The Ballad of Heidi Trumbauer

Forest of Giant Trees

"Captain! Captain Levi!" Eren shouted anxiously as they galloped at a break-neck pace down the wide path through the forest of giant trees that they had followed the rest of the center column into.

"What?" Levi asked shortly.

"'What'!? Sir, this is the forest!" Eren exclaimed worriedly. "With just the central column here, we can't detect approaching titans! And something's coming on our right flank... Sir, how are we supposed to avoid the titans and protect the wagons under these circumstances!?"

"Stop whining about the obvious," Levi told him. "There's no way we can do that anymore."

"What!?" Eren said, alarmed. "Th-Then why...!?"

"Look around you, Eren. These pointlessly big-ass trees... are the perfect environment to make use of our 3DMG. Now, think," Levi ordered. "Put that mediocre brain of yours to use. Think hard. Your life depends on it."

"..." Eren stared at their leader's back, stunned.

'It's not just the advantage it'll give us with the 3DMG...' Heidi thought, furrowing her brow, as she glanced around. She'd visited this tourist spot with her family in the past, so she knew that this was the best place to play a game of hide-and-seek. The best thing about these trees being so absurdly tall and wide was that they wouldn't just block their field of vision, but the titans' as well. It would be much harder for them to see ahead with all these giant trees in the way, which meant... 'Commander Erwin must have brought us here for an ambush!' Heidi tightened her grip on the reins nervously. As she thought, this was the reason they had headed west. Still, this was a huge gamble... Like Eren said, they were flying blind in here. There was no guarantee they wouldn't get caught or killed before Erwin could enact his plan.

'I see... I don't understand the situation, because I'm a rookie. I guess he won't just give me the answer because I need to learn on my own...' Eren thought as a bead of nervous sweat dripped down the side of his face. He couldn't see Heidi's face because she was in front of him, but he was sure she must be as confused as he was. 'I bet they learned how to fight the same way...' he thought, glancing at Oruo, who was riding right alongside him. His eyes widened when he saw how unnerved the older man was.

"What the hell's with this...? Don't fuck with me... what the shit's going on!?" Oruo muttered nervously under his breath just loud enough for Eren to hear. Eren immediately whipped his head around to look at the rest of the veterans. Just like Oruo, they all looked like they were scared shitless. 'Wait a second...! Don't tell me... Is it possible that no one... knows what's going on!?' Eren wondered, breaking out into a cold sweat. 'Maybe... not even Captain Levi...'

WHOOM!

"!?" everyone gasped when they head a loud crashing sound echo through the forest.

"W-What was that noise...!?" Petra asked anxiously.

WHOOM!

"It came from right behind us!!" Oruo yelled.

"Was it that thing on the right flank...?" Erd asked.

"..." Eren and Heidi said, sweating nervously as they looked back in the direction the sound was coming from. It was coming... Whatever it was would be right on top of them in a matter of minutes!

"Everyone..." Levi said firmly, focusing their attention back on him. "Draw your blades," he ordered, arming himself as they continued forward. "If it shows itself... it'll be only for a moment." The others immediately followed suit, and not a moment too soon.

FWOOOOM!

The thing pursuing them suddenly appeared right behind them as it jumped onto the road from the side, closing in fast.