The Child Titan

Chapter Three

Grey eyes nervously scanned over a large army of soldiers with grim looks dawning on their faces. Hope was settled on top a golden brown horse, hugging the one who would will guide the mammal. Her equal, Eren, held onto the ropes of the horse with white knuckles as the child's arms were around his back. Both were saddled on top with the child having extra straps around her, to make sure the child wouldn't fall off.

"We've driven away all the Titans in the area. Thirty seconds until we open the gates!" A adult male shouted from within the crowd, his voice reaching out to everyone.

The child took a deep breath, savoring what felt like the breath of her last. She knew what was happening. She knew what she has to do. What she must do. For her, at such a young age, to be forced to endure the tragedies soon to be, was frightening. She felt her hands and body tremble, her eyes stinging, wanting to cry. But she bit her lip and shut her eyes tightly. 

"This is for big brother.." She mumbled to herself quietly, remembering her brother and his death.

"It's time!" The voice called out again, almost to soon for them. "Humanity will take another step forward. Show me what you can do!"

"Open the gates!" Hope mentally prayed for them not too. She wanted nothing more then to go back to how things used to be, herself and her brother.

"Advance!" Those words sent everyone's horses racing forward, away from the safety of the walls and into the dangerous territory. Hope gripped onto Eren's cape tightly, surprised at the speed.

"We will now begin the 57th expedition beyond the walls!" Erwin's voice held no fear as he yelled. "Onward!"

They immediately had rode into an old town that was slowly crippling away. Greenery had started to overtake the houses like weeds in a garden. The glaring sun shone down on the broken glass making it glisten like dew on grass. It was almost peaceful.

That was quickly ruined when Hanji pointed out a large 10 meter Titan and called on it. Immediately, two support soldiers took action to eradicate the threat. They seemed to have almost killed it but they made the cut too shallow. Soon, they went back and re-positioned to get the kill.

Hope didn't dare to look at those monsters again and buried her face into the deep forest green cape that sat on her brown hair companion. She heard Eren and one of Levi's men conversant about if Eren's friends could defeat the Titans but was told that the arrangement was so everyone could avoid them. Well, Oluo was until he bit his own tongue yet again.

Soon they exited the small town and was out on open ground. The land was extremely flat with small patches of light forests and random greenery scattered around. Erwin then shot out his arm to the side before yelling at everyone to split up into the formation. The young girl felt a large amount of anxiety as groups of soldiers spread away from her own group. She held her breath as they grew further away, but reassured herself with knowing the Levi and 'Strong' were still with her.

•••

"R-Red from the r-right!" A young voice called out,
while looking in that direction. After a second, a shot rang out from beside her and another stream of red smoke was trailing in the sky.

Hope was told to look out for the coloured smoke signals behind the squad. Her stormy grey eyes scanned across the green land and above in the bright blue sky, without tiring. Her anxiousness kept her on edge, hoping to God that she doesn't see a Titan.

"Black flares..?" The child said, loud enough for the rest to hear. The trail of dark cloud stood out from the white and blue background of the endless sky. A question was wondering in her mind to what the signal meant. She knew red was bad and green was good, but was not told what the other colours meant. The sound of Levi's voice broke her out of thought as he ordered Petra to shoot her own flare.