angelic | jean kirstein

chapter ten

ANGELIC – CHAPTER TEN

Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven. Twenty-six. Twenty-five.

Isabel's head swivelled around to see where her friends were as she awaited the order to advance out of the wall. Beside her on her right was Reiner and Bertolt not too far behind him on his right side, beside her on her left was Sasha and Armin not too far behind her on her left. She looked behind her quickly to see Jean was a few horses down, their eyes met momentarily and the pair nodded before she turned her head back ahead.

Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen. Sixteen. Fifteen.

She lifted her right hand and slowly stroked the golden mane of her horse Church. Her eyes searched the crowd ahead of her, she could vaguely see the back of Hange's head from her position, however she could not see Levi or Eren.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five.

Isabel yanked the hood of her cloak over her messy braids and her grip on her reigns tightened, her knuckles turning white from the force. She took in four deep breaths and forced her eyes shut tightly in a last minute attempt to calm her nerves. She was slightly worried that once she had exited the walls that she was going to cave into fear, though she had a feeling she was going to behave recklessly again like she had in Trost.

Three.

She turned her head to the right to see a child watching through their window in admiration. Isabel's lips twitched upwards quickly and offered a thumbs up before her attention was forced back ahead of her. "This is it!"

Two.

"The day has come for humanity to take another step forward! Now let's show those titans exactly what we're made of!" One of the commanding officers shouted from ahead. Isabel raised her fist in the air along with her comrades as they all yelled in agreement.

One.

The gate slowly began to rise, the adrenaline almost instantly taking over her. The ground shook slightly from the weight of the gate being taken from the soil. "Forward!" Erwin yelled from the front, his voice echoing throughout the town.

Isabel snapped her reins and began to shoot forward with the other Scouts, her hood falling from her head instantly. Her chestnut horse ran quickly through the gate behind the other soldiers, heels clicking loudly against the pathway. Isabel's eyes widened as she stared ahead at the abandoned land. "So this is Wall Maria." She whispered.

"It's officially begun! The 57th recon mission! Scouts, move out!" At her father's command, she guided her horse into position and slowed her pace slightly, braids bouncing behind her. The sounds of the horses hooves hitting the ground echoed throughout the abandoned town, it was the only thing Isabel could hear.

Despite having moved into position, the Scouts were all still gathered in a large group, unable to move out correctly as they weren't in an open area. "10 metre approaching from the left!" She heard, who she assumed was Hange, yell from the front.

Isabel snapped her head to the direction to see a rather ugly titan slowly heading forwards. First she felt fear run down her spine as she watched it slowly approach, but almost as quick as the fear came, it had left and been replaced with what she could only explain as excitement.

Sasha squealed slightly beside her, she turned her head back to face the brunette and shook her head. "Calm down!" She yelled from beside her. "The support squad can handle it!"

"Eyes ahead, recruits!" One of the squad leaders warned from ahead of them, turning Sasha's head to the front. "Keep moving!"

Isabel took in a deep breath and pushed forward harder, her aim being to leave the ruins as quickly as possible. "If you need any help, I'm not positioned too far from you. Just yell for me and I'll come running!" Reiner joked.