Wish Upon a Star

Tragedy

Chapter 5: Tragedy

"Star it's time to get up, we have to do this like every morning and it's kind of getting annoying," Anika said pulling the sheets off my body. Another year has passed by and that means we're heading out on another expedition. I slowly got out of bed as Anika threw my clothes at me. Since the last expedition, quite a bit has happened. For instance, I've moved up in rank and I can now lead my own squad. Anika is happy staying below the ranks because she hates going outside of the walls, there's nothing she can do about now she's stuck in the Survey Corps. I grew like two inches I'm starting to catch up with Levi.

I slowly got dressed and followed her out to the fields with the other members lined up and ready for my father and Levi to give us the orders. "I wonder if I could just stay back and do a bunch of paperwork or something," Anika said frowning. "Why would you want to do that it's so much fun going outside of the walls, just because you had a few bad experiences doesn't mean it's not amazing," I said as dad and Levi walked over to the squad. Everyone straightened up as dad and Levi ordered everyone around and I was put into an elite group with Levi while Ani was put into another group.

I wished her luck and headed over to my beautiful horse, she whined and nudged me. I rubbed her head before climbing on her back. Anika frowned as she shrugged and walked over to her horse and lead him over to her squad. "Star, before we head out I want you to know that you're second in command if anything happens to me your in charge," Levi said. Nice I was second in command and I was only 14, this is amazing. Everyone was getting into formation and I took my place beside Levi and looked around at everyone else. Everyone that was new to the Survey Corps was silently freaking out along with Anika.

I was ready; we were going out to study some of the mannerisms of the titans instead of seeing how far we could get without taking a heavy loss. I've only ever been outside of the walls three times, and I noticed the more I was outside of the comfort and security of the walls the more I wanted to explore the outside world. I remember dad telling me that grandpa said somewhere far outside of the walls there is a giant lake filled with salt it's called a sea. There are also red streams that burn everything in their paths called lava. I want to figure out how to get rid of these titans so that we could explore the world and I could see the sea, and maybe even lava.

About halfway through the expedition, all the squads were spread out and we were just venturing out on our own as well as stay on guard. Levi and the rest of the team were walking around the giant forest and I was on watch making sure no titans found themselves in the forest. A really boring job but Levi, like my dad tries to keep me out of danger when he can't keep an eye on me. I looked out at the vast open plains and sighed, there were a few titans out in the distance but they were too far away to cause any real damage. I wonder how everyone in the 104th Trainee Squad is doing, last time I heard from Armin, they said they working really hard and he didn't have a lot of time to write to me.

Oh well, at least I still hav... I looked over to the east and saw a black flare followed by a red one. Oh no something bad is happening. I took another sweep of the area before climbing back down to meet my squad. "Captain, there is a problem toward the east, I suggest we head up to the treetops or we ride into a more open secure area," I said to a frowning Levi. He nodded and got on his horse. The rest of the squad followed their captain and we quickly rode out of the forest. As soon we were out of the forest another black flare was shot into the sky followed by screams.

"Keep riding if, you stop and turn around I'm not going after you," Levi said, I knew he was talking to me but he said it to the entire squad. How could I just leave my fellow Survey Corps soldiers behind? It feels so wrong knowing that they are probably dying and I'm not doing anything about it. What if Anika was in the squad, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I let her die when I could've done something. We rode for about ten more minutes before meeting up with a few other squads, including my fathers. All the captains reported to my father while I looked around for Anika. I guess her squad didn't make it to the rendezvous point yet, I'm sure she'll be here soon.