Sapphire Wings (Levi x Reader)

17: Adventure

"Hold still," Armin pulls the tick off of you in one fast yank.

"Is it off?"

"That one is. You have to be more careful." He throws it in the pail of water beside him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to come with me."

Armin inspects you for any other bugs.

"I appreciate you doing this. The Captain would exile me if he knew I'd been infested with these things." You look inside the bucket. You watch the lifeless parasite swirling with the others, floating like a film at the top of the water. "Who'd have known there were so many out here?"

"We should go back soon. People are going to start to look for us."

Today you decided that you'd take Armin exploring. He'd always talk about what goes beyond the territory that you guys are used to. And with the higher ups all going over strategies, there's nobody to catch you and deem both of you in trouble.

"I should've known that tall grass was a no go. But these flowers are perfect for Eren to give to Mikki!! Or for a certain blonde boy to give to Krista....?!????"

Armin looks away and his ears turn pink.

"There's plenty for both of you, I'm just saying," You pick through your collaborative pile of cool findings. "What about these mushrooms? Do you think Hange will like them?"

"If we can find a way to carry it all back."

"I wish I brought my horse. She'd be perfect," you comb through and pick up a strange, white flower that appears fuzzy on the petals. They taper out to little points, like triangles. Little round yellow florets are half in bloom and gather in the center. This flower stands out completely from the rest of the pile.

"Huh."

Armin walks closer and examines it. "I think I recognize this one from my textbooks," he admires it from different angles. "If I remember correctly, this could be Edelweiss. I don't remember the nomenclature, but they are pretty rare and grow in alpine regions. I don't know how we found one out here. It's pretty though."

"Edelweiss. Very pretty." You take the flower back and gently play with the petals. "Edel. That's my horse's name. Rare, beautiful, doesn't belong trapped out here."

"I think it's perfect."

"Here. Let me see the bucket. I'll dump it and we can gather everything and go back."

Armin hands you the bucket and you carefully ascend the bank to the creek. You stop before you step inside, because with your luck, you'd be getting leeches peeled off of you next. You dump the water, along with the bugs, and head back. Armin gathers the found foliage into the bucket.

You both start walking in the direction back to the castle.

"If you had to choose any place you've heard of to explore, where would you go?" You ask him.

"There's this place out there, that is apparently unlike anything we've ever seen. There are quite a few, actually. There's a cold region where the ground is ice. Entirely ice! And where there isn't ice, it's water. Sometimes, there are these little disconnected chunks of icy land, called icebergs. I think that's so cool! And there's lots of snow."

"Sounds too chilly for me."

"I think the place I'd like to see the most is something else though."

"Yeah?"

"It's hard to explain. It's called a desert."

"What's that?"

"Well.... there are these little tiny little golden pebbles. Super tiny, like the size of crumbs on a plate. It's called sand. There's a never ending amount of it out there. I know Marley has sand on the coast, but in the desert, it's the entire ground. It's super hot during the day, and freezing cold during the night.