The Cadet's Origin

Chapter Thirty Four - Narrowing In

Kenna was grateful that she was flying through the air with her ODM gear. It made everything just so much simpler. Even though she had been doing this for two years, she never got over how small the world looked from up here. She glided through the with ease. Her grappling hooks barely touched the trees as made her way through the forest. She struck down any Titan dummies she came across. She smiled as her friends raced around her. The wind was whistling through her ears. Shadis's voice echoed through the forest.

"To the trees now! Groups of three!"

Kenna stopped on the branch closest to her. Annie and Eren were on the branch next to her. Kenna looked and saw that all of her friends were dispersed among the trees. There was no rhyme or reason to the groupings; it was clear that everyone had just hopped onto the tree nearest to them.

Shadis was hanging from his ODM gear in the clearing, "In battle, there is no guarantee that your gear will work. When you can't rely on the gear, you must rely on your comrades. One of you will not be able to use your ODM gear. It is up to the other two to help get the third out of this forest. The way you do this is completely up to you, but all three must cross the edge of the forest. You will get three minutes to discuss plan and strategy, and you will have twenty to get out of this forest. Anyone who doesn't meet this will run until the sunsets!"

"Well I'm not being the one without my ODM gear," Annie said as she looked at them.

"And it's not going to be Eren," Kenna said. "So, I guess it's going to be me."

"Why can't it be me?" Eren asked as he looked at Kenna.

"Because I don't want to have Mikasa staring over my shoulder the entire time," Kenna said. "So, what do you two want to do?"

"I say we sling shot you," Annie said. "I'll throw you as I go from a branch and Eren will catch you. We'll just do that until we get to the end."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Eren asked as he looked at Annie."

"If the exercise is suppose to about trust, what is more trusting than that?" Annie asked.

"You guys will catch me," Kenna said with a nod.

"Okay," Eren nodded. "But you need to let Reiner know that this was Annie's idea, and I got outvoted."

"Don't drop her and you'll have nothing to worry about," Annie said.

"Love the confidence guys," Kenna said as she looked down to the ground. Kenna felt some sense of panic rise in her throat, but she pushed it down. There wasn't any other option. Annie wouldn't do it, and Kenna didn't want to risk Mikasa's rage.

"Time's up!" Shadis yelled at them. "Start maggots!"

Kenna saw Eren jet out in front of her. Kenna took a breath as Annie grabbed her arm. Kenna felt her feet leave the branch. Kenna felt Annie's momentum shoot forward. Then, Kenna was flying through the air. Kenna's eyes locked onto Eren. He was moving just in front of her. Kenna gritted her teeth to hold back the bile. She held out her hand. She felt a surge of relief as she felt Eren's hand in hers. Then, she was thrown in the air again.

Kenna could hear people yelling and screaming at each other, but she wasn't paying attention to anyone else. All of Kenna's attention was focused on not falling.

Kenna flew through the air as Annie caught her and threw her again. This is what Kenna imagined flying was like. They were moving so fast. It almost made Kenna forget about how terrified she actually was. Kenna barely even registered the fact that she was being thrown anymore. It was like her, Annie, and Eren were in perfect harmony with each other. Eventually, Kenna could see the light of the edge of the forest. She saw some other teams ahead of them, but Kenna didn't care about that. She was just happy that this was almost over.