An Ackerman's secret

8

A few days passed and I had gotten Sasha some meat and new spices to try from the markets, which definitely got a happy response out of her. She was one of the easiest people to buy for.

The expedition soon came up. It wasn't an extremely important one, it was for the capturing of titans since Hanges previous ones were murdered and they demanded more to experiment on. I was ordered to stick by Levi during the mission to learn off him and get used to being in charge of others.

We all finished our breakfast and headed to the barn to tack up our horses. My horse, Luca, was happily munching on his may and didn't bother me while I adjusted the stirrups. I smiled once done and handed him a treat, which he responded to with a happy nudge.

I stepped my foot into the stirrup and swung my leg over his back, mounting him. Everyone began lining up in the formation and I joined at the front next to Levi.

"Ready brat?" He looked at me from the corner of his eye. I nodded and held my hairband between my teeth as I pulled my hair into a ponytail, then tying it with the band. I was determined to show that I was worthy of being more than just a cadet if it meant that I would be of extra help.

Hange glanced over at waved at me, a grin on their face while pointing out my position with their hand. I giggled and waved back, which got a 'tch' out of Levi.

We readied ourselves as Erwin gave the command to proceed and broke into a canter towards the gate. I admired the clear sky which was filled with birds as we quickened the pace into a gallop.

After a while we approached a town swarmed with titans and were ordered to take them out using our gear. "Don't die." Levi hardened his eyes at a nearby 12m titan and jumped off his horse to switch to ODM gear.

I turned to the rest of our squad, "Build a base for supplies and tie up the horses in a close, but safe place, then take out the titans and stick together."

Once I was certain they understood, I jumped off my horse too and followed Levi who had already killed three titans. He acknowledged that the rest of our squad followed my command and praised me with a small nod.

I finished off the titan that he was fighting and landed on the roof next to us to assess the situation. Two medium titans north and a large, maybe abnormal, west.

Levi landed next to me and wiped off the blood on his hand. "Stick with our squad, I can't protect them when I'm not my normal self."

I saluted and scanned the town for our squad to see they were still setting up a base and didn't need my help yet. Another medium titan approached us. I hooked into it's neck and swung around it, slicing it's nape before swinging around the other side of it's head and landing back where I previously stood on the roof.

"Do you think I'll become a captain?" I stood in front of Levi who was still cleaning the handle of his blade. He raised his eyebrow at me and took a second to think about it.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." He said coldly. "You will be lucky to even become a vice captain."

I furrowed my brows, that was unnecessarily rude. It was true that I was unlikely to become a squad leader so quickly but I still had hope and his attempt to crush that wasn't going to work. I walked away, not looking at him and carried on looking out for any changes to the situation.

Our squad were finished and switched to ODM gear, which was my cue to join them. I jumped off the roof and swung between the buildings towards them when they began engaging in combat with an abnormal.

Once I reached them I took notice of their mistakes, "Aim for the legs and arms first remember!" I shouted as I dived down and dug into its right leg, making it stumble backwards and leaving it vulnerable.