Flying on Her Wings (Attack on Titan)

Making Friends... Or More Accurately, Enemies

Rachel's P.O.V

The echoing screech rings through the forest, so loud even the Female Titan clamps her hands over her ears.

I let the 'song' go on for about ten seconds before leaping forward, digging both ends of my wings deep into her eyes. Letting out an inhuman screech almost as loud as mine was, she stumbles backwards as I flap my wings, hovering in the air in front of her. Turning my head to where the humans are, I quickly yell one word that jolts them into action.

"NOW!" Both the oriental and another man with steel grey eyes– Levi, I remember– jump out of the trees, and begin attacking with lightening speed. I keep watch on the monster's eyes, and whenever one regenerates, I stab it again. This continues until she is backed up against a tree, and I see Levi cut open her mouth to reveal a slime-covered boy inside.

Seeing as the oriental is debating whether or not to strike the Female's unprotected nape, and Levi is injured from a sprained ankle, I swoop in and grab the boy. I was just about to get my left wing out of the Titan's mouth when–

CHOMP.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" I let out a scream of pain as the giantess closed her teeth on my left wing, and I look up to see her healed left eye glaring down at me. Seeing the oriental cross my vision I quickly twist my body, and yelled,

"Catch!" as I throw the boy's body in her direction. She catches him, and I ignore them as I turn back to the giantess, trying to pry her teeth open so I could remove my wing from her death grip. It didn't work.

Weakness overcoming me, I limply swing from her teeth, feeling as if my wing was being ripped from my back. Pins and needles of agony shoot bolts of pain down my shoulder blade and back, and I can't help but contract my muscles in an attempt to make the pain lessen.  I feel my right wing curl underneath me, as if to give me some sort of purchase to give relief to my strained body, and cry out as black begins to invade the corner of my vision.  Barely remaining conscious, I dimly hear,

"Now!," before being overcome with the sensation of free-falling to the Earth.

Everything goes black.

~~~~~~~~~~

Someone is... poking me.

...

...

... Someone is poking me!

I shoot up, only to be met by the sight of a crazed-looking brunette with glasses in my face. Shrieking, I jump up, glancing around for an escape route to see a small army of Survey Corps members surrounding me, all with their swords raised. What happened?

Oh right. Female Titan. Boy in saliva. Broken wing.

Broken wing!

I gasp, whipping around to inspect the damage. I find that my left wing is lying limply on the ground, while my right one is folded neatly against my back.  I scan the clearly-broken appendage to assess the full extent of the damage, and curse quietly.  It is apparent that my wing is broken in several places, and the place where it flows into my shoulder stings and painfully calls for my attention, as well.  I tense my shoulder, curling and unfurling my right wing partially as an experiment, but my left wing only twitches.  It remains limp on the ground, by all accounts lifeless and unusable had I not known about my healing factor.

"Damn it..." I mutter. This is going to take at least a month to heal, and what am I supposed to do until then?! Walk around with no means of escape from the Titans?! Someone clears their throat. Looking up, I am met with the Levi shorty who is holding the female brunette from earlier back, and Captain Eyebrows. Lowering myself into a defensive position, I keep my face expressionless, and stare at them, waiting for one of them to speak. The brunette is the first one to speak to me– or more like yell at me.

"HELLO~!! My name is Hanji a pleasure to meet you can I touch you?" I stare at her, dumbfounded, and shake my head no. She pouts.  "AWW but why not? You're injured and need medical help!" She looks back to her eager self, and I didn't like that. Her mood is like the weather.  And why is she pouting if she's a full-grown adult?  Shouldn't she be leading by example?

"First of all, Miss Hanji, I will not accept any medical help from you. And second, it will heal on its own, I will give it time." I say, still eyeing her expression and movements.

"Please excuse her." Captain Eyebrows is speaking. I turn my attention to him. "I am Commander Erwin. You already know Squad Leader Hanji, and this is Captain Levi."

Looking at the midget, I ask, "Is the boy alright?" He raises his eyebrows at that, but remains stoic-faced.  I can tell by his body language that he has been very tense recently, and I assume he was recently worrying over the safety of his fallen soldier. He refuses to express emotion outside of his 'I don't care' attitude, huh?  Typical.

"Yes. The brat is just fine." I fume at him for calling one of his soldiers a brat, but stay quiet.

"And what about your injury?" I probe, and see his eyes darken for a millisecond before meeting mine.

"None of your business, brat."

That's it. I put my hands on my hips and glare at him.

"Excuse you, Captain Shorty, one of your soldiers was injured just a little while ago– and you have the decency to call him a brat. You surprise me. From what I've heard from your previous missions outside human territory, a lot of people look up to and respect you, and you have the nerve to call one of those people a brat. I don't know about you; but I believe it is highly inappropriate for you to act the way you do, even if it is part of your character. So you can shut your trap when you are in my forest, as well as Titan territory." Quite a few gasps are shared throughout the people who were surrounding me, and murmurs spread at my statement.

Anger burns in Levi's eyes as he stares me down, and I can see he is losing his resolve for me insulting him in front of his loyal soldiers.  His shoulders tense subtly, and I am stricken with the sudden feeling that he knows his way around a fist fight before brushing it off.

Whoops. Probably shouldn't have done that. But the dwarf deserved it, so I regret nothing.

... I hope.