7 Early morning

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"WAKE UP FARM GIRL!" A shout close to my ear woke me up with a jerk.

"Huh?" I rubbed my eyes still half asleep. My whole body ached from being in the ODM gear for so long. The tightness of belts was imprinted on my skin and I had bruises on my thighs.

"The sun's out." Levi said in a more normal tone now. He ripped my blanket away from me and a put it on the chair. The cold morning air hit my skin, making goosebumps appear on my arms and legs. I groaned in dissatisfaction.

"You have five minutes to put on clothes and meet me at the stable, so get moving." He said sternly and shut the door.

"Ugh, that man just can't have a break." I groaned and threw my pillow at the door.

Wanting to avoid any more insults from Levi, I got up from bed and quickly changed into my clothes to get to the stable in time.

Levi was already waiting for me with two horses saddled up.

"Did I make it?" I asked curiously when I came to him.

"Huh?" He gave me a confused look and put the horse bridle in my hand.

"The five minutes, did I make it." I clarified. We both jumped on our horses and got comfortable in the saddles.

"I don't know but I'm sure you didn't." He motioned his horse to get moving and I followed.

The sun was just rising, making the surroundings adopt a nice golden hue. It was an early chilly morning but it was peaceful. Comforting silence accompanied us and I got to appreciate the nature from the seat of my horse.

"Why did a farm girl like you join the scouts anyway?" Levi suddenly said while still keeping eyes on the road in front of him. His tone was more contemptuous rather than curious.

I looked at him and motioned my horse to get next to his.

"Hange was the one who wanted me to join." I answered bluntly.

"You don't look like the person who'd listen to others so just Hange wanting you to join seems unrealistic. You had to have other reasons why you came to the scouts." He remarked. I chuckled to myself because of his true observation.

"Good catch, I'm happy you finally understand. And for the reason? It's personal." I innocently smiled at him. He looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and then back at the road.

"I'm a captain, I need to be observant. The brats you met yesterday are not my first soldiers so I should be pretty good at assessing people by now." I nodded in understanding. Even if he acted like he was better than everyone, he had characteristics a good captain should have. And maybe little arrogance was needed in his role.

"And why did you join the scouts? It looks like you utterly hate everyone who comes across you in the scouts. Why even join at that point." I chuckled.

"I don't hate everyone." He gritted. "It's just if everyone wasn't so incompetent, I wouldn't have to discipline them all the time." He reasoned. He had a good reason but his definition of incompetence must be on another level.

"If you say so but I think everyone is trying their best." I squeezed the bridle in my hand until it made my knuckles white. When I saw everyone yesterday panting heavy after their sparring, I felt bad for them. And Eren who had to run laps all evening had it the worst. They all seemed at their limits and still tried to continue.

He scoffed, clearly not believing my statement.

"And your reason to join? You still didn't tell me." I didn't let myself get distracted from what I wanted to know.

He looked tiredly at me and said. "Personal reasons."

"Well, at least we have that in common." I smirked. He rolled his eyes and let his horse pick up the pace.

We stopped on the edge of the forest and tied our horses to a tree. With ODM gear we swung to the heights of the trees.

Levi was quiet and looked like he was listening for something. I silently watched him and tried to listen in too.

"There is a titan nearby. We're going see how big he is and if he's over 10 meters you're going to kill him." He announced and he started flying from a branch to branch to get closer to him.

I didn't kill that tall of a titan before and truthfully I haven't encountered a titan taller than seven meters. But I figured killing a 10 meter wouldn't be more of the same process as killing a seven-meter one.

Levi was right, the titan was about 10 meters tall. He didn't notice us and happily dug for something in the ground.

"Hange said that you have probably killed titan before." Levi said in a lowered voice not to reveal our presence to the titan. I nodded.

"And what was your process then?"He crouched down to see the titan properly.

"Um, I usually swing until the titan is completely smashed." I said nonchalantly. I saw Levi's eyes widen a bit. "But if I want to make it quick, I cut their head off." I added.

"Hm,..." He narrowed his eyes. "...just swinging is something only a completely ludicrous person would do, which to be fair, you're. But with the beheading you were on the right track. You don't need to get rid of head fully, you just need to slice off the nape." He pointed with his blades towards the neck of the titan.

Even though I wasn't fond of him calling me ludicrous, I was kind of honored that he acknowledged my technique.

"So now that you know how to efficiently kill titans, go kill than one how I instructed you." He ordered.

"As you say, captain." I mockingly saluted to him with a smile and jumped off the branch. I was excited to finally get to kill some of those bastards.

I successfully cut out the titan's nape, making him limply fall to the ground. I got back to Levi who was intently observing my moves.

It was easier with their blades. They were sharp and lightweight so swinging them through the titan's meat was like slicing through butter with a hot knife. Killing titans would be even more fun now, with the scouts' gear and their weapons.

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