A Child?!

It had been about ten minutes since Hange had left the camp.

The sounds of nocturnal animals were already beginning to fill the forest.

"Perfect," Hange said to herself, with a mischievous smile. "Soon, it'll get dark and the Titans will start to get slower. Capturing one will be a piece of cake."

Hange was making as little noise as possible. She walked a few more meters and heard the sound of a branch breaking.

Cautiously, she walked towards the sound.

"It must be just a deer," she thought.

Then, Hange felt something strange under her feet and saw that it was mud. Disgusted, she stepped back. As she took a distance, Hange noticed something.

There was a Titan footprint there. And it was fresh.

By the size of it, the Titan should have about seven meters.

Hange looked around silently. Through the huge trees, she saw some stars appearing in the sky.

"Psst!"

Abruptly, Hange turned around. Did someone call her, saying "psst!"? Or was she just hearing forest noises?

She narrowed her eyes, trying to see through the trees, but it was already starting to get a little dark.

Then, she saw a certain glow, coming from a few meters ahead of her.

Hange froze. There was someone there, by the glow.

"Behind… You…" Hange heard the person say.

She shook her head as if to say she didn't understand and started walking towards the voice.

"Behind you!" the voice exclaimed, on alert.

In a flash, Hange looked back and saw a Titan's hand almost grabbing her, and gave a very loud scream, which startled some birds.

Hange rolled sideways, falling into the mud. Right after, she heard the cry of the person who tried to alert her.

The scream was high-pitched and gave away what kind of person gave it.

"A child?!" exclaimed Hange, her eyes wide open.

Standing up from the mud, Hange started to walk backward, to get some distance and a better view of the situation.

She wasn't believing what her eyes were seeing.

There was a child in front of her, a girl, running like a mouse between the legs of the Titan (who actually had the seven meters that Hange suspected).

She heard her heart pounding in her ears. So many questions came to her mind, but the most important one was:

"What on earth is a kid doing here?!"

That region was not even inhabited anymore, especially after the attack of the Colossal Titan. It was completely impossible to have a human presence there, at least for the past two years, other than the Survey Corps soldiers.

Hange watched the child's quick movements with great astonishment (and, with some trouble to admit it), a certain admiration. The girl's hair color was the same as hers.

Without the use of any device - such as the ODM gear that the Survey Corps used - the girl dodged the Titan, even with some easiness.

Hange noticed that the child was circling between the Titan's legs, tiring it quickly, because it had to avoid the giant trees. Her light and thin legs made her movements very fast compared to the Titan's.

Oddly enough, the girl didn't look confused, just a little scared. She seemed to know very well what she was doing. Soon, Hange realized that the glow that had appeared with the girl was actually a sword equal to the members of the Survey Corps.

"Where did she get that?!" wondered Hange, puzzled.

As many questions crossed her mind, she didn't realize that the farther she walked backward, the deeper into the mud she sank. When Hange noticed, she finally realized what foolishness she had done.

She had fallen into a quicksand zone.

A shiver ran through Hange's entire body. She had forgotten there was water in this region.

"No…" she thought, her heart pounding. "It can't end like this…"

The view ahead of her didn't help. It looked like the girl was starting to get tired of distracting the Titan. Hange noticed that the child was glancing at her with a desperate look, asking for help.

Hange looked around, trying to think of something. Then an idea occurred to her.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, waving her arms to the Titan. "Here, big guy!"

Dizzy, the Titan stopped running and tried to stay put. Then it focused its vision and finally caught sight of its next target: the woman inside the quicksand.

With her hands on her knees and catching some breath, the girl was breathing hard, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Slowly and a little unsteadily, the Titan walked towards Hange, which was already hip-deep sank.

"It's easier to get rid of a Titan's hands than of this quicksand," she thought.

If the Titan grabbed her around the waist, she would easily get out of the quicksand, and if she were quick, could draw her swords and cut off the creature's hand.

But suddenly, Hange sank much deeper than expected and the quicksand reached her chest. The Titan was approaching fast. If it were going to grab her now, it wouldn't be around the waist anymore, but her head. And with its strength, it'd rip it off, that's for sure.

"It's over," thought Hange, her eyes wide open and feeling the tears coming. "It's my end. And I won't even be able to save this child."

Only a few meters for the Titan to reach her now.

"I'll tell her to run, at least she can get to the camp…", she thought, closing her eyes.

When Hange opened her mouth to shout, instead of the sound coming out of her throat, she heard the girl give a loud scream.

Suddenly, there was a great THUMP… And the Titan fell to the ground, about five meters away from Hange. She stared into the creature's eyes, which looked somewhat confused, as if for an instant, wondered how it had ended up on the ground.

"Wh-What happened?" whispered Hange, trembling.

She craned her neck and finally saw: the girl was holding the sword and there was blood on the blades.

The blood belonged to the Titan, for steam evaporated from the sword.

Hange understood. The girl had cut the Titan's heels tendons, making it fall.

"Smart kid!" she exclaimed, surprised by the girl's intelligence.

Then, Hange had an idea.

"Hey!" she exclaimed to the child, who was wide-eyed, as if she couldn't believe what she had just done. "Quick, get on the Titan and make a big cut on its nape!"

With some trouble, due to the quicksand (which now reached her armpits), Hange pointed to the back of her head and showed how the sword should be moved.

The girl nodded. Hange was surprised that, even with difficulty, the child climbed the Titan, showing great courage and a strong stomach, as she was sticking the sword in the creature's body as she climbed.

Fortunately, the Titan was so distracted by the girl, it didn't even realize that if it stretched its arms, it could easily reach Hange.

"Almost there…" the girl thought, panting.

"Way to go, kid!" thought Hange, who by now was so impressed with the girl's skill that she didn't realize that one of her arms had already been swallowed by the quicksand.

With a loud scream, the girl jumped off the Titan's back and waved the sword in a precise slice, making a huge gash on its nape.

In the next instant, the Titan's head dropped to the ground and steam began to rise from its body.

"YEEEEEEEEES!!!" exclaimed Hange, hardly believing what she had just seen.

From the top of the Titan, panting and wiping her sweat, the girl gave Hange a big smile of victory. She looked up, to make sure that finally there were no more Titans around, and she got a big fright.

Several pairs of eyes were staring at her.

The eyes belonged to the soldiers of the Survey Corps.

Everyone seemed to be puzzled. Some even covered their mouths.

The girl looked at the woman inside the quicksand, who with a smile, shouted towards a tall blond man and a short dark-haired man:

"Can you get me out of here, please?"

The two men stared at the girl. The dark-haired looked like he had seen a ghost, while the blond looked like he was facing the next wonder of the world.

With the help of the ODM gear, some soldiers pulled Hange out of the quicksand, which hurt her badly. Her own ODM gear was completely damaged.

The girl, still on top of the Titan, placed the sword beside her feet and cringed, not knowing where to look, shy. She started feeling nauseous and very dizzy. If she fell from that height, she would get hurt for sure.

The last thing she remembered before passing out was seeing the short, dark-haired soldier approaching, holding her in his arms before falling, still with an astonished expression on his face.