Shorter Than Me

2 Levi

I watch her go up and down a hundred times. She may not realize it, but this repeated practice will get it locked into her brain and she'll never even consider forgetting her feet again.

As for the violence, that was necessary to reestablish my authority in her mind. She forgot that I was above her, so I reminded her quickly and effectively with two punishments.

I do not regret anything I've done to or with her. Knowing how to ride a horse comes mostly with experience, so I skipped the instruction part. If she's smart enough to figure that part out on her own, she belongs here. But if she doesn't, she doesn't belong in the Scouting Legion.

When she's finished, she warily climbs up to my level. I notice her heavy breathing.

"Finally," is all I say to her.

She doesn't reply- a smart decision.

"Now we're going to do some more complicated maneuvers." I see her sigh, but don't hear it. I continue. "The T Maneuver, the M Maneuver, and the F Maneuver. They're all double person maneuvers. T is used to escape a titan and confuse it. The two people spiral around each other away from the titan, then split up to either side. Usually, there are three forms- horizontal, vertical, and diagonal- which should explain themselves. M is used to attack a titan from both sides starting at the titan itself. It's like the T, excepting the spiral part and including a rebound to either side of the titan. For F, the two approach the titan a little to one side- right, left, top, front, or back- next to each other. One is a little ahead of the other and that one passes the titan and turns to face the side facing away from where they approached. The second turns to face the side facing toward the approached direction. Got it?" I ask.

"Yes, sir."

"Do we need to practice them a hundred times?"

"If you think it's necessary, sir."

"No. I'm going to call out single maneuvers and you complete them as effectively as you can." I hope she knows I expect more than just what she can do.

"Sir."

"Parallel," I order. She immediately starts the maneuver. "Corkscrew," I call. I watch her body compensate for the constant movement. She hesitates for a second before switching maneuvers. "Zigzag Increase." She's now near the tops of the trees and moving away. I follow her. "Zigzag Decrease." She zigzags down. "Double Zigzag." She flows into the next maneuver with ease and I think I'm going too easy on her. "Standard into an M, you on right." We fly parallel to each other and I can see the concentrated look in her eyes. "After M is completed move around the titan clockwise looking down until we're on opposite sides. Now." I turn around and do the maneuver backwards so I can see her do her part. She does the maneuver fairly well for her first try and hesitates only a little before circling around the tree that is the titan.

We hang on either side of the tree.

"The purpose of rotating around the titan is so that the one in the front would distract it while the other killed it." She barely nods, breathing hard.

Not nearly hard enough.

"Three titans. Approach from two points, meet behind one titan. The more skilled of the two kills it and the two cross each other and head for the two titans beyond. It's called Cross. There's the first titan. Go." I swing a little away from her and we start toward the first tree. Obviously I'm the more skilled so I brush the tree in front of her and we cross behind the titan. I go sideways to watch her and she's uncertain as to which tree is the titan, but she goes straight and touches the tree in her path, backing away from it quickly.

I make her practice nonstop for the next hour, pushing her to her limits and making sure her legs will be sore for the next week or two.

She doesn't complain. It's a wise choice seeing as I can beat her up if she does anything I don't like.

Though we're only an hour and a half into the day, it feels like it's been much longer. There must be something tedious about training someone else. Though we don't use the fancy maneuvers very much in the Scouting Legion, it's all the mental unity of the Scouts, I'm teaching them to her so she understands the best ways to kill a titan.