Fallen but Found || PoruKoru

The Day It Began

"Here," Porco said, handing him a few sticks. "I got some more for you- you never get enough the first time."

Colt chuckled as he took the sticks from Porco, placing them in his cart. It was the one his family used to sell milk and vegetables to the locals of Shiganshina, but this time he was using it to gather firewood for his mother's cooking.

"Thanks," Colt said, placing the sticks in the cart. He turned back round to face Porco, but he noticed his friend fidgeting.

"Is something wrong?"

Porco looked up as if he was surprised at the question. "Oh yeah, I'm fine."

Colt picked up the handle of the cart and walked on the paved path, Porco following beside him. They were going in the same direction, anyway.

"Porco," Colt said, looking at his friend as they walked- a bad idea, considering the fact that he nearly tripped multiple times- "I'm your best friend. You don't have to lie to me."

Porco sighed as he adjusted the straps on his shoulders, jostling the logs he carried on his back. After a while, when they had neared the centre of the city, he finally spoke.

"The Survey Corps is coming back soon. I w-wanna watch them, but my mom forbade me."

Colt nodded- he understood. After Marcel, Porco's older brother, had enlisted in the Survey Corps just to never come back again, Porco's mother had been scared and angry when Porco expressed an interest in joining the same group that had killed his brother.

(If he was honest, Colt blamed the titan more. Marcel had known the threats, but still joined. It wasn't the Survey Corps' fault if he died while doing the duty that he took an oath for.)

Colt mulled over the situation for a few seconds before grabbing Porco's arm with his free one, the other still connected to his cart. "Well, let's go. Who says that your mom has to know?"

Porco returned his sly grin, and the two of them made their way to the opening of the gates.

It wasn't good. From what the two children could hear, the Survey Corps had gained little important intel on the titans, and hundreds of men had already died. Porco stared at the commander for a few seconds, before darting his eyes back and forth between the commander and the ground. The man looked at him- Porco couldn't look away, had stared back in defiance- and he knew he was discovered. As the mother of one of the deceased soldiers screamed at the commander, Porco slowly raised his hand and waved, the commander following his movements with his eyes.

The commander waved back, but it was very brief and innocuous. It made Porco smile- it was something for only him to see.

"Porco?"

Well, he and Colt.

"Let's go," Porco said, looking away from the scene. He was about to grab Colt's hand and walk home together, but the sound of someone talking stopped him.

"Those damn survey corps," Porco turned around to see a man- old, probably mid-50s, rambling about something to his friends. "They take our taxes, and what do we get? Nothing. Only dead bodies. We oughta stop this bloodbath of a group. We don't even need to go outside the walls. They've been protecting us for a century now!"

The man's friend nodded. "I just hope Tobias doesn't actually try to join them. I've already told him what will happen if he does."

Porco could feel his fingers trembling, enraged by the man's words. The Survey Corps wasn't a bloodbath! The people who went with them knew they could die! At least they weren't cowards who stayed in the walls, who gave up their freedom and protection to a block of stone. There was so much out there, Marcel had told him! Bodies of water with so much salt that the merchants wouldn't be able to take everything, places so cold that there was snow all year round, lands with sand spread out so far and wide-