The day Wall Maria fell to the Titans, soldier Arden Keiser selfishly chose to save herself. She disobeyed direct orders and abandoned her role within the Garrison Regiment, taking the life of another as she did so. She made an attempt to escape fro...
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"Wake up already, Ard."
In an instant, Arden's eyes were wide open. She tensed upon realizing her situation; in the dim candlelight, a dark figure loomed over her. Hands were gripping onto her shoulders, slowly rocking her back and forth in an attempt to awaken her. The owner's voice, both husky and feminine, continued calling for her to wake up, even after seeing that her eyes were open.
"Ard! Finally awake I see," the intruder teased. "You're quite the heavy sleeper—"
Arden instinctively shoved the invading body off of her own and swiftly pushed herself to her feet, prepared to fight against the intruder, but she relaxed upon recognizing the figure to be Hange. She was hardly a threat.
Arden rubbed the remnants of her sleep from her eyes and squinted through the dim candlelight. Her look of confusion quickly morphed into one of annoyance.
Hange chuckled. After being tossed aside and falling to the floor, she pushed herself to her knees shot a bright grin up at the soldier. "You're a paranoid person, aren't you?"
Arden sighed. Hange clearly hadn't visited with intentions of harming her. If anything, Hange's current position portrayed her as completely defenseless. She was kneeling right before Arden, offering her the perfecting opportunity to drive her foot forward and kick the squad leader right in the gut. While Arden was tempted to do so, for Hange had been rude enough to awaken her so abruptly, she restrained herself from indulging in the violent act.
But while Hange didn't appear to be dangerous given her current position and the playful grin she carried, Arden didn't know her well enough to make any judgements on whether she was truly a threat or not. Arden had no reason to trust the woman.
Ever since they had first met in the carriage following Arden's trial, Hange had been abnormally friendly without any reason as to why. In the short time they had known one another, Hange had made many attempts to befriend the woman. Arden refused to believe that these attempts were made because Hange was genuinely a good person. She had been convinced ever since Hange had given her a uniform that her motivations for being so kind were dark, that Hange was only offering her friendship in order to gain something else.
Arden concluded that she couldn't let her guard down, no matter how innocent Hange behaved.
Her hands tightened into fists. "Why're you here?" She questioned.
Hange brushed a few stray locks of hair behind her ears. She nodded towards the small broken table next to Arden's bed. "I brought something for those bruises," she explained, "and I grabbed something that you can actually sleep with too."
Residing on the three-legged nightstand was a small bottle, though Arden couldn't see in the dim lighting just what resided within it. Resting on the floor right at the table's feet was a stuffed pillow along with a thick blanket that had lazily been crumpled into a ball rather than folded.
