Chapter 3: The fall

The two children were running fast in the direction of their house after the girl said she had a really bad feeling.

There were few things the two children trusted unconditionally, one was Klemens's luck and another one was Liesl's instincts, two things that had never failed them.

Both held a pair of swords, but the swords in the pair were mismatched, they both held one sword from the two Klemens's father gave them, while the other was asked for by another person living in the village, an old man called Ashton, he was very kind even if he had a few screws loose.

Ashton was a blacksmith, he loved to grumble about things like how much he hated the government and things like that, each and every time something went wrong it was the government's fault.

He stub a toe on the table leg? It was obviously the governments fault.

But he was still a very kind old man, he told them that he came to their town after loosing his son outside the walls, he was already a widower by that time and losing his son made him lose most of his faith for a better future.

Or at least that's what Liesl's father said after they asked him why the old man gave the fault of everything to the government.

Then there were the twos clothes, their outfits were fitted for their still growing bodies perfectly and it was all thanks to the seamstress of the village, Lina.

She was a blond young woman with a bigger circumference than average, whenever she was asked to do something she would grumble about not wanting to do it, but she would still do it with a smile on her face.

They passed a small wooden house slightly into the woods, it was used by the hunters to store their equipment.

The hunters were tasked with many different jobs, among which there were looking for tracks of anyone coming from outside, hunting the wild life to feed the people in the village with quality meat.

There were four, Ronald, Amar, Ignur and Magnus.

Each of them had a quirk, or something that distinguished them, each of them went around while topless, exposing their bodies to even the coldest of temperatures or the hottest of summers, they said it was to temper their bodies.

The two children thought it was because the four had some special preference as some other villager described.

They reached the place where the boys father taught them how to control staying in midair while uplifted by the wires.

The machine was created by the best builder and mechanic in the village, even now that he was too old to build the things himself, he had hired some young boys to help him out, he even started training his grandson as his successor, a boy thirteen years of age, Thomas.

The girl's feeling of terror only got stronger as they finally reached the road that stretched a bit into the forest to let the people know that they were nearing the village.

The two of them could see the smoke in the air so they kept running even faster towards the source.

'The village is on fire!' thought the two children, if it was just a fire the villagers could take care of it, but they needed to get there faster to give a hand transporting the water from the well to the burning fire.

But when the houses came into their view, they stopped.

In front of them were ruins.

The ruins of their village, the place where they had lived their entire lives, were their families lived.

Gigantic beings who looked like people around three through ten meters tall were roaming inside of it, breaking into the houses and destroying the walls.

It was madness, people the two could see mangled and half eaten corpses of the people they knew and learnt to love.

The two remained there, standing, paralyzed from the horrid spectacle and smell roaming around the place.

'Mom, dad!' Both thought at the same time, their home was on the other side of the village, maybe they were still fine!

So they run, not daring to look at the half corps of the old man who was stretching his arm to a small pool of blood.

They passed through the shadows of the buildings, though small spaces where those gigantic monsters couldn't pass through.

They had to, they needed to act rationally, they knew that the slightest error could spell not only their doom, but also that of their parents in this situation.

'Now we will go and take mom, dad, uncle and aunt, then we will run into the forest to run to Shiganshina, the place there is always filled with troops, they will be able to help us without problem' planned the boy as they neared the place where he lived, right next to the girl's house.

'Seeing the state of the city they are probably dead, but we have to go there just in case, I only hope Kle'll be able to react fast enough to accept the situation and leave with me to the forest if they really are dead, he has always been emotional' though the girl as she looked worriedly toward the boy, her instinct was telling her to plan for the worst if she wanted the best outcome.

If he froze she would make him pass out and carry him away herself if she had to, she would not lose everyone she cared about in the same day.

Finally, the duo's houses came into view, the doors were open, but the two didn't even spare a glance at them, what they were concentrating on was far, far worse than they could have imagined.

The first thing the girl saw was the puddle of blood next to the pair of amputated legs right by her front door, next to a three meters tall giant who was eating an arm she had known for most of her life.

That was her mother's arm, and the pair of legs was her father's.

She wanted nothing more than run there and tear the giant apart with her swords, but she knew that she could do no such thing with her relatively weak body, she was weaker and slower than the boy next to her and most of all her instinct was telling her to run, and it had never failed her before.

The first thing the boy saw was his still living and breathing father.

Inside the mouth of a four meters tall giant.

He saw that his father saw him too, as his expression turned into one of intense happiness and despair at the same time, it was a truly ugly expression.

'Why are they here?! Why didn't they run away when they saw these things? Everyone else was running away hysterically as soon as they came out of the forest!'

The middle aged man's mind was running far faster than it normally could, he knew his son, he knew that he would act rationally and leave if what he saw was his dead body, but he was still alive.

He had no idea how he would react, so there was only one thing to do.

*Chomp* he threw a shout into the sky, the giant had bitten on his lower half that was inside his mouth, it was playing with him.

"Kle! Run, they are too strong, you can't fight them, you need to run!" he shouted.

But only one word was repeating into the boy's mind 'Fight'

"You heard me Kle! Run! Go to the Wall Rose before they close it! You need to survive!"

But only one word kept ringing in his mind 'Fight'

"Please, live a happy, safe and long life, take care of Lie, she's your family after all" a stream of tears was running down his eyes.

But 'Fight'

"I love you, please live" were the last words as the giant decided to pass to his next prey, which just so happened to be the two children just a bit of distance away.

'Fight' repeated the boy in his mind, and the world for suddenly turned much clearer, he knew how to move, how knew what he could and couldn't do.

He felt more powerful than ever, not that he could realize while blinded by the sadness for the loss.

The giant started slowly walking toward the boy, while the girl just came back from the despair from seeing her parents die.

'I have to bring at least him to safety' was all she could think, she didn't want to lose the last person she cared for.

She turned her head to see him disappeared from her side.

'No!' despair returned to her face, had he already been eaten, was he gone?

She could no longer think rationally, the loss and despair made her ignore even her instincts that were telling her that he wasn't dead.

She fell to her knees and readied to join them in death, she had no interest in remaining alive anymore.

But her thought was stopped by an inhuman cry she heard a bit further from her.

She turned her head to see a four meter tall giant's head cut completely off, as it flew away.

She saw the being who did so crouch to the ground before sprinting to the shadow of their homes, it went so fast he was difficult to even see.

Where he passed the ground was dented by the shape of a foot.

The shadow then did the same to the three meters tall giant who ate her parents, its head was now gone too.

The figure then crumbled to the ground, he had tears in his eyes, he even let go of the now broken swords he used to kill the giants.

Seeing him alive let her regain a bit of rational thought, she felt her instinct flare more than ever before.

She rushed at him and put her arm around him to support him.

She then shot with him in tow in the direction that every single fiber of her body was telling her to go in.

They then run and run for longer than they could count.

After a couple of hours of running their heads had cooled down, and stopped in a treeless plain to discuss their next course of actions.

The boy started "I vote we go to the Wall Maria to see if it has been invaded too, it would be foolish to go somewhere else in case it hasn't, the breach that let those things into the walls might be near our village and given that nobody comes there they might not know about it before it's too late to do anything"

"And what if they have already destroyed Shiganshina? What if the survivors have already left and we are surrounded by giants?" asked the girl with a heavy expression on her face.

To which the boy pondered for a bit before answering "If that's the case then we are probably already surrounded given that we are just, maybe a few hours from Shiganshina, if we go there and they have breached then we might have only lost a few hours, but if they haven't a we don't let them know in time tens of thousands of innocents might lose their life"

She pondered for a bit, but eventually she accepted his judgement, it was the best course of action, this was absolutely not the time to get emotional.

They could afford to grieve only after they got in a secure location, but she wasn't too worried about meeting giants on the way.

The only things she trusted in right now was her best friend's luck and her instincts, that had always been the case, even if right now his luck seemed way too lacking.

They rested for ten minutes to regain all the forces they wasted before going back to a full sprint in the direction of Shiganshina.