Requested by SpringTrap168284. Werewolf AU. Second part coming out soon.
I know there are probably a heap of consistency errors in here, so please point them out so I can fix them asap.
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Everyone in Shiganshina knew that you didn't go outside the walls after dark. It was the easiest way for the creatures in the woods to get you. Agents of the devil that could chose which shape they took, to blend in with the humans or animals as they chose.
The town of Shiganshina had been under siege from these creatures for generations, as far back as anyone could remember. They had long erected a wood and stone wall to keep the monsters out, and safeguard their people. And since the monsters could change their form, the townsfolk were ever paranoid of newcomers.
Mikasa knew of this paranoia well. She had experienced it firsthand. Found wandering the roads outside the walls, they had taken her inside and kept her in a jail cell for thirty days and thirty nights to ensure her humanity. When they could be sure, she was sent to live with Doctor Jaeger and his kind family. They took care of her well, and she fit right in to their family life; even if Shinganshina's customs were bizarre and alien to her. They did not fast on the holy days, nor did they cleanse their food, nor did they keep altars inside their homes. Their culture and way of life revolved around the beasts that tormented them.
Mikasa didn't exactly fit in with the townsfolk. She was an outsider, and it didn't help that she looked nothing like anyone else in town. If they weren't mistrustful of her, they were scared: she had beat up some kids that had been bullying her new brother and his friend. Eren and Armin were her only true friends within the walls of the town. They were outcasts too. The three of them formed a little band, prepared to take on the world by each others' sides.
How naive they were, to believe that they would have a future together.
After only a year, Mikasa's family was shattered once more. She had a winter chill, and had to stay home while Eren and Carla left to pick strawberries from outside the wall.
But they didn't come back.
When the gate is closed of a night, it doesn't open until sunup the next morning. Everyone knows that.
They knew that Carla and Eren were dead. There was no way they could have survived overnight, in the creature's territory, without the safety of the wall. They held a small funeral service for them at the town church, and afterwards Grisha took Mikasa aside.
"I promise I'll take care of you," he said, face stark. She couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm not going to lose another child to them."
And then he hugged her. And she felt proud of herself for not flinching at the contact.
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Mikasa sat perched on a rock, sharpening her sword with a whetstone and trying to keep warm by the dying embers of the fire she'd built. Out here, in the open, she had to be constantly on guard. For a moment, she regretted not bringing backup on her expedition, but then she reminded herself that she didn't care for any of her peers in Shiganshina. (The exception, of course, was Armin, but he was in no shape to be leaving the safety of the wall. He had, however, gifted her with what little information he knew about the monsters that lived in the woods.) Even after ten years in the town, Mikasa was still an outcast.
So she left one morning, leaving Dr Jaeger a note explaining everything. How she was going beyond the wall to find her fortune: and some closure on Carla and Eren. Perhaps kill whatever beast took their lives all those years ago.
