He Told Me to Live

12 | Outside the Walls

The horses were gathered at the gates of the city and I spared another glance at Levi's team. It was always so fascinating to me how it looked.

There was Levi and Eld who always had this stoic look on their face. Oluo certainly tried, but he just looked annoyed.. maybe having trouble with his bowels. Petra always had a determined look on her face, but I could see that hint of hesitation in her eyes. Gunther always looked alert and serious, so I could tell he was ready all the time.

Eren.. he was different. He had some sort of mix between Petra and Gunther's expression, painted on his young - and most importantly inexperienced - features, as if he's been outside the walls plenty of times before.

It was a bit startling.

"Commander! It's time!" One of the scouts said, dangling from the city's walls. "The Titans in the vicinity are being kept away! 30 seconds until the gates open!"

I closed my eyes and drew in a breath. Battle cries sounded through the air as they always did, but I always noticed that it got quieter and quieter every time the Scouts went on an expedition outside the walls.

Or... on any mission, for that matter.

The gate opened and it was announced, "The 57th expedition outside the wall, start! Advance!"

Once it opened, I heard faint thuds from a distance, as well as a few loud footsteps coming from the Titans that the defence team failed to maintain.

But one order rang through my ears. Advance.

"Formation for long distance enemy detection, deploy!!"

At Erwin's command, teams strayed away from the centre of the formation. In moments, signal flares soared through the sky, black, red, whatever the report was, I saw it in the form of a straying cloud.

Sounds overwhelmed my senses: galloping, birds, voices, signal flares, I couldn't track anything that was going on like I'm normally supposed to on these expeditions.

Then, I heard a distinct sound. Despite most sounding the same, I can identify which horse is which simply by the sound of their neigh. At the moment, it was faint, hundreds of metres away from where I was with Erwin.

But I heard it well enough.

"Charrette..." I muttered.

"What was that?"

I looked up at Erwin, who had his eyes laid on me as they always do when I say anything. He knows when something's on my mind all the time, just as Isa used to.

I didn't say anything and looked away, down at the passing ground that Cinder was running across.

Everyone knew that my senses were impeccable after being trained for so many years. Sight and hearing were my strongest, but that didn't mean that the other three senses weren't far past intact.

The scent of blood was in the air.

Faint, just like the distressed neighs and whinnies of the distant horses, but I knew it was there. Was something wrong? The scent of bloodshed normally didn't fill my senses like this so early in an expedition.

"Y/N." Erwin began. "What's on your mind?"

"Something's wrong. We haven't received signals from the right flank yet and there's this scent of blood so early in the expedition. And..."

"Horses. You know what's going on with them, don't you?"

I nodded slowly, but I didn't pull at Cinder's reins to slow down. My senses were intact. I know they were. But if I were to run to the right flank to see what was going on, there's a chance I'd simply meet the same fate.