Bodies litter the battleground, with raw stumps for limbs and gleaming bone exposed to the air.
A dying soldier sprawls on the rooftop where Emil is crouched, croaking out the beginnings of a last word . . . it is fruitless, he does not finish . . . there is a hole that passes from the cavern of his mouth into the back of his head. Emil can see the eaves of the house through the gape of his lolling mouth.
But the work of the Titans is not done, not even after slaughtering a hundred soldiers and ingesting God knows how many more, not even after burying Shiganshina in rubble.
The Cart stares balefully off to the side, unaware of Emil's presence, carrying a bearded blonde man between its teeth . . . he . . . the Beast Titan . . . Emil will kill him.
He does not want to fight. He is here for information, for the secret that lies in Eren Jaeger's basement, now submerged somewhere beneath the piles of limbless corpses and the Beast's shrapnel. But the sight of the Beast engulfs him in flame -
His vision goes red . . . retribution, revenge . . . how dare they delay him for so long? Once he has that knowledge, he can go home. Once he learns the secrets of the world, he can return to Father - make him proud.
He will kill the Beast for impeding his progress. If the Cart resists, he will kill it too. His boiling blood yearns to punish them for inconveniencing him, for hindering his return home.
A pair of shaky green eyes settle on their target: the pale, exposed neck of the demon controlling the Beast. He imagines it cleanly slashed off, droplets of blood spattering over that golden mane . . . the bleeding stump of the neck, the cross-section of lifeless muscle and tendon . . . blood surging, adrenaline rushing . . .
He drops from the rooftop, eyes fixated - a whoosh of air, a battle cry, blades drawn back . . . a resolute strike, a spurt of thick crimson . . . blindly, he wonders, has he hit his mark?
Then, a deafening snap and the Cart Titan's jaws close shut around him.
A ringing, all-encompassing silence follows.
Encased in darkness . . . unheard shouts of help . . . the warm sensation of more blood as Emil plunges a piece of his shattered blade into the Cart's tongue. No avail. The silence continues, giving no sign that the monster felt a thing at all.
He drops the blade and falls on all fours.
Time passes . . . Emil is not sure how much. The humidity of the Cart's mouth begins to gather oppressively on his skin. It could have been hours, or days. Which way is up? The Cart is running, he can hear the dull racing footsteps, can feel the rhythmic thuds sending waves of nausea through his stomach. He reaches out, finding something rough and moist. The tongue. Yes, that way is down. Or is it the roof of its mouth? The heavy air leadens Emil's eyelids, and the declining oxygen . . . he thinks of the basement in Shiganshina . . . Emil can feel his breath getting shallower . . . thinks of Father . . . and then he can feel nothing.
When Emil opens his eyes, it is dark outside. But it is still far, far brighter than the abyss of the Cart's maw. His eyes unfocus and focus, attempting to re-adjust to the light.
What . . . is that?
A vast stretch of gently rippling water, wider than any pond or lake he had ever seen in his life. Blots of moonlight, like splatters of blood, fall onto the surface and bob gently with the waves. Limitless, boundless, infinite. Mysteriously deep, the holder of all secrets, the fortress of all knowledge.
YOU ARE READING
ANCHORED ✶ aot
Fanfic( To hold on tight, to latch onto the seabed while the waves and the wind give their all against you. ) On Paradis Island, Emil Fischer knew love; he found it lodged within the infinitesimal cracks of Wall Rose, rooted in each familiar sycamore tree...
