Through My Eyes, 2000 Years From Now
Rated; M (Blood/Gore and Language)
Disclaimer; I do not own Attack on Titan or anything created by the author Hajime Isayama, all rights go to him
Authors: Eli-er01
Summary: Throughout the generations, many stories of Ymir Fritz circulated. Some told she was a goddess. Some told she was a devil, but none ever managed to quite explain the truth of who she really was, and still is. A three chapter short story of Ymirs life, and her views on the Eldian Empires deeds throughout history.
1: Servitude
Normal POV
=Marleyan Tribe=
"Mother!" A little girl in rugged clothes screamed as tears fell down her face as the invading men threw her on the ground
"Run, Ymir!" The mother pleaded to her daughter as she fought back, using a kitchen knife she had at hand. Even when the men managed to disarm her, she caused trouble, biting, thrashing and screaming at her captors.
The little girl, Ymir, was about to obey her mother, before right before her eyes, a sword pierced her mothers chest.
"What the hell! Why did you kill her? We need slaves and you just killed a candidate!" One of the men screamed in a language Ymir didn't understand.
"She wasn't going to obey. Did you see the way she struggled?" The other man defended himself as the accuser sighed
"You got a point, but still… Shit! At least we still got the girl" The two men looked towards Ymir, who was frozen still, unable to move or comprehend what had just happened. She was just a 6 year old girl. How was she supposed to understand what just happened?
"Mother… Please… Get up…" She spoke through tears and sobs. Her legs started moving towards the corpse of her mother, hand stretched out before her legs collapsed in the puddle of blood that used to flow through her mothers veins.
She started to shake her mothers corpse frantically, trying to 'wake' her up.
"Mother! Please wake up! This is not time to sleep!" Ymir screamed at the top of her lungs as the two men looked at each other.
"Damn, even if she's a marleyan dog, it still hurts to look at this" One said as the other hummed in agreement.
"To hell with it. Let's chain her up with the others" One man said as the two roughly grabbed Ymir who yelped, before screaming and reaching out to her dead mother.
Once they were out of eyesight from the body, Ymir's arms slumped as she gave up. She didn't know what was happening, she didn't know what to do. All she wanted was for everything to go back to the way they were. To see her mother smile at her again with happiness.
She was put down on the ground, her hands chained together and a click could be heard by her throat. Ymir reached up and touched the metal surrounding her throat before she was pushed forwards. She wanted to scream and cry out but her mouth wouldn't move.
Days had passed since then, and Ymir barely remembered what happened. Her child mind had acted in self defence and suppressed the memories, leaving her with the earliest ones of her being led out of the village in a line connected by chains.
They had walked nearly without rest, only getting it once their captors were tired. It was currently in the middle of the day, sun blazing on her skin as sweat flowed down her face in rivers.
They barely got enough water or food to survive, while the men on their horses were munching on their food and greedily drinking their water.
Ymir's throat hurt. Her feet ached. Her body, almost ready to give up, not yet built for this kind of long distance travel without nourishment.
"Home is in view, men! It's our last stretch!" Ymir heard the men talk. She only understood the words 'Home' and 'Men' as they were the most used terms by her captors.
Ymir's head tilted to the side to look past the line of her remaining tribe and saw what the men had talked about. There was a relatively large village in the distance that was definitely much larger than hers.
Eventually they arrived in the town. Ymir, who was still in shock of the events days previously, simply looked around with dead eyes at the people who looked at her and the people with glee or disgusted faces. Some even threw rocks at them.
After a minute of walking through the village, they stopped, and their chains released, but not their bindings. They were put on rows, and forced on their knees. Once Ymir looked up, after one soldier forcefully pushed her head up, she saw a man, sitting in a chair with his head on his fist in a lazy manner.
"So… These are our slaves?" The man asked, looking to the side with a bored expression
"Yes, My King. Some are already grown enough to work but others…" He looked at Ymir, making the man in the chair look at her too "Need to be nurtured during their work"
'King' Ymir thought to herself.
"So it shall be. Put them to work immediately. The oldest ones will pull the weeds and the younger will build our homes. The youngest will feed the animals" The king ordered as the men bowed
"Take them to the barns. They will sleep with the animals. We will cut out their tongues tomorrow" He gave the last command before waving his hand. One second later, they were all pulled up on their feet and moved through town again.
After a minute, they arrived by two large buildings. The large doors were pulled open and they were all thrown inside. It quickly became cramped as everyone fought for every inch of space they could get.
"Hey, stop pushing me!"
"You're the one pushing me!"
"Why you little…!"
Ymir was flung around as everyone pushed and shoved each other around. Eventually, she fell to the floor. Feet were moving everywhere as she felt kicks and stomps all around her body from people that didn't even realise she was there.
"STOP IT EVERYONE!" A loud voice was heard as everything froze. Ymir, after a second looked up, to see a young boy, whom she recognized faintly but couldn't quite remember.
"Can't you all see you're kicking her around?" Ymir looked around, seeing some of them looking sheepish with apologetic smiles.
"Sorry Ymir, didn't see you there" Ymir nodded as she pushed herself back against some hay, making herself as small as possible.
"No… Problem" She uttered in a voice so quiet, that if it wasn't perfectly silent in the barn, no one would have picked it up.
After that, everyone settled down as the hours started to tick by. Ymir, eventually started drifting off to sleep as she hadn't been able to sleep for days.
As the darkness consumed her. A faint memory of a woman, smiling down at her with a loving expression came into her mind as a tear fell down her face.
"WAKE UP YOU DAMN SHEEP!" Ymir was flung out of her sleep at the loud scream. She looked up to see an angry man in armor staring down at her with a spear in his hand.
"Get up now! Or we will punish you" Ymir noticed that they were speaking her language now. Probably so they would understand. She listened and stood up before being pushed forward towards the door alongside everyone else.
She felt a small nudge to her side as she looked to her side, seeing the boy from last night, smiling softly at her. Somehow, that improved her mood slightly.
The men led them towards a large open area, where a man with a large kitchen knife awaited them.
"Let's get the youngest ones over with first" The man said as he slid a stone across the knife, causing sparks to come from it.
5 kids were pushed forward, Ymir on the far right with the boy to her left. The man with the kitchen knife walked forward, before turning to Ymir.
"I will take care of her first" The man said with a gleed before kicking her in the stomach hard, causing her to cough hard and collapse on the ground.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! ARE YOU AN ANIMAL!?" The boy to her right screamed out as the expression on the man went dark.
"Watch your tongue, sheep" He said darkly, aiming the knife towards his throat, making the boy gulp in fear.
The next second, he averted the knife and pulled Ymir's hair up, before waving to one of the men standing guard.
The man walked forward as the two spoke the language Ymir couldn't understand. The next second, her tongue was pulled out of her mouth roughly as the man with the knife aimed it at her tongue.
Seeing this, Ymir started thrashing before the men pushed her down on the ground, and held her in place, including her head.
"STOP! SHE IS JUST A LITTLE GIRL!"
"YEAH! THIS IS ANIMALISTIC BEHAVI- Gah!" They were cut off as the were hit in the stomach with the back of the spears
"HE SAID TO BE QUIET!" One guard screamed.
As the men pulled out Ymir's tongue again, now unable to fight back in her current position, she screamed as loudly as she could before seeing the knife come down, almos in slow motion.
The next second, she felt pain like she never had before as she was let go. She thrashed around, rolling on the ground as tears were coming out of her eyes like rivers.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH" She screamed in agony as her blood was filling with blood.
"Bring the torch" The man with the knife said without emotion. Once he had the torch in his hand, he forced the fire into her bleeding mouth as more pain erupted as she tried to get away.
Eventually, the man removed the burning torch out her mouth, clearly extinguished by her saliva. The pain was still unbearable as Ymir laid limp on the ground. The bleeding had stopped at least.
She looked to the side, seeing the boy being forced on the ground, his face aimed to the side, looking at Ymir with tears in his fear filled eyes.
Before his tongue was pulled out, moved his mouth in a certain motion, as Ymir's eyes filled with tears again. Why was this happening? What had she done to deserve this? These questions flowed through her mind as the knife came down, and cut the boys tongue as well.
Time seemed to mix together as everyone got their turn. After everything was said and done, they were all moved to their spots for work, Ymir being in charge of the pigs.
=One Year later=
Ymir was working currently feeding the pigs as some of the older people were feeding the cows. Many of the jobs had changed the past year as more than half of them had died of either starvation of overworking.
Once her bucket was empty, she headed back to the storehouse to grab the last batch of food for the pigs. As she was walking, she heard some cheers as she stopped to look to the side.
A man and a woman were surrounded as they kissed. The people around cheer and let out tears at the moment.
'I wonder what it feels like… to be wanted… needed by someone' Ymir thought sadly. The closest thing she had to someone wanting her around was the boy that helped her the first day. Too bad he died of starvation the next week.
She decided she shouldn't stand still any longer or she would be punished so she headed towards the storehouse.
After grabbing the food and heading back, she noticed one of the pens opened, and a pig had gotten away. She dropped her bucket and ran towards one of the guards, pointing towards the animals as they grabbed her arm and hauled her towards the location.
Once they saw what she was trying to say, the guards called out and within hours, all the remaining slaves were standing before their master. King Fritz as Ymir had learnt he was called.
"One of you… let a pig get away" He said in a voice that was a mix between anger and boredom.
"Identify yourself. If no one steps forwards, I'll gouge and eye out from each of you. Slaves have no need for two eyes" He said darkly as the people froze, shaking in fear.
After a long pause, the king sighed, causing everyone to move aside and point fingers. Ymir's face fell as she was filled with despair.
'They were all blaming her' She thought, both slightly angered by it and also very sadly and fearfully.
"The one to let the pig go… was you?" The king asked, almost as if he didn't believe it.
The people pointed their fingers at her again, as she looked around, seeking out anyone to say otherwise, but finding no one. Only faces of slight guilt on them.
Ymir relented, not being able to defend herself with no tongue. She collapsed on her knees, head hung low.
"Very well" He started "You… are free" he finished causing Ymir to be surprised, before she was pushed to the ground, and a knife gouged her left eye out as she screamed. Blood flowed down her eyes as she tried to get away. Eventually, the men carried her off before throwing her on a horse.
She looked around with her one good eyes, filled with tears, seeing that they were bringing dogs with them.
'Are they… Hunting something?' She thought, not realizing the thing they were hunting… was her.
She limped through the forest, her knee bleeding and an arrow embedded into her shoulder.
She couldn't run anymore, she was too tired and hurt to do so, but she knew she had to continue or she was dead.
She could hear laughter in the distance, that gave her a surge of energy from the fear that filled her. It allowed her to limp faster, but not for long, as she tripped on a root. Her good eye, landing on a flower, where her blood was dripping on it's edge.
Tears filled her eyes as her mind reeled at what was happening. Was she really going to die here? She looked up, wanting to see the sky one more time before her imminent demise, but was shocked at what she saw.
A tree, larger than anything she has ever seen was before hey, so large it looked to be touching the clouds and a large opening at it's stump. Her stupor quickly evaporated at the voiced in the distance.
'I have to hide' She thought as she forced herself on her legs and started slowly limping towards the opening.
It was dark inside, to the point of her unable to see, but she continued, fueled by fear.
The next thing she knew, she was falling before she felt her body envelop in a liquid.
She screamed as she was in no condition to swim, not that she knew how.
'Is this it? Is this where I die? Drowning in the dark, all alone?' She thought.
The next moment, she noticed something weird. Her wounds had healed, the arrow was gone and her gouged eye had returned. Had the water healed her? Before she could ponder about it, she felt an excruciating pain in her back as something forced its way into her spine.
She screamed once again in the water as a bright light consumed her surroundings, and the next thing she knew she was… looking at the sky, roaring out louder than anything she had ever heard.
She stood up straight and looked around. Was she above the clouds? Was that the forest around her? It seemed so small. Eventually her eyes landed on the men on horses with the dogs, whimpering in fear.
'Right… I… am a slave…' Her mind told her, as she walked towards the men with earth shattering footsteps. The men seemed to be ready to run for it, but before they had a chance, Ymir kneeled to them on her legs. The men were dumbfounded, why was a monster kneeling to them.
The next thing they saw dropped all their jaws. Out of the nape of that monster, came the girl they were supposed to kill, with no wounds whatsoever. Even her gouged eye had returned.
The men were flabbergasted for nearly an hour, not moving a muscle as the titanic body dissolved into thin air, Ymir on the ground kneeling to them as if awaiting orders.
Eventually, one of them had the nerve to speak up.
"Shee-...Ymir… what… Do you want?" he asked as Ymir looked up.
"I am but a slave… I am awaiting orders" She replied in a monotone voice without emotions.
To the soldiers, it made no sense. Why would a being able to turn into that monstrosity stay a slave, when she could probably annihilate all of them easily.
"Then… Get on" The man replied as he patted the horse's back. Ymir did as ordered and was helped up on the horse.
They headed back and the situation was explained to King Fritz. The king wasn't easy to convince, but seeing her wounds all healed and her tongue back seemed to be proof enough to sway him to the truth.
Throughout the coming months, Ymir did as she was told. She used her power to cultivate the lands, build large structures otherwise impossible and connected the Eldian villages together with roads and bridges, whether they went through mountains or not.
At the same time, Ymir no longer sleeps in the barn. She had her own house, almost luxurious, as if they were trying not to anger her.
Eventually, once two years passed, she was called for an audience with King Fritz.
"Ymir, my slave. You have done good work. You built the roads, cultivated the lands and made bridges between the mountains. My tribe, The Eldians, has grown quite large" Ymir sat on her knees, head hung low, and arms limp on the ground in front of her at the next words, something that made her fall in despair.
"As a reward, you shall receive my seed. You will carry my children, and together, we will produce worthy heirs" Ymir didn't want this, but who was she to disobey her master. If he wanted her as a mate, then she had no other choice. After all, she was only a slave.
The next months, the king flung himself in a war against the Marleyan empire who had oppressed their people in the past. This was the first time ever, that she would be using her power for anything but building the tribe.
"In the name of Fritz… Annihilate the hated people of Marley" Those were the commands issued to her as she bit her hand, light enveloping her and flesh popping out of thin air.
Once she was in her monstrous form, she reached for the Marleyan army, before smashing her fist in the ground and dragging it over the army, painting the ground and her titan fist red.
The battle was over within a couple of minutes. Once they were back in Eldias capital village, King Fritz called her to his chambers, and they consummated the victory, much against her barely existent will.
The next month, she was found to be pregnant. The king ordered her to rest for the duration of her pregnancy. During this time, most of her days were spent on a balcony in a chair, looking out at the village as the villagers' daily lives happened.
After 9 months, she gave birth to her first daughter. She was alone in the room with one woman who helped her give birth. The king was out in battle as this happened.
When Ymir first held her daughter, she felt a sense of dread, but also something else. Something unexplainable. She ignored it.
Once King Fritz returned, he greeted his newborn daughter and named her. Her name was Maria, Maria Fritz.
The next week, she was out in battle again, killing more Marleyans, before they returned and had yet another child.
This cycle repeated 3 of the daughters' names in order of age being Maria, Rose and Sheena.
The buildings had gotten sturdier, the materials harder and stronger and the houses more spacious. Throughout the last 4 years, Eldia had more than quadrupled in not only population, but also landmass.
After that, the years melded together, battles, building and taking care of her daughters were the only things Ymir Fritz did. It was the only thing they desired of her, and before they knew it, 13 years after she gained her power, the Marleyans apparently gave up the war and surrendered.
Their strongest warriors and generals were shipped to Eldia and presented before the king.
King Fritz sat in his chair, and smiled in glee at the surrender.
That glee quickly evaporated as one of the men stood up, with a spear they had somehow snuck through and aimed it towards the king before he threw it.
Ymir, acted first throwing herself towards her master, the spear piercing her as she collapsed on the ground.
'Is this it? Am I finally going to be released from this life?' All the sounds around her were zoned out.
'Why isn't my body healing?' She thought as a realization came to her.
'Is it because… I don't want to heal? No, that can't be it...' Her surroundings started to darken as she faintly heard her master telling her to rise and work again. Her eyes close, as one last image popped up in her head, that of a flower being disturbed by blood, dripping on its leaves.
Everything went dark. But before she could rest, her eyes opened again, but around her were not any walls, there weren't a roof or anyone around her. All there was was an endless sea of sand, and a star filled sky.
She looked around, trying to find anywhere to go before she heard a loud boom. She turned around to see a large pillar of light, being stretched up into the sky endlessly. Flashes of flesh being devoured popped up in her mind, before one disturbing image filled her mind of her daughters, feasting on her flesh.
The next thing that happened was the pillar expanded before her eyes in three directions.
Ymir looked at the pillar of light and somehow knew what it meant.
'A connection with her daughters…' She thought as she stared. The next moment, she heard a faint voice. She quickly remembered whose voice it was.
"My Daughters. Give birth and multiply. The blood of Ymir must not die out. If you die, my daughters, have my grandchildren eat your spines. If my grandchildren die, their spines will be passed from child to child"
"To all my progeny, My Eldians will rule the lands with their massive frames, and my titans will continue their reign into eternity, so long as this world of mine remains!"
This will be a short story of 3 chapters. Chapter 1 clearly depicting Ymir's life when she was… well, alive. Chapter 2 will show her, and whas she thought of the Eldians' deeds throughout their 2000 years of ruling, and finally, chapter 3 will depict the events of Attack on Titan through her eyes.
I hope you all will enjoy this short story!