Their landing was efficient if not exactly graceful, and soon they were all standing outside on the coarse grass of the valley, staring wide-eyed up at the path that wound around rock and bramble until it reached a very small and very empty town. The road was cobbled, broken wood sticking out of the ground where a railing must have stood, however many years ago.
The houses were made of both tree and stone, spread out over a small plateau that jutted out from the mountainside. Some of the buildings stretched up even higher, climbing the cliffs like steppingstones up into the heavens.
"I hate to ask you again, but does that big brain have any idea what it's seeing?" Oz asked Armin. "I didn't think there were any other settlements on the island besides the walls?"
"There's not." Levi said curtly. "Whoever built this must have done it before the walls went up." This fact sat heavy on their minds; had there been another group living this close to them the whole time?
"Great, something else to worry about." Jean remarked glumly. "This isn't something the Marlyeans made, is it?" He asked Reiner, who shrugged.
"Not to my knowledge, and I doubt they would have had the balls to cook something like this up in titan territory."
Connie scoffed, tightening the cloak around himself more tightly. "Just another thing to keep us up at night."
"It looks like our early arrival has a benefit, then." Armin turned and gestured to Jean. "Jean, you stay here with Connie and the rest; start unloading our travel supplies and keep an eye out. Oz, Levi, with me. We will be back within the hour."
"You're going to go up there?!" Connie gasped, gulping a mouthful of cold air as he craned his neck up to the plateau. "You're crazy."
"We need to know what's up there and who these people were. If they were living here while the walls stood and titans roamed free, maybe they know something that we don't." With that, Armin took off, Oz and Levi following behind him begrudgingly.
"Is he always like that?" Alexi whispered to Jean, who made a face.
"Only on the days that end in Y."
The village wasn't nearly as high up as it had looked from the ground; within 20 minutes the three of them reached the edge and found themselves among the desolate ruins. Stepping hesitantly as though the rock would slide off the cliff face at any moment, they searched for any relic they could find that would give them some idea of what this place was. This wind swept mournfully through the fridged remains and along the exposed ground, swirling dust in the air around their feet.
Most of the buildings no longer stood, collapsed in on themselves by the hard hand of time. Thick lichen and shrubs carpeted them, making many seem as no more than soft mounds of earth scattered in the tundra.
Bending down, Oz inspected a portion of wall that was sticking out from the debris.
"Judging by the construction this place is very old; definitely older than the walls." He pressed his gloved hand against the wood and pulled a section of moss away from the boards.
"But if we go by the foliage growth…" He straightened and shot them a confused look. "Then this town has only been abandoned for no more than 30, 35 years."
"How the fuck did an entire village of people manage to live outside of the walls with titans breathing down our necks for the last century?" Levi asked, kicking a cast iron pot to the side of a very old cooking pit, and Armin's brow knit in concentration.
"The titans were ever only a real concern to the southern-most sections of wall Maria, since they were all being made from the harbor wall. The Northern towns barely had a military presence at all; we saw that firsthand in Ouvld district. Even the outer edges were almost considered safe because the titans were never interested enough in going that far. Tucked up here out of sight, hidden this far away from prying eyes… it's possible."
The only structure they found that remained mostly upright was a tall and narrow stone chapel sheltered in a mountain crevasse on the next level up. One of its large wooden doors was off its hinges, splintered against the inner frame. It was discolored, but not bleached like wood does with enough time. Black soot fell of the surface and onto the ground as Levi ran his hand across it.
"Looks like it wasn't just time that brought this place down." He mused, wiping his hand off on the edge of his cloak.
People did this?
"Do you recognize this marking, Armin?" Oz said. Rudimentary iron pieces were shaped into some kind of emblem on the door, and Armin took a step back to examine it. The sigil was in the shape of a tree, dark and twisted metal branches fanning out above the trunk to circle back around to the reaching roots.
Armin almost said yes but stopped himself, disoriented.
Why was I about to say that? I've never seen this before if my life… right?
"No, I haven't… but there's something familiar about it." He said, tucking passed the two of them and stepping hesitantly through the darkened doorway. Though the outer walls had stayed upright, but the right side of the roof lay in pieces on the oiled dirt floor. A musty smell of abandon lingered in the air, stuck to the petrified wooden pews scattered across the room.
They searched for a time, and nearly came away empty-handed until Armin noticed a lidded stone chest hidden underneath the skewed alter at the far end of the room. Curiously he pried the lid open with a loose floorboard, sending the stone slab tumbling to the floor with a loud crack.
Several small books lay tucked away within animal hide wraps, smelling strongly of peppermint and charcoal, and Armin's mouth flew open. There the sigil was again, burned into impeccably crafted leather covers. As gently as he could he picked the topmost text up and opened it slowly.
The character covering the stiff pages were legible, written in a language that only barely mirrored their own, but it was still there.
"No way a book can last that long in these conditions." Oz reached out and studied one of the other books closely.
"Hmm, well that explains it. These pages were treated with some sort of hardened resin, preserving them. Someone went through a lot of trouble to make sure these remained intact. Do you think you'll be able to read them?"
Armin gathered the three books together and placed them carefully into his travel bag.
"I'm not sure, but I can try. Hopefully they will be able to give us some insight on what happened here." He threw his pack over his shoulder and nodded to the door. "Come on, it doesn't look like we are going to find much else, and we need to get moving." As they trudged back down the slope and onto to level ground to meet up with the team huddled outside the airship, Armin stowed the books in the luggage racks onboard before throwing one last glance over his shoulder to the village.
I don't know if these books are going to tell us anything about what this place used to be, but with a stroke of luck they may be another missing piece of the puzzle.
And with that, their convoy began the long trek out of the valley and into the winding foothills of Marotsara.