Looking Through Me | Attack on Titan Fan Fiction

Chapter 13: Stellacinque

I was pressed against my horse, Sheila, and trying my hardest to stay warm. I was given a deep green hood for warmth, but not because I was a technical member of the Scouting Legion. My teeth were chattering, and I constantly had to blink and squint to peer through the blinding rain.

It was nearly impossible to see, but every horse had two lanterns strapped to their saddle. One to the left, the other to the right. That way we could see people positions from far away, and the only other time we'd see them would be when lightning flashed and deafened us, casting crooked and horror-like shadows across the plains. In the distance we could barely see the mountains, but only because they acted as a lightning rod, and that was were most of it touched down.

Sheila's breath was showing in the air, and I patted her side. "Atta girl, Sheila. Just seven more hours and we'll be there a little past lunch."

For a moment, it seemed as though it lit up her spirits. She began to canter faster, and I smiled. "There ya go. Maybe I'll give you an apple when we get there. We only have a few, so don't waste it okay?"

A sharp whistle sounded from my right, accompanied by an eruption. Everyone looked to the fired flare, and got prepared. Even in the middle, I wasn't safe. Our group only spanned to have a radius of 500 feet, which wasn't that much. When the lightning flashed again right above us, it was revealed that a red flare had been fired. I got out one of my blades from the pack to to my left, and kept my gaze locked on it like everyone else.

A few minutes passed, and the red slowly started to fade, but nothing was happening. I was aware that our group was shifting, and finally, Sasha, who was to my right, pulled her horse next to mine.

"It was an accident! A flare fell out of Ymir's pack and fired itself! There's no Titans!" she yelled over the brisk wind, overhead explosions, and pounding rain.

"Roger! Resume the position, and we'll be there in how long?" I shouted back.

"Well we left at midnight," Sasha stated, "so we'll be there maybe a few hours after lunch! It's between a twelve to fourteen hour trip!"

"Got it! Can't wait 'til we get there!" I grinned, and gave a thumbs-up even though I couldn't feel my frozen and wet fingers.

"I hope we get there soon, I'm hungry! We didn't have breakfast! I wonder if we'll be able to hunt for deers or other animals..." She hiccuped, and her eyes became dreamy. "Wait! We don't have any bows! Our guns are only for emergencies!" She pouted.

I laughed, and pulled something from my right pack. "Actually..."

Sasha laughed and clapped her hands, and I held up the four aluminum bows that I had managed to fit below the tarps and tents for everyone. They had reusable arrows made of aluminum as well, so I decided to take them.

"You're amazing, Jennika! I knew that what everyone was saying about you wasn't true!" Sasha exclaimed.

"What were they saying?"

"Oh, you know, the trial and everything! I didn't think that a girl that showed up in the middle of nowhere could be on the same team as the Eotena!"

"Guys!" someone screamed from behind us, and Sasha and I split to see Connie. "Get back in position!"

"Yessir!" She whipped the reins, and steered her horse away from me and back to her position.

"Just wait until we get there!" Connie yelled at me, "You'll love it!"

I smiled, and pressed myself to Sheila again when he departed. "Just six more hours..."

Like all the other times, you can guess what untrustworthy move I pulled. I fell asleep. Again. Sheila kept going, and even though I did nothing, my hands had a firm grip on the reins so I wouldn't fall. I think that all my horse did was just follow Eren, who was guiding us all from 500 feet away. Thank God that I got some sleep, because when I woke up, I saw ginormous trees that were at least as tall as our formation was wide.

The sunlight made streaks through the leaves, casting little dots of light everywhere. The bushes and shrubs were thick and a lush green, and the trees had wide trunks made of dark brown bark. Leaves on the trees looked like the bushes of sky, and it was like the forest floor was reflected above us in the infinite branches. I knew that from there on out, it was less than an hour's ride.

It was much less than an hour, in fact. In about twenty minutes, the rear caught up with the vanguard until we were all standing in the same grove. The spaces between trees were wider, and the trees themselves were thicker and stronger than before. There were almost no Titans in the area, and all of our horses stood in a circle around the grove that we'd call home—temporarily. Truth is, none of us knew if this was permanent. No one knew what was happening, or what we'd do next. We'd just...live. Live and struggle.

Life for the horses would be pretty easy. We could tie them to the bushes and logs near the trunks and they'd just graze for the rest of their days. Life for us would be much more difficult, because the Titans were after us. They didn't care about the horses, just humans.

"Hey, Jen," Ymir called, and I turned around to face her. "This is the place. Not what you expected, eh?"

I shrugged. I'd seen the show, so I knew exactly what to expect. "Not at all! Looks amazing... So, where do we start?"

"First," Mikasa said, "we get off our horses."

We laughed and stepped off, leading our mares one by one to the trunks of the five trees we'd be staying in.

"Now," Jean announced, "we begin."

I grabbed the tarps and tents, and we strapped on our 3DMG. Flying into the treetops, I landed on the safest level: above the lowest branches, and to the thick and flatter ones at the top, where you were camouflaged by the leaves. Not a single Eotena would see us, and if they did, they could never in a million years reach us. Between our five trees in a circle, there was one branch from each topiary that joined in the middle, like a five-pointed star. They'd all grown together through and through. Not only was it amazing to look at, but it would serve as a canal for us all to walk to different trees. Some of them had another, flatter branch above our "main floor" that a second person to dwell in, hence the five trees to nine people ratio.

I set up the large, triangular tarps between every branch, so now it was like a true field in the sky. It also served the purpose of making sure that no one fell off the branches, because let's face it, that was a huge factor. Finally, the tarps camouflaged us from Them. I secured all the tarps, and each could hold half a ton at least without falling, but it wasn't like that was going to happen. We'd just stay on the five-pointed star that connected our trees.

We did get rather lucky, however. There were knots in the trees that were at least four feet tall, and after Jean hacked at them for twenty minutes, they busted and revealed to be a hollow bubble-like room in the trees. Eren piled his medical stuff in there, along with the axes and guns with their ammunition. There was another knot in a second tree opposite to the other, and Armin hollowed it out with Connie. In the second, we put all the spare gear Mikasa carried, which consisted of gas, gear, uniforms, and clothes. With the third and final hollowed out knot, we placed our vast food stock: ham, beef jerky, apples, buns, saltine crackers, and one last treat that Sasha had smuggled without us noticing. Potatoes.

Krista and Ymir set up tents, until we at least had a hollowed space to ourselves, but that'd take a few days. On the northernmost tree was two branches, so two people could sleep there. The one to the east had only one branch, and the rest had two branches. To make everything easier (and to sound awesome) we decided to give everything certain names. For the supplies units, we used the phonetic alphabet. For the trees, we used the Greek alphabet.

The storage unit knot that had the medical and emergency supplies was referred to as the Kilo unit. The one with all our gear and uniforms was the Sierra unit, and the one with our food was the Lima unit. Easy enough, right? Well, to make up a cool code, it takes a lot of memorization. Let's see if I can recall the trees correctly.

The northern tree that had Eren and I was Alpha. The eastern one was Beta, and had Armin in it. If we continue clockwise, the next would be southeastern and named Delta, with Krista and Ymir. Next to that was the southwestern sector, which held Gamma, Connie, and Jean; and lastly, Zeta to the west with Sasha and Mikasa. You might want to remember that.

Later that day, we divided chores amongst us. We would rotate, but for now we would focus on getting set up. These chores were hunting animals, gathering plants, collecting water, hollowing trees, and guarding the units.

On that first day, it was just settling the matters that counted. That night, we sat in the center of the five-pointed star, drinks in hand food on wooden plates in front of us, torches lighting the obsidian air.

"I can't believe we did this!" Krista exclaimed excitedly.

"No one can." Ymir smiled, and raised her cup.

"It's a little crazy," Eren admitted.

"But just enough to work!" I finished, and put my arm around his shoulder as a joke.

"There's lots of work..." Mikasa trailed off.

"But it'll be worth it in the end." Jean clinked glasses with Ymir.

"It may backfire," Connie said.

"But we'll enjoy it for as long as we can!" Sasha hollered.

We drank merrily, and I laughed and chattered with everyone. The group talked about differences and similarities, strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Laughing and goofing off, and even got taught a song by Connie. It was a lullaby that his mother sung him when he was little and still lived in the Ragako district, and we all sung it together as a small (and deafening, but improving) choir.



Danger comes as a whisper,

Push it away and say,

"Safety will arrive on golden wings,

And I'll live to see another day!"

Light will conquer darkness,

Shining, dancing, it will sway,

Disappears in showers of sparks,

In the warm feathers of the Bluejay



"Woo! We almost got it that time!" a tipsy Sasha cried.

I giggled as she fell on top of Connie, smothering him in a hug as he tried to claw at her grip. We didn't understand the lyrics, but we all thought it sounded pretty. Not that it wasn't, we were just too drunk to notice anything. By the way, this was my first time drinking. I took gradual sips, but not enough to make me sick. I didn't overly love it, but it was okay; even if too much made me cringe. Armin swallowed his, and raised his mug when we went silent.

"So I was thinking... In case something bad happens, maybe we should develop a strategy. Don't you think?" he suggested.

We nodded back and forth, and Jean motioned with his hand. "Fire away."

"You know what I think?" Ymir burst out, almost falling over Krista as she tried to sit straight. "If anything happens... Eren and Jen should just turn into Titans! Problem solved!" She cackled like the drunk that she currently was.

"That's actually not half bad," Eren said. "When we do that, everyone can rush to Kilo, Sierra, and Lima to get supplies so we can either fight or surrender."

I nodded. "Pretty decent. Nice one, Ymir!"

"Haha!" She laughed triumphantly, and Krista sat up when she pushed her wasted friend off her.

"I think we should maybe make a name for this place... Instead of just 'the tree'. What do you think?" she asked.

We agreed enthusiastically, and Sasha raised her hand. "Let's call it... Stellacinque."

"Why?" Jean challenged.

She looked down, her auburn hair covering her eyes. "It means, 'the five stars' in my home language that I used to speak before I became a soldier. I've only talked in English ever since I left. The last thing I heard my mom say was in that language."

"I like it," Connie said. "Any objections?"

No one said anything, but I raised my glass and got to my feet. "Then Stellacinque it is! The lone district!"

Everyone copied me, and stood up in a circle. "Cheers to Stellacinque, and to the first successful expedition beyond the walls!"