AOT: Life of a Scout

Ambush Pt. 1

 Ezra's grip on the reigns of his horse tightened in response to his building anxiety. His breath took on a ragged rhythm. As the air left his lungs it lingered like a fog before dissipating. Damn it was cold. 

He inhaled and exhaled vigorously, unintentionally enacting hyperventilation. He tried calming himself for fear of his four comrades ahead of him hearing his squeals. Then again, the chances of that were pretty slim as the constant downpour of rain blocked out any subtle sounds.

On any other day this would have been preferable conditions as he wouldn't want the others in his squad to know just how badly he was freaking out. 

But now, the rain proved to be more of a curse than a blessing. The downpour would make communicating with his teammates much more difficult. And indeed, the nature of their current mission relied heavily on their ability to talk to and signal one another.

When standing still, the rain could barely be felt against his skin. However, when moving at such high speeds those little droplets of water changed to match the consistency of pebbles hurled by children. 

Even while wearing his regiment's customary dark green cloak he could still feel the minute blows. Pulling his hood over his head didn't make much of a difference either.

 Through the haze around him Ezra could make out his teammates; two of them were just ahead of him to his right and left. It was a classic diamond formation with someone on either side of him and another at the forefront.

 Anything and everything that emerged in the blind-spots of their left and right flanks were his responsibility to call out. That brought with it its own complications which made their current assignment all the more challenging.

Before the mission began the four of them had debated the projected weather and if it would be either favorable or unfavorable for speech.

It hadn't been all that stormy at the beginning of the day so talking to one another seemed the better plan. However, that changed as the day progressed and the clouds above turned a menacing gray. 

Thunder was expected to role in with it, acting as an obstacle of which they'd have to account for in their new strategy.

Instead they would rely solely on hand signals to contact and inform one another. The plan was a good one, but sadly it too didn't hold up against the heavy rain which made it almost impossible to check on one another without being blinded by a curtain of the watery deluge.

So along the way they decided to simply switch back to their first option. Luckily he could still make out the trees at his side as they passed by, making their way down the long ago dirt trail turned mud. The mud itself was an obstacle as it wore down the horses and sapped them of their energy.

The team had ridden through the forest for only several minutes and already the easily yielding ground was having an effect on the steeds shown in their reduction of speed. 

Ezra turned his attention back to the forefront of the squad. Some ways ahead of them the dense tree cover began to lessen before yielding into a large open field.

"We're almost there".