The Birth of Freedom

The Forest of Giant Trees

EREN

I don't know what I had been expecting by going beyond the wall with the Levi squad, but this certainly wasn't it. Riding in complete silence, we moved through endless fields diverting every so often when the Commander's green smoke flare went up, and it was slowly killing me.

I wasn't after a full-on conversation exactly, but anything was better than the tense silence that was only adding to my nerves, even combat would be preferable to this never-ending waiting.

As if on cue for my call to action, Aurora's head suddenly snapped to her right as she leaned back in her saddle, her body as taut as a drawn bowstring.

"Aurora, what is it?" I asked, concerned as a visible shiver ran through her entire body and turning back to the centre of the unit, Aurora ignored my question and shot her brother a look of mild distress. 

Something's wrong.

"Do you feel that?" Aurora asked Rian, her thick eyebrows drawn together in worry and her body shivered once again.

"Yeah, I do." Rian gritted out, mirroring his twin's anxiety, "Which isn't good." 

Shit.

I remembered when Aurora and Rian had told us about their unique abilities and from what I had gathered from the brief conversation, Aurora's talent had a wider range than Rian's, so if both of them were picking up on something at the same time, it meant something was really wrong.

"Sparhawke report." Captain Levi ordered as he cast his cold eyes over his shoulder towards Aurora before his eyebrows too drew together in concern after one glance at her face. 

"Titans coming up on the right Sir, they are already inside the formation" Aurora informed the Captain, her face twisting in deep worry and my stomach dropped as I realised why.

Armin is on the right.

"How many?" the Captain asked, a slight tense note to his otherwise monotone voice.

"Hard to say, but one is moving towards us at speed," Aurora replied as she held her arm out in what I assume was the direction the running Titan was coming from. Surely it will be intercepted, I mean come on this is the heart of the formation, they shouldn't be able to get this deep in. Should they?

Unless... Abnormal.

"If it maintains its current course, we will have no choice but to engage it, Sir," Rian warned as he too kept his eye to our right with an intense expression. I knew going beyond the walls would be tough, but we had barely been out an hour, and shit was already going down.

"Aw shit!" Oluo cursed, voicing my concerns exactly. 

Pushing on, we continued for another mile with the atmosphere growing tenser by the minute as Aurora and Rian shifted around in their saddles agitated, no doubt by their weird Titan senses kicking when a green smoke flare rocketed through the sky signalling our new course.

"Smoke signals, green. Oluo pass it on." Captain Levi ordered as he began to steer his horse to the new route.

"With pleasure, sir." Oluo nodded as he loaded his gun and fired the flare. No sooner had the green smoke gone up we were being hollered by a lone scout approaching us from our right, a tense and desperate look on his face.

"Reporting sir! an oral message. It appears the right-wing spotters have been wiped out; the early warning network is compromised. One of you will need to relay the message down the line." the rider panted before pulling away to return to his position and we all looked at each other shock.