Shorter Than Me

3 Ecyn

We're told today is a day where we can do whatever we want, as long as they're not bad things.

We're still awoken at the same time and we eat breakfast at the same time. Some of the boys go back to the dormitory to sleep. I'm not extremely tired, so I decide to find Briine and see if he wants to do something.

I spot him with two other boys, Dren and Lenden. I hesitate to approach them, but decide to anyway. I don't want to be left all alone.

"Hey, Briine."

"Oh." He turns to face me. "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

"We were about to get some maneuver gear and practice some stuff with it," Lenden replies.

"Do you want to come with us?" Dren asks me. I find his tall, large frame slightly intimidating, but I know he's not that kind of person. I also think he might like me a little.

"If you want-" I start to say.

"It's fine with me." Briine shrugs.

"Fine. You can come." Lenden sighs heavily and smiles.

I smile at them. "Thanks." We walk to the building with the gear.

"So what have you guys been learning lately?" I ask.

"Captain Zebbo is getting me used to the 3DMG and how to stay balanced while going fast." Briine opens the door for us.

"I've learned some of the basic maneuvers." Lenden walks to the middle of the room, where the medium-sized gear is.

"Me too." Dren also finds some gear. "What about you?"

"Captain Levi is making me do really complicated stuff." I don't want to elaborate because it might make them jealous or something. I also don't really want to complain.

"He's really hard on her," Briine explains.

"I wish Captain Levi was teaching me," Lenden says.

"No you don't." I walk to where they're still putting their gear on.

"You're done?" Briine asks, surprised.

"Uh... yeah." I look away and fiddle with the straps on my chest.

"Are the smaller ones easier to put on or something?" Lenden asks.

"Yeah... probably." I bite my lip and fiddle some more.

"Alright, you guys ready?" Briine stands up after securing the strap around his leg.

"Yeah, let's go." Dren stands too.

We walk back out and I turn to where the stables are but they don't.

"We're not getting horses?" I ask, confused.

"No. We're not going to go that far in. We don't want to get lost," Lenden explains.

"Oh." I follow them.

We reach the treeline and equip the gear. I notice the three are a little slow and awkward with it. We learned a lot in training but that was mainly just the core basics. We all killed at least twenty wooden practice-titans but we're nowhere near being above the average skill level, which is what's necessary to survive in the Scouting Legion.

"So I think Briine is the least skilled of us all-" Lenden starts.

"Hey!" Briine swings toward him and runs into him because Lenden isn't fast enough to get out of the way.

It's a big change to what I've been seeing in Levi and the two officers we were with yesterday.

"Wow, guys. Hanging and hugging. Cool." I smile.