The Birth of Freedom

Here there be Monsters

RIAN

A month had passed since that day at Wall Rose, and again not for the first time, everything had changed.

We had learned that Aurora and I had a sixth sense of sorts which allowed us to sense a Titan if it was nearby. Erwin had theorised that like most animals, we had a heightened awareness of our surroundings and as such could detect incoming Titans. Hange had also suspected our physical attributes and senses were heightened, similar to Section commander Miche's sense of smell, and as such Miche had taken us to the wall in-between our training sessions to sharpen this skill. The more we practised, the easier it became; hopefully, the next time we encountered a Titan, we wouldn't lose our heads as we had before.

Erwin had expressed how valuable this ability could be in the vanguard ranks. We could potentially be an early warning system, especially with the range Aurora had. We, in theory, may be able to save the lives of our fellow soldiers by warning them of Titans long before they found us. I only hoped it would be the case.

Another unexpected twist had come in the form of Commander Erwin himself. A top of Wall Rose after Aurora had realised that our Grandfather had known were freaks of nature, she turned her wrath to Erwin and demanded answers. I hadn't understood at first why she was asking him, too stunned by the fact that our own Grandfather had been keeping such secrets that I hadn't at first noticed the looks of apprehension on our superior officers' faces. They had known something too.

Erwin was forthcoming with my sister and I. He told us everything he knew, about our family name, our mother's death certificate with Grisha's involvement. That nugget of information led me to believe he knew too. After all, Grandfather had said the truth was with Grisha. That piece of information had hurt the most, lies upon lies from the very people who were supposed to care about us. People who we had looked up to. People we loved.

Aurora and I had poured over every document Erwin had till our heads had hurt, Hange and Levi had questioned us about every detail of our childhood and what our Grandfather had said to us as he lay dying. In the end, we had been none the wiser to what our Grandfather knew and why our whole existence was shrouded in secrecy. We had come to the decision that whatever our Grandfather knew had been taken to the grave and with Grisha missing and presumed dead, it was unlikely that we would ever learn the whole truth. For now, we would have to make do with what we knew, and that was we were special.

We were currently mounted on horseback, adorned in the Scout colours, passing through the Trost district of Wall Rose. Today was my first expedition to establish supplies for the route to Shiganshina, to home. I would be entering unchallenged Titan territory, I wish I could say I was ready, but the truth is I'm shitting myself.

We passed through the cobbled streets, hooves echoing off the stone houses. How many times had I watched the Scouts processions march through Shiganshina with Eren? It was kind of surreal. One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was the reception we were receiving, when I had been a bystander, the Scouts had only been held in contempt for their wasted use of resources and taxes, that was not the case today. In three years since taking command, Erwin had actually turned the Scouts into the very thing they were supposed to be. The hope of humanity.

The procession came to a halt as we waited for the gate to be opened and my eyes found Aurora who was shifting nervously in her saddle one row ahead of me, patting her thick crown braid obsessively making sure everything was held in place. A large pale hand enclosed around her slender wrist and guided it back to her reigns and her head turned to look at the man touching her, as did I.

Captain Levi released Aurora's wrist and gazed at her face for a moment before pushing his horse forward to take his place with the command squad. Aurora stared after him, her hands clenching around the reigns of her horse, that  was not going to end well. I caught movement to the side of her and saw Eld casting confused glances between Aurora and the Captain before his eyes settled on Aurora with a sad expression.