Her Wings of Freedom {Rewriting--Metamorphosis of Dispositon}

Chapter 4: Fight or Flight?

"She might've failed a few times, fallen on others, and screwed up on occasion, but one thing was for certain about her . . . she never gave up on trying."

[Third Person POV]

It'd been two years since the Entrance Ceremony. Aoife was now seventeen and stronger than she was three years ago. After undergoing very strenuous physical and mental training, she wasn't some child anymore, nor was she a full-grown woman, but a progressing soldier with a will to fight for her goal. Commandant Sadis had brought the group through the forest within the walls; they were now carrying their 3-Dimensional Maneuver Gear through the harsh thunderstorm as he rode upon a horse alongside the large group of Cadets.

"Pick up your pace! Run, you lead-footed laggards!" shouted Sadis.

Aoife glanced over her shoulder at the back of the line and there was Armin Arlelt---the smallest of the recruits and a fellow survivor of the Shiganshina District massacre. Aoife could tell that the feminine fourteen-year old was struggling to carry the weight of the gear in the pack on his back by the way he was panting and the flush of his cheeks.

"What's your problem, Arlelt?!" Commandant Sadis lowered his horse's pace down to a strut and made it walk to Armin's slowly-jogging speed. "You're dragging your feet! Too heavy for you?! Maybe you'd prefer I let you drop your gear?!"

Aoife raised an eyebrow and glanced over to her right, to Mina---the girl with the two black pig-tails and kind face. "Wasn't the whole point of our journey through this place to practice with our gear?" she asked, rhetorically.

Mina nodded then looked over her shoulder at Armin. "He shouldn't be so tough on him," she said in a sympathetic manner.

Aoife numbly bobbed her head then stared ahead as she continued to carry her pack---to her it didn't seem to weigh but twenty pounds---in a sort of sprint-jog fashion.

Keith Sadis stared at the boy as he made his horse quicken back up to a trot. "If this were a real mission, you'd be Titan food by now!"

The auburn-haired girl furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. Must he always make Armin a reference to Titans? she wondered. Then again . . . he's only being hone--.

Aoife had looked over her shoulder and noticed that Reiner had slowed down his pace to meet back with Armin.

"Give it here . . . you're gonna fail out at this rate! We're being graded today!" said the spiky light blonde haired bulky lad as he removed the pack from Armin's back.

He's . . . helping him? Aoife turned her attention away from them. Isn't that a call for a deduction of points?

Reiner Braun . . . thought Sadis, Stalwart in both mind and body and well-respected by his comrades.

Aoife smirked to herself, pleased by how sweet Reiner had been toward Armin . . . then again, wasn't he nice to every one of his fellow comrades? To Aoife, he was a bit like a brotherly figure. She'd known what it was like to have a brave older brother. She'd felt the happiness they could bring when it came to protecting and helping their little sisters out.

Not a single day went by when Aoife wouldn't think of that sweet eighteen-year old who'd prepared himself for a fight to the death with the Titans at the fall of Shiganshina. That boy might've been annoying at times, but Ryan had always helped her when the going got tough and when she needed a shoulder to cry on.

I was weak . . . Aoife thought, back then there was nothing I could ever accomplish without Ryan by my side.

"Are you trying to slack as well, Callaghan?!" inquired Commandant Sadis.