Eren POV
"No!"
"Get him!"
"Eren."
He startled as he felt a hand on his shoulder, gripping his flesh hard enough to get him out of his trance.
Mikasa was staring at him with a hardness behind her unrelenting eyes that forced Eren to concentrate on the matter at hand.
Said matter were the three guards standing at the gates of the walls that separated the inner circle of the palace from the many villages and fields of Eldia.
"They should have changed shifts already.", Mikasa murmured, glancing up to the sky where the moon stood high above the mountains, rising up behind the forests like guardians of their own.
"Maybe they forgot. You heard what Armin said, they change shifts almost religiously.", Eren reminded her and brushed her hand off his shoulder.
"We can't afford waiting any longer."
Eren sighed, clenching his fists while observing how the guards talked to each other, clapping each other on the back with hard spears in their hands. Sharp tips, ready to kill at any given moments should have been enough to unsettle them.
"What do you suggest we do?", Eren groaned, careful not to speak too loudly. Hiding behind one of the great pillars proved to be harder than expected. The fear of getting caught by someone out of the shadows and the undeniable tension in Mikasa's body should have scared Eren off.
Yet the only thing it did was giving him all the more reason to right against his restraints like a bird in a cage.
"We have to find a way to get past them.", Mikasa muttered. She frowned at the three guards and clawed her fingers in the stone of the pillar. Thankfully they hadn't noticed their shadows yet, cast on the ground by the torches next to the entry of the palace.
"You don't say...ow!"
"Be quiet."
"Then why the hell did you hit me?"
She sent him a stern glance.
"Eren, this is our only chance to meet the queen. Think fast or we are alone in this fight by the morning."
Just as Eren was about to answer, the doors behind them went open with a creak. Mikasa dragged her brother deeper into the shadows as the guards looked over to the source of the noise.
"Who are you?", one of them shouted through the misty dark.
The first droplets of rain fell on the ground, wetting the stones beneath their feet and the sound echoing through the night.
Mikasa's hands were cold on his shoulders, her nails nearly tearing through the fabric of the jacket he had borrowed from Connie.
They hadn't told their friends about what they were up to this night. It was safer for them if they didn't know everything.
The doors closed again, falling shut with a bang which attracted all of the three guard's attention.
"Show yourself!"
Eren held his breath.
"It's only me.", a soft voice resounded in the open space. A girl, her hair as dark as the night and her figure small enough to make her appear as innocent as a mouse took some steps into the light of the torches.
It illuminated her features like those of an angel.
Eren heard a soft gasp behind his head and turned his face enough to meet Mikasa's eyes. They were focused on the servant girl, walking past them with graceful movements.
Just as she was about to leave them behind, she opened her mouth and whispered: "Go."
Eren flinched.
"Kou...", Mikasa said but Eren didn't have the mind to wonder about it.
"What is your business to this late hour?", one of the guards demanded to know and stepped forward, meeting her halfway in the rain.
Eren was frozen in place.
His limbs too heavy to move them.
"Eren. We have to go. Now." Mikasa inhaled deeply and shoved him through the shadows. He stumbled after her, his gaze fixated on the servant nearing the guards.
"I was so hot. Needed some fresh air.", he heard her voice, soft and clear in between the gentle splashing of raindrops.
"Go back inside. It's not safe out here.", another guard warned her, gesturing back inside. Eren almost fell over as he still didn't dare to look away from her.
"Eren.", his sister hissed, pushing him over to the bushes hidden in the night. They would make their way over from there until they reached the gates and could climb over the wall to get out of the palace grounds.
"Who is-"
"We only have this chance.", his sister stressed and dragged him through the mud and the leaves that decorated the ground as if they wanted to show them the way. Not that Eren could see much. "Don't make her effort go to waste."
He swallowed hard, not liking the thought of leaving the girl alone with those bastards who only lived to serve their monster of a king.
But Mikasa was right.
They couldn't waste this chance.
It might very well be their last.
---
Staring up at the thick wall of stones, Eren wondered absentmindedly if he could conjure up his wings by thought.
Something inside of him purred at the thought, screaming at him to take the chance and the power his body was offering him.
"Let's hope this works.", Mikasa mumbled and made to climb up the first meters of the wall. The muscles in her arms flexed every time she pulled herself up, supporting her weight with her strong legs.
Eren looked back over his shoulder one last time, watching the girl converse with the guards.
"Eren."
"Coming.", he muttered and turned to the wall, following Mikasa while holding his breath. He anticipated at least one of the guards to notice him at any given moment and the tension in his body didn't make climbing up the wall any easier for him.
Step by step, followed by pulling himself up with his arms did he climb up the wall. His hard breaths met the cold and slippery stones.
After weeks of having done nothing but cleaning the halls his body wasn't used to the effort and it showed in the burn of his muscles and the sweat building on his forehead.
Suddenly he was glad that Armin had decided against coming with them. Eren felt bad for leaving him alone in their old room but Armin had been clear in his request to leave Commander Erwin's chamber.
Even Eren had noticed the sad glimmer in the smaller boy's eyes at his broken words.
"Eren, are you okay?"
Mikasa's concerned voice found him from where she was hanging above him, looking down between her arms.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry.", he mumbled distracted. He would worry about his friend later on.
(Heeyyyyy, so sorry if the spaces between the paragraphs are different than what you're used to. Writing on a phone makes this a bit harder to differentiate.
So we are ready to meet the queen, Armin is sad and hurt and what does Levi have to say about this whole chaos?
This chapter - even if it's not as long as planned - gets updated so early because of the motivating comment of @taejinlena, who promoted me to write something today although i should start focusing on more than one one story, I think 😅😂so sorry to all the readers of my second fanfic
Anyway, you gotta thank them for the fast update ❣️)