Against The Tide

Chapter Eleven: A New Beginning

Shiganshina Arc

Armin's Narration

Four months had past by since The Rumbling, and the mass genocide of most humanity. With the power of the titans gone, and with some tedious convincing, ultimately what little humanity existed outside the walls finally lost their fears of Eldians after hundreds of years. The soldiers who battled hard to bring down The Founding Titan were considered heroes, as Eren predicted. Still, with the Rumbling came great devastation to Marley and its people. As a result, much of their resources were limited, if not completely diminished. While Paradis wasn't destroyed, there was still a wave of destruction from when the Rumbling had occurred.

The entire apocalyptic event scared off all wildlife deep into the woods and mountains, making hunting a challenge, even in these warm months. When the animals would return, it was hard to say exactly when that would be. As a result, both Paradis and Marley relied heavily on rations and were in the process of rebuilding their towns and villages. With these struggles, the two countries agreed on a signed Trading Deal.

If the Eldians agreed to exchange any goods of value they could, in an effort to rebuild Marley's country, once that required quota was met and Marley regained their resources, they would send a generous shipment to Paradis, including more livestock, advanced medicine, more lumber, blueprints for modern buildings, many books with knowledge of things Paradis had no idea about, and even the promise of discussing the idea of bringing electricity and automobiles to Paradis sometime in the future.

However, the required quota was a steep one. Hunters attempted to fill it with pelts, but with the animals scared so far into the wilderness, those hunts resulted in exhausting, week, and sometimes even month-long trips. This meant that items of different value would have to be sent over. This included horses, prized jewels from the people of Stowess, and perhaps most notably, profit from mining. What we didn't know about Paradis, was that underground was a massive amount of oil and iceburst stones. These stones are unique only to Paradis, making them extremely valuable to Marley and other parts of the world. If volunteer miners can dig up and send enough iceburst stones, as well as oil, to Marley, then the trading deal could happen as soon as five years from now. In the meantime, the people of Paradis had to get by with what they had until the wildlife returned.

End of Armin's Narration

Shiganshina, Trost, and Stowess had begun the hard process of rebuilding themselves, as well as many people's homes and villages. With the rebuilding that happened, there was one newly built home that sat on a decently sized piece of land. It was only about half a mile from a very noticeable location that sat on a hill looking over Shiganshina. The location had a great tree, and at the bottom of it was a newly erected headstone.

The new cabin that was built close to this spot was a two-floor, with a dark wooden outer wall. It was only recently completed, the dozens of tree stumps behind it proving it was worked on hard, day in and day out. There was still a massive forest of undisturbed pine trees behind the sea of stumps, but it was clear the builders took advantage of the forest to build this home.

As well as a cabin, there was even a newly built barn on the left side of it, with a medium-sized pasture surrounded by a fence containing two horses, a blue roan, and a pale-faced palomino, both of them grazing peacefully and enjoying the Spring weather.

The house itself had a lovely layout inside, with a living room, kitchen, dining room, and an upstairs with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. There was a fireplace, as well as furniture in most rooms, minus the two extra bedrooms. In front of the cabin's wrap-around porch, there was a large rock sat by some bellflowers. It had a recent carving in it, reading out the words "Arlert Ranch"