hopeless | jean kirstein

12 | moving forward

His statement caused a thick silence to come over the group, all of them reluctant to speak what was on their minds. They knew that it was the most logical choice, as one horse could only manage to fit a fair amount of people. But abandoning someone was as good as sending them to their death, as it meant leaving them here without any means of escape should a Titan decide to come and stop by. It was unfair, and a horrible thing to even consider.

"Wait," Taryn quickly interrupted, fishing out her flare gun before reloading it. "Let's fire a smoke signal first. If the formation continued straight ahead, rows four and three should be nearby..."

Clamping a hand over her left ear, she raised the pistol high above her head and pulled the trigger, looking up to see a trail of purple smoke rising towards the sky. If she had been right, then someone ought to pass by and give them a hand. She didn't want to resort to leaving one of them behind, knowing that she wouldn't want to be abandoned either.

"That's the signal for an emergency," Jean said, his eyes focused on the purple smoke. "But I can't imagine they'll understand our intentions just from that."

Reiner's face was still serious as ever. He studied each and every one of them carefully, as if he was already working out which one of them should stay. "We can wait another three minutes. By then, we must decide—"

"I'll stay," Armin volunteered immediately, causing them all to turn to him with surprised glances.

"Armin," She started to say. "We're not leaving you. I'm sure help will come by soon enough..."

"Really, I'm fine with being left behind," He chuckled, but they could still clearly sense the nervousness behind his tone. "But, there's something I want you to tell them for me....preferably to Commander Erwin alone—"

"No, Armin," Jean suddenly interrupted, and they turned to find him staring out in the distance with a hopeful smile. "You should tell him yourself. Someone's coming—and with three horses!"

At this, the three of them rushed to where he was standing at, following his gaze as they indeed saw a person approaching. Bringing along horses enough for all of them to ride on, they drew nearer and nearer before eventually revealing themselves to be a familiar face.

"That's Krista!" Jean exclaimed with relief. With striking blonde hair and blue eyes, it was no doubt her. Taryn could almost feel her heart leap in joy, as not only did they get lucky, they had also been found by probably one of the kindest people they've ever had the privilege of meeting.

"Is everyone okay?" The girl yelled out, her face twisted into one of concern. Taryn nodded, flashing her a warm smile in response before something else immediately caught her attention. Her face lighting up, she ran towards the horses Krista brought, discovering that one of them had been none other than her own.

"Eros!" She beamed, almost crying out in joy at the sight of him alive and well. The creature then nudged her head affectionately, and the small action was enough for her to break into slight giggles.

"Hey—that's my horse," Jean said from beside her, and she looked up to see him being reunited with Psyche as well. She laughed out loud as the poor horse jumped in shock at his touch, its hind legs almost kicking him in the face. "Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Psyche."

"They ran towards me, terrified," Krista began to say, her eyes darting between the two with a small smile. "Seems like both of your horses have a knack for running off."