A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

First Expedition I

With little effort, Isanna bended down her body and strapped the harnesses around her thighs, making sure to double check its security on her skin. As she felt the belts clicking into place, she stood up straight in front of the body mirror of their room and examined her outfit. Her gas tanks were strapped to her thighs as well, but with the help of three years in training, it was as light as a feather. The familiar emblem of the Wings of Freedom was sewn on the breast pocket of her cropped jacket, the sight making her realize even more that she was now a full-fledged Scout soldier. 

Isanna turned on the heels of her standard combat boots and headed out of their room, a quiet wish that she would still be able to come back to this very room. 

::

When Isanna reached the stabled horses, her friends were already there and were doing the final preparations and other supplies that were needed to bring along in this expedition, as well as most of the new recruits. 

"Double check your gears! We don't want it malfunctioning while in titan territory," team leader Fuchs announced over the new cadets. The man was their senior and a veteran soldier, assigned as one of the team leaders of the Relay teams which comprised mostly of the new recruits. Since they lacked on-field experience, their main task was to carry messages to and fro from other teams to the commanding team, where the Commander would be at. Their position in the formation was considered to be one of the safest, but you'd never know what could happen when outside the walls. 

Isanna promptly obeyed orders and double checked her straps, ensuring that they were tight enough, then checking her gas tank, blades and hand grips. Soon after, the recruits were mounted up on their steeds, a line of spare horses behind their file. 

"Isa, relax," Adalaide chuckled while slapping the said girl on the back as she neared her horse to her friend. "you graduated top of the class, what're you so nervous about?"

Isanna grumbled as she lightly glared at the redhead. If there was one thing Isanna wasn't able to work on during the last three years, it was the ability to calm her nerves. She forced herself to recall the conversation she shared with Erwin the night before and told herself to calm down. If she gave in to her nerves, it was as good as giving in to the titans, and she didn't want that. 

Directing her gaze ahead of her, Isanna watched as Erwin shared a talk with Adrian, while Mike was riding his own horse beside the two. Her eyes planted themselves on the emblem of the Survey Corps behind Erwin's cloak, noting how broad his back had become after all those years of observing him. 

Unlike most of the recruits (including herself) that seemed nervous for their first ever expedition, his back screamed loudly of responsibility and a strong sense of firmness to it, it was hard to imagine this was his first expedition. Isanna couldn't help but feel sort of reassured looking at him - he had the back of a natural leader, the reliable kind. 

Minutes passed by and the soldiers finally exited the campus of their headquarters, their horses galloping down the street and heading towards the southern outer gate of Wall Maria, Shiganshina district. As the Scouts lined up in a long file of horses and carts in front of the gate, only a few meters away from the outside world, Isanna scanned around them and observed the tense looks the civilians were giving them as they gathered near the streets. Not even a single one of them looked relatively happy or encouraging; with morose expressions of doubt filling their faces, they looked at the Scouts as if they already knew what was going to happen to them, and it surely wasn't something to look forward to. 

"Ignore them," Isanna heard Chiara mutter from her right, "the Survey Corps never had a good image within the walls in the first place."

Isanna averted her gaze from a doe-eyed girl that was curiously observing the long line of soldiers and fixed her eyes at the gate before them, the engraving of a woman's side profile with a crown etched expertly on the hard surface. Soon after, there was the loud ringing of a bell, followed by shouts of Garrison soldiers perched atop the wall, and then, a rumbling quake with grinding noise that shook the ground as Isanna watched the gate slowly lift up. 

When the gate was about halfway up, Isanna's eyes caught the vast terrain through the gaping tunnel, fields of grasslands and tall trees in the far distance, and the pounding in her heart was erratically beating louder and louder as she waited. 

"Let the expedition outside the walls, begin!"

Commander Shadis led the soldiers through the wall with a piercing yell, probably an effort to raise morale from what Isanna knew was going to be another cataclysmic life-threatening expedition for some of the soldiers. Because she was just a positive thinker that way.

As Isanna's horse stampeded through the tunnel, a brief dimness covered her before she raised her gaze upwards, feeling the penetrating light from the morning sun splashing her figure upon finally stepping foot outside the walls that had been caging her since the day she had been born into this world. The rushed galloping hooves clopping the ground filled her ears, and she could hear mumbles of awe coming from both Adalaide and Chiara as they rode across the open area, the free wind hitting their faces. For a fleeting moment, Isanna temporarily forgot the dangers that were awaiting them in this expedition as she saw three doves soaring high up above them, as if accompanying the Scouts.

"Aren't you curious to see the world beyond the walls?" Nine-year-old Erwin asked her. 

"Hm.. no, I don't."

With a smile, Isanna realized the outside world wasn't as bad as she thought.