The Unwanted Tybur

57th Expedition Pt. 2 Forest of Giant trees

Fiona POV:

The harsh rays of the midday sun beat down on us while we sat amongst some brush and Reiner bandaged up Armin's head. A few meters away from us Jean was whistling for his horse which seemed to either not hear him or was deciding not to respond.

I stared over to the two remaining horses we had and sighed. 'Even with two horses we'll have to leave someone behind. Reiner is too big to safely ride with, and Armin could be too banged up to reliably ride at all.' I thought dreading our upcoming decision.

Reiner then pierced the thick atmosphere. "How's your ODM gear looking, Armin?"

"It's fine," Armin sat still. "The clasp released like it was supposed to, so it seems it's not broken."

"I see," Reiner unrolled a bandage. "I'm glad to hear it. But what do we do?" He looked over at Jean, who was still whistling loudly and then me. "We only have two horses. If Jean's horse comes back, the four of us can move, but even then..."

Fingers in his mouth, Jean began whistling again. The field before him lay empty and peaceful, no sign of life. He pulled out his fingers, coated in saliva. "Shit!" He cursed.

Armin was staring at the ground, silent, most likely mulling over our previous encounter. "Hey Armin." I said gaining the boy's attention. "Do you have any idea what happened back there? I mean you saw it too right?"

He seemed to hesitate for a second before thinking deeply. "I don't know, we've never heard of a titan who had that kind of problem before. From what happened as we ran it seemed that mass that formed in its mouth was involuntary. A defense mechanism maybe?"

Reiner then patted Armin's shoulder and interjected. "There's no point in dwelling on it right now, we have to focus on getting out of here safely, got that?"

I nodded along and we continued waiting for Jean's horse to come back. 'What could it have been?' I thought to myself.

After a few moments Reiner finally stood up and brushed himself off. "It's been long enough we have to decide. It's a hard choice, but someone will have to stay behind."

Jean stopped whistling and looked at us sullen.

"Wait!" Armin stood up. "First, let's fire a smoke round. If the formation continued straight ahead, the 4th row's 3rd team should be nearby."

I complied and got out my flares inserting a purple marked round and pointed it to the sky. With a pull of the trigger a purple flare shot up with ferocity above us, signaling for emergency help.

"That's the signal for an emergency," Jean said as I put my flare gun away. "But I can't imagine they'll understand our intentions just from that," he then walked away and began whistling once more.

Reiner then looked back to Armin and said. "Armin, we can wait another three minutes. By then, we must decide—"

"I'll stay," Armin said strongly, taking us by surprise.

"Whoa! Armin if anyone's staying behind it's me." I interrupted making the blonde look to me.

"No, I will stay behind, my injuries will only hamper you all." He retorted upsetting me.

"Even if that's the case the Scouts need your intellect." I pushed back.

He seemed to frown, but as he went to talk Jean cut him off. "Both of you shut up! I think I see something." We all looked at Jean wondering what he could mean. "Looks like someone's coming," Jean said as he had his hands shading his eyes, trying to see in the distance. "And with two horses! Wait a second that's Christa!"