Eren and his companions walked back to the grove in shame. Not only did they lose their only chance of communicating with the rest of the world, but him and Armin almost died as a result. The young chief looked at the bayonet he took from the dead pilot. This was the only loot they managed to find in the plane.

"There may not have been all that much, on the plane" he heard Armin say, as the other boy watched him eye the knife.

Eren just sighed at that. For this failure, he felt personally responsible.

"It's not your fault" Mikasa exclaimed, trying to comfort him "there's no way you could've seen this coming…"

"If we concentrated on looking for tools and supplies" the young chief spoke "if we didn't go for the radio first… There were no transmissions anyway…"

"Eren, stop" Mikasa said firmly, taking hold of his hand.

As he looked her in the eyes, he saw that she was troubled as well.

"I was the one who didn't say anything, while we were still searching with Armin" she exclaimed, pointing her other hand at herself "if anyone's to blame, it's got to be me."

The whole group stopped as they were nearing the grove. All of them felt responsible in some way and those outbursts only made them realize it more.

"We're really bad at this…" Jean muttered, watching the sun set.

"How will they even find us…" Connie added.

Eren looked at the sun as well. Before, its colour was bright yellow, but now it looked way more orange. It painted the sky with a wide array of tints of purple and red.

"Now, we need to meet up for the day" the young chief decided "let's not talk about that fiasco any more than we need to."

Theirs, was actually the last group to turn up for the day. As Eren and the rest walked past the familiar trees and bushes, he could see that the other groups managed to do their tasks fairly well.

Marcel smiled at him with pride, showing off what his group had managed to find. A lot of berries, placed on huge leaves were laying under one of the trees. Beneath that, a pile of coconuts was waiting for consummation. Eren figured that they didn't really have anything to open them with, so they just set themselves on eating the fruits for now.

On both sides, makeshift beds made of soft grass, tropical leaves and twigs were laid in circles. On one end, he saw the grinning form of Ymir, sitting beside Historia. The blonde gave him a nervous wave.

Eren ignored it for now and walked towards the pile of coconuts.

"How did it go?" Marcel's brother Porco asked.

"We tried to use the radio" Armin started explaining "but we couldn't receive any transmissions…"

"Where is it?" Marcel exclaimed, looking at them with intrigue.

"It was" Jean spoke with defeat "as in past tense."

The group scattered among the grove started listening in with interest. Many of them were waiting for that news and hearing such an unexpected development surely got them all fired up.

"What happened?" Pieck, a dark-haired girl from Marcel's group asked with worry.

"We managed to get to the nose of the plane" Connie said while eating berries "but it was hanging over an abyss…"

As Eren took one coconut, the rest of his crew started telling the tale. With anticipation, the other children listened to the story about their failure, as if it was the greatest adventure ever.

"So, basically, you're telling us that we don't have any way of contacting the outside world?" Reiner asked with disbelief.

Finally, someone stated the obvious. At that, Eren's companions fell silent.

"We will survive, no matter how much time we have to spend here" the young chief expressed in grim voice, before taking the bayonet out of his pocket.

The sight of the blade startled some of the children. But, right now, Eren didn't care. He laid the coconut in between his thighs and held the bayonet up.

"Are you saying that we will stay here, forever?" Mina, the dark-haired girl with braids asked, somewhat entranced by the sight.

BANG!

He bashed the blunt side of the knife against the coconut. A small crack appeared on the fruit. For some reason, this infuriated the boy. He took another swing at the coconut.

CRACK!

The fruit cracked under the force of Eren's blow. The boy laid down the bayonet and raised the coconut up to his mouth.

As he bit into the flesh, he felt all his worries dissipate. Almost as if this simple act held some deeper meaning, a lot more than simply satiating his hunger. The coconut flesh was sweet to his tongue and a blissful peace enraptured his mind.

"Hey…!" Pieck yelled at him impatiently.

"We will light a fire" he spoke after wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Fire. This single word sparked several different emotions within the kids. Fire was both dangerous and intriguing at the same time. The kids were always told to keep away from it, yet they always found that primal curiosity within themselves, to check if it actually burnt.

Eren looked at their faces. A great mix of interest, apprehension, excitement and wonder appeared all over the kids.

He looked towards Mikasa. The oriental girl seemed apprehensive about the idea and tried to look down.

A little to the left, he spotted Historia. Her reaction was the complete opposite. Her gaze seemed almost entranced by his words, staring at him in awe.

Feeling validation to his beliefs, he took the bayonet and pointed towards the top of the hill.

"We will build a stake there" Eren spoke "when we spot anything on the horizon, we will light it up so they can see us."

"That's it!"

"I like the sound of that."

"Yeah…"

The young chief watched them praise his idea. Igniting fire, both figuratively and literally was vital for their survival right now.

"Excuse me" a voice spoke out suddenly.

The group, distracted by the idea of a fiery stake, was forcibly brought out of their thoughts. Eren looked towards the owner of the voice. It was Armin. And in his hands, there was the conch.

"I think" he started, noticing that his attempt managed to grab the attention of everybody "that we need an alternative solution…"

"And what would that be?" Marcel asked dubiously.

The bespectacled blonde took a deep breath. His small fingers tightened around the precious shell.

"A raft."

People looked at him with wide eyes. Seeing their reaction, the boy cleared his throat and continued on with his idea.

"If we really want to get help, we need a way to get away from this island. It doesn't matter if it'll just be to leave for another one. We need a way to successfully travel the seas, if we want to have a better shot at getting help."

The bespectacled blonde turned around to face the direction of the ocean.

"With a raft, even if it's a small one, we'll be able to ensure that everything will be fine. There's plenty of wood and other resources here…"

"That sounds cool!"

"We'll literally be like pirates!"

"No, like Vikings."

Eren took the conch from his blonde friend. For whatever reason, he didn't like his attitude, but the other boy only kept smiling at him. It was reasonable, though, he had saved his life earlier today.

"We will realize both of those plans" Eren exclaimed, this time pocketing the bayonet "tomorrow, we'll talk about the details. For now, let's call it a day. A whole lot has happened already, and we managed to come out on top so far."

"Aye!" The crowd cheered at his words.

"Goodnight" the young chief said, before standing up to seek a proper bedding for the night.

Slowly, as the last light died beyond the horizon, the grove got quiet. Only the breeze, softly howling above the crowns of the trees could be heard in the silence of the night.

The girls decided to sleep on one end of the grove, while the boys kept to the other. As Eren watched the stars slowly appear on the sky, he thought once again about everything that happened today.

'How will we even make it through…?' He said in his mind, as his eyes closed for sleep.