Titan Warrior

Chapter 5

The morning was busy as a large crowd gathered around the street leading towards Trost's gate. The crowd stood, waiting eagerly as the Survey Corps prepared to leave for another expedition.

Amelie stood next to Yaku, watching as the Scouts rode past them, reminding herself that she was soon going to be among them. The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating. She then looked up at Yaku, who stared after the Scouts with a furrowed brow and a lost look in her eyes. She reached up and placed a hand on Yaku's arm.

Yaku's eyes flash as she comes back to reality and she looks down at Amelie. “Something wrong?”

Amelie smiles a little and shakes her head. “No, not at all.”

Yaku looks relieved. “Good.” She then looks around at the crowd. “We better find the others. We have a lot of work to do today.”

Amelie breathes in deeply. “Right.”

Yaku leads the way through the crowd, soon coming up to Eren, Armin, Mikasa and two other cadets by the names of Franz and Hannah. Yaku pauses and crosses her arms, listening for a moment to the group's conversation.

“There hasn’t been any kind of trouble for five years,” Franz was saying. “and they have also improved and fixed the canons. Maybe the big Titans won’t come again.”

Eren was fired up, defensive that Franz even suggested such a thing. “You can't seriously believe that, you stupid love birds!”

Instantly Franz and Hannah’s faces flush and they grow flustered by his comment.

“You think we're a happy couple? You’re getting ahead of yourself!” They stammered.

Yaku smiled at the scene and she couldn’t help a small laugh as she and Amelie finally approached the group.
“My, aren’t we lively today.”

The group turns to Yaku and Amelie, and Eren looks up at Yaku as she stops in front of them.

Yaku crosses her arms, looking down at the group while continuing to smile. “Hope you all saved up enough energy for setting up those cannons because you’re going to need it.”

Eren sighs, his shoulders slumping in disappointment. “I was hoping you'd forgotten about that.”

Yaku shakes her head and places a hand on Eren's shoulder. “Come on, Eren, there is much more to saving humanity than killing Titans. We have to make sure our defences are set and in working order as well.”

Amelie nods in agreement, smiling at Eren as well. “She's right, your chance to slay Titans will come before you know it.”

“Hey, you guys!”

Everyone turns as a man, blonde with a mustache approaches Eren, Armin and Mikasa.

Yaku and Amelie watch as the man is greeted by the three with enthusiasm, calling him Hannes.

“I heard you graduated yesterday,” Hannes said, a proud look in his eyes. “It's hard to believe you’re the same little kids I remember.”

“What about you?” Eren exclaimed with a smile. “You've gone from a drunk to a Captain of the combat engineers!”

Amelie smiles as she watches them, seeing how close they are. She could see that this man, Hannes, cared a lot for her fellow cadets and it made her glad that even through the horror that befell them five years prior they still had someone who looked out for them.

Then Hannes’ smile disappeared, and his gaze dropped to the ground. “I'm still sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t able to save your mother.”

Amelie looked from Hannes to Eren and saw a slight hesitation in his eyes as he took a second to remember the event.