𝔇𝔢𝔣𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 (𝔏𝔢𝔳𝔦 𝔵 ℜ𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯)

CXII - At The Edge Of Our World

"Defiance."

***

~852, A Year After The Seas Discovery~

The cold of night nipped at our skin.

We found ourselves waiting at the top of a small cliff near the sea, watching over the horizon drastically dimmed by the dark of the night. I hold a bunch of grapes in hand, leaning back against a rock, legs crossed over as my eyes trace the barely visible line where the sky meets the sea.

"I wonder how long he can hold his breath underwater for," Hange quips as she looks through a telescope across the crashing water.

"Do titans even breathe?" I ask, taking a grape into my mouth, biting down on it as it creates a loud crunch. My eyebrows shoot up in approval as Hange whistles, impressed by the sound.

"That was a good one," she grins as she looks down at me. I nod, continuing to chew on the small fruit as I pick another from the bunch, gesturing her to catch it when I throw it. She readies herself, shaking out her limbs like it was a military drill of sorts before opening her mouth wide, her eye watching as the grape is tossed into the air, manoeuvring herself to catch it only for it to bounce off her forehead and onto the ground, making me burst out laughing.

"No!" She exclaimed. "That felt like it was going to be a crunchy one too!" She whined only making me laugh harder. "And to answer your question, no. Well they don't need to breathe, but I suppose they need to to make their groans and what not," she says, pinching a grape from the bunch I had in hand before returning to her telescope.

"So they do it because why not," I conclude and she shrugs a half agreement.

"Yes?" She says, the word coming out as more a question than an answer. My gaze pans over the ocean again, seeing a long, thin ribbon of what looked like steam thinning out the higher it gets. I sit up, putting another grape in my mouth as I squint a little, seeing the faintest flicker of orange in the distance, a fair while away from the shore. I take the telescope from Hange, replacing the item in her hand with the bunch of grapes I had as I look for myself at the fast incoming enemy steamship.

"There's our next shipment," I murmur as I hand the telescope back to Hange, standing upright and heading back over the small hill back towards the camp. The one eyed brunette lingered behind for a moment before stumbling back after me, catching up and falling into step with me as we enter the camp. Heading for the barracks tent set up near the centre, I push through the entry flap and my eyes fall on many soldiers bustling through the area, multitasking in conversing and readying themselves for something, anything.

"Where's Lee?" I ask no one in particular. A rustle from behind us sounds as another person enters the barracks, and a hand briefly meets my waist, lips pressing against my forehead for a second. "Oh, there you are," I say as I look at him. My gaze meets his, and for a moment the colour in his eyes almost seem like it's dancing. "Ship is coming in, likely to hit the shore in less than fifteen minutes if their pace stays the same. Eren's already below the surface of the water, we're just waiting on you and the hostage," I inform. He only nods as he vanishes from the tent, my gaze scanning over my comrades who all scurried through the barracks.

Only a few minutes had passed, the time spent waiting on Levi to retrieve the hostage before the ground shook. Mildly, but the quake was still obvious enough to tell apart from the natural disaster. I look back at Hange, whose eye was already trained on me.

"They're ashore? Already?" I ask surprised.

"Steamboats waste little time, my titan youngling. C'mon, Eren would've stopped them!" She exclaims before she sprints out of eyesight and into the night.