A Different Path

Chapter Twenty

"What?" Isabel answered, she was a bit confused as to why his grin grew. Furlan bent down to her level and turned his head towards the black haired man,

"You're up against Levi."

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Back at the barracks, Lilith and Anna had begun to bond. The two were pretty similar, both old souls.

Lilith grew paranoid after the trio hadn't come back in a few hours. She kept listening for footsteps and looking out the window in hopes to see a familiar face, but nothing. What she did notice was a man, a tall blonde man who kept trying to pick fights with the soldiers on watch duty. 'A drunk, maybe?' she thought to herself.

"The tea is done, dear," the little old woman spoke from the small kitchen. Lilith closed the window and made her way to Anna to retrieve a cup of tea.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

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Back at the fields, Isabel feared her life for what she had to do. She knew Levi wasn't going to hold back. Why would he hold back with Isabel if he didn't hold back with the girl worth more than gold to him?

"Are you ready or not?" Levi asked Isabel. He stood there with his arms crossed, waiting for her to make the first move. She really didn't think this through. Isabel finally pieced together why Furlan wasn't trying too hard.

Before Isabel could blink, Levi was inches away from her face with a smirk on his. He went for a tackle. Levi pinned Isabel down, both his hands on her wrists, the stake was still in her right hand. This wasn't enough to hold her down. She thrusted her hips up and flipped over, flipping Levi off of her and onto his back. Furlan let out an audible gasp. 'Isabel just flipped Levi into the dirt, she's so dead.' Furlan thought.

Levi's smirk had left his face. 'I'm so dead,' she thought to herself. Isabel jumped to her feet, nearly dropping the stake. Levi rocked back and pushed himself up by launching his legs up and pushing off the ground with his hands, landing perfectly still on his feet. He brushed off the dirt and looked up at Isabel who was fearing her life.

"Calm yourself, I ain't gonna do anything to you unless you come at me." Levi said, crossing his arms yet again.

"But I- you're not...?" Isabel calmed herself.

"You missed an opening. Instead of jumping back once you flipped me, you could've held the stake to my throat, my side, or my stomach. Don't let fear make you hesitate when there's a clear opening." He instructed. "Let's try again." He opened his arms a little, gesturing for her to go. She was shocked that he didn't flip his shit. Parenting definitely calmed his temper.

She took a moment, then moved in. Isabel was aiming for either his neck or stomach, the two most vulnerable spots. Once she was inches away, she chose to go for his neck. Isabel brought her left arm up to stop Levi from blocking his neck, and guided the stake with her right hand. She was about an inch away before Levi grabbed her wrist dead on. This didn't stop her. She brought her right leg behind both of his and pushed forward in hopes of knocking him over. She was so close to success, but instead of falling, he used her pressure plus his weight to turn her, making her back slam to the ground.

Isabel sat up as fast as she could after having the wind knocked out of her and threw the stake at Levi's neck. He caught it between two fingers.

"Not... fair..." She was coughing and gasping for air.

"You're too predictable." Levi said, flipping the stake through his fingers. "You went-"

"For the obvious kill. I know." Isabel cut him off and stood up.

"If you knew, then why did you go for it?" Furlan asked with an attitude.

"You wanna give this a shot?" She shouted to Furlan.

"No ma'am."

"Exactly."

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The trio continued to fight each other until it started to get dark. The Commander said for the scouts to do fifty laps before leaving. It was dreadful, but accomplished. Isabel finished first out of all the scouts and wore it with pride. After they were done, the three returned to the barrak where Anna and Lilith were.

"We're back." Furlan said, being the first to walk through the door. He was followed by Levi then Isabel. Anna and Lilith were sitting on one of the beds. Anna had just finished putting dutch braids into Lilith's jet back hair. She wanted to jump up and run to her parents, but Anna was still tying the last ribbon.

"Welcome back," Lilith gave the three a smile. Isabel walked over to Anna and Lilith,

"Woah! Where'd you learn to do that?" Isabel was astonished by how well done Lilith's hair was.

"My mother taught me when I was a little girl, would you like to learn how?" Anna offered to teach Isabel and she took her offer immediately.

"Before you start, I'll be right back." Lilith hopped off the bed and walked towards Levi who was getting ready to shower. She went up behind him and tugged on his shirt.

"Huh?" He turned to see her, "Oh, how was your day with-" He stopped when Lilith threw herself at Levi, digging her head into his stomach and clutching his dirty shirt. "Oi, what's wrong kid?" He felt his shirt start to feel wet. Tears? "Hey..." he squatted in front of her with his arms on the sides of her shoulders, "talk to me." his voice as soft as it can get.

"I wanna go home." Levi's heart sank at the sight of his crying little girl. This wasn't like her at all.

"Lilly, we are home."

"No! I wanna go home!" Her crying had begun to get louder, surely Isabel and Furlan would start to hear and blame Levi.

"This is our home, we-" He was cut off by Lilith now loudly sobbing. Furlan and Isabel come running into the room.

"What's going on here??" Furlan questioned, thinking Levi did something wrong.

"Levi, what did you do??" Isabel was blunt.

"I didn't do anything, she said she wants to go home." Levi, still squatting in front of Lilith, looked back at her and continued, "What's wrong with being here?" Lilith attempted to calm herself and catch her breath.

"You guys left me alone!" The trio felt horrible about having to leave her. "When we were home, you never left me, but since we're here you guys are gonna leave me!" Her sobbing wasn't getting any quieter.

Levi sat down and put Lilith in his lap. He didn't say anything, he just held her. It was all he could do for the time being. Furlan left the room to walk Anna out, then came back and sat on one side of Levi while Isabel was on the other. Her wails slowly became softer and softer. Once they stopped, Levi looked down to see that she had cried herself to sleep.

The trio felt horrible for having to leave her, but they didn't have a choice at the moment. This just made him want to kill that good-for-nothing blonde bastard even more. 

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Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it!