Eren POV
Their journey took them across mountains, over frozen paths and through some trees, standing alone in the wild like they wanted to lure them far away from the location Kou led them to.
Armin was shivering in front of him and curled up against Eren involuntarily with his friend's arms tight around his small body. Eren sighed and saw the air escape from his mouth in a small cloud.
Their horses whinnied lowly, moving their heads with every step as they carried them up the serpentines, stony and not big enough for two horses next to each other.
"Does she know where she's taking us?", Armin whispered. Eren didn't answer but held on tighter as he was craving the bit of heat from his friend just as much with his hands around his mare's mane.
"Hold on a bit longer.", Kou shouted at them over her shoulder. Mikasa snorted behind them in quiet disbelief.
Yet it was like Kou had called out to the Gods above and after they rounded the next corner of the stony mountain, a flickering light broke through the mist that had accompanied them the whole way.
The wind picked up and Eren suppressed a shiver.
"That's it. We're nearly there!", Kou shouted and even she couldn't keep the relief out of her voice. She made a clicking sound and the pace of her horse became faster. They followed her, shielding themselves with their arms against the wind.
It was eerily quiet if one ignored it's whistling.
"Guys!", Kou shouted with her hand cupping her mouth. "I'm back!"
Eren and Mikasa shared a doubtful gaze. They might have trusted Kou enough to follow her but they had yet to find out what she wanted to show them so badly that she risked getting arrested by the guards of the palace.
"Are you...are you sure they are...still there?", Armin asked with quivering lips and hugged himself. Kou didn't answer but urged her horse forward.
A sudden noise next to them startled Eren's horse and the animal snorted irritated while trying to get away from the danger that was hiding in those bushes. It came close to the edge of the road but Eren managed to calm it down just as they were about to fall.
"Who are they?", a voice rang through the silence. "Why aren't you alone?"
Eren froze.
No.
It couldn't be.
"It's me, you idiot.", Kou answered with a snort and fondly shook her head. "Do you really think I would lead the enemy directly to our hideout?"
"I was sure she would.", another voice joined them.
Eren gasped for air, his eyes wide and he turned around to seek out Mikasa's glare. But she was just as baffled.
"Kou...", he said with a raspy voice and both voices were instantly quiet, giving him time to formulate his words. "Where...where do you usually pick up your revolutionaries?"
The girl watched him with her brows drawn together. "Whoever wants to join may do so after they have proven themselves to be useful to our cause. We pick them up along the way. Why?"
The bushes next to them rustled. Eren jumped down from his horse, his legs still wobbly. He wouldn't believe it. Wouldn't give himself the chance to hope. Not when there was still a chance, he could face disappointment again.
He swallowed and searched for the people the voices belonged to but couldn't make them out in the mist. Mikasa followed his example and regained her footing a lot faster than he had.
"It can't be you.", Eren whispered, still watching the shadows. "We were out there...and then the guards...they picked us up...and you were hiding...they told us..."
"Eren. They can't be.", Mikasa said hoarsely and touched his arm while Armin was watching them with confusion and then realization littering his face. He let out a strangled gasp.
"We were out in the woods.", Eren mumbled. "You were there with us when they came. They told us...how are you still..."
"Show yourself!", Mikasa barked, not allowing her brother to spill nonsense any longer. "Or face the consequences."
For a second it was quiet, no sound to be heard. Neither voices nor rustling. But then two figures appeared from within the foggy bushes and plants that grew along the way despite the cold temperatures up here.
Kou didn't say a word when one of them laughed amused, the sound dry and so familiar that Eren's heart began to ache as he struggled to stay on his feet.
"I wasn't scared of you back then and I'm not starting right fucking now, Kasa.", a girl's voice said. She stepped into the few rays of light that disappeared more and more by the second and brushed her hair out of her face with a grin on her dirty face. "And let's face it, you wouldn't be able to take me if you tried. Don't ya remember the good old fight you had with Annie? Don't remember you to leave that fight as a winner."
Mikasa was deadly silent. She stared at the girl with her eyes wide open.
"You can't be real.", she rasped and shook her head in disbelief while taking a step back. Eren on the hindsight didn't move a bit. His heart was pounding in his chest.
"Ymir..."
"His Highness remembers your name.", a second voice barked with a laughter and moved to stand beside the grinning survivor. His face was just as horse-like as ever. "We should feel honored, shouldn't we?"
Usually Eren would answer with some sarcastic words. Biting and grinning and fighting with the idiot he had grown up with. With one of his best friends. Whom he had believed dead.
"Fucking horseface..."
The young man was about to answer. The next second Eren had thrown his arms around his lost friend's shoulders.
- - -
They dreaded the nights after those five months they had spent out there in the woods. And during some nights, when the hunger had been especially bad, they weren't all too sure that there would ever be an end to this nightmare.
Armin and Mikasa were asleep but Eren knew they would wake up any second. And nevertheless he waited in the dark, not willing to leave them just yet.
He knew that he would have to eventually. They couldn't stay out here much longer. Even though that stupid horse-face was getting better and better at hunting after Ymir had taught them one thing or another, they all would soon go insane.
They hadn't met a single soul since leaving Shiganshina behind.
Armin, who at first had been the one to tell them stories and keep their moods upright, was getting more silent by the day. In most conversations he was by now the first one to stop talking. Not that they occurred often anymore.
Their days consisted of eating the few bits of food they could scrape together with the strength they had gathered from the rare hours of sleep they caught. Of staring at nothing when the fire was slowly going out and taking their only source of light.
Eren looked over to Ymir and Jean. Both of them were leaning against their respective tree-trunks but none of them had closed their eyes yet.
Around them the animals of the night were active and Eren swallowed down a sigh, when he noticed the fading hope and determination in his friend's mimics.
Jean yawned.
"Is it my turn yet?", he asked tiredly, the exhaustion in his voice hurting Eren. Their bickering and slight banter had also disappeared over the course of the last weeks.
Eren nodded and closed his eyes. Maybe he'd be granted the chance to sleep a few minutes. Maybe he'd be granted the honor of his nightmares returning, showing him the cruelest pictures of his dying friends and his mother's shocked face just before-
"Stop thinking.", Ymir grumbled. Eren looked up at her. She faced him with the same dead-on look as always. But the strength behind it had disappeared together with the last bits of fat on her face. Her cheeks were hollow.
"I'm not doing anything.", Eren answered and felt like his tongue was getting heavy with fatigue.
"You're overthinking, stupid.", the girl replied and closed her eyes. Jean left their round with a non-audible grumble. Eren followed his movements with his eyes until he had disappeared in between the trees in search of some poor animal that was brave enough to come out in the dark.
Eren pressed his lips together, wondering just how he would manage to leave his friends like that. What was he even going to achieve? His father wanted him back. But Eren wasn't stupid enough to believe that he wanted anything but power and control over him.
He was about to say something to Ymir, when Jean rushed back into their small circle that had been their home for the last five months. He stumbled over a few branches sticking out of the ground and cursed, waking Armin and Mikasa up.
"What the fuck is your problem?", Eren grumbled. But when he met Jean's shocked gaze, he narrowed his eyes and stood up. "What happened?"
"They are coming."
(Where did my inspiration go? Well, nevertheless I hereby present a new chapter after such a long wait again! Hope you like it!
Who is coming? And what happened afterwards that split them up? Could it be the same people that followed them and Kou to the mountain?
Thanks for staying with this story! And I've found this AMAZING series called "Word of Honor" some months ago and only recently had the mind to watch it. Now I'm addicted and seriously recommend it to all of you!)