Unexpected

40

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          "Please stay for a moment
      tell me, how should I stop you..?"

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"Take wall maria back from us!"

you heard a shrill piercing shout from down the ground, making you curiously look down from where you were standing at the top of the wall.

the citizens.

they were there, shouting and cheering for the scouts.

you were surprised was an understatement. it never happened. there was never a time, the citizens cheered, uh oh, forget about cheering, they never once supported the expedition of the scouts.

if you were to tell this to your younger self, she might probably throw you off the wall but regardless it was true now.

"I think my ears are malfunctioning." Alrik whispered from beside you, "and well..it is contagious.." you mumbled and looked up at Alrik who was looking down at you with the same facial expression as you. surprised.

You both burst out laughing, the wind doing its usual work but what was phenomenal was the sunset. the golden rays spraying in the air like sprinkles of water. The air of dusk held in its arms the beginning of night and it felt beautiful to you like it had never been before. maybe the fact that it could be your last time watching the golden rays falling onto the environment, touching your body.

"Yeah you can count on us!" Jean yelled from just centimeters away, taking away your moment with the nature.

and the Commander chose to join the shouting like it was a competition and who would shout louder and guess what? the Commander might have won if it was really one.

Erwin gave back the shouts with double the enthusiasm, giving the citizens an unsaid assurance that we will bring our territory back.

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you have never been to shighanshina. never.

all your childhood was spent in wall rose and at the peak of your teenage you joined the training corps, giving you more of a reason to not travel.
you did traveled, around wall Rose, to wall Sina, and the area around, with your older brother who seemed to know almost every place around.
you admired him, so so much that you were always at a loss of word.

and you thought, you would visit wall maria with him only.

him going around all the places like a tourist guide, giving you details of most the plant, animals you come across. with people around you, on their way home from the market, working in their shops, working in their fields, children playing around with their friends.

laughs, talks, chants.

with the place being lively.

but there were no laughs, talks, chants, no humans trying to go back to home, no kid trying to find their friend in a game of hide and seek.

nothing.

instead it was replaced by a land of no humans, where only silence lingered.
the trees, the weeds, the broken scattered houses looking back at you like you were an intruder. intruding the silence of those broken, lifeless beings.

intruding the place which once was a safe place for someone. which once was a home to someone, now only holding a piece of memory so, so traumatizing.

they were just kids. only kids when everything was snatched away from them.