The Last of Its Kind [AoT]

LXIII

Clouds drifted across the sky peacefully as the sounds of waves rocked a large ship gently. The breeze carrying an ocean mist to overexposed sun-kissed skin aiding to combat the heat. It could be described as calming had it not been for the feeling of urgent dread and anxiousness that swarmed each person on the ship.

The breeze gently combed through white strands of hair as scarlet eyes shifted from the clouds. A bird flew past with a squawk as a white feather fluttered from the sky and cascaded down to the deck.

"A beautiful day, don't ya think?" A voice questioned with a smile as footsteps inched closer.

Scarlet eyes briefly shut in a flutter before narrowing as they drifted to the person leaning against the railing of the ship.

"To the unsuspecting eye of bystanders, yes. But to those of us, like you and me, it's this calming quiet that leads to foreseeable violence."

"The calm before the storm. Unfortunately, I know what you mean, my little dreary storm cloud. How are your injuries?" A voice spoke with a sigh as a smile filled with fatigue shaped the person's face. One filled with overexertion and exhaustion from the neverending battle. Concern had flashed in her eye as she looked the short woman over for visual injuries.

"They should be healed by the time we reach land." Kyra brought a hand to her chest where the gaping wound was slowly healing. She no longer felt the excruciating pain only the fragments of phantom aches from the memory of the hellish nightmare of the shrapnel being pulled out prior.

A click of the tongue could be heard as rolling eyes followed. "Tch. Seriously? Not this again. You can't get a dog to respond to you if you keep calling it different names, Hange." The woman beside her retorted facetiously as red eyes stared at her bluntly.

A chuckle escaped the patch eyed, Hange as a semi-rejuvenated smile lingered on her face. "That holds truth...if you were a dog, but you're not. And if you ignore me, I have ways to get stoic, ill-tempered shorties to talk. I've had years of practice on not just one but two. I'm practically an expert in this subject, and I've become fluent in sarcasm. So you're welcome to try." Hange said with a chipper voice happy for a moment of distraction from the worries that plagued the patch-eyed woman.

Red eyes blinked dully before an eyebrow raised. "You say I'm not a dog... but you're speaking like I'm a completely different breed or species. Anyway, what is it that you want?"

"Not different, Kyra, just special...or unique... but not in a bad -" A voice interrupted Hange before she could continue to ramble on.

"-Hange, I'm stopping you right there. We don't have time for you to ramble the whole day away, and even if we did, I guarantee one of us would be thrown overboard." Kyra spoke bluntly as a chuckle escaped Hange.

"Even in times such as these, you're still menacing. Anywho, I had a theory. It's by far a long shot, but what if you could make a connection and stop the Rumbling? You could stop Eren. I-"

Kyra closed her eyes and shook her head. "No. I can't. There are way too many of them. I wouldn't be able to even reach Eren from this distance. I don't have ways to contact Eren through the Paths, either. I can't see or hear what you've all experienced so far. It may be possible with a few, but not nearly enough to turn the tides in our favor. Plus, you have to consider that with each connection made in one go, my reach is bound to weaken the more I try to spread it out. So... it could end up backfiring and killing us instead. Not only that, but trying it on a large radius may leave me indisposed for a long time. And from there, you would have no choice but to leave me behind for dead... not that I would necessarily mind. I understand your theory, and it's theoretically plausible... but the risks are far more damning." Kyra explained with a heavy sigh as she ran her hand through her hair. Her red eyes shifted from the sky to Hange as she turned to lean back on the railing.