The Art of Love & War

Deviantly Abnormal

(A Year Later)

Tatum

Eight months after I'd joined and I had to go on an expedition. I definitely remember that.

Apparently they were short on soldiers. Not like they weren't always short of em to begin with. But we were especially short on them this year. So they considered rookies like me a big help. So much for staying alive, which was what I'd thought at the time.

I was not sure if I was going to be more of bait than help at the time.

Even after the first two months of being there, no one knew who I was exactly. They didn't even know my full name. No one knew anything about me.

No one but Shadis.

He had decided that it was best to not have anyone know who I was. If they didn't know who I was, they wouldn't know about my unfortunately family history.

They still didn't.

All they knew was that I was a lowly kid thug from the underground, dragged up to the surface and turned into a cadet by Keith Shadis, the 12th Commander of the Survey Corps.

My father's execution a mere few months prior to my enlistment in the Scouts wasn't exactly a very good impression on an army of soldiers giving their lives to humanity either. Especially when most of humanity had thought that he'd been trying to betray his own kind.

Most of them. But not me.

At least, I hoped I did. It was all I was ever going to get from those bizarre papers he'd left behind for me to find.

Strangely enough, Shadis never looked like he ever judged me about my father's unfortunate incident. I'd expected disgust. Or maybe something else remotely close to the expression that had plastered itself all over the public's faces the moment they found out.

But there was nothing but a small ghost of a smile lingering on his lips before he carried on with the next question.

I'd heard that he'd admired my father greatly when he was still alive. Before his apparent crime. But I wasn't sure how he felt about him after that. I still didn't know how the man felt now, even after sticking around for a year or so.

For the expedition, Commander Shadis placed me in one of the groups to the west of their current formation. From what I was told, it was the most protected part of the entire formation. Mainly because they're so near the carts that carry the supplies needed for the expedition. That fact relaxed my spirits a little bit. But I was still nervous about the entire thing.

I'd never been outside before.

And I'd especially never seen Titans in my entire life. Not before that expedition, anyway.

I remember my first time being outside. How in the world could I ever forget it.

It was magnificent. It was beautiful. It was such an eye-opener. The sun shone even brighter than inside the Walls. The air smelled even fresher. And I had never before, not in my entire life, seen so much green. It went as far as the eye can see. And then a lot more after that.

The outside was absolutely panoramic. It could've come straight out of all those books my father kept that used to belong to our ancestors.

And for a moment there, I could almost hear my mother's voice calling out to me.