Chapter 7: When the Water Stills
And on, and on.
A quiet breakfast, a cup of tea.
A child's story, a couple's smile. The laughter of an acquaintance, the embrace of family.
Grueling work and many tales.
It was humility's Eden.
Following their village trip, Edie found the wood chopping block and stocked the farm for the next week. Unbeknownst to his parents, Jamie showed Edie how to finish his chores, draw water, and how to troubleshoot the farm's water system. He introduced her to their major plants, and she helped him weed the flower beds. Hajule and Larmie discovered his lessons at the dinner table, noticing grassy stains on Edie's dress and lack thereof on Jamie's. While he was certainly chided, she took on her new roles.
In the morning, Edie and Jamie took care of the animals and discussed the dreams they'd had the night before. Jamie saw himself flying as a bird most often, diving off of cliffs, and narrowly missing sharp rocks. Edie fought her way out of iron bars and caves, fighting through scores of snakes and scorpions. They separated after breakfast, with Edie helping around the house and Jamie off to school. These were kind hours, talking and laughing with Mrs. Larmie Cartwell about nothing and everything. In the afternoons, she reunited with Jamie and cleaned up the barn and helped dry the seeds.
So it went.
There was no word from the village, though the two visited Mr. Solway twice a week (Hajule seemed to enjoy her free mornings now). He invited the four of them for card games and beef stew, an expensive from Domo the month prior. They celebrated Jamie's birthday and discussed politics, with the younger two out of the loop.
Every so often, as they talked, Hajule tried to job Edie's memory. She asked about different scents, sights, and history. Did she remember two parents? Had she lived in the mountains? Did she remember any older or younger siblings? What was her favorite color, and why? Did she remember the last meal she ate? And one afternoon, while Edie helped Larmie in the fields, she studied Edie's old clothes, running her fingers over the cuts and the seams. Different walls had different sewing styles, depending on how long it took to make and who was buying it. But she didn't know this craftsmanship.
"I think you lived in a remote area," she told her back inside. "I think you might've been caught alone at the wrong time. There's some shady characters who wander around those hills."
"I'm glad I landed here," was all Edie had to say.
"We'll find someone who knew you," Hajule continued. "We'll send some of Karo's copies up to the remote areas, where the crops can't grow, and see if someone there recognizes your picture. Even if they can't take you in, it'll still be good to know. Besides, if you parents are still alive, they'll want to know where you are. I'd be beside myself if Jamie wandered off and never came home. Likely wouldn't leave the house ever again."
"He'd come home." Edie rubbed her forehead. "Maybe my memories aren't that strong. Maybe they were fuzzy to begin with. Maybe nobody really stuck."
"Poppycock. Everyone has something that sticks. Some kind of obsession, be it a person or a place or a thing. It'll take some time."
A month later, Edie and Jamie found themselves in an afternoon with nothing else to do. All the chores were finished, the animals were fed, and Hajule and Larmie had kicked the two out of the house. Jamie claimed they were getting into the special cabinet and headed straight for the barn. The two untied the farm's horses, saddled them, and rode through the empty fields.
"There's somewhere you haven't seen yet!" Jamie shouted over his shoulder. "Follow me!"
He flew through the trees, leading the horse with such expertise, and Edie had no trouble keeping up. She and Dia, Hajule's mare, had become good friends and knew each other's movements well. They dove around fallen trunks and ran through crystal creeks. Jamie stayed just fifteen feet ahead, yelling a ballad and listening for the echo. They passed some boulders with carvings in the sides and little shacks with enough mold to kill a cow.
Eventually, the trees broke, and the horses galloped into a shaded clearing. A shallow pool lay in the center, reflecting the cycle of leaves and clouds. The two dismounted, tied the horses near a grassy area, and walked to the water.
Edie looked over her shoulder at the clearing. "That'd be a good area for a flower bed. It's a little shaded, but it'd make the pool that much nicer."
"Mother's tried a few times, but they keep dying out. She doesn't have any variety that can stand the dark. Besides, the shadows get worse in the winter."
"Oh, well. Maybe someone will be persistent enough."
"You?"
"Oh, no. I haven't got a knack for growing things." She picked up a pebble and skipped it over the lake. "I just like looking at them."
"C'mon." Jamie grabbed her hand, still a little breathless, and pulled her toward the far trees. On one especially big one, nails held planks of wood firmly in place. Jamie started climbing them, but Edie raised her eyes to the crest. A small treehouse nestled among the leaves, barely visible. "Coming?"
"Of course!" She put her hands and feet to work and made it to the top, only a little sore. There were few ladders to climb around the farm, and this tall one had no safety bars. She paused and looked over her shoulder once, wondering if she could hit the water from here. Likely not, and her other set of clothes were still dirty.
At the top, Jamie sat at the window, kicking his legs in the open air. He faced the open horizon, where the sun began to set.
"Incredible."
"What is?"
"I don't know. I thought you might be able to see Wall Rose from here."
"It's nearly two more hours' ride away, to even see the crest. Plus, you have to go all the way to Klorva to get through, with all the taxes and permits and stuff. It's easier to get through if you live beyond the gate, so usually, family comes to us."
"It's so big," she murmured.
"But these are our little woods. Nobody else lives nearby. Father built this when they found out mother was pregnant, but she didn't let me come up here until I was five. She thought I'd fall and break my neck. We still came to look at the lake, though."
"Five still seems sort of young. Did you arms reach the rungs?"
"I guess. It seems like forever ago." He fell back from the window and onto the floor, head knocking on wood. But it didn't bother him. "I'm an old man now."
Edie lay down across from him, her feet dangling out the entrance. The tops of their heads barely touched. "You know you're ten, right?"
"Sure. Five years ago, I was five. Five years from now, I'll be fifteen." He sighed. "these woods would be perfect to fly around in, if we could get our hands on ODM gear."
"Didn't you say that's military grade? It'd be illegal."
"Yeah, if they found out. People in Wall Sina get away with using ODM to rob banks and stuff, so why can't I use it to start my training?" He stretched his arms to the ceiling and sighed. "Don't tell mother. She'll get onto me again."
"She wants you to be okay."
"I know," he grumbled, "but if I have to stay on this farm forever, I'll die. I love my parents, but I don't like plants."
Edie bit her lip. Hajule had noticed how much time Jamie and her spent together, her purposes achieved, and asked her to keep quiet about the military business, or at least tell him to be a Garrison officer (even being an MP was life-threatening nowadays). But he was a child, and a nimble one at that. "Why do you want to be a scout?"
He huffed. "It doesn't matter. It'll never happen. Mother and father wouldn't speak to me if I went to training, and I'd probably die on my first mission. Most scouts do. You really have to be in a good squad to stay alive, like Commander Erwin's group before he got promoted. All those city slickers get to see the scouts leave the city. They might live next door to one. What scouts do you know that live in the farm area?"
"Don't know."
"It's none!" He sat up and leapt up to the window again. He pointed in the direction of Wall Rose. "All the kids in the city get to see the scouts in action. They get their autographs and can talk to them. They get all the best news and know how to train. And I'm here, on weeding duty."
"So it's improbable."
"More than that."
Edie scooted, with her back to the window's wall. "So why do you want to do it?"
He chewed his lip. "It's silly."
"Coming from the guy who rolled in the mud with the dogs."
"Yea, but…this is, like, something I haven't even told mother and father. They'd tell me to study more." He glanced at his hands. "Do…do you agree with them?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you think I shouldn't do it?"
Edie sighed. "I don't think anyone should get caught up in war, but certainly if they don't have a good reason for fighting."
"Fine. But come on." He clambered from the window onto a nearby branch and scurried to the tallest part of the tree, one of the precarious branches that swayed in the wind. Edie followed him and even their combined weight hardly bothered the tree. He pointed at the horizon, where the sky darkened. "In school, we learned that all that's left of humanity is in the walls, right?"
"Yeah."
"I…I don't think that's true."
Edie blinked. "What?"
"It's silly, I know, because titans can practically feel vibrations. They don't just eat people, but they find them, easily, but—but it doesn't make sense that this is the only place people survived. If the world is really so big outside the walls—and I think it is—then there's got to be some other settlement where people made it work. Maybe underground, or in a really tall tree, or on a mountain where the titans couldn't get. Maybe in the middle of a really big pond, or inside a stone house they couldn't break. There's got to be somebody out there, trying desperately to say alive, wondering if they're the last people on earth, too. I know it's ridiculous, but—but I can't stop thinking it!"
"You want to find them?"
"More than that. I want to help them." Jamie's hair swept up in the wind, and his face shone clearly. "They've got to be feeling just the way we are, that there's no way of winning, that they're the last of humanity. But they're not, and we're not, either. If we combined our resources and worked together, we could have a real shot at taking back that land. I don't know how far away they are, or how many titans are between us and them, but I want to get there and give them hope. I want them to know that this isn't the end of the world!"
"Would they want it?"
"Huh?"
Edie blinked, and shook herself. "What—what if they didn't want help?"
"They will," Jamie answered confidently. "They'll want it, and they'll take it."
"I believe you. Somehow." She smiled and closed her eyes. "Then I agree with you. I think that's a good reason to join, dangerous as it is."
He grinned. "So you'd join with me?"
"Absolutely not."
The two played for a few more hours, entertained by Jamie's water tricks and Edie's bad puns. Eventually, they rode back to the farm, but Hajule and Larmie had yet to make an appearance.
"Let's go see Mr. Solway," Jamie suggested, "and he can give us a snack."
"Shouldn't we pay?"
"Nah. We're family."
So they rode, the half hour walk cut down to a fifteen minute ride. But the outskirt houses were suspiciously empty, even of people sitting on porches talking. As they rode closer to the town, a hum arose from the center. The two dismounted and walked toward the shops, the hum turning into a panicked chorus. They were thrust into a growing throng of sweating, tearful adults, all murmuring to themselves and crying out in anguish, in fear. But Edie took Jamie's hand, determined to keep him close, and pulled him along. They were nearing Mr. Solway's shop, and the crowd was denser. Soon, they stared at his porch.
There was a Garrison member, collapsed on the stairs, wailing the same four words over and over again, his face pale, uniform covered in blood. Mr. Solway was next to him, trying to calm him and whisper into his ear, but the shop owner trembled with each harrowing call.
"Wall Maria has fallen!"
