt of the girl with cornflower eyes. He can't remember the dream itself, but those damn eyes won't leave him alone. And it's really starting to piss. him. off. The gate of Trost district will be lifted any moment. The scouts will charge forth into titan territory; where it only takes a few seconds of distraction, a single moment of weakness, to end up chewed up and spit out by one of those stupid, ugly bastards. Levi is very distracted.
All his senses are hyperactive. Every little noise, every small movement, sets his teeth on edge; his hand reaching for the blade hidden in his boot, and his head whipping in the direction of the perceived threat. Always, the image of burning gold eyes flashes in the back of his mind. When he focuses on whatever had tripped his senses however, it is just a mundane occurrence. First, it's a cadet shifting nervously in his saddle and jostling his tanks. Then, one of the horses shuffling and stamping with impatience, jarring the supply wagons. Each time this happens, Levi berates himself, gripping the reigns of his horse a little tighter
He just can't shake the feeling that something is going to go very wrong during this expedition. His whole body is practically screaming this at him, and it was almost always right. Levi takes a few deep breaths, taking care to keep his shoulders still, so no one would notice. He needs to get a grip. Of course, something is going to go wrong. That isn't exactly a new feeling. When Titans are involved, anything that could go wrong, usually did.
Levi focuses his steel gaze forward as the gate is raised, and Eyebrows commands them forward with his usual bellow. He can not allow himself to be distracted, least of all by some shitty dream.
What had he said about things going wrong? Oh right, that they always fucking did. They are only a few hours into the expedition. They have already suffered heavy casualties, are several kilometers of course, and the formation is barely intact.
A hoard of titans had appeared as they approached an abandoned village, right at the front of the formation. The scouts were forced to evade to the East and are quickly approaching a Titan Forest. A messenger arrives, informing his squad that the scouts are to stop just outside the forest to regroup and prepare for retreat.
As soon as he and his squad arrive at the tree line, Levi commands his squad to leave their horses to rest and be watered, while they patrol the forest on ODM. The last thing the scouts need right now is to be taken by surprise by a group of Titans popping out of the trees.
Levi flies through the forest, eyes scanning every tree for even the slightest movement. Fighting Titans here would be easy. There are plenty of tall sturdy surfaces he and his squad can use. But the densely packed trees and thick underbrush makes Titans extremely difficult to spot. Caution is important.
The shade granted from the trees provides a much-welcomed relief from the sweltering heat. They had been out in the open most of the day, and the midsummer sun made his thick uniform jacket nearly unbearable. Levi can feel his shirt and pants sticking to his over heated skin, and the sweat rolling down his head and neck is slowly being soaked up by his cravat. He shudders in disgust. If there were a stream nearby, he would probably jump in gear and all, Titans be damned.
Despite his distracted thoughts, Levi doesn't miss the sudden streak of white, and the rustling of leaves below him, to the left. He wordlessly signals his squad to stop as he lands on a low branch and observes the area. It most likely isn't a titan. Even an abnormal would have attacked by now. But he could tell it was something big. There shouldn't be anything big enough, other than titans, to cause that kind of commotion. Something is wrong here, and it's sets his teeth on edge again.
"Captain, what's going on?"
Petra asks in a concerned whisper. Levi merely shakes his head, keeping his gaze locked on the spot. As he is about to dismiss the disturbance and move on, all his senses warn him at once. Move!
With a burst of gas, Levi jumps away from the branch just as a gigantic hand crushes it. The other hand swings down, and he barely manages to spin away in time. Instead of hitting his body, the hand hits one of his cables, ripping it from the tree and sending him careening toward the forest floor. His cables retract with just enough time. Levi turns his body midair so he's facing the sky, fires his anchors into the highest branch they can reach, and with a powerful burst of gas propels his body high into the air. He lands on a high branch, just out of reach of the titan, who is now leaning against the tree opposite Levi, waiting.
Remembering his squad, Levi quickly looks around, relieved to find them all safely standing on high branches in the surrounding trees. Three more titans stumble into the open. Two of them immediately approach the trees that Oluo and Petra stand in. The other one takes a place next to their lounging friend in a weird bow-legged crouch.
"Captain, looks like two abnormal and two regular titans. Just our luck. What do you want us to do?"
Eld Gin comments from the tree next to him, expression cool and patient.
"Well that should be obvious Eld! We gotta take them out! Geez, I can't believe a veteran like you would ask such a stu-!"
Oluo bites his tongue. Levi resists the urge to roll his eyes. Petra tells Oluo to stop acting like an idiot, then turns and waits patiently for his orders. He doesn't miss the subtle way her eyes rover over him, checking for injuries.
"We can't let a hoard of titans follow us back to the group. We'll take them out. Petra, you and Oluo draw away the normal one in front of you. Eld, Gunther, same for the other normal. The ugly bastards in the middle are mine."
His squad doesn't hesitate to follow their orders, breaking off into two groups, drawing the attention of the two normal titans and leading them away in opposite directions. Levi observes the two remaining. Both are at least 13 meters. The one who made a grab for him has shaggy brown hair and a bulbous face with wide sunken eyes. The other is blond and quite fat, and the way it's crouched reminds him of an extremely ugly frog. They don't move at all when his squad leaves. They simple continue to stare at him. Their backs are facing the trees. He would have to force them to move before he could kill them.
Levi fires his anchors and using just a small amount of gas to build speed, swings in a wide arc around the titans left side. The bulbous faced titan lunges for him again, but Levi spins out of the way, lopping off several of the beast's fingers as he goes. Before it can recover, he secures his anchors just above the nape. Levi turns the blade in his right hand backwards, gives a little extra gas and uses his momentum to spin his body and deliver a vicious double strike straight to the nape.
The crouching abnormal is so fat, it can barely move. By the time Levi strikes down the first titan, it has only bumbled forward a foot or two. Levi wastes no time, using the trees to surge around the back of Frog titan, and deliver the same spinning strike. Levi stands atop the decomposing corpses as he sheaths his blades. He can hear his squad approaching.
"Ha! I knew we'd get ours before Eld and Gunther. Can't beat a pro like m-!"
As Levi is about to propel himself back up to the high branches, a movement to his right catches his eye. A fourth titan is concealed in a tree just a few feet away, its gaze fixed in the direction of Oluos voive. This titan is much smaller than the others, only 3 meters. But its legs are freakishly large, much larger than its arms. Its mouth hangs open, and it seems to be drooling, and the underbrush and tree trunks prevent a clear shot to its nape. Levi moves like lightening, propelling himself full force toward the beast. Just as the titan prepares to spring, Levi's boots slam into the side of its face, sending it sprawling to the ground. The force of this maneuver yanks one of his hooks from its anchor, sending him spiraling sideways. He attempts to re fire the anchor, but it jams. Before Levi can try to right himself, he slams into a low hanging branch, grunting as pain blossoms in his side, and the left side of his head. The crash rips his other anchor out, and Levi crashes into the ground. Black spots appear in his vision, and he can hear his comrades calling out for him in the distance. Shit. They will not be able to waste too much time looking for him. It's too risky. They might even assume he had heard them approaching and gone on ahead, expecting them to catch up.
With great effort Levi pulls himself into a standing position. Blood is steadily dripping down the side of his face, and he flicks it away from his eye with a grimace. The titan, which was dazed from his assault, is recovering quickly. A quick glance down at his gear reveals he will certainly not be using it to escape. The entire right side is dented from the impact with the tree, which is probably why he's not already dead. It had taken the brunt of the damage. The titan is on its feet now, crouched on all fours like the freak it is. Levi fights the ever-increasing shadows creeping into his vision and draws fresh blades. He would at least go out fighting.
"Tch. What a stupid way to die."
The titan lunges, and Levi holds his blades high, bracing himself for the feeling of dull teeth chomping down on him. It never comes.
Before the titan can reach him, a massive white wolf leaps from somewhere to his right, slashing at the titan's face with fierce looking black claws. The titan stumbles, and the wolf takes its chance. It pins the man-eating monster to the ground with both paws. The wolf's maw opens wide, revealing gleaming white fangs. Before the titan can fight back, the jaws clamp shut around the back of its neck. With a crunch of bone and a gruesome tearing of flesh, the wolf rips the entire nape out.
Levi stares with wide eyes, only his pride keeps him from letting his mouth fall open in amazement. The wolf drops the steaming chunk of flesh from its maw, and steps off the rapidly decaying corpse. As it turns to face him, Levi can't hold back the smallest sharp inhale. Somehow, impossibly, he has seen the burning gold eyes before. There's no doubt where he recognizes them from as they seem to bore into his very soul. The wolf doesn't make a move toward Levi, who still stands with blades raised. For the first time in his life, Levi is at a complete loss for what he should do.
He can tell just be looking that the wolf is a female. Her white fur is surprisingly clean for a wild animal, as if she takes regular time to clean it. She stands at maybe 2 and a half meters tall, and every inch of her is built with lean, powerful muscle.
Suddenly, Levi is struck with an overwhelming dizziness. His legs begin to shake, and he drops his blades; pressing one hand to the left side of his head, which is still oozing blood. His legs give out, but still Levi struggles to keep his eyes locked on the creature before him. She approaches him now, her giant paws making no sound at all as she pads forward. Standing directly in front of him, she leans her head down to his and takes a deep inhale.
As Lev's vision finally goes dark and he succumbs to unconsciousness he believes he must be dying. Because he swears that the wolf has shifted into a completely naked woman, no bigger than himself, with unruly auburn curls, and familiar cornflower eyes. The last thing Levi hears is a soft, lilting voice.
"Don't you worry now, brave scout. You'll be just fine."
Sleep, at last, pulls Levi gracefully into its embrace, and he begins to dream.
Authors Notes: And there's chapter two. Only about half the length of the first. But if I had kept going as far as I wanted to, it probably would have been close to 7000 words. I only did minor editing on this, because it was like 4am when I finished it. Hopefully it's not too bad lol. I will go back and re edit tomorrow if I need to. From now on, the "dream" chapters with what I'm sure you've realized is Rhea's past will be their own chapters. I also think I'm going to change my update schedule to Tuesday and Saturday instead of Monday and Friday. It will still basically be Monday and Friday for you guys. Let me know what you think. Comments are greatly appreciated. I struggled with this chapter a ton because of it being entirely in Levi's POV. And I was nervous to post it. See you Tuesday!