Once In A While

Chapter 6: The 57th Expedition, Part II

 As my eyes flattered open, I couldn't help myself but let out a groan of frustration; my head hurt and my left side, which I assumed was the side of my body I landed on, was almost numb from all the pains and aches I felt.

Adjusting my vision, I looked around at my surroundings. Just a few feet away from me, there was Reiner, bandaging Armin's head, and Jean was even further down, standing on a rock, whistling to get his horse -that was my first guess- to come back.

Once Armin heard my groan, he jerked his head at my direction, his face bore a surprised look.

"(Y/n)! You are awake!" He exclaimed, a little too loudly than what he could, and I guess he immediately regretted it, as he clutched his head in pain.

"Easy there Armin, I think you hit your head a bit too hard so you shouldn't force yourself to do anything out of your abilities.." Reiner murmured and then looked at me.

"How long was I out for?" I finally asked, trying to stand up but decided not to after I realized I was still in a lot of pain.

"Couple of minutes. We got you and Armin here but we lost our horses so now we're left with only one." Reiner said and looked at Jean, who was still whistling in hopes of getting his horse back.

"What am I gonna do now..." Jean whispered to himself, though it was fairly audible to the rest of us as well.

"Jean, you realize that if it doesn't come back, two of us will have to stay here." Reiner said sternly.

"Just give me three minutes!" Said the addressed boy, who was clearly in distress now, as he run his fingers through his hair.

"I'll stay back. It's not like I'm of any fucking use anyway." I stated, angry at myself; it was day one and I had somehow managed to act irrationally and almost get myself killed, also becoming a burden to my subordinates. Sometimes I even doubted my skills, disregarding the fact that I placed in the top 5 of our class, I would always find a way to screw things up and sabotage myself.

"We can't just leave you here!" Jean snapped back at me, the first time he properly said anything to me since I had woken up.

"Well we don't have any other choice! I'm only going to slow you down, you idiot!" I almost yelled at him. I wasn't in the mood to argue with him now, because I knew this conversation would only make things worse, so I silenced myself.

"Three minutes, Jean." Reiner told him, as a reminder that a choice should be made in a short while.

It was then that Jean fired an emergency signal flare; he said we could only hope that one of the nearest soldiers would see it and come to our rescue, though not all of us were that hopeful.

Much to my surprise, a few moments later, someone seemed to be coming to our direction, along with a few spare horses; I sighed in relief. Maybe I could get out of this, just this once.

"Are you guys alright?" Said the person who was now very close to our spot, and I noticed that it was Krista. I smiled at the thought that she had made it out alive so far, being very fond of her.

"Hey that's my horse!" Jean said as he took a better look at the horses Krista had brought with her; three spare ones, enough for all of us to mount one and get out of this place before it was too late.

"He ran towards me, terrified...Did you engage the titans?" She asked us, but before any of us could answer, she took a sharp breath in as she noticed Armin's bandages in-between his golden locks, and my own wounds as Jean helped me up from the ground.

"Armin, (Y/n)! What happened to you guys? Are you okay?" She asked, worry lacing her sweet voice. Even at such stressful times, she didn't stop caring for others.

"Yeah, we're fine." I shrugged off and took slow steps towards one of the horses.

"I can't believe that smoke round brought you here." Reiner confessed.

"Well I was nearby, and I already had Jean's horse so..." She trailed off, sparing a slight smile at us.

"Even horses like you. Seems like you have a strange charisma. You saved our lives." Said Reiner once again.

"But I'm so glad...the worse didn't happen to you!" She said softly, wiping a stray tear from her eye.

At that moment, I couldn't help but think of her highly; she wasn't selfish, she never had been. Even during our trainee days, she always put others and their needs first, cheering us up after a long, bad day when we gathered in our dorms. Some would say she was overly sensitive, sweet, and borderline annoying- I couldn't bring myself to agree, though.

"I suppose we better rejoin the formation now!" Krista finally said, and once we were all on our horses, we took off.

"I'm glad we're all alive but I wouldn't call heading back home after an hour a victory." Said Jean after a few minutes of silent galloping.

"Hey, look over there! Green smoke...I guess we're not retrieving, we're just changing routes?" I questioned.

"Is Captain Erwin out of his mind?" Jean sighed as Armin passed on the green signal, and we began riding towards our new formation.

---

"What is this now, a sightseeing tour? You've got to be kidding me!" Jean huffed, annoyed.

"Why are we going around instead of going through the forest, just like the center squads did?" I inquired. This was practically suicide, we couldn't risk being spotted by any other titans, let alone the Female one.

"Commander must have a plan in mind..." Armin justified.

"Yeah well I hope he doesn't force us to camp out here, with that female titan on our ass." Jean said sarcastically.

A few minutes later, we were stopped in our tracks from a higher up.

​​​​​​"All right rookies! You'll leave your horses here and stay on the branches of those trees! If any titans try to get inside the forest, you stop them no matter what!" He said nonchalantly.

"Excuse me sir-" Jean was about to say something, but was quickly cut off.

"I gave you an order!" The man yelled, as he used his ODM gear to climb on a branch.

"This is going great..." I said in a whisper.