Death: Hello all! This story might be a bit lacking in my normal literacy rate and may not contain very descriptive text due to it being a comedy rather than an action and adventure. I will also try to provide a dictionary of horse terms at the bottom of the page for viewers who have no experience in the sport. Hope you enjoy~! Reviews are always appreciated!
"Hanji, you keep on looking at that tree like it's some kind of titan remain." Levi pointed out, huffing towards the back of his auburn-haired acquaintance.
"No, no not a Titan remain, like something inside... It's swirling..." She described, shoving her face inside the hollow of the tree, her ambers locked onto the opalescent spec within, rooted up deep inside the hollow.
"Hanji-san are you able to get it out?" Eren asked, leaning over the corner of her shoulder to try to sneak a glimpse, but the scientist's head was too engorged in the hollow to even attempt a peek.
"Nah, from the looks of it it's really wedged deep in between a crack," She sighed in dismay, about to withdraw from her position until she an epiphany bolted her back on her spirits. "Hey! I know what you guys could do it help! The three of you guys, try seeing if you can pick out the stone with your ODM blades!"
"Wait guys, it could be dangerous if we try that!" Armin objected, gripping the ends of his weapon back behind him, hesitant to move even though they were drawn.
"Come on Armin, it's just a little rock. I doubt it'll do anything." Eren reasoned, drawing his two weapons from the metal compartments strapped to his waist just after Levi.
"Ok... But I have a bad feeling about this."
As Hanji flew back to distance herself from the three, they stabbed their swords upwards into the hollow just before a flash of opalescent light swamped their visuals in blinding light. Armin yelped as an unnamed force shock-waved the three, pulsating radiation wave after wave. Eren also gave in, biting down on his tongue while Levi forced his eyes closed and gritted his teeth. Wave after wave of energy pulsed through them as wind slashed and pelted their cloths in a bright white cyclone. Then suddenly... It was over.
Hanji looked up once all had gone quiet, only to find that they were gone as well.
"Guys? Guys?!" She gasped, starting to panic as she dashed franticly around the scene of the crime. "Levi? Eren? Armin?!" She jerked her head, popping in and out of the surrounding area until she shoved her head back up the tree hollow. The opalescent gemstone had vanished.
. . .
"Heichou, are you there?" Eren's voice rose from the silence.
"Yeah I'm here. Are you alright?" The corporal's voice eminent in the blackness.
"Mhm. Heichou... I hear birds chirping and grass, and wind..."
"Then open your eyes,"
Eren woke. Light flooded his visuals, a warming ray compared to the abused of the flash accompanied by the chirps and songs of birds all around. His head was bedded between fresh blades of grass as he caught the aroma of a meadow surrounding him.
"Eren, try to stand." Levi ordered, his voice seeming distant. Eren nodded, his face felt long... He noticed his weight as he shifted, twisting the front portion of his body up to grip the ground, only to heard a thud. Fingers weren't suppose to thud were they? Regardless of the new, strange orientation of his body, he pushed himself up with his back legs, stumbling slightly as his knees buckled when new weight was applied. Huh? That was strange, his ankles didn't normally click when he rose. Heck even his line of sight changed, it widened. Since when was he able to see to the side and back of himself? The only blind spot seemed to be directly in front and the back of him.
He shifted his head below to the ground only shocked to find hooves, painted black up his legs. He gasped, but what came out was a nothing more than a panicked whinny. He tried again, the same result. Eren tried snorting, a violent combustion of snot bellowed from his flared nostrils as he sneezed. He jumped on all fours, his hooves connecting with the ground, resonating way too much weight for his liking as he felt the ground around him tremor. He reared, neighed and bucked the air, frightened senseless by the situation as he galloped, chasing bees as his bay coat kicked up loose strands of grass that flew into the air along with smogs of dirt as he continued his loud, spastic action in enclosed circles despite the large area, whipping his neck back and forth like a whiplash.
"Brat, get a hold of yourself!" Came Levi's voice of reason booming close to his ear at the same time that his mane was yanked harshly to the right by gritted teeth. The bay thoroughbred snapped out of it, swiveling his long head to the direction of the pull only to set his sights on a jet black arabian horse with a white, bleeding star for a head marking, eyes calm but grim at the situation with obsidian black locks that whistled to the coming breeze.
"Heichou... You're gorgeous." Eren mumbled. The black arabian emitted a harsh blow through flared nostrils while ramming his head into the side of the other's neck like a hard punch.
"Idiot, don't try to flirt with me." Levi scolded, snorting as he turned away from the large thoroughbred.
"Wait, Heichou! Where's Armin?"
"G-Guys? Are you there?" A squeak sounded from across the meadow downhill before a small, 16 hand palomino arose from the painted slope, with a dusted black muzzle and a single white sock.
"Armin, is that you?" Eren whinnied, rushing over to the other in a speedy, stumbling trot, unsure of just exactly where to place his hooves as they sailed across the young, ivy ground. He came to a steady halt in front of the other, outstretching his neck to examine the other horse inquisitively, ears pricked forth and nostrils flaring to take in the scent of the golden other. "So, we're all like this now?"
"From the looks of it..." Armin's eyes pondered before flashing back to the thoroughbred bay in a new, venomous glare. "Why Eren? Why'd you have to get us into this again?" He prodded, taking aim to nearly nip the other's chocolate chest with a sneered black muzzle.
"Hey, it was Hanji's idea in the first place! I just... Urged it on." Eren admitted, jerking his head up away from the crossfire as he stumbled a step back.
"And look at us now! We're animals Eren!" Armin brayed, the palomino reared up on his hind legs, doubling the thoroughbred's size as hooves brawled the air.
"I didn't mean to! And It's not like I haven't noticed!" Eren bit back, stepping up to the challenge by copying the other's threat, uplifting his front legs to paw at his friend.
"Both of you cut it ou-" The corporal began, intervening the two by knocking Armin's shoulder to the side, pivoting the palomino to drop on his fours away from Eren, but unfortunately, the bay's hooves were still airborne, hovering over the arabian's back.
"Heichou, watch out!" Eren cried as he couldn't stop momentum from cleaving his hooves against his corporal's ribs when it was his turn to drop to the ground. Levi grunted from the painful impact and took a sidestep before glancing back to the ache on his ribs, witnessing the unholy sight of a dirt streak on his ebony coat.
"Eren... Are you trying to start something?" Never had a more menacing glare been preformed by a horse. Those onyx eyes narrowed, gleaming malice into the thoroughbred's mutated brown as the air seemed to hiss from his flaring nostrils, the breeze became static like ozone, a manifestation of the arabian's temper.
"No- Heichou, I didn't mean to-"
"Eren..."
"I'm so sorry, I didn'tmeantogetdirtonyourcoat I promise!"
"Eren."
"Y-Yes." The bay gulped, head low to nearly be able to grind into the dirt as his eyes trembled, watching the eerily stoic form of the starless arabian.
"I'm gonna kill you." Levi deadpanned before suddenly rearing, towering above his cowering cadet as he stomped near his head and kicked Eren's throat with a solid knee. The thoroughbred staggered back, dodging the swift, angry pummels of his enraged corporal as best he could, desperately trying to avoid the business ends of his raised hooves.
"I'msorry, I'msorry, I'msorry!" Eren pleaded his apology to the other, but knowing it was pointless to reason with rage, especially to Heichou's fastidiousness.
Suddenly, an elder came charging up the hilly pasture, trampling daisies and dandelions as he hurried towards the combating two. The horses didn't even notice the man before he traveled right in between them, Levi having to pivot away at the last second to avoid pummeling the poor man. He snorted, loud and alarmed as the man threw himself in between him and Eren.
"Easy there, big fella." The farmer wheezed, seeming to be out of breath from that frantic sprint he preformed climbing up the hill in a hurry. Levi noted three halters strapped across his shoulder, one on the right, two on the left as they dangled from their living hanger, lead rope drooping to drag across the buoyant grass.
"Out of my way," Levi sneered, attempting to weave past the man to nip viciously at a cowering Eren.
"Easy, easy black beauty." The frail voice reasoned, drawing an old, patched halter from his shoulder and swiftly strapped it around Levi's muzzle, buckling the brass hinge just below the neck before the corporal could even notice.
"What-" The black arabian jolted upon realizing the article on his face, resisting the slight tug he felt on the lead from the man.
"I don't think it's a good idea to fight this guy, who knows maybe he'll lead us to someplace safer." Armin predicted, shoving his head under the captain's arched neck, extending his to the old man as to be clipped with the accessory. Eren cringed at the halter that was offered to him, the elder having to tip-toe on his worn, tattered boots to reach the towering thoroughbred's head, twisting his head to and fro, avoiding the opposing article that was sure to confine him until Levi shot him a venomous glower. The bay gulped, finally accepting the outstretched halter as it was slipped onto his muzzle and clipped underneath.
