The Squad Behind Us [Attack On Titan]

End of Part One - The Letter

Levi attempted to whistle to himself as he walked casually down the road. His whistling was awful so he stopped after a few minutes of trying. He stopped in front of the horse stables, and looked both ways before entering. Inside, everything was made out of oak wood, presumably from the nearby forest he'd passed on the way there. Horses of different colors and sizes were placed within holding pens, and they neighed slightly when he walked in with a now fierce expression.

After grimacing a bit from the overwhelming smell of horse manure, he shouted, "Thomas! I came back!"

An older boy, in his early twenties, comes running out from behind a corner. There was hay in his hands and a sack of oats tied to his right leg. His face shows surprise, respect, and a tad bit of confusion. The boy's hair is a dirty blonde and long, but slicked back. His skin is flawless and a paler shade than you'd think a man in his line of work would have. His outfit consists of a long-sleeved, white, button-up shirt, and a brown vest to go over-top of it. His pants are brown as well, but both browns are of a light shade.

"O- oh! Levi! It's been much longer than you said so, I thought something might've happened or you'd forgotten!" Thomas - the boy - shouts at him, while trying to use one of his legs to balance and still unlock a gate. "You need your horse now?"

"Yeah. Sorry for taking so long, but something . . . interesting happened." Levi looked down as he thought about the recent events. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice walking over to him with the sack of oats still tied tightly to his leg.

"Well, if you want to talk about it, just tell me and I'll listen. Then again, it's none of my business and you don't have to!" Thomas shouted quickly afterwards as soon as Levi lifted his head up with an almost . . . angry expression.

"Tell me Thomas," he said in a quiet and intimidating tone. "Why are there oats attached to your leg?"

Thomas was taken slightly aback by his question, as the bag of oats seemed completely normal to him. "Oh! These? Well, it makes it easier when it's feeding time. Instead of making two trips, I just tied it to my leg so my hands would be free! Brilliant, right? Well, at least I think so and the horses don't complain! Ha!" Thomas starts quietly chuckling to himself while staring down at his feet.

Levi was about to say something rude to him, but stopped himself. He'd really had a long day, and he just wanted to get back home before Shitty Glasses did so he wouldn't have to deal with her for a few hours at least. So instead, he got straight to the point.

"I need my horse."

"OH! Right! What did it look like again?" Thomas asks patiently, snapping himself out of his weird state of happiness and laughter that only he seemed to be experiencing.

"It was brown, with a sort of star shaped mark on its nose, remember?" Levi refreshed, agitated slightly. How could he have forgotten where he'd put his horse?

"Yeah, that one! What's its name by the way? I didn't have anything to call it while you were away."

"Its name is . . ." and Levi trailed off as he realized that he actually didn't know the horse's name. "I don't know," he said finally.

"Oh," Thomas shouted, surprised. "Well, we can just call it horsey I guess!"

"You're too happy, Thomas."

"Excuse me?" Thomas stopped walking to look at him.

"How can you be so happy? You work as a stable boy for crying out loud! Don't you have crappy wages? Didn't you tell me when you first came here that you had a disability? I mean, I would rather have your life, because mine right is absolutely awful! Not to mention we're stuck behind these damned walls, and everyone's dying!"