A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

Reclamation of Wall Maria

Isanna woke up in a cold sweat and a loud gasp, bolting upright on her bed in spasmodic shivers. Another nightmare.

Like an automatic response, she swept her figure across her bed and strode towards the door, her hand grasping the door knob and about to twist it open when she stopped.

.. No. She was not going to his room. She absolutely refused to do so.

With her hand still trembling as it clutched the knob, Isanna closed her eyes and heaved careful, steady breaths in an attempt to calm herself, pushing back the horrifying scenes from her nightmare.

Now that she thought about it, they rarely ever visited her ever since she started looking after Lauren. But it seemed it started to resurface now that she was back to sleeping alone in her room.

Exhaling a shaky sigh, Isanna rested her forehead against the cold surface of the door, eyes still closed as she felt her breathing even down after a while, much to her relief.

After minutes of steady breathing, she lightly tilted her head and gazed out the window of her room. The color of the dawning red sky told her it was around 5 AM, and she remembered what day it was.

Three whole months had already passed, and the mission to reclaim Wall Maria was today.

•

The barracks was bustling with hustles of soldiers jogging around to get everything ready. Lines of horses were already queuing up, saddled by Scouts and the wagons were filled with the necessary supplies.

Isanna stepped outside into the courtyard and casted a brief survey around the area; she was already wearing the standard Scout uniform, her green cloak bearing their crest hanging behind her back. She took note of the tense and nervous expressions majority of the soldiers wore and understood why they were so jittery; a whole year had already passed since the fall of Wall Maria, and this was going to be their first mission outside Wall Rose following the temporary suspension of scouting missions.

And their first mission in a whole year, was to lead an estimated number of two hundred fifty thousand civilians to their impending demise.

Isanna loathed her circumstances to the very core.

She lowered her gaze to the crunched pavement below her, weeds of grass sprouting out from some nicks. She was fine with trained soldiers sacrificing themselves for humanity since they signed up for it in the first place. This, however, was not something she agreed to.

Someone patted her head, and for a split second, Isanna thought it was Erwin.

When she lifted her head back to see the person, her eyes met with Mike's, who was giving her a small, reassuring smile. "Hey. I prepared Fish for you; she's already waiting at the front."

Isanna blinked a few times at the blond. Ah, she had probably gotten so used to Erwin ruffling her hair. She mentally scolded herself for that thought before she pushed it away.

"Thanks," she meekly replied, mustering a grateful smile back at him before the two of them made their way to the front of the line of horses.

As they reached the front, Isanna's gaze flittered towards the front most white stallion, until she saw its blond rider beside it.

Erwin had his hands on his saddle and was about to hoist himself up when he caught her gaze, blue eyes clashing with dark irises as the both of them paused at the eye contact.

From Mike's peripheral, he could make out the surrounding soldiers shooting their two superiors weary looks and subtly backed away from the two, clearly fearful and not wanting to be caught up in the crossfire. Truly, even they could feel the heavy air cloaking the two.