Ymir's Legacy

Ch. 2; Drilled

Two years had passed, the refugees of wall maria had been suffering since they arrived in wall rose. Food was short, winter had rolled in once they arrived three years prior, and the government had declared that all male citizens of wall maria over the age of twenty were to serve in the military and attempt to retake wall maria. However, out of the twenty-thousand sent, only one hundred had managed to make it back. Aila had suffered the past three years, she survived on hard bread that she had to ration out each week. She slept on the cold hard floor of a warehouse with tens of other refugees, and was forced to farm and attempt to grow crops in winter. Aila had decided the moment she heard Eren's words, that he was going to wipe out all titankind, that she would enlist into the military in three years when she turned sixteen. And so she did.

Aila stood in a line of cadets awaiting for orientation to begin, next to her left was a tall, slender, yet tan skinned woman with shallow piercing eyes and short brown hair. She had freckles that were hardly visible but visible up close, her stare was ice cold. And next to her right was a short girl with black hair split into two puffy pigtails resting on her shoulders, her eyes were full of light, life, and nervousness. Aila however, had matured into a beautiful young woman. She had golden brown short hair, her bangs split down the middle and separated at the sides of her face. Her eyes were yellow, slightly shallow, but had some determination in them. Her skin was a white tan tone, her muscles clearly defined through clothes. She stood tall for once, she had grown up to be taller than expected.

"ATTENTION!", the drill sergeant had shouted. The cadets stood with chins high and saluted. "My name is Keith Sadies! And you will grow to hate me! These next three years will be grueling and hellish! Right now all of you are weak, spineless titan fodder! But I will change that and mold you all into proper soldiers!", the commandant had shouted. He then began to walk down the aisles of cadets, some he passed, some he stopped at and drilled into them. He had gotten to the third row of cadets and began to shout once more, "What's your name maggot?!" "Sir! Armin Arlert sir!", Armin had nervously answered while saluting. "That's a ridiculous name! Why the hell would your parents curse you with such a dumb name?!" "It was my grandfather sir!" "Well cadet Arlert! Why are you here?!" "To be at service to humanity and retake our land sir!" "That's lovely to hear! You'll be a nice snack for the titans! Row three set face!", the commandant had screamed while grabbing Armin's head and rotating it to behind him.

Sadies was now walking down Aila's row, however Aila did not break her composure, in fact she felt no nervousness at all while awaiting the commandant's drill. He walked passed some cadets on her row, some he drilled, then, he made it to her, and stopped. "Cadet what is your name?!", saluting, Aila shouted, "Aila Brandt sir!" "Brandt huh?! And why are you here maggot?!", Aila clenched her fist as her memories of that day began to flood her head. Her brows furrowed, "To retake my homeland of Shiganshina and kill the armored titan sir!", the commandant's eyes glowed, he saw the determination in them. "That's a big goal you've got there! You must train hard to obtain it cadet Brandt!" "Sir!", she saluted once more before he moved on to the next cadet.

Sadies had made it to a certain cadet, small, shaved head, and... dumb. "What is your name shrimp?!" "Me? Uh- Sir! Connie Springer of Ragako village sir!", the cadet responded while saluting, but he had saluted with the wrong hand! The commandant did not take this lightly, he grabbed both sides of Connie's head and lifted him off the ground, "First thing the system should've taught you was the salute! Is your heart on your left side Springer?!", unable to answer, Connie hung there in the commandants hands. CRUNCH! Everyone's heads turned, a cadet was eating a potato while in formation! "Hey.. you there... what do you think you're doing?", the commandant asked, jaw dropped, while dropping Connie. He began walking towards the cadet, unaware of the mistake she had made, the cadet looked around and took another bite. "YOU'RE OFFICIALLY ON MY SHIT LIST! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!", swallowing the bite she had taken, she saluted, potato still in hand. "Sasha Braus of Dauper village sir!" "Sasha huh? What is that you're clutching in your right hand?" "It's a steamed potato, I saw it in the mess hall awaiting to be eaten so I gave it shelter in my stomach!", Aila could barely keep her composure, she was holding in her laughter. The commandant began to speak again, "But why... why would you eat that here, here of all places?" "It looked very delicious and it was getting cold," "Why.. why would you eat that potato?" "Are you asking why people eat potatoes sir..? I'm surprised you don't know sir", the area went silent, jaws were dropped everywhere. She sighed and grabbed hold of her potato once more, splitting it into two. Handing one small piece over to the commandant, she said, "Here sir, have half" "Have.. half? Really?", he replied. Sasha smiled into an proud smile. He then smacked both pieces away and screamed at her once more, making her run around the training grounds until the sun went down and she lost a weeks worth of provisions.