"Sir...I implore you...teach that brat some self restraint..." Oluo narrowed his eyes at me as; for the seventh time on our lengthy trip, stopped to pick flowers.
"Let her be, for now. I'm under orders to at least keep her somewhat comfortable..." Levi replied with one hell of a sigh as they slowed their horses so I could hop back up on Boy and catch up.
"She's young, let her have an least this before you try and break her spirit, Sir." Eld chuckled, though it was somewhat dry. I rode up beside him; shoving my growing collection of flowers into his saddlebag.
"I'm not that much younger than you..." I mumbled as I gave him a pout, which didn't really help my case with looking younger than I was.
Originally, I was only going to gather a few flowers, but once I realised it was pissing Levi off, I just kept going. Both Eld and Petra were carrying my scented spoils, and I was eyeing the slight space in Gunther's saddlebag for my next spot.
"I'm only allowing this because you'll be put through your paces shortly, brat... Childish whimsy is something that won't be accepted whilst I'm around..."
Levi, I'm going to fill your boots with fresh horse shit...
It didn't take us that long to reach out destination; an old, run down castle. Levi was the only member of the squad that hadn't become a part of my flower convoy, save for the single daisy I had managed to slip into his horse's tail.
"Alright...this is the old Scout base...It's disgusting and needs to be thoroughly cleaned before it will be of any use, so get to work." Levi announced as he dismounted Mire.
"Sure thing, Sir! Will you be starting (Y/N)'s training while we clean?" Petra queried as she stroked her horse's forelock.
"I would like to use the cleaning as her training...but in this situation, that wouldn't be such a good idea. She can begin with basic exercises as I set up the old training dummies in the surrounding area...then we'll see how fast she can think whilst using her gear..." Levi looked over at me, and I couldn't tell whether he was expecting me to succeed or to fail. It didn't sound as difficult as I had thought it would be, but I wasn't going to let my guard down. That little gremlin would certainly have tricks up his sleeve.
It took about an hour of non stop sit-ups, push-ups, crunches, lunges and laps before my supposed 'course' was set up, and I was instructed to gear up and meet him back out by the tree line.
"So, what you're saying is...I just have to slice all the targets..?" I summed up his explanation and he nodded once.
"Yes, that's correct. You must make your way through the surrounding forest area and eliminate each one, and I shall time you. You may continue if you miss, but if you make contact with it with anything apart from your blades, you must restart."
This is so stupid...
I unsheathed the blades he had mentioned and looked at my reflection. I didn't look like a solider, nor did I want to, but it kind of felt right to hold them in my hands. On his signal, I sent an anchor to the nearest tree and began to make my way into the shadowed territory. Shadis had never permitted me to use any of their titan dummies during training, because he insisted I was too inexperienced for it. It was kind of exciting that I had a chance to prove that I could do it.
I wonder how long I'd last as a Scout..? Probably not all that long...but maybe enough time to actually have somewhat of a life...Maybe...That's if I even make it into the regiment...
I broke out of my thoughts for a moment as a sharp pain twanged in my shoulder, and I wondered why it would act up from merely swinging around.
There hasn't been any dummies yet...Are they even working? Levi probably doesn't even know how to set them up right...This is such a waste of time...
Just as I thought that, a large, wooden mass popped up directly in my path; making me yelp out. Trying to think on my feet; or rather in mid air, I shot an anchor straight into it's chest and swivelled around until I could spot the wad of whatever it was that symbolised the nape. Reeling myself in, I let out some meek, pathetic battle cry as I slashed out, and grinned to myself once I realised it was spot on.
Hey...maybe this isn't such a waste of time, after all..!
I went on to eliminate three more targets, but nothing else popped up after that. Bored and slightly dizzy from going around in circles, I made my way back to the edge of the small forest area to find Levi, who was standing with Gunther and Oluo.
"That was fast...Did you give up?" Oluo sneered, though he was met with Gunther's hand against the back of his head.
"Well, I took down the four that popped up...So, not exactly..?" I replied as I rolled my tender shoulder and sat down on the ground; exhausted like a child after a cross country run. The captain looked slightly puzzled, but that expression was immediately overrun by his typical deadpan face.
"Gunther, you're coming with me to check them. Oluo, take (Y/N) inside and get her shoulder taped." After a chorus of 'Yes, Sir's, I was led inside and into a large dining area, where the two of us stopped to stare at a particularly strange sight. Petra was sitting on Eld's shoulders; yelling profanities at the wall as she waved a boot around wildly. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't nothing. It was a harmless little spider.
"Just leave it..! You're too freaking heavy!" Eld grunted as he struggled to keep his legs from buckling. "It's harmless, anyway!" Another slam into the stone wall, and Petra shrieked in frustration.
"That's what it wants you to think! Besides, spiders mean cobwebs and cobwebs mean more cleaning!"
She has a point...
I peered up at Oluo and motioned towards the pair with my head.
"Mind if I use your shoulders and have a crack at it..?" I didn't exactly want to sit on Oluo, but Petra's yelling was going to do my head in, plus I had a weird, scratchy feeling when I saw her sitting on Eld.
"If it shuts them up, sure..." He rolled his eyes and crouched down; allowing me to spring up onto his back. Ignoring my aching shoulder, I steadied myself once I threw my legs over to hang in front of his chest by holding onto his hair gently.
"Move aside..." I used my hands to usher a now confused pair of elites away as Oluo carried me to where I needed to be, and I reached up as high as I could. "C'mere, little guy..."
"D..don't touch it! What if it's poisonous?!" Petra scolded me once Eld had all but thrown her off, but I ignored her and focused on the small arachnid that began to crawl across my hand. My mount; Oluo, carried me at a rather quick pace to the window and I outstretched my arm so the harmless little thing could climb off onto a branch.
"There. No harm done..." I smiled as the ashy-haired man I was seated upon bent down so I could climb off and dusted my hands together.
"Shit, kid...you weigh next to nothing. How the hell don't you get shot into the sky using your gear..?" Oluo muttered in question, but I didn't really have an answer.
"Um, I don't know?" I knew I was runty, just like the captain, and for seven years my meals had been few and far between, so being light was a given.
"You are pretty tiny...Let's compare..." I squawked out as Eld waltzed up in front of my and lifted me off the ground; raising me above his own height. "Holy crap, you are light!" There was that weird, squirmy feeling again, and the damn heat that was beginning to crawl up the back of my neck and around to my face.
"Sh..shut up...You're just a giant...Quit poking fun at me..." I muttered as I looked down into his face, which was dusted a pastel pink.
"What? It's cute!" He chuckled; that pink darkening into the colour of roses. I liked the compliment. Nobody had called me cute before, at least not directly to my face, but I was burning up, and the fact that Petra and Oluo were standing behind us made it painfully embarrassing.
(Anatomy is horrendous...but Oluo is my favourite part xD)
"I think I'm going to actually cry, this is so adorable!" The former gushed in a loud whisper as Oluo just stared at us with a blank expression.
"Ew." It was difficult to look away from Eld when I heard a pair of footsteps enter the room, but once the clearing of a throat sounded, my (E/C) eyes tore from rich brown to focus on Levi, who was tapping his foot in the doorway. There was a borderline vicious look on his face.
"You can fuck around all you want when this place is spotless. I can literally see the dust particles floating in the air..." He growled, which caused Eld to gently place me back on the ground and race off to retrieve his dust-cloth and broom.
"S..sorry, Sir..."
Both Levi and Gunther approached me, and even in my slightly dazed state I could see that they both looked a little startled.
"Um...is something wrong..?" I tilted my head and looked to Gunther, because he at least had a variety of facial expressions I could read.
"How...many dummies did you say you took down again..?" The brunet asked me somewhat cautiously, and I became a little confused.
"F..four...Why are you a-"
"Twenty, (Y/N)..." Levi cut in and I couldn't help but whip my head around in shock. "...You took out all twenty of the training dummies in just over eight minutes...They were spanned over an area that would take at least thirty to cover..."
It would make sense if I was used to heavy, awkward silences by this point, but I really wasn't. All five of them were staring at me, searching for answers that I really didn't have.
"Wait...No, no way did I hit that many...I..I only saw four...I..I swear..." I was positive I didn't go beyond four. There was no possible way I would forget attacking sixteen dummies, especially when they popped out so abruptly.
I was deep in thought...but even then, just one of them springing up would have made me nearly piss myself, like that first one...
"Well, either this area is haunted, or you're some kind of forgetful prodigy, kid..." Gunther chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood, but Levi stepped forward and placed his hand on my good shoulder.
"Whatever you did...I'm going to see it in action tomorrow morning. For now, we're just going to get this place in top shape..." He turned to Petra and pointed to her with a limp wrist. "Petra, go and help the brat wrap her injured shoulder. As for the rest of us, we're going to get this castle spick and span before nightfall, even if it kills us..."
I was still in a state of complete bewilderment as the ginger haired woman started to lead me off with a comforting smile, but I was too wrapped up in my own mind to return it.
What the actual hell..? No way did I do that...No way did I take down twenty dummies that quickly...and no freaking way did Eld actually call me cute..!
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***Okay, I had a freak-out when I found out that Oluo is actually nineteen years old...BUT in this, the ages are as follows:
.Levi - 32
.Gunther - 25
.Eld - 25
.Oluo - 23
.Petra - 21
.(Y/N) - 18
Also, as stated in the story description, this is a short reader! Between 4'9"/4'11"***