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₊˚ෆ "MISS MARTI-ACKERMAN, IVE BEEN SENT WITH ORDERS FROM COMMANDER HANGE." One of the soldiers came with a letter from Commander Hange. In the letter, Hange needed someone to bring food and medicine for a squad in mission.
"Are there any free soldiers at the moment?" Aurora asked; her eyes were sliding through the words.
"No, miss Ackerman. All of them are in mission or helping out. I would've gone but i'm needed." The man says formally.
"Alright. Tell Hange i'm going, yeah? Pass me the bags." Aurora climbed her horse. The man was loading the bags up with whatever the squad had asked for.
Cantering along a forest trail, the first autumn leaves glimmering from the trees in flakes of sunlit amber, the ground firm but springy under the grey's hoovers. Suddenly a loud crack came from the naked trees and whilst the remaining leaves were quickly falling off; that's when Aurora realised that she was surrounded by 2 or more titans who were managing to fail at hiding behind trees.
The powerful surge of her horse was exhilarating and the rich colours and deciduous scents of autumn woods filled her with sensual pleasure but also a huge amount of fear. The titans had not moved at all and it was rather macabre.
Aurora was looking all around, pushing her horse to its limit, her clock bannering out behind him; forcing her way through thorny bramble thickets. The thud of hooves upon forest mulch, the hard breath of her horse were a bad distraction meaning that her horse could stop at any moment and let her be titan food.
Rustled sound of leaves could be heard behind the girl, running at an average speed. It wasn't much until the three meter titan was stretching his arms at the sight of his food riding on a horse.
Aurora adjusted her OMD gear and griped it on a free tree which contained no hiding malformation; her horse was long gone. At every movement of hers, the veering came with the wind all together; her swords were unleashed and targeted on the beast. She swung from the tree to the nape and tightened her grip on the swords; it was all in pure balance and perfection, the titan fell down dead.
'Four more to go.' The girl spat and her swords once again fell in flesh, dragging them with her. The titan half snapped its head off, leaving a trail of blood all over Aurora; the action had happened three times more until no titan was in sight.
Aurora hurried at the end of the forest where her horse was having a great snack, unbothered by anything else. It's wasn't long until Aurora had began her journey again: her horse was even faster since it fed.
Galloping through an empty field, Auroras thoughts began attacking her mind: 'Is Armin going to be there?' , 'What would his reaction be?' , 'Is Jean going to be with him?' , 'What does Annie have that i don't?'
So many questions that she didn't have an answer for; she got lost in her thoughts until she arrived at their whereabouts. "Good boy." she patted her horse and took his bridle; Aurora tied her horse with a well secured knot next to the other horses.
"Why are you here? Michael was supposed to come, not you." Floch verbalised in a harsh tone. Aurora was startled. "I don't have to explain myself to you, if you're not gonna help then move." the girl spattered back in the exact same tone.
"Floch, you're needed in the back." Another familiar voice indulged in the conversation. Floch scoffed and walked past Armin at a peace; Armin took half of the bags from Aurora.
Armin took a deep breath before he spoke, wanting to start a conversation."You know, it's dangerous to come here on your own." Aurora simply rolled her eyes and placed the bags down. "I'm a soldier. I do dangerous things, it's my job."
"Still, they could've sent anyone else." Armin said. His words came out wrong. "So you don't want me here either. Maybe Annie would've been better."
"Aurora, i didn't mean that. I meant you're important and... i wouldn't want you to get killed." Armin tried explaining himself, it was no use because his words have already came out unthought.
"Save it."
"If you're here to talk about Annie then why did you dance with Jean. I'm sure you were melted by his touch. 'Oh Jeanie, keep your hands there!!' " Armin mocked, Aurora's slap imprinted on his now red cheek. "At least i don't fuck rocks." she spat and unknotted her horse.
"Aurora... I'm sorry, look, just stay more. We'll leave tomorrow and it's dangerous now." Armin hurried over to her horse and held her hands with the knot. "Please, just stay... i'm so sorry..."
Aurora looked in his eyes. She thought they were like freedom, it reminded her of the clean ocean they saw some months ago. It looked like the radiant sky on a beautiful day; his eyes were perfection to her, but to Annie aswell. A part of her wanted to leave and say no to his offer but he was right and it angered her.
She said nothing and knotted her horse again, looking anywhere else but Armin. Aurora could still hear his graceful breath near her ears, and a small breeze of his exhaled air on her neck. The silence was utterly awkward.
"Commander Arlert, you're needed." A cadet informed; he seemed new, informal in Aurora's perspective. Back when she was a 104 cadet no one talked like that with their commander.
Armin and Aurora shared a look before Armin held Aurora's hand and took her with him. Their fingers instantly linked; similar to an embrace. It was something new to Aurora even tho she had done the action multiple times, it didn't feel like it did with Jean... it felt way different.
"Commander Arlert, we have found people living over the sea!"
...
It came as a shock for all; Aurora was unfazed. "Didn't you read the letters Eren had sent?"
The cadets shook their head as a no. "What letters?" The commander asked, his tone was different than usual, his breath was fastened and his eyes seemed different. "He said there's an island called Merely... no.. something that sounds like merrily, maybe Marley full of Marleyan people, weird name choice to be honest." Her head tilted to the right, rubbing her index finger gently near her chin.
"Why do we only know about this now?!" A new cadet asked angrily. He stepped next to Aurora, shaking her forth and back by her collar. "You good for nothing! We've spent weeks to find this information and now you come with your petty face to t-"
The cadet was down on the floor. "Don't you dare touch her. It's not her fault we moved slow and just now found something worth importance! If you lay your hands on her again i'll make you titan food."
The cadet forced himself to bow on the ground, carrying all the pain from the punch he got earlier. "I'm so sorry Commander Arlert, I'm deeply sorry miss! Please accept my s-"
"Pack up. We're going back!" Armin interrupted his apology and immediately gave orders. Aurora knew how to take care of herself and the situation given but she would've never imagined this side of Armin. It came to a huge shock to her, him yelling like that for her. She didn't want him to, but it was rather fascinating of how much a person could change in such manner just for someone.
Armin didn't even like her so why was he risking his whole team's respect for someone like her? Or did he?
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