Eren stood in a line with the other trainees, Keith Shadis was shouting at them,

"All right maggots, listen up. I am instructing director, Keith Shadis! From now all of you maggots will be under my direct control, and my word here is law! Any insubordination at all and you will be punished accordingly, is that understood?" a series of mumbles chorused across the field.

"I said, Is that understood? Answer properly or you will all be doing laps!"

"Sir yes Sir!" was the new chorus. Eren had decided that he didn't like this man, what pissed him off further was when he shouted at a girl named Shasha Blouse for eating a potato, it triggered a memory of his people fighting against other humans, his people were starving and dying, unable to eat the crops of the land while the other humans came in and took all the cattle and edible food.

The brunette was currently balancing in a 3DMG practice gear, wiggling around like a worm, struggling to stay up straight. His lips were drawn back in a snarl

"This is my weapon, I will make this work!" he thought as he swung around, he hates the sky, always preferred to be on the ground, eventually, he gave up and let himself flop backwards towards the ground with a thunk, effectively almost snapping his neck in front of all of his peers.

"Damnit, I can do this." The god grumbled and stared up at the director, who, in turn, looked at Armin

"Let him down, it's useless." The Instructure only glared at the brunette.

"W-Wait, I can still do it, let me try again please" Eren looked up at Shadis, the instructor sighed

"Wagner, give Jaeger your belt." After changing belts and being brought up into the air, Eren managed to balance, gently moving, flowing instead of wiggling.

"Your gear was faulty, the metal filling in your belt are rusty, I've never seen this before." A series of whispers broke out amongst his peers, all surprised that he had been working with faulty gear all day.

Later that night, Eren was quietly walking through the woods, chewing on some sweet dried meat. He was savouring the peacefulness of it all, the hoots of owls, gentle rustling of leaves, the whistling of the wind. Once again Eren sat in a clearing. The clearing was large, larger than the one last night, he could hear a river not far off, the grass was lush and thick, in front of him stood a large stone circle, two rings of stones, the outside had small stones, the second was medium-sized stones and the closest ring to the centre had similarly sized standing stones but in the centre was a massive stone, about as tall as his usual form, it had Pict markings on it, he recognised them, they were for him, the forest deity. A grin broke out on his face, he felt energy pulse through his veins, he placed a wooden mask on his face, it was made out of thick bark and had two circles where his eyes were, he summoned a lantern out of thin air before stripping out of his shoes, jacket and shirt. The boy began to dance an old Druid dance as he sang in a language long forgotten, he spun around, moving in a captivating manner, it was a peaceful dance, to welcome Samhain. The god had the dance down to muscle memory, his feet moved in the dirt, arms moving around his body like a wave, the lantern was loose in his grip, it gently lit up his body, his tattoos on full display, he was unaware to his three onlookers.

Erwin, Hanji and Levi were currently hiding behind some thick underbrush, staring at a masked boy who danced around a stone circle. The two had drug Levi out much to his cries of dirt, bugs and bacteria. Hanji was determined to find the clearing from the night before but they had gotten lost, the three of them had ended up in a completely different clearing with stones in a circle, Levi had paid no mind to it until Hanji had squealed and brought out their book, blabbering on about the designs. They had stayed there for three hours before finally turning to leave after the sun had set but alas, some punk just had to come and dance around the stones with nothing on but his trousers not that the view bothered him at all, tattooed tan skin, glistening with a thin layer of seta, muscles rippling under his skin but Hanji just had to fucking ruin his oggling when they pulled out their book again, gesturing back and forth from a picture to the boys back, upon closer inspection Levi had noticed that indeed, the pattern on the page was similar to the tattoo on the boy's back.

"Erwin, he must know something, go out there" Hanji whispered but the commander only shook his head

"I might startle him, send Levi." The Blonde mumbled

"No way, He will scare the boy!"

"Yeah, I don't wanna go stand near that fucking weird arse kid."

"Fine, I'll go!" Hanji thrust their book to Levi and shuffled only for the ravenette to grab their collar

"You'll be worse than Commander eyebrows, shitty four eyes," Levi growled softly

"Fine, you go!"

"No."

Levi, this is an order from your commanding officer, go out there and interrogate him!" Erwin shoved him out of the bush, this caused Levi to stumble and almost fall on his face if it wasn't two tanned arms catching him, he shivered at the mud on his hands but quickly snapped his eyes upwards when he heard a sharp breath being taken in, in front of him stood the boy, now closer, Levi could see two viridian eyes staring at him.

"How do you have that book?" the boy steadied Levi before grabbing the book, reading the cover before flicking through the pages, as if he understood the language it was written in.

"Oi, that's mine fucker, how can you even read it, no one should be able to." The ravenette growled out

"Yes I know, it is a very old book, it is written in the ogham alphabet." The boy paused, a look of regret passed through his eyes, causing Levi to raise a brow.

"How would you know that."

"O-of course it may not be, just looks like it ya know, ahaha" The boy backed up slightly, staring down at the short male

"Answer me now brat, tell me how you know what it means, or I'll tell director Shadis about your little escapade, that's right, I saw you arrive here in military uniform."

"Be careful what you say, what comes around goes around Corporal sir!" Eren stretched to his full human height 6 '4, glowering down at the small corporal, book in hand

"The contents of this book could be your end, sometimes it is better that you do not know."

"The creature Cernunnos, what is it, do you know what it is brat?" The corporal pressed on, ignoring the boy's warnings.

"Fine, if you want to know so bad you will have to catch me." With that, Eren span around picked up his things and leapt off into the night, slipping into the darkness, letting the trees create a path for him. Levi gasped behind him before giving chase, running off into the forest after the brunette, trying to follow him but it was becoming difficult in the darkness, the trees seemed bigger, the shadows suddenly seemed a lot darker. Levi was used to killing, being dubbed humanity's strongest but this was something that he felt he should not mess with, he was unaware of the cost of the chase, he the hunter and the young soldier the pray but every hunter can become the hunted.

Levi looked around, only to see darkness surrounding him, this wasn't safe, he had to get higher, he shot out his cables into the branch of a tall tree, landing on it and silently as he could, this was safer than the ground. These woods were causing him to shiver, he was on edge, he knew that this forest had been here since the walls had come to be but how old was it really? Looking at the trees he only saw thick trunks, the trees were old. He shot his pistons out the highest possible branch he would be safe on, now he was above most tree top level only to recoil in..fear? This wasn't possible though, he must be a hallucination, or dreaming! Yes, he must be dreaming! Nothing could explain those familiar glowing eyes, those antlers that scraped the sky, its body flickering, surrounded by mist. He was careless and took a step back, only to plummet towards the earth, before landing he was caught in a strong grip, the panicked voices of Erwin and Hanji filled his ears, it hurt his head.

"Shut up shitty four-eyes!" Levi snarled and looked up at the redhead, who in turn sighed with relief.

"He is okay"

"Yes, but what you did Levi was stupid, you could've gotten hurt."

"That doesn't matter, I lost that brat and the book."

"And that doesn't matter either, we are glad you are safe" Levi only grunted in response to Erwin, secretly glad that they cared but he'd never say that out loud.

Later that night, back at the survey corps headquarters Levi sat in his room, quietly getting undressed. He slipped out of his clothes and got into the back to wash all of the grime off of him only to stare in shock at the two thick black bands that were wrapped around his right arm, he wiped his finger over one, gasping slightly when a white pattern that he had seen in the book appeared then faded underneath his finger. He poured water over the mark, scrubbing at the skin but the two black lines didn't fade, they just stayed there, marking his pale skin. He sighed in frustration and got out of the bath, drying himself with a towel, getting into pyjamas and getting into bed. He tried to sleep but his mind kept drifting back to his weird tattoos. Levi gently rang his finger along with the black marks, watching with curiosity as the white lines danced underneath his ski, he blinked, eyelids getting heavy, the man slowly drifted off into a sleep filled with dreams of large stags and that unnerving feeling of being watched.