Yesterday's Enemy [AoT]

FOUR

'The people of the Walls can't decide whether to burn their northern neighbours or to sing them prayers and praises. The Order, in all their grandiosity, would have them worshipped as Gods. Those affected by the siege would rather them burned at the stake. How one nation can inspire such animosity and such admiration is beyond me.'

-An extract from the article 'Royal Questions' written by scholar and journalist Aksel Briggs.

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FOUR

Wall Maria, North Region, Islet, Islet Military Hospital

Levi awoke with a fright, drenched in a cold sweat. Confused for a moment, he realised he must have fallen asleep while reading. Damn nightmares, he cursed to himself.

Lethargically, Levi threw his legs over the side of the bed and began to cough, feeling his throat closing up. It wasn't long before he began to feel a little faint.

Immediately, he forgot his night-time troubles.

Damn it, Levi thought, clutching at his throat. Lorelai had done a number on him. He decided he better head down to the hospital.

In a sluggish haze, Levi got up and dragged himself from the room, down the stairs and into the courtyard. Each breath he drew was shallow and hoarse, and every moment his coughs turned more violent.

Levi hurried out the door and into the snow. His body seemed not to register the cold as he moved quickly towards the noise of the hospital.

Only now did he notice that it was first light. The sun was just beginning to peer over the Wall on the horizon. The dawn cast a warm glow over the snowy city.

Eventually, Levi made it inside, still half-asleep, and continued to cough fiercely. Just what did she do to him?

A couple of startled nurses rushed over to him, and he told them Dr Bervik's name in the hopes she would fix this.

Lorelai, at the time of Levi's half-asleep arrival, was tending to a particularly nasty wound: a Havasian man's leg that needed to be amputated at the knee.

The group of nurses had come rushing over to her, half-terrified. They told her about how a soldier had come in coughing and then shouted her name in their faces. They thought him a lunatic and wanted Lorelai to tell them what to do with him.

She sighed at the inconvenience. It was probably one of Jürgen's men, drunk and ready to pick a fight.

"I'll see what he wants," Lorelai told them as she left the room.

Really, the things I've had to deal with so far. I've hardly had a moment alone, she thought.

Lorelai was greatly surprised when she was met with not a drunk lunatic but Captain Levi. She wasn't entirely sure if the two were mutually exclusive yet.

"Sir? Can I help you?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

Levi tried to explain but just began coughing again. The group of nurses tailing Lorelai hid behind her.

"Oh, right, your throat," she realised. "This is a little below my pay grade. Thersa, you deal with him— probably minor bruising. I need to get back."

Lorelai briskly left the room and went back to her prior commitment. This irritated Levi, who was regaining his awareness. She caused the so-called 'minor' damage so she can damn well fix it, he thought as he was ushered by 'Thersa' into another room.