The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 28: Utgard Castle and the Betrayal of Comrades

    The cold night air singed your pale cheeks as you rode onward into the dusk, your head nestled into Eren's back as he took the reins. Your bones and joints ached and cried out with every jostle of the horse, but there was no choice: you had to come. Krista... poor Krista...

    Pastor Nick had told of the royal background of Krista Lenz, a friend, but now someone who you wondered if you really knew at all. He told of how she was the true heir to the throne, and the heir of the Reiss family, which was, apparently, her rightful last name. The Reiss family knew secrets about the walls and their formation that nobody else knew, and that the only way to find the true meaning was to consult Krista, as Nick was vehement that he could not divulge any of the walls' secrets in accordance with his church. 

    "Hey." Eren's somber voice broke you out of your thoughts. It was so quiet that it could only be meant for you- nobody else could have heard him over the roar of the horses' hooves. "Yeah?" you said, tightening your grip on his waist with your good arm. The other, encased in metal from the brace, was burning with cold as the metal froze and dug into your skin. You wanted more than anything to rip it off and simply deal with a malnormal arm. You felt him intake a breath before he spoke. "It's just- do you really think that Reiner and Bertolt could be... I don't know... like Annie?" The mention of her name made your heart throb, and an image of her in a dungeon, wrapped in crystal and tied down with chains overtook your mind. Then, an image of Petra accompanied, her mangled body, dead, and you shook the thoughts away. "It's just a hunch," you began, feeling the unconvincing nature of your testimony, "but Annie told me all about this other place that she was from, Marley, and it can't be too far fetched that she wasn't the only one." "But why them?" Eren shot back, his voice rising slightly with temper. "I'm sorry," he said, readjusting his tone, "but they're like brothers to everyone from the Training Corps. I just can't imagine that they could be-," "Neither could I," you said, your voice much colder than you had intended. It seemed to take on that sound whenever Annie was brought up. Eren stayed silent for a while, the only sounds around you the pounding of hooves and the clinking of lanterns as the front lines strained to see anything approaching. 

    "How do you feel?" he asked after a while. "I'm fine," you lied, gritting your teeth as the horse jostled your body and your joints felt the strain that they had so recently been under. "How about you?" you asked, stroking his side with your right hand. He chuckled, so soft and deep that it sounded like a bark and said, "I've been better, but at least I've got a hot girl pressed against me to fix things." You rolled your eyes and pinched the skin of his side in retaliation. "Ow!" he yelped. You were about to retort verbally when Hange's voice rang out from the front: 

    "Utgard Castle should be just up ahead! It used to be a base for the Survey Corps., but nobody's used it in years!"

    The sky was beginning to lighten, the moon so bulbous and bright that it looked like a shining crystal ball. The clouds were beginning to pinken and yellow with the promise of a soon coming sunrise. "What the hell is that?!" you heard an officer yell from the front. "The castle is being demolished!" Hange yelled. "The trainees could still be inside! Hurry up!" 

    You felt Eren's body tense as he gripped the reins with a ferocity that could only be matched by the look in his eyes. You wished that you could see them from where you sat, for you knew that they would be narrowed, brows furrowed, and his emerald irises gleaming with determination. "We've gotta get there in time," he whispered as a loud crashing sound greeted your ears. It was hard to see what was going on from behind Eren's back, but the castle seemed to be getting closer and closer, the sky lightening all the time. You could see large turrets falling, crumpling to the ground as though they were made of sand. The dark gray stone of the castle was being ripped apart, but as you got closer and closer, you saw that it was being ripped apart by something small, fast, and unnaturally ugly...