Ripple of Kindness
Disclaimer: I do not own AoT
Ancient Eldian Historical Discoveries:
The Jarn or "Iron Women" are one of history's great mysteries. An allegedly all-female tribes of Eldian Warriors that were said to live in a place called Jarnvidr, or the "Iron Woods," a common nickname for many forests. They were commonly thought of as a myth for hundreds of years until their existence was confirmed just short of a hundred years ago. The skepticism was in large part to two things: One being that there are no known ancient texts by the Pre-Ymir Jarn and another is the old tales of Jarn, my both Marley and the Pre-Ymir Tribes, paint them in monsterous light: sodomizing and castrating men, killing their own sons, and kidnapping daughters to indoctrinate. How much of this is exagerrated or outright untrue is still unknown.
However, calling a woman a Jarn in the early centuries of Post-Ymir Eldia was considered a compliment, as "Iron Women" were regarded as some of the best of the best before the rise of the Ackermans. While the truth of them is still mysterious, current discoveries paint them as simply another warring Pre-Ymir tribe, who became rather famous and prestigous in Post-Ymir times.
Syn wasn't sure what she expected from the children of the Titaness, but she had to admit that...normal was not it.
They were currently in the garden behind the royal palace. It wasn't much, a simple stretch of green grass with a handful of trees with wide canopies, the entire area surround by the palace halls and the clear sky above.
By one tree sat a trio of royal girls before an old, bald man, all sitting in foldable seats.
"Maria, you know very well that it's Skirr, not Skitr," the elder scolded knowingly. "Granted, I must praise your creativity for turning "I went to Clean in the stables" to "I went to Shit in the stables,"" he remarked with a snort.
"I'm sorry, Elder Od, I was just thinking about the time I had to use the stables once," Maria said innocently.
"Maria," Rose whispered with a sigh.
"Gross," Sheena stated with a disgusted look before looking rather proud of herself. "I Always use the urns."
"Please keep doing so, Sheena," Od said with a grateful smile. "I'm glad at least you and Rose take my lessons seriously."
Maria did not look apologetic in the slightest.
"That will be all for today. Maria, you'll be excited to know that tomorrow's lessons will be about history and legends," Od instructed, the eldest princess beaming a bit.
"Thank you, Elder Od," the princesses all said, some more sincerely then others.
Syn had been watching the lesson from many paces back. It was interesting; the three of them were all just ordinary girls, normal sisters in most respects…truly not much different from other happy children. They played, they laughed, and they pouted. If she didn't know better, she would have never guessed they had the Blood of the Titaness.
But she supposed everyone, no matter how great their potential was, started out small and relatively normal.
"Princesses, if you'll indulge an old man, would you wait a moment while I converse with your lovely servant?" Od requested with a grandfatherly idleness to him.
The three sisters looked surprised, curious even, but nodded as they headed over to a tree to converse about one thing or another. Syn gave the old man a curious look. "Is there a problem, Elder Od?"
"No, it's just not every day I see one of the Jarnvidr pretending to be a soft servant girl," Od commented knowingly.
Syn's entire body language changed to be tense and coiled, fixing the man with a sharp glare. "How did you know?"
"Please, you're many moons too young to be fooling me," he stated without fear. "I have not braved wastelands and cannibals to cower before one barely out of girlhood."
Syn relaxed a bit despite the insult. "I apologize. I have been given the duty of guarding the princesses in secret," she explained.
"And the less they know, the better," Od acknowledged. "As curious as I find this, I only wished to speak to you in an attempt to offer advice."
"You know Jarnvidr don't take kindly to men presuming to advise us, correct?" she asked neutrally.
"And yet, you kneel to King Fritz," Od observed.
"And to the Titaness," Syn amended strongly.
Od hummed before nodding, as if conceding the argument. "On how you fight or live, I am not here to educate you," he stated blandly. "But you have never disguised yourself before as this, have you?"
Syn did not answer, which was answer enough.
"You still walk and stand like a warrior. It gives too much away. If you wish to remain a truly hidden blade to protect the royal family, you must learn to make yourself appear weak and humble, to appear relaxed. Lean upon a tree or wall; make your watch over them less obvious. Because any soldier that has seen battle will take notice of you as you are."
Syn looked away, in thought, before nodding respectfully. "Thank you for you wisdom, Elder Od," she said in thanks.
Od watched her go with a calm, deep look around his ancient eyes.
"Pardon the delay, Princesses," Syn said with a deep bow of her head to the young children.
"Are we in trouble?" Rose asked curiously.
Syn forced a giggle from her mouth. "No, no. Elder Od believed he met family of mine years ago, and wanted to discern if I was the same Syn they spoke of," she lied on the spot.
"Is that the polite way of asking if she's his bastard?" Sheena asked curiously.
"Sheena?!" Maria asked in surprise. "How do you know about that?"
Sheena shrugged. "Father and the warriors always call the people from Marley "bastards" so I asked Elder Od what they were. I guess Marlayeans never get married?"
Maria just shook her head in amusement as they started walking off towards the main building of the palace.
Syn had only been briefly surprised by the exchange before taking it in stride. The princesses were normal, but very interesting little girls.
Meanwhile
"King, I'm telling you, getting a proper army together like what you're asking will take the better half of a decade. Especially with Marley defeated, most won't see reason to make such preparations."
Fritz rubbed his skull at the words from the man of middling years with dark blonde hair and a nearly trimmed beard. "Galzt, I know for a fact that you are not a fool," he said, both of the men sitting amongst the other council members of Eldia at the round table. "While the Titaness was not the true target, her intervention against the attempt on my life reminded me of something important. Most other powers in the world still view us as Barbarians; a non-threat without the Titaness. We defeated Marley without many problems mainly because their emperor, their lords and their great generals all refused to believe the Titaness was as powerful as the survivors claimed. Some didn't believe she even existed at all. By the time they realized the truth, we had destroyed half their armies and pushed their borders back. It's only a matter of time before someone tries to attack us from two or more different directions. One to distract Ymir, the other to attack our lands in her absence."
"You're not wrong, Fritz," another man agreed, a man with far more hair on his beard than any of them, all but a few black hairs long turned grey. "Our saving fortune is that with the tribes united, we have only the sea to our backs, making it harder for them to pull that off without the Titaness being in running distance from one army to the next."
"I thought you were agreeing with me, Buri?" Fritz asked in annoyance.
"I am," Buri said with a shrug. "Marley will eventually come by boat; the sea is in their blood like the cold is in ours. They will need to brave the icy waves of the north, but they will eventually."
"What do you propose then, you senile old boar?" Galzt asked with a scowl.
"Care to say that again, Whoreson?" Buri challenged, hand on his sheathed sword.
"Enough."
The room settled as Fritz made his ire known, the king glaring at the table filled with former rivals and allies.
"We're all Lords of Eldia, former Reiks of warring tribes, but can we have one Great Thing without threatening one another?"
Many of them straightened at that. Fritz and his Titaness had united them, but old grudges were hard to toss aside still.
"There might be a way, involving the Titaness, King," Galzt spoke up in concession.
"Speak your power, Galzt," Fritz prompted impatiently.
"The issue is paying for that kind of force, a way to entice them to not just return home to their old livelihoods," Galzt mused before shrugging. "And one of the bits of lands we got from Marley happens to have a mine of gems."
"And you want us to mine it?" Buri guessed.
Galzt shrug. "I was actually thinking of Lady Ymir just grabbing a handful of it out and let workers sift through the dirt for anything valuable," he proposed.
"Not the most effective mining method, but it would be a quick way to fill the coffers," another lord remarked.
Fritz contemplated the plan before nodding his acceptance. "Find me a map of exactly where this is. We'll take care of that while we're making the defenses."
"And just how is the Titaness doing, Reiking?" Buri asked with a small smirk.
"Did you really doubt Ymir would recover?" Fritz asked, not even as a challenge, but as if it was an obvious event.
The more people that believed that sentiment the better.
"I don't believe that is what he means, Alareik."
Every eye turned to the only woman currently present at the council. "And just what are you implying, Warden?" Fritz asked stoically.
The leader of the Jarnvidr just chuckled in amusement while Buri barked out a laugh. "Oh, don't be so Mar-ish, Fritz!" Buri said jovially. "Marley is defeated, you survived an assassination and Lady Ymir shrugged off a spear to the heart! I know how most of us would celebrate. Tell us, are we expecting a fourth titanling yet?"
Fritz snorted. "I want to make sure Marley is truly whipped for now before I add another to my bloodline," he said dismissively. "Or do I need to remind you all what happened just before Princess Sheena was born?"
That darkened everyone's mood.
"We lost a lot of warriors, all thanks to an early spring," The Warden of Nagrindr remarked with bitter amusement. "The one time we didn't want one."
"Brothers, sisters, sons, fathers, husbands. Wives," Buri recalled with a dark look. "Fritz, can you end this damn Thing? I need a drink now."
"You always need a drink, Buri," Fritz muttered before smirking. "But gods damn me if I have to spend another evening eating with your ugly mugs instead of with my girls. We're done here."
The council of Eldia all started to file out until it was just Fritz and the Warden. "So, how is Syn fitting in, Alareik?" she asked with a curious smirk.
"Horribly, apparently," Fritz answered bluntly.
"Really?" she asked, looking completely surprised. "Strange, she is one of the least abrasive women we have. What seems to be the problem?"
"Ymir doesn't like her, for some reason," Fritz admitted. "And I'm inclined to trust her instincts."
She stood up with a defensive look at that. "If you're implying I sent her to be anything except-"
"Will you shut up," Fritz demanded, only barely raising his voice as he rubbed his stiff neck. "I'm implying nothing on your part, Warden. Your warrior? I don't know. That is why I told Ymir to give her a chance until she knew what she didn't like about her," Fritz explained.
The former Reik held her ire for a moment before sighing. "That is reasonable. I just have a hard time fathoming what Syn could have done. She is one of those that reveres the Titaness more than anything. Knowing Lady Ymir disapproved of her would be worse than a lashing to that girl."
Fritz hummed without much concern. "If it is nothing treacherous, it could just be like I am with you. Every other man wants to take you to bed, while I would rather hit you with the blunt end of a spear."
"The two aren't that dissimilar, Alareik."
Fritz rolled his eyes at the joke, rising from his seat. "I'll keep you informed about if Ymir wants Syn replaced," he stated, before leaving the room.
He made his way to the dining hall without interruption. This was very traditionally Eldian in design, if a bit grander; a great wooden table, clothed in the skinned pelts of wolves and bears, with a great hearth burning to the side to warm the room.
From here, he could see the back of Maria and Rose's heads as they conversed with Sheena and Ymir on the other side of the table, framed and illuminated by the flames of the hearth. The youngest was playing with the paw of a wolf pelt, pretending to snap and bite like the furry predator.
Ymir was the first to take note of him, looking towards him in half-surprise, melting away into her usual expression. But for a moment before that, he wondered if it was just a trick of the light, or had that been a smile on Ymir's face?
"Father!" Sheena greeted enthusiastically, drawing the other two sisters to look over their shoulders at him.
"Girls, Ymir," he greeted with a small smile on his bearded lips. He moved to his chair at the head of the table, donned with the great horns of an enormous moose.
He paused only briefly, taking notice of Syn standing beyong the hearth. If he hadn't been the one that called for one of the Iron Women to guard Ymir and their children, he might have mistaken her for an idle and ordinary servant.
Good, that was how she needed to appear.
Taking his seat with a content sigh, he removed his crown and placed it on the table. "I will never know how those southern pricks stand wearing these all the time."
Sheena and Maria giggled at his choice of words while Rose just smiled.
"I don't suppose any of you know what we shall be dining on tonight?" he inquired idly.
"Camel. Bird," Ymir answered.
Fritz scrunched his brow at that. "Bird I understand, but camel? Those hunched back horses from the scorching lands of Farisa?"
"A what-back horse?" Sheena asked in confusion.
"Camel-Bird, Father. One word," Maria explained, getting a strange look from her father. She returned it with a helpless look. "That's what the chef called it. They said it was like a Turkey, but very big."
"They also called it a bouquet for some reason?" Rose supplied in equal confusion.
Fritz just stared before shaking his head. "Strange name," he remarked, Ymir nodding in agreement. He wondered why Sheena started giggling again but ignored it. "Still, a giant bird? This I must try."
No sooner had he said that did the doors open, and the royal family was treated to the bizarre sight of two very strong men shuffling in a large plate, covered by a cloth held in place by amused kitchen servants, male and female. "What is...?" Fritz questioned with a scowl.
"Sorry, King, but we had to show you this whole before carving it up!" one of the large men said with a grin, the servants pulling the sheet away to reveal the thing in question.
Even the Titaness herself was taken aback by the size of the creature. Its legs were relatively scrawny for its overall size, but they were as long as spears! The body itself was a huge mass of meat, maybe larger than a boar!
"Those legs are bigger than all of me...," Sheena whispered in awe.
"I think they're bigger than me," Maria stated in shock.
"Should have seen the head on this thing, Reik- Er, King!" one of the servants said jovially. "It was like a third leg."
"Well, let's carve this bird and see how it tastes!" Fritz called out.
"I don't think we can eat all of it," Rosa observed to herself.
"The rest probably goes to the staff or the guards," Maria whispered.
"Okay, King, Titaness, Princesses? Any preference on where you want the meat from?" one of the big men asked, pulling out a carving knife.
Fritz pretended not to notice Syn leaning forward.
"I like eating off the bone," Sheena remarked, eyeing the legs warily. "But I can't hold any bone on that bird."
The servants laughed, as did Fritz. "Anywhere is fine, Storn. I just want to know what this beast tastes like."
"Alright then. Just be careful, your majesties. We definitely cooked it all the way through, but we're not sure how many little bones may or may not be in these bastards," Storn warned as he sliced off large chunks for each of the royals, the kitchen servants also bringing out plates of bread, apples and cooked carrots.
Fritz wasted no time taking a bite, nor did Sheena. "Hmm, very lean," Fritz remarked.
Sheena swallowed her first mouthful with a considering look. "Tastes like cow."
"I suppose they should call it the Cow-Bird instead," Maria joked, getting some chuckles.
"You all did a grand job with this...unusual thing," Fritz remarked in amusement, turning to congratulate them. "We have more than enough here to fill us all twice over. Take your fill of it, all of you. No sense in wasting it."
"Oh, I'm bringing some of this home to my boys," one of the women said with a grin as Storn and his companions took the huge amount of food back to the preparation room. "And they thought being a palace servant would be boring..."
"Hm, doesn't taste as good, but it is nice," Maria accepted idly.
"Maria, Daughter? I love you, but you have a spoiled tongue," Fritz remarked in playful exasperation.
"You've made that very clear, Father," Maria answered cheekily, half glaring at her currently carnivorous younger-sister. "Sheena, drink some water before you try to drown yourself in the meat."
They all swore she actually growled through the meat.
Fritz shook his head. "And they wonder why I'm happy with only daughters," he murmured. He enjoyed moments like this. It almost seemed like they were a normal family for a moment. And that was about all he could do for his daughters, let them believe that for as long as they could.
He glanced to Ymir, who was idly eating her own food while glancing at the children routinely. She had a lot of carrots and bread and barely touched the meat.
"Father, have you ever hunted something like that thing?" Rose asked curiously.
"No, I can't say I have. I imagine they're from the South. Probably something Marley hoarded to themselves," he murmured, taking another bite. "On this one occasion, I can't blame them. I wonder what an egg from this beast would taste like?"
"Have you ever gone hunting with Father, Mother?" Sheena asked with great interest.
Fritz kept chewing as he glanced to Ymir, who paused with a fork of carrot just outside her mouth. Memories from thirteen years age flashed before both of them in an instant. A girl fleeing through the forest, dogs barking, arrows flying and then a tree falling...
"No," Ymir answered simply.
Fritz swallowed. "Unless you count the Marlayeans," he jabbed. "So, children, what'd you learn from Od today?"
"That Shit and Clean are almost the same thing," Maria said with a straight face.
Ymir gave her a strange look while Fritz shook his head. "Maria, I pray you apply that gift of yours well one day," Fritz stated in amusement. "As opposed to trying to kill your tutors by frustrating them."
"But Father, isn't that what you do with your advisors?" Maria asked innocently.
"Only the stupid ones," Fritz answered, taking a long gulp of ale. "Rose? As amusing as Maria's antics are, never try to take after your sister. I prefer having at least one well-mannered daughter."
Rose smiled at the rare praise.
"What about Sheena?" Maria asked, as they all turned to the youngest.
Sheena said nothing, pausing her eating once she realized she was being stared at. She grabbed her plate and pulled it towards herself possessively before she continued eating.
"Where does she put all of that food when she's so tiny?" Rose asked in amazement.
Fritz nearly made a joke about Sheena inheriting her mother's appetite but decided against it.
"Did you have a nice day, Mother?" Rose tried, feeling a bit more talkative from her father's approval.
"A. Nice. Day?" Ymir repeated in surprise.
"Huh. Haven't you been with Father and the council, Mother?" Maria guessed.
Ymir shook her head. "No. I have. Not," she answered, growing a bit uncomfortable as all eyes were on her, even her master's, but she was unsure what to say. "It was. Nice. I just. Did not. Do. Anything. Today."
Besides spend time with their daughters, but that was normal. Even before she started speaking, they were with her often. That had changed only slightly since their lessons started, so there was a larger time of the day now when she was alone.
The girls were rather disappointed by the uninteresting answer, but were going to accept it.
"Did you want to?"
Ymir blinked, looking to Fritz in shock. "What?"
She actually didn't know what he meant. He already asked her once if she wanted to attend a war meeting and she declined because she was not needed. What was he asking now?
"Was there anything you wanted to do today?" Fritz clarified idly, casually.
She didn't answer at first. She was...so unused to this still; Him or anyone being that considerate of her.
"I...Do not. Know," she answered uncertainly.
Maria and Rose looked confused by that, Sheena just accepting it at face value.
Fritz hummed. He was probably to blame for that. In the first years of getting her powers, Fritz had Ymir watched and guarded like she was the most valuable thing in the tribe. Which she was, to this day. Still, it wasn't like she had any time or chance to find things she took any enjoyment in. And apparently she hadn't taken any chance to do so during her time as his concubine.
"Father?" Rose spoke up. "Mother told us Eldia use to be a lot smaller. Is that true?"
Ymir was more than a bit relieved at the subject change.
Fritz chuckled. "You wouldn't believe it, daughters, but thirteen years ago, we were only a village. My entire home and hall from then was made of wood and could fit in this one room!"
Sheena looked around the large hall, as if trying to imagine a home that small for them. "But...we couldn't play hide and seek indoors then?" Sheena asked, as if that was a fatal flaw in the concept.
"You'd be surprised, Sheena," Fritz said knowingly, not letting his own distaste show on his face from long buried memories.
The children didn't see the momentary look in his eyes. But Ymir did.
For a brief moment, she saw once more the reason she didn't hate Fritz.
Syn silently watched on.
Ancient Eldian Historical Discoveries:
Due to the similarity in the ancient Eldian word for "Ostrich" and "Bouquet," some part of the Eldian Empire created the tradition of eating Ostriches at weddings. Much like a bride might throw a bouquet over her head, a groom will throw the neck of the bird over his head. Whoever catches it gets to carve the bird, and is seen as a similar honor to catching the bride's flowers. Not only will they be the next to marry, but if both traditions are followed, it is generally assumed that pair will marry each other one day and has been the start of many famous and infamous romances.
End of Chapter
And there we go, another chapter to this lovely little look into an Ancient AU. Hope you all liked this chapter, and all the original characters that showed up. Also dropping lots of hints.
And, yes a meeting was called a "Thing" in ancient germanic societies.