Coming for your heart

Chapter 10

"Franz and Hannah didn't make it." Jean sank down between them, his hands clenched in his lap and his eyes closed. Grime plastered his face like a second layer of skin and bloody wounds and scratches decorated his arms and his face. "I saw their house. They didn't make it out in time. The soldiers appeared in their district first."

"Nifa?"

"I haven't seen her since our walk yesterday."

"Sasha?"

"I don't know. She was with Connie, I think. But..." Jean's voice broke off.

"We came across her house. It was on fire but the entrance wasn't blocked off by something. And I heard no noises inside.", Armin said.

"Ymir?", Eren asked, fearing the answer. But he needed to know. If his friends were still alive. How many of them had escaped the wrath of people they had never seen before.

"I'm sorry Eren, I don't know. I tried to get my parents out of the village. And my little cousins. They are...they were just some small kids."

Eren saved the question what had happened to them. He could imagine.

Silence gathered around them. They were each throwing earth on Carla like a ritual saving them from what had happened. From what was still happening. There were soldiers in the woods. Soldiers from Eldia.

But they were too late. Death had already found his new companions.

Sudden steps behind them startled them and Eren was on his feet in an instant, ready to defend his friends just like Mikasa.

"Woah, that's what I call a greeting. Have you missed me so much, you old fuckers?", Ymir grinned. Blood was splattered on her skin as well and she was definitely limping. She held one of her eyes closed as if she was unable to open it.

But all in all she looked...alive.

"How did you make it out?" Armin jumped up and looked short of hugging her. Relief was written over his face and some of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.

Ymir looked over at Carla's grave and sucked in a breath, a wave of pity flying over her face. She cursed. Eren was thankful that she didn't try to offer any condolences. The pitiful looks of Jean and Armin were hard enough to endure.

"My stepdad was sending me out to get a bottle of wine from one of his friends. I was on my way back when I noticed the fire. But it was already too late." Ymir shrugged her shoulders. Eren knew she hadn't cared for that old son of a bitch but still...

Armin looked around them, watching the destroyed village and they all listened to the screaming and the sound of marching shoes dying down.

"What are we supposed to do now?", he croaked.

Eren stepped in the middle of them, making a step forward.

"Marley should pay for what they did to us.", Ymir hissed, her gaze filled with flaming anger and her brows furrowed.

"I don't think they were from Marley.", Eren muttered, thinking back on how one of the soldiers was talking about a 'leader', not a Queen.

"Does it matter who it was?", Mikasa answered back. "Our home is gone. Our mother is gone. We are alone."

Eren turned around and gave everyone a determined look.

Ymir crossed her arms, one leg bent. On her forehead he saw a wound, a scratch as if someone had scratched their nails over the skin, splitting it and drawing blood. Her eye was injured. She might never see again on it if her pained reaction whenever she tried to open it a bit was anything to go by. She was the definition of a survivor. A dragon for fire couldn't kill her.