shortcutter | [3] drei | the fertile fortress

The journey wasn't a lengthy one. It was a bit longer than the estimated fifteen kilometers, but for a Survey Corps horse, such distance was akin to a sprint. There had been no cause to stop, and although they'd taken a few minor detours to avoid being harried by wandering titans, they still made good time; however, with the thick silence that held between Levi and Mikasa for the duration, it could have felt shorter. The weather also did them no favors. The sky was pale and overcast while the wind blew hard, threatening a storm.

Their path skirted them well wide of the forest, leaving less chance for a surprise attack. Levi was prepared to encounter a mass of titans as they drew nearer, and had warned Mikasa of the possibility, but the final leg of their trek proved to be uneventful. The lack of titans was almost unsettling, and as the fortress rose into view, Levi motioned for Mikasa to slow. He reigned his own horse to a trot and allowed her to catch up so that the two of them were riding side by side.

The fortress was a broad, hulking structure that sat on the crest of a hill with a shallow and steady incline. Its thick gate, visible from their position, was up and appeared to be fully intact. The crescent cut of a stream ran some twenty meters away from the north and west facing walls, appearing not unlike half a moat. The stream crawled further south only to disappear into the forest.

Still no sign of any titans. So far, this was seeming all too easy. When Levi spoke, he raised his voice to be heard over the light howl of the wind and the rattling of his cape.

"I'm going to give you my extra horse," he said. "Tie them near the gate, then scale the walls from the outside. Find the highest point up there and be my lookout. I'll circle the place and check for any breaches."

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Whether he could read her expression or not, Levi was holding himself much the same way. He glanced at the bracelet, noting that it was too tarnished to allow even a guess as to what it might have been worth. She could keep it she liked, though he wasn't sure why she would. Levi turned away from the bodies and stowed the wrapped up handle in his jacket.

"Let's go."

There were some things worse about the return journey. Without the tension of potential danger keeping a stranglehold on Levi's focus, his mind strayed unpleasantly — specific smells and sights he was unable to ignore. And there was no avoiding certain thoughts; for instance, if he'd been trapped down here himself, what would have kept him from going insane?

Levi spoke again only once they'd left the corpses and the caged titan behind.

"Even the Military Police wouldn't ignore so many missing people. I think they were among the droves sent to die after Wall Maria fell. For some reason they were rounded up and kept here."

What Levi had said stuck in her mind for a long time after they emerged from the dungeon. Even at the time, it had struck her strangely. Not that he was wrong, but that it was something that couldn't be solved with a fist. Not the droves, not whatever else happened here. She didn't know how to stop problems like those; she only knew about how to take care of her own. Someone like Erwin, though —

"Cruel," Was all she said. She never questioned whether it was possible or even likely. Worse had happened. Did the titans come here to eat the dead? The mutant titans in the dungeon.... maybe that's what happens when a titan eats a corpse. (???) She didn't know. Again, not her problem. A problem for someone like Hange.

She climbed the stairs, following him, and thought primarily of washing her hands. But after that, had they learned what they had come to learn? That was the kind of problem.... Levi solved. He knew what the others needed. He would get it, whatever it was. They trusted him to keep their work moving, that was why he'd been sent here. Was it why she had been sent here too? In that case, she'd failed.

Abruptly she asked, as they decanted themselves into the antechamber, "How do you know what to look for?"

Levi eye's widened, and there was no mistaking the incredulous look when he glanced back towards her. Of the few questions she'd asked, none of them had been of this flavor. Has it stopped raining yet? or Where do you think they're coming from? — these had definite answers related to their mission. Straightforward. Obvious.

Really, it was a step in the right direction. That she even bothered to ask could have been one, but if Mikasa didn't care at some deeper level, then she probably wouldn't have wasted her breath. She was looking to him for an answer that every captain or squad leader in the army would give differently.

He turned back and, for a moment, continued leading her in silence, heading outside to where the horses were waiting.

"You probably think it's different than fighting," he said at last. "It's not. Not much. You pick somewhere to be — the best available place. The spot with good vantage where you won't get fucking crushed. Then…" He paused again. "If some smart-ass tried to explain it like this to me, I'd want to break his teeth, but —" he made an irritated hum "— like chess. For every opening sequence, the best players know all of the moves. That's up to a point. The moves that win and lose games are the ones that shit all over what they knew.

"It doesn't always work. You can get lucky, or not. I lived underground for a long time; if I hadn't, maybe I wouldn't have thought to look there. It doesn't matter. Thinking rationally, or irrationally… what matters are the results, and nothing changes in this shitty world when all anyone does is play by the script. Go your whole life like that and you might as well be rotting under there with the rest of those stinking corpses."

The look she returned for his incredulous stare was serious, devoid of argument. She was unfazed and listening. This was something imperative.

It was funny, the way he explained it. She didn't laugh but there was something very Levi-like about it which made her want to laugh with recognition. She listened carefully regardless, and followed regardless, and when the open sky was overhead she dunked her hands into a nearby barrel filled with rainwater while thinking about what he said.

Her answer took a while to come out. It wasn't even really an answer; more like she was talking to herself, and he happened to be there as she scrubbed her hands dry on the saddle blanket of a horse.

"Prepare for the unpreparable."

She looked over his way and he seemed unaccountably more familiar in her eyes. Much subterranean thinking went into this. A lot of what he had said had missed her because she'd never thought of herself as limited by what she knew before. But it seemed apparent now: there were things she knew and things she didn't know. Other people knew things she didn't know.

"You make mistakes and you learn from them, then... You..."

Words failed her. Lacking formal education or even rigorous struggle, there was no way for her to discuss "categories" of mistakes, of generalizing, of abstracting from principles. She felt, but was unable to say, that there were categories of mistakes to learn from and orient one's self towards. Frustrating.

There was a flash of vulnerable inability in her dark eyes; then she turned back to her horse. For some reason she thought of the mutant titan in the dungeon, the one Levi meant to leave for Hange. She didn't know. She was starting to learn, now.

"We should go back," she finally said. As if it wasn't clearly what he'd already planned.

For once he didn't watch her while she considered his response. Close by there was a steady trickle of runoff dripping from a sloped section of the roof. Levi rolled up his sleeves and allowed it to pelt his hands before rubbing it slowly between his palms, then his fingers. The sky still had a murky color, but it looked no more ominous than the bad milk it resembled. They ought to have a dry ride home.

Levi shook the wetness from his hands before joining Mikasa with the horses. He listened to her speak, idly looking over their supplies, re-securing and tightening some of the ropes while making a few other adjustments. But she had his attention, even if she didn't want it, and once she was finished, he held her eye. A warmth stirred in him, somewhere low in his chest, and he walked to her side.

It was the natural direction; as it turned out, Mikasa had (likely at random) used the saddle blanket on the back of his horse to dry her hands. This afforded him the opportunity to pat her head, close to where her hair had been sticking up after she'd just awoken.

"All right. Saddle up."

This time he added an affectionate rumple before hoisting himself up and onto his horse.

She glanced up at him as he sat in the saddle. Him and those headpats. Sent a tickle up the back of her neck. A moment of hesitation; she patted his knee and turned away before he could respond. Mounting smoothly, she kicked into a canter to come up alongside Levi, and that was where she stayed throughout the long, quiet ride home.

When they returned there was the usual debrief, unpacking, seeing to the horses. Armin and Eren would not be back until after dark. She thought mostly about bathing and sleeping, though it brought to mind the pungent scent of mildew. After that - never again did she want to feel as lost as she had at the castle. She thought tomorrow she would talk to Hange and some of the older corps to get a better understanding of what they looked for. Probably there were some books, too. Maybe Armin could help. Levi might have some suggestions.

Tomorrow she would definitely have to talk to Levi about it.

[3] drei | the fertile fortress

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FIRST: TO DEAL WITH THE DAYWALKER also in the hand of her hand really. :|

you saw only a mirage

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WOW I SUCK