Chapter V: Outside the Walls
Titans are beasts that have been around for a little over a hundred years. They have wiped out most of humanity, leaving the rest having to find a way to survive by creating 50 meter tall walls to block the Titans out. Titans origins, overall numbers, and how their physiology works remains a mystery. All that is guaranteed about Titans are that they eat humans for no greater purpose other than killing them; Titans do not eat anything besides humans. They can not move in the dark. They can only be killed by a nape cut in the back of their necks, and once a Titan is killed, their giant bodies and splattered blood eventually evaporate into nothing, as if they were never there. There are different types of Titans, some are fast where others are slow, some are tall where others are small (but all titans are larger than humans), and some seem to show more intelligence where others have no intelligence at all. Which is one of the few advantages for the human race.
It has been over a week since the four joined the Survey Corps. Not much happened within the first week other than getting use to their new Captain, Elsa, and picking out a trusting partner; a horse. Having a strong bond with their horse is very important if you plan on staying in Survey Corps and leaving the Wall to go on missions.
"Hiccup!" Rapunzel ran over to the brown-haired boy who was standing next to a brawny looking horse. "I thought you would be here. You're always with this horse. Is this the one you plan on choosing?"
Hiccup turned away from the horse to face the girl. "Yeah," he then turned to the side a bit and reached for a bucket of timothy pellets that have been soaked into mush.
"What's that? Why aren't you feeding him hay?" Rapunzel questioned as the brunette calmly fed the horse his food.
"He has no teeth," he then set the bucket on a shelf so the horse could continue eating while Hiccup talked to his friend. "it took me two days until I realized. At first I thought he wasn't eating because he hated me or something." Hiccup chucked a little to himself, laughing at the thought of his new animal friend hating him.
"I don't understand. Why did you keep coming to this horse if you thought he hated you?" she continued questioning the boy.
"I don't know, really." Hiccup looked to the horse once more. "I just felt like we connected right away, even if I was the only one who thought so at the time. Even though he wouldn't eat, I felt like he wanted me to come back each day. That's when he decided to show my his lack of teeth. I guess he just needed to be sure I would come back before he decided to put some trust in me."
"That's really sweet." Rapunzel smiled. "Have you named him?"
Hiccup nodded as he moved his hand to rest on the muzzle of the horse. "I named him Toothless. It seemed to fit him."
Rapunzel let out a small giggle. "I like it." the female sighed softly "You and Merida already have such a strong bond with the first horses you picked out. I'm kind of jealous."
"Are Merida and Agnus still doing well?"
Rapunzel nodded in response. "They're a great pair." she looked to the ground a bit "I still have yet to form a bond with any horse here."
"Don't stress over it. If anything, the right horse will come to you before you even go to it."
"Heh, that's what Jack's doing, remember?" she paused for a moment before continuing, "I don't think he's even walked up to any horse yet, he just assumes the right one will come to him."
"Well, he is stubborn." Hiccup continued, "I really don't want to make you stress even more over this, but tomorrow's-"
Rapunzel interrupted. "I know. Today is the last day to find a good horse. Tomorrow is our first day outside the Walls." Rapunzel's heart dropped a little once she actually realized how little time she had left to find a horse.
"Hey, maybe you and Jack should go look for your horses together. Besides, if you don't convince him, I think he'll be standing there forever waiting for a horse. If I didn't know him, I wouldn't willingly walk up to him either when he always has that bold determined look on his face." said Hiccup.
Rapunzel laughed. "I guess I'll go find him, then. See ya' later Hiccup, Toothless." Rapunzel waved before she turned the other way and ran to the stalls where they kept the horses, assuming Jack was already there.
As she figured, Jack was standing inside the large stall, still no horse beside him. "Jack." Rapunzel walked up to him.
"Oh, hey, Punzie." Jack replied, leaning against a wooden post.
"I don't think this whole 'waiting for a horse to come to me' is really working out for you." she nudged him a bit.
"Yeah, I realized that." he stood up straight. "I'm just not that great with animals like you are."
"I wouldn't say that. Turns out I'm having as much luck as you are finding a horse." she replied bashfully.
"You haven't found a horse yet?! But today's our last-" he stopped himself once he realized he has no place to yell at her about it. "Maybe today's our lucky day."
Despite his yelling, Rapunzel couldn't help but smile. He still worries about her when he has enough to deal with on his own. "Yeah, maybe."
Rapunzel decided to walk over to the horse closest to her at the time. Jack did the same, following Rapunzel.
"We can't pick the same horse." said Rapunzel.
"Maybe we can stand in opposite side of the room and call for it to see who it likes more." Jack said jokingly.
Rapunzel playfully rolled her eyes before leaning over the stall of the horse she was next to. "Hey there." she said gently. "I'm Rapunzel."
but the horse didn't even care to glance at her before turning away and eating her food.
Rapunzel sighed and took a few steps away from the stall. "Why is this so hard?"
"Don't ask me, I haven't even tried it." Jack replied. After that, he moved over to the horse Rapunzel was just talking to. "She's hard to please, isn't she?" he questioned the horse.
The horse stopped eating and let out a large pressure of air from its nose, which Jack took as an agreement. "I mean, it's not that you hate her, it's just that you're hungry, right?. Maybe if Punzie tried talking to a horse with a full stomach they wouldn't ignore her." Jack laughed at himself, conversing with the horse. Surprisingly enough, the horse seemed to nod, then turned back to face Jack as he continued with his jokes.
"Even you? How is it so easy for all of you? Jeez, I'm going elsewhere." Rapunzel decided to move away from Jack and his seemingly new friend as she looked at all the other horses. "They're all so beautiful." she sighed and decided to rest her back against a wooden post. "How do I know? How will I know if one likes me?" she asked herself.
Pascal crawled out of Rapunzel's uniform jacked which she was wearing and ran down to the ground. "Pascal, what are you doing?"
Pascal ran across the stable and past a few horses before he stopped in front of a tall pure white horse.
"Please don't tell me you're sick of me, too." she said before following Pascal. Once she got to him she reached down to let Pascal crawl onto her hand, which he did. "No more running away, okay?" Rapunzel stood up and placed Pascal on her shoulder, then looked up at the horse.
She stared at the horse for a bit, surprised he didn't turn away the second she did. She slowly moved closer, questioning herself each step. "Could this be the horse? /my/ horse?" once she reached the horse she froze in place before looking toward the ground.
When her eyes looked away from the horse, it made a sound which made Rapunzel look back up right away. "Ah, sorry, it's just.." she paused for a moment before continuing. "I'm Rapunzel." she held her hand out to greet the horse. After about a minute's pause, the horse finally took a step forward and placed its nose on Rapunzel's hand to flip her hand around so it would be placed on his muzzle.
Rapunzel's heart skipped; she didn't know exactly how to feel. She didn't want to get her hopes up but she couldn't help but feel delighted. She stroked the horses muzzle slowly. After a moment she decided to test herself as she slowly inched her hand to the top of the horse's head. Realizing the horse let her do this, she continued to pet him with a big smile on her face. After that, it didn't take her long to realize this horse liked having her around.
After an hour of bonding Rapunzel realized this was the horse she was meant to meet. The horse she could put her trust in when they're outside the walls.
Rapunzel glanced over to Pascal who was still cuddled up on her shoulder. "You're always leading me in the right direction, aren't you?" she smiled "Thank you." in which Pascal let out his famous squeak in reply.
"Hey, Punzie," Jack came walking over. "Sorry about earlier. I just want to make sure you knew I was joking."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I forgot all about that." she replied.
"I see you found a partner." said Jack.
Rapunzel smiled. "Yeah. And I see you found yours, too."
"Heh, I knew it was that horse from the start." he said mendaciously.
"Oh, I'm sure." she replied with a small giggle.
"Not to pull you from your new best friend and all, but it's time to go back to our rooms. I'm sure Hiccup and Merida are already there."
"That time already? Wow, this really went by fast." said Rapunzel.
The two gathered any of their things that may have been lying around and left some food for their horses before heading back to their cabin home. Rapunzel waved goodbye to her new friend before she left the stable.
"'Ey, Punzie!" Merida shouted the second Jack and Rapunzel walked into the room. "I haven't seen ye' all day."
"Well, I decided to use up all my time to spend with my horse-"
"Oh, ye' found a horse? That's great! We were startin' to get a wee worried about you."
"Heh, yeah. Jack and I both did." Rapunzel walked in and took off her uniform jacket, placing it at the end of her bed.
"So, are you guys ready?" Hiccup asked.
"Ready? Fer what, exactly?" Merida replied.
"Tomorrow. You know. The day we go outside the walls for the very first time." Hiccup said. The tone in his voice made it obvious to everyone that he was a bit nervous.
"We're ready." Jack replied deliberately for everyone.
Rapunzel looked at Jack. She could tell he was trying to put on a brave face for everyone, but for some reason she couldn't help but think he was more nervous than anyone else in the room. "He's right," she spoke. "This is what we're here for, it's what we've worked for. Of course we're ready. Besides," she paused for a second before continuing "as long as we're all out there together, our horses included, we'll be just fine. We'll get what we need to get and all of us will come back safe." after saying that she wasn't sure if it ended up making her feel better or worse. It was hard to trust her own words.
"Yeah. We should get some sleep if we want to do our best tomorrow." said Hiccup.
Everyone agreed and got ready for bed. Everyone went to bed pretty fast; all except Hiccup. He couldn't shake this bad feeling he had in his gut. "Everything will be fine." he kept repeating in his head to calm himself down. After a while he finally managed to get to sleep.
In the morning all of Elsa's team gathered in front of the wall gate with their horses. Jack, Rapunzel, Merida, Hiccup, Hans, and Anna were all there.
"I don't have a speech for everyone before we leave the walls." said Elsa. "I trust you all know what we're supposed to do. Stay with your horse when you're in open fields. Try to avoid going into the forest unless you have no other option. If you spot a titan and can avoid it, do that. Don't recklessly go up to a Titan; we're not going out there to fight. Your maneuver gear is pointless when you're out in the open, since you can't latch on to anything, so you need to trust your horse with everything you have. Everyone should have a list of things we should be looking out for. Everything on that list is important. Food, stuff that can be used for medicine, anything, we need whatever we can get."
Elsa's team listened and agreed to everything she had to say. She continued on a bit more about what they need to get and what areas are best to find what.
"Now, to make this safer, we're parting in groups." said Elsa.
Jack looked shocked for a second. He understood why it would be more safe to go in groups; that way they would be more quiet and can cover more areas faster. What really worried him was the thought of not being with Rapunzel.
"I already have your teammates picked." Elsa continued. "Merida and Hiccup are one team. Rapunzel and Anna are then other, and that leaves Jack and Hans as the last. I'll be joining Rapunzel and Anna. Once we open the gates I want Jack's team to take the left, Rapunzel, Anna, and I will go forward, and Merida's team will take the right."
Jack started to feel really worried. He didn't like the thought of not knowing where Rapunzel was or how she was doing at all times. He knew he couldn't say anything about it. He didn't want Rapunzel to think he had no trust in her, and he didn't want to make a scene. Instead, he agreed with everything Elsa had to say. Knowing Elsa would be with her made him feel a little better about the situation.
After some more talking, Elsa finally motioned the orders to open the gates. Everyone was on their horses beside their teammates.
"You ready, Maximus?" Rapunzel whispered to her horse.
Hiccup let out a deep sigh before putting on a strong face. He didn't want to look worried in front of Merida and the others.
That gates were almost completely open, and everyone's horses slowly started walking outside the wall. Once they were all outside, Elsa gave everyone their commands to go, which they did.
While Jack and Hans were off into a different location, Jack looked back towards Rapunzel until she was out of sight. "She'll be fine." he kept saying to himself.
In another location, Hiccup was looking around. "Wait.." he said to himself when he realized something odd. He looked back towards the wall where the gates were once again shut. "It shouldn't be..." something was definitely on his mind. Hiccup looked over to Merida to see if she noticed anything, but she didn't look like she did. She was only focused on heading in the direction there were supposed to go and looking out for anything that would catch her eye.
The three teams were out for nearly three hours now. Everyone found a good bit of stuff, but there was still a lot more things they needed.
Hans and Jack were standing outside the forest entrance, off their horses. "We shouldn't go in." said Hans.
"I know." Jack replied. Even though he knew he wasn't fully ready to enter the forest, he couldn't help but see a bush full of useful things that could be really help for ingredients in the medicine they needed for sick civilians. Hans caught on to what Jack was staring at.
"What are you thinking?" Hans questioned.
"I know it's risky, but I think we should go in and gather some of that stuff. There's no Titans around, and it would be a quick go." Jack replied.
"I don't know.. Captain Elsa would be against it. She doesn't think we're ready for in-forest gathering yet."
"Yeah, I know, but it's so close."
"I'm not stopping you." said Hans "If you want, I'll stand out here with the horses and keep watch while you go in quick."
"Alright." Jack knew he was being an idiot, but he also knew he couldn't risk leaving stuff such important things behind. He could save people by doing this. That was all that was on his mind; saving people. That's why he joined Survey Corpse in the first place, after all.
Jack made sure his maneuver gear was on tight, and his swords were ready to be pulled out if he needed them. Once he realized he was prepared, he started walking into the forest.
He only looked in the location where he wanted to go; to the bush. He was walking for a while and never realized how far it was from outside the forest, but he finally made it to the bush and began gathering everything he found useful.
Hans was looking out for anything dangerous, but it was all clear from his angle.
Jack finished gathering everything and turned around to head back. Looking back, it was almost impossible to find the correct way out. "It's forward. I only walked forward." he said to himself before he started to walk in that direction.
Jack heard a noise and stopped in place. He looked around but couldn't see anything abnormal; just a bunch of trees. He continued walking, but heard the noise again, much louder this time. He tried to listen carefully to find which direction it was coming from. "The left...no, the right." he turned to the right but there was nothing there. It only took him a second to realize his mistake.
"Shit!" Jack looked to the left this time and saw a crawler heading towards his direction. He quickly shot his maneuver gear strings up to a tall tree, and glided his way up there. Looking down. Everything was much more clear up high and he could see the crawler on the ground. "Good, it didn't notice me come up here. Maybe it will continue on its way and I can get out of here easily."
Crawlers are a smaller type of Titan. Unlike most Titans that walk on two legs, crawlers crawl on all fours. If they were to stand, they would be about 8-10 feet tall; which is pretty small compared to normal Titans. They're quick and vicious. Since they're smaller, they can't swallow you whole. They'll tear your limbs apart and snack on you slowly until there's nothing left of you. These are the type of Titans you would want to avoid at all costs.
Jack watched the crawler until it was out of sight. He started walking on the tree branch he landed on and looked around for a good place on the ground to land. "Alright. I should get back to Hans-" right then and there, Jack heard a grumble. His eyes widened, he knew it could only be one thing.
There was a giant Titan right behind him. Before he could turn around to get a decent look at it, the Titan tried to reach over and grab Jack. Jack managed to dodge, causing the Titans hand to crash against the branch instead. The strength of the Titan broke the branch causing Jack and the branch to fall to the ground.
He hit the ground quick and hard. Jack started to groan in pain; his left shoulder took most of the damage and started to hurt him really bad. Jack knew he had no time to sit around. He tried to block out the pain and got up as fast as he could. "Shit, shit!" he repeated once he noticed his shoulder wasn't the only thing to take damage in the fall; his maneuver gear was destroyed. He could only get around by running now. When he looked at his maneuver gear, he noticed the moon Rapunzel painted on it on her Birthday. "Rapunzel..." he whispered to himself. The thought of Rapunzel gave him enough strength to get himself moving again. He started running towards the exit of the forest.
The large Titan was still right behind him. Jack finally made his way to the end of the forest. "Hans, quick, we have to!-" Jack stopped once he got out of the forest and noticed Hans and the horses were gone. "Where the hel-" before Jack could finish, he felt a large hand wrap around him and pick him up. "No, no!" he tried to struggle to get free, but he couldn't even feel his left arm anymore from the damage it took shortly before.
Jack's heart was racing. He's trained for so long to be prepared for these situations, yet it was all going to end so quickly. He hated himself. He kept reminding himself how terrible of a person this made him. He won't be around to protect Rapunzel anymore, or help the Civilians. He won't see his friends anymore. Every conversation and fun moment he's had with his friends were playing over and over in his mind. "I can't. I can't!" he kept repeating, but couldn't manage to break free. Finally, he was face to face with the Titan. The Titans mouth opened wide, ready to snack on it's prey; ready to snack on Jack.