The Birth of Freedom

The Fall of Shiganshina

"One look at me and they ran off; I'm just that scary!" Eren boasted as he came to a skidding halt with a proud grin on his face at his imagined triumph.

"Well, at least some of you are......Oww!" I laughed, which caused pain to shoot across my chest and a low groan escaped my throat, drawing everyone's attention.

"Hey! You okay." Rian asked as he placed a hand on my shoulder, his blue eyes identical to mine looking at me in concern. In general, the twins looked nothing like me. My Grandfather said that they took after their father's side but that Rian's eyes were the same as his mother's and Aurora had her height. Aelin, my father's cousin, was the twin's mother and was said to be as intelligent as she was beautiful. Grandfather said something terrible happened to her and her husband and that twins were all that she left behind, just like my parents had left only me.

"Armin?!" Aurora fussed as she came to my side and pulled my arm up to put around her shoulders in what I can assume was to lift me up. Her green-grey mismatched eyes darting all over my body no doubt assessing every injury.

"I can get up on my own thanks," I said gently pushing Aurora's hands away. She nodded once before stepping back, never one to push unwanted help on others. Her face remained concerned though and I gave her a small smile. Looking back to Rian, I saw he had an eyebrow raised and I knew the question that was coming.

"I said humanity needs to venture into the outside world at some point and then they beat me up and called me a heretic." I shrugged and Rian gave me a stern look, he really looked like his Grandfather when he pulled that face. Sadly, we've had this conversation before when I had told him about my dream of seeing the outside world.

"I want to go to the sea Rian, I don't want my parents accident to be in vain. Is that such a bad thing?" I had said and he had given me a strange look before taking my hands and looking me in the eye.

"There is nothing wrong with that Armin. I dream of it too but my Grandfather... he told me bad things happen to people in these walls that challenge the order that's been established. They end up like my parents ... they have accidents ." he had given me a pointed look. "I don't want that to happen to you. You and your Grandfather are the only blood family we have left besides Rowan. I just... Your smart Armin, I think you know what I'm trying to say". I had known precisely what he had meant. I just couldn't bring myself to think about it. I didn't want to. Even after all this time, it was still too hard to bear.

"Why does everyone look down on people just for wanting to go outside?" Eren grumbled, bringing my thoughts back to the present and I thought about the answer before replying.

"Well, because we've had a hundred years of peace by staying inside the walls" I began, "They're worried that going outside carelessly will invite them inside the walls. The royal government's policies have made having any interest in the outside world a taboo."

"It's our lives! We can risk 'em if we want!" Eren said somewhat missing the point and I smiled. His singlemindedness was truly impressive and had gotten him into trouble more often than not.

"Absolutely not. Forget about it." Mikasa snapped as she was stared at Eren, her face deadly serious. Clearly, the topic wasn't up for further discussion, though looking back at Eren I could see he was far from done.

"Which reminds me, I can't believe you told my parents!" Eren retorted throwing his hands in the air before setting off down the street, no doubt heading down to the canal.

What were they talking about?

Looking over to Rian, my face must have shown my confusion because he gestured to Mikasa with his thumb.