A/N (OLD AF)

What's this a new chapter already? Yes, it is because I have midterms this week but I would rather write than review because why not. Anyway, enjoy!

Markus POV

Despite planning on building a shelter for Rachel Ilse, I actually have no idea on where to start, sure I have wood in abundance but don't necessarily have the tools or experience needed in making a wooden shelter. Turns out building a shelter is a whole lot harder despite watching survival videos on my laptop at three in the morning, though it would be a bit easier. At first, I tried to see if I had any special abilities like Leonhart's crystal hardening which would've made working with wood much easier, or maybe the War Titan's ability to create weapons from its body which would be more useful since it would include axes and hammers in its repertoire. But despite spending at least an hour trying to manifest any kind of abilities I had no progress except for generating large amounts of steam.

Since all I was able to generate was steam, I decided to see If I could control it in a way that it would act like a pressure washer with the focus being my finger. It took a few tries before I was able to create a steady pressure of steam coming out of my finger. Turns out all I needed was to create a hole that would act as a nozzle at the tip of my finger and I could use that to control the size and pressure of the steam.

With my main method of carving and cutting down trees secured, I started on getting the wood needed for a simple log cabin. I decided on building the walls by placing down one where they are stacked together and held by the notches made on the log. I must've zoned out due to the repetitive task of creating the notches because I didn't notice R Ilse until I placed a finished log on the side and saw her there watching me with a perplexed look even as she writes down on that journal of hers, as though everything she knew was unraveling before her eyes, which to be fair it may be, since she doesn't really know that I wasn't a titan before and in her perspective a man-eating titan is showing basic building skills. That and the fact that I've never tried to eat her the entire time she was with me.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she crouched next to my pile of finished logs. "You're not like any titan we know"

In a way, she's completely correct since I'm not exactly a pure titan; driven by pure instinct to search for the shifters, nor am I like the shifters themselves; no human body for me. I'm an anomaly in a sense that I don't fit in the two categories of titans.

"Shelter, safety" I say as I point a finger towards her.

I started to resume my mind-numbing work of creating notches on the logs when I remembered that Ilse wasn't supposed to be outside the cave since there could be some roaming titans in the forest. Although they aren't really a problem with me around but better be safe than sorry. I look at her as I ask "Outside cave, why?"

She had the nerve to look indignant at my questioning, she answered regardless but with noticeable snark in her tone.

"Because I was curious as to what a titan is doing, breaking down trees and trying to build what seems like a cabin," she says, her eyes narrowing at me. "You're not like your kin at all"

I wonder where the fear she had when we first met went. At least we're conversing in a civil manner now at the very least.

Ilse Lagnar's POV

It's one thing to meet a talking titan, never mind two, but there is a whole new level of surreality in watching a titan start breaking down trees and putting notches into them in the way a simple cabin is made. How the titan knows about building and engineering is a whole different jar of worms that I do not want to open right now.

It seemed to be focused on its task because it didn't notice me walking closer to it and leaving the 'safety' of the cave.

As I walked closer to the titan, I was able to clearly see its features in the sunlight unlike the other times where I was close to it since it was either nighttime or I was about to collapse due to exhaustion. Unlike others of its kind, this titan seems to be much more proportionate with a balanced distribution of body mass. Also, unlike the first talking titan that I met, this one's eyes seem to be clear and not glazed at all.

Instead of the cloudy eyes that almost all titans seemed to possess, this one's eyes are clear and contain intelligence behind them, unlike its more animalistic kin. I pulled out my trusty journal (thank the walls I didn't lose it) and began to sketch the titan while its busy processing the logs, underneath the sketch I've written down all that I've experienced thus far as well as what were my current leading theory as to what made the two talking titans different and the difference between the two since there was a clear difference of intelligence between them.

As I continued to write down my observations, I thought about another oddity about the titan that has currently held me captive, how did it learn the things it does?

I looked at the titan as closely as I could without being noticed and I saw how it was using steam to fashion the notches in the trees using the escaping steam coming from its wounds, the principle is the same as how the ODM gear propels us through the use of the gas. But how did a titan know about it though? I can't imagine a titan sitting through a lecture on how the laws of physics work yet at the same time it clearly knew enough to know that a smaller opening leads to a stronger output.

This titan just kept on getting more and more mysterious as I tried to learn more about it. Could it be that titans have civilizations of their own? But how would that explain the normal and abnormal titans?

The questions just kept on increasing and I want to know the answers to all of them.

A/N (NEW)

It's been a year since the last chapter, believe it or not this chapter was halfway done a week after chapter 5 but I got hit with the great wall of procrastination and left it halfway done. Tried to write a Frostpunk fanfic about the city of Winterhome, posted it on AO3 under a different name during January, second chapter is still not done. I only really remembered about this fic because I got a notification that somebody just followed this story in 2024. But yeah, not sure if I'm really back but here's a chapter. Hope to see some reviews at the very least. Have a good one.