Roads Untraveled

Prologue

Just outside Wall Rose, near Trost...

He smirked at the sight as yet another of one his hated foes was taken down with a quick flick of his blade. Levi Ackerman did not pity the steaming corpse of the fifteen meter high Titan as it laid in a steaming heap of misery. It's sickening grin still plastered on its face as its skin evaporated into a disgusting smell of rotten flesh. Sadistic bastards. The world would be such a better place without them. He thought. There was a time, long ago when he actually felt remorse for killing the cursed creatures, but not anymore. Not after what happened three years ago. Not after the fall of Wall Maria. Not after what happened to them. He turned to leave in search of his missing horse, brushing the thought from his mind. The animals where always helpful until the day you actually needed them. He started calling the animal to return with a high pitched whistle, in hopes of catching up with Commander Erwin and the others, but this was short lived (No pun intended! Sorry don't kill me!).

A sound coming from the nearby wreckage attracted his attention. His body stood frozen, feet rooted into the ground as he listened for the sound. Had he heard right? Surely he couldn't have. He was fairly sure the only one to break off to deal with the titan was him. If so what would anyone be doing out here? The idea of survivors beyond the wall seemed, well, impossible to say the very least. Even the most experienced of scouts can't survive in titan territory for long and that is with help.

Curiosity overtaking logic, he took a step towards the wreckage. Hoping in the back of his mind that he was wrong. But when does anything ever go the way we want it. He stepped closer to where he thought he had heard the sound. Searching the corpse of stone and rock for its source. Another sound, this time louder. Now he clearly recognised it. It was a moan! All doubt in his mind evaporated like dead titan flesh. Someone really was trapped somewhere underneath the all the rubble. That's when he saw it. A hand, only big enough to be that of a small child sticking out from under a collapsed wall. He remembered the building being crushed when he had struck down the Titan. He had never imagined that the building could have housed a person much less a child. The captain made no hesitation to rush to the child's side, heaving the rock off of the groaning child in one big effort. Once he did though, he had to keep himself from dropping it again. It was a sickening sight. Even for the much respected and feared corporal, this was not something anyone could be prepared for. Highly experienced soldier or not.

A young boy who appeared to be no older than six or seven laid in the rubble, blood gushing out from a rather nasty looking head wound. His left arm bent at such an angle that it was plain to see that it was broken and his clothing(which seemed far too small for him) was ripped to shreds. Thankfully the boy seemed to be unconscious. The only indication of life being the steady rise and fall of his chest every so often although even this was concerning. His breathing was far too shallow. But This was not what bothered the man the most. The boy's entire leg from his knee down was crushed by the building during the collapse. If he was awake at the time this happened he would have surely been in a lot of pain. Wasting no more time, Levi took off his cloak, ripping it in two and wrapping the one piece around the severed limb tightly in order to prevent any more blood loss. The other piece was used to make a temporary splint for the boy's broken arm. At this rate the child would bleed out before he even reached Wall Rose. Not to mention there was no telling how much blood he had already lost being trapped under the building. Once in Trost Levi could get the boy the medical attention he needed. But for now his makeshift compromises would have to do. Making sure he had stopped most of the bleeding, with the boy's arm safely secured to his body, he carefully lifted him from the wreckage. He was surprisingly light despite what he believed the boy would weigh, not to mention his temperature was abnormally high. He would have to speak to the doctor about that later. For now Levi just had to hope that his surprisingly light weight was not because of the loss of blood the boy had sustained.

His attention was drawn away when he heard the sound of his horse galloping over to him, having heard his call. He scratched the animal on its nose as a sign of praise for it's return and mounted the beast's back, holding on tightly to the tiny child in his arms now wrapped in his blood stained jacket. He stole one last glance at the direction the rest of the scouts had gone. He was probably going to get into trouble for disobeying Commander Erwin's orders but at the moment he couldn't care less. The man would understand once he had explained the situation to him. Whether or not the higher ups would feel the same way though was uncertain. But alas he would jump off of that bridge when he comes to it. They will be fine without him for now. Right now he had bigger things to worry about. "Sorry Erwin. Sometimes you just have to do as your conscience dictates."

With that he commanded his horse to turn around and started riding at full speed back in the direction of Wall Rose. All while he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew the boy somehow.

.............

So this is my first AOT fanfic and my second fanfic on this site. Don't worry not all the Chapters are this short. Please tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't think I could think of anything as awesome as this.

This fic can also be found under the same name at both the Shingeki no Kyojin and Attack on Titan Archives. My user name is also Ziixx.

Until Next Time!

-Ziixx