Shorter Than Me

26 Ecyn

"Ecyn, can you hear me?" a girl's voice asks me.

My eyes are out of focus and I feel like I'm shivering. I also can't feel anything, but I can tell I'm riding a horse. I want to answer the voice, but my mouth doesn't want to move. I think I nod instead, but I can't be sure until she responds.

"Good. Are you alright?"

The voice is coming from my right. It sounds familiar.

I want respond again. Am I alright? I don't know. I don't think so. I feel weird. I think I shake my head.

"Are you in pain?"

Pain. Can I feel anything? I'm about to shake my head again when I realize something does hurt. Something inside my chest hurts, and the pain is pulsing from there to everywhere else. I nod.

"Is it your head?"

It doesn't start there, but my mind hurts. There's something I'm not remembering. There are a lot of things I'm not remembering. Where am I? What am I doing? Who am I talking to? What is going on?

Does my head hurt? Not really. I shake my head.

"Is it your arms or legs?"

I shake my head. I just feel sort of numb, but also not numb. It's weird. I'm confused.

"Is it your torso?"

I nod. That's what hurts the most. For two reasons, I think.

"Top or bottom half? Never mind. Is it the top half of your torso??

I nod.

"Can you point?"

I struggle to move my hand. It's a blur, but I can see it release the reins of the horse.

I'm galloping.

I point to the center of my chest, where the strange pain is coming from. Then I point to the side of my rib cage. That one is a sharp pain.

"Two places?"

I nod. I turn my head to look at her. I struggle for a few seconds to focus on her. A name slides into my mind. Qui. My lips part. Air comes out. I think I'm regaining my senses. That's good. I need that to happen.

"Can you talk?"

I can't. I try to speak my answer. "No," I whisper.

"Thank the Walls."

The three Walls. One is behind her a few hundred meters away. I glance around me. Eight other horses gallop together. I list them off. Qui, Jewel, Fellip, Arlert, Braun, Kerstien, and two Ackermans.

"Ecyn, do you know what happened to you?"

"No. I don't remember."

As the pain in my rib cage increases, I begin to start feeling the rest of my body. It hurts to breathe.

"Try to remember. We went to help the Scouts fight the titans right after Hanji caught one."

The images play in my mind as she says them, but they don't stop when she does. Someone was doing the right thing as we were fighting. It was a boy. Briine.

I was trapped. Six titans were going to kill me. Then one titan saved me.

But I can't tell anyone that.

The titan was Briine. Now he's gone.

I turn to Qui. "Briine is gone."

"We know," she says quietly. "Sorry."

But she doesn't know. Briine isn't dead. He's gone. "My heart. It hurts." That's the one pain, I realize. Briine leaving hurt my heart.

"I'm sorry. He was our friend too." Her eyes are sincere.

I nod. "Where are we going?"

"Back to the gate. We just have a few more minutes. You can see the Karanese District up ahead." She points, and I look ahead to see the bulge in the Wall.

"Good." I don't want to be out here anymore. "My ribs hurt."

"Well Captain Levi found you on the ground, so you probably fell and broke something."

At her words, another memory floats back to me. I was sobbing into his shirt. I freeze in embarrassment. How could I have done that? I hugged him. And I didn't let go.

It's a wonder he didn't murder me.

***

We arrive at the gate. As we wait for it to open, Ackerman kills any titans that come near us. I wonder if everyone could just send him on an expedition, maybe with a few others, and we'd end up having more progress and a lot less deaths.

We ride through the gate where Commander Erwin is waiting. He speaks to Ackerman. Then he turns to the rest of us. "You can head back to the Scouting Legion headquarters."

We start our horses walking again while the Commander and Ackerman head in a different direction. I scan around, but most of what is usually the crowd has dispersed. Some of the remaining people look at us hopefully, like they're looking for a loved one they haven't seen come in yet.

I also see my brother. He waves at me, so I wave back. He watches me pass him with a smile on his face. I guess he's glad I'm alive. That's when I realize, so am I.

***

I fractured a rib. Lerra looked at me once we got back and said my rib was fractured. Then she put a large bandage, which was just a long cloth, around my rib cage and tied it there. She told me it would take a week or two to heal.

When I start to think about Briine, I just stare. It takes me a while to snap out of it. I wonder why I'm not crying. Maybe it's because I wasted all my tears soaking Ackerman's shirt. That's the thought that usually brings me back to reality, the fact that I actually did something that embarrassing.

Maybe if I go apologize I'll feel less embarrassed, though I doubt it.

This was a little short, but not too much. And it's a long chapter. How are you liking it so far?