Call of the Broken (and Eremin fanfiction)

Prologue

Eren Jaeger sat with his eyes closed by the river in his small city of Shiganshina. It was a beautiful day in the early summer and the city was lively as it was market day. He was eight years old, although his ninth birthday was in less than two weeks. He didn't really care though, as far as he was concerned, age was just a number and birthdays didn't mean anything  once you got past a certain age. He sighed as he kept his eyes closed and carried on sun bathing

"Eren! Eren! Eren!" Eren opened his eyes as his best friend, Armin Arlert, hurrying over. Eren groaned, not caring for his friend's over the top enthusiasm.

"Ugh, why are you shouting?" He sighed. The smile didn't leave Armin's face.

"Sorry, I found a book my grandpa keeps hidden away! Believe it or not, it's about life on the outside!" Eren frowned as he turned to face his friend.

"I really hope this is your idea of a joke, stuff about the outside world is illegal. Seriously, you could go to jail for that..."

"Trust me, you'd change your mind if you knew what was actually out there!" Armin bent down on his knees, stars in his eyes. "For example, according to this book, most of the world is covered in salty water so deep you can't reach the bottom! There's a name for it too, they call it the sea!" He carried on. Eren's eyes widened.

"Like salty for real?! C'mon, you're making it up. If something valuable like salt was just floating around underwater, merchants would have scooped it out ages ago."

"That's the thing, the sea never runs out, it's that big!" Armin continued.

"Yeah, whatever," Eren scoffed. A spark suddenly lit up Armin's eyes.

"Bear with me, there's a lot more than salt," he flicked to another page in the book. "Water that glows like fire, fields of ice, giant rocks that take days to climb! The outside world must be many times bigger than the one inside here!" he claimed, his smile only broadening. Eren smiled as well as his interest peeked.

"The outside world," he repeated, more to himself than anyone. Armin leaned in closer and started to speak in a quieter voice with a more serious tone.

"Listen you have to promise on your life not to tell anyone, but well...my parents are going to sneak outside the wall to see for themselves and...I'm going with them." Eren blinked as Armin said this. He frowned.

"Wait you and your parents are going by yourselves out there with the titans?" he asked. Armin nodded.

"Look, we're not going for long, Just a few days. We just want to take a look," he said. Eren frowned. He could see in Armin's eyes that he genuinely wanted to do this, but at the same time he couldn't help but be concerned for his friend. He sighed.

"Just...promise me you'll be careful." he said, firmly. Armin gave a reassuring smile.

"I promise."