Promises

Chapter 3

A/N: That's what Willa's horse, Bravery, looks like

5 Years Later...

~~~Willa's POV~~~

I looked at myself in the mirror, braiding my hair and wrapping a bandana around my forehead. The sun shown through my window as I walked over to my bed, preparing to spend 15 minutes trying to get the goddamn belts and straps on myself. If you're wondering, this is the worst part of my day. I finally tug on the last of my straps and reach for my jacket at the head of the bed. Sliding it over my arms and going for my boots by my rooms door, there was a knock.

"Yea?" I ask, opening it while stepping into my boots. Alex and Hanji looked at my state. I smiled.

"You excited?" Alex asked. I nodded.

"If that means ready to totally fail at babysitting a bunch of cadets, then yeah. I'm pretty excited." I laugh. Alex smiles wider at my remark.

"Man, Levi's remarks have really rubbed off on you. You'll do fine. Plus, we've already been working with them for a couple months so what could go wrong?" Hanji said. I rolled my eyes and followed my two friends to the horse stables. I strolled over to my navy blue horse, Bravery. Bravery had a really cool coloring, with white one his face and his back being two different shades of navy blue. When I trained with him the first time, the horse tamer said he was one of the strongest and fastest horses, making him one of the hardest to ride. He is a beautiful horse too. We ended up forming a strong bond. He whinied and let out a huff.

"Hey boy, howya doin?" I asked, stroking his nose. He huffed again. Alexis went to her horse in the stable to the right of me and Hanji went to hers to the left. Alexis' horse's name is Nimbus and Hanji's one is Tritan. We all saddled up our horses and rode to where Erwin would tell the cadets his plan.

***

I'm standing next to Hanji and Levi on a wooden stage, looking out on all the new recruits. Today is their first day of training that doesn't include pull ups, exercises, training on horses, and building your strength. This.....test..... As you might call it, teaches endurance and survival skills. Levi will probably be with his regular crew and Hanji will be off experimenting, leaving me, Alexis, Erwin, and a couple other leaders to deal with the cadets. If you don't know by now, I got moved in the rankings as a captain. 5 years of training and expeditions really pay off. Erwin is just finishing his speech.

"You will be divided into 3 groups! Group one with me will be Connie, Mikasa, Lola, Jean, Bertholdt, Harlow, and Annie! Group two with Captain Willa will be Eren, Marco, Madylin, Armin, Reiner, and Ymir! The last group with Captain Winters will be Sasha, Kimberly, Christa, Thomas, and Mina! Each group will be staying in different sections of the training forest! Your goal is to build a shelter, find edible food and water, and survive the night! This will teach and sharpen your survival skills as well as corporation with others! Get into you groups and your leader will be with you!" Erwin saluted and the cadets all did it back. I looked at Levi who was already walking away. Sighing, I looked at Hanji to my right. Levi and I had gotten closer after 5 years, so have Hanji, Alex, and I. The three of us were like siblings, however Levi was my best friend.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then!" I shrugged, smiling at Hanji. She laughed,

"I wish you luck with the kiddos! See you tomorrow!" Hanji smiled, then walked off the wooden stage, meeting Molbit at the bottom of the stairs. I went to the edge of the stage and hopped off, walking over to a group of kids who were mine for the day. One of them turned and smiled at me. He had short, black hair, and little freckles spotting his face.

"Hey there, Captain." He said, holding out his hand for me to shake. I accepted and shook his hand.

"Hello. I'm sorry, could you remind me your name? I kinda, really bad at remembering things." I say, embarrassed to forget.

"Oh that's fine. I'm Marco Bott," he replied. I smiled, "You're Captain Willa Barringer!"

"Yea, that would be me. Alright, cadets!" I shouted. The people in my group stopped talking and turned to me, listening to what I was going to say. "Welcome to team, Barringer. I'm your assigned Captain so you'll be stuck with me for the night!" Some of them chuckled at me 'humour'. Someone in the back raised their hand.I waved my hand for them to follow me.

"What are we going to do first?' Someone asked behind me. I turned on my heel and started walking backwards. The person who asked was a brown-haired kid with big, turquoise eyes.

"Getting the horses." I say as if they should know that already.

"Alright." He responded. I started jogging, the clicking of our boots hitting the rock below our feet.