I was about twelve years old when the titans first attacked. I lived in the town of Shiganshina with my mother, father, and brother. We were a tightly knit family, I must say and we had a tolerable life in our lower middle class town. My bother, Kirito, and I always loved to gawk over the height of the wall, one day hoping to be on top of them and see over wall Rose, if it was even possible.
That afternoon, Kirito and I asked our mom to take a walk through town to go play racquetball against the wall, which was most likely illegal.
"Mom? Dad? Can we go play near the walls" I asked as Kirito stood behind me and played his role as giving my mom the "puppy dog eyes". I was always the more assertive one of the two of us.
"Elizabeth, why do you two always want to venture to the walls to play? Why not just go out back?" she questioned while washing the dishes from our dinner of break and some kind of soup. I never asked for details. It was food, plain and simple.
"But mom!" Kirito and I complained in sync which erupted a chuckle from my father relaxing in his chair while drinking some sort of liquid.
"Let them go, Eliza. Let the kids have some fun." he winked at us. My father was never one to refuse a good time. He always smiled and just looked like a joyful person. His black hair was always buzzed short and felt like velvet along with his icy blue eyes that my mom, Kirito, and I all had. It was an unlikely surprise when I inherited brunette hair when even my mother's hair was black.
"Thanks daddy!" Kirito exclaimed and ran over to hug him, I followed soon after. We muttered our usual 'I love you's and my brother beat me to hugging my mom first. After he was done, he ran out to get our ball. I stayed to hug my taller mother alone.
"Be safe, sweetie. Be back before nightfall. I love you." she said before kissing my head.
"I know, I know!" I yelled back as I ran out of the house with my brother waiting for me outside out front door.
Walking, it usually took Kirito and I at least ten to twenty minutes to get to the wall, following our usual route. Felling daring and adventurous, I challenged him to a race.
"You're on! Last one to the wall is a rotten titan!" a cruel joke, but I laughed at him and we began to run. I knew the town better than him so I didn't think the race would have been all that fair for him. Since we were small, I always had a tendency to wander off and somehow find my way home which resulted in me knowing every nook and cranny of this boxed in town we called "home".
"Hey, Kiri, stop for a second!" I yelled, and he reluctantly turned around to stop and face me.
"What?" he managed to choke out while regaining his steady breathing.
"Since this isn't really fair for you," he rolled his eyes at me but I acted like I didn't see it. "how about if you take the normal way and I try to find my way there somehow that I have never tried before?" I said with confidence and a smirk. I knew I could win either way but he just smiled and gave me a quick nod of the head.
"See you there," he said moving forward slightly before stopping and turning around one last time, "rotten titan!" and took off like a jet.
I laughed and took a sharp right in the street where we were originally going. I navigated block after block like a member of the survey corps on their cool looking 3D maneuver gear. I looked up to them as role models, being able to fly as free as a bird in this cage. They get to live life and I always wanted to be able to feel as free as them. When they would come into our town, I would be sure to get a good view of their troops coming in from a battle with the titans outside the walls. They always looked bruised, battered, broken, and bloody, but they were still the ones to always put humanity before their own lives. I wanted to one day be one of them. It was my dream.
I was feeling pretty confident in my path that I took in my race until taking another sharp right turn and running full force into someone. We both fell on our backs and what seemed to be a big and heavy book the guy I ran into fell into my lap. I sat up, rubbing my sore back that just smacked the compacted dirt below me and opened my eyes to see who I ran into and possibly injured. He was really small in physique, probably really smart though judging on how heavy his book was that hit me like a brick. He had long blonde hair down to at least his eyebrows, if not a bit longer. He rubbed the dirt out of his eyes and looked directly into mine. I got lost in his gaze of deep blue, almost like mine but a bit darker. I have never seen someone else with blue eyes even close to what my family has had before and I was in awe.
"Um, miss, are you okay?" he finally piped up, snapping me out of my zone.
"Yeah, sorry for running into you. I'm in a race and-"
"Don't worry about it! It's a common mistake." he smiled, standing up slowly to be careful not to strain anything that could possibly have been injured in our collision. He extended his hand out to me as i was still clutching his huge book and struggling slightly.
"I'm Armin Arlert, nice to meet you, uh,"
"Elizabeth," I paused, taking his hand and handing him his book simultaneously, "Lest. Nice to meet you too, Armin." I responded. We were in an awkward silence for about a couple seconds before I decided to speak up.
"Um, do you want me to walk you to wherever you're going? It's the least I can do."
"No need, but thank you anyways. Hey, aren't you in a race or something?" he reminded me.
"Dammit! Yeah, I am, thanks Armin!" I turned around ready to run but stopped myself to say one last thing to him, "Will I see you around sometime?"
He smiled and nodded at me. With that, he walked away and I watched his every footstep. When he was gone, I decided to be on my own way. Taking my first step in my run, I noticed a paper attached to the bottom of my shoe. I picked it up to see it was a picture of what seemed to be a large pool of water with some yellow-ish grain surrounding it and a sun setting behind it. On the back of the paper, it had clearly printed the name "Arlert". Armin was gone now, so I folded the paper and put it in my back pocket, hoping to see the boy one day again. It was then that I realized that I had met the most perfect guy whom I think I may have fell in love with.
Everything happened so quickly after this. I reached the wall and with no sight of Kirito, the colossal titan attacked the gate and titans pooled in like water. Mass panic and hysteria broke out as all of my knowledge of the town disappeared and I lost my way home. The military police were flying above me as I sat down, watching everyone around me run to the gate on the other side of the village in shock. This is it. I knew I was going to die to a titan with no sign of my brother, or my home where my parents were if they were even still living.
As if he heard my thoughts an officer came down from a building and inquired me to where I was going, where my family was, and why was I alone. All of which I could not answer. He put me on his back and said that he wanted to help me find my home. All of it was a blur and I don't remember much but seeing my house as we flew by it, crushed by rubble when all I could do was stare.
"See it anywhere?" he asked me. A couple tears streamed down my face as I shook my head and muttered out a 'no'. We kept going with no sign of my brother until near the very end when I turned around to see a smaller titan, maybe 5 meters, holding up a small boy with black hair and I knew it was him. I turned away, knowing his fate and not wanting to view it. This would scar me for the rest of my life mentally.
I reached the boat leaving to go into wall Rose a couple minutes later, tear stained and still in shock. I never looked back at that dreaded city because the memories would haunt me forever. Through it all, I gained a new motive. One day, I would enlist and stop this from ever happening to anyone else. I would join the scouts, stop the titans, and one day be able to return the picture to Armin. One day...
PROLOGUE DONE! If you sat through this a read it, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU this actually took me a long time to write and when I tried to first upload it, it didn't go up and I didn't notice like the idiot I am. I promise they all will not be this long, but to preface the story i decided to give a pretty long intro. Feedback is appreciated! Lots of love, Brie.
