The Birth of Freedom

The Fall of Shiganshina

ARMIN

A fist connected with my face making stars explode behind my eyes as I slumped back against the wall and glared at the three animals surrounding me.

I knew I should have gone with Rian and Aurora to collect wood.

"Mm. What's the matter, heretic?!" the idiot with the spikey brown hair drawled in my face as he shoved his hand against my cheek, and I turned my face away. Heretic he called me. All because I dared to dream about the outside world, because I thought about what we could be if we actually left our gilded cage. I clenched my teeth as I tried to control my temper.

I refuse to fight like a bated dog!

"If you don't like it, let's see you hit back!" the largest boy of the gang sneered at me. I pulled myself back up into a standing position and held my head high because I was better than this, I was better than them. They were mindless idiots who don't have the intelligence to hold a single thought beyond the blooding of their fists.

"That would be stooping to your level!" I snapped.

"Say what?!" spikey said dumbfounded.

"You know I'm right! That's why you have to resort to violence! Because you can't argue back! Which means you concede defeat to me, does it not?!" I taunted as I stood tall with pride, I may not be the strongest, but I won't cower, not this time. Aurora told me once that it doesn't matter how strong or weak you are, it's about the kind of person you want to be and she was right. I wanted to be better than this!

"Shut up, smart-ass!" the bully shouted before delivering a swift kick to my gut and knocking my breath from me. My legs buckled, and I hit the ground groaning before I lifted my head to see him preparing to kick again. I gritted my teeth and stared at him as I waited for the inevitable blow.

"Stop that!" a voice screamed from my left too far away to make a difference and I scrunched my eyes closed, bracing.

"It's Eren!" spikey shouted and my eyes shot open as I saw my attackers gearing for a fight. Eren was barrelling down the street to my rescue and my heart dropped because as much as I loved him for it, if he was alone, then he was just going to get a beating right alongside me.

"That Idiot's back for more?!" Spikey's friend sneered.

"Does he want his ass kicked?!" the other bully cackled excitedly.

"They are with him!" Spikey cried out in terror. Looking past Eren I saw my cousins Aurora and Rian, their red hair quickly making them easily recognisable and Mikasa just in front of them, all hot on Eren's heels.

The odds my attackers now faced were not in their favour. Mikasa was an outstanding fighter, but the twins were exceptional. Aurora had wrenched a man's shoulder clean out of its joint once when she was 16 when he had attempted to pull Mikasa away from her at the market. Grandfather had brought me along with him when he, Grisha and Rowan went to collect Aurora and Mikasa from the garrison guard. I remember the pride on Rowan's face not at all phased by the fact his grandchild had incapacitated a grown man twice her size, not that she hadn't done worse to those that had threatened Mikasa before. A purse of coins here and a quiet word with Mr Hannes and that was that, all swept under the carpet. Rowan had nodded at his granddaughter and ruffled her hair when the guards brought her out, high praise indeed from the usual hard-faced man and Aurora's smile had been dazzling from receiving rare affection. 

"S-Screw this!" spikey wailed while sprinting in the opposite direction of his coming doom and his buddies soon followed with their tails between their legs.

"Let's get outta here!" they cried and had I not just receiving the worst beating of the month, I would have found their wailing amusing, but right now the pain was at the forefront. Gritting my teeth, I blinked rapidly to keep myself from crying.