It was pouring hard, thick droplets of rain streaming down from the clouded, dim sky and drumming loudly as each drop made contact with the roofs of the cabin buildings around the training grounds. The waters slid down from the hard wood towards the clay mud, now wet and murky because of the puddles of rainwater that had accumulated from the downpour.

"Damn," Adrian whistled through his tongue as he watched the storming rain from inside the cabin of the mess hall. "is the instructor really gonna make us ride through this?"

Adalaide stalked beside him with a casual fold of her arms across her chest. "You act like this is the first time."

"I will never get used to it."

"Well you have to. If you can't handle a measly rain, you can't handle titans."

Adrian grumbled, the thought of braving through the heavy deluge not a pleasant one but, knowing that he didn't any choice, decided to suck it up and go through with it anyway. He only hoped the rain would let down for even a little bit later on. 

"Dok, why're you smiling like that?" Adalaide had turned around and caught a glimpse of Nile in a lovestruck smile, clearly in a stupor with a flowery aura cloaking him. 

Embarrassed that he had been noticed, the dark-haired teen sputtered abashedly, looking away in hopes of hiding his pink cheeks. "I-I'm not!" 

"It's Marie, isn't it? Did something good happen yesterday?"

"No!"

Chiara had walked over together with Mike, the brunette resting a hand on her hips as she smirked. "Nile, you suck at lying."

The three had engaged in a round of playful banter, with the two girls teasing Nile, who looked like he was regretting his life choices and why he even called the two his friends. 

"Seriously Dok, your smiling face creeps me out - doesn't suit you at all," Adalaide snickered at him, "you look like an even bigger idiot. How does Marie even put up with you?"

"Shut up Müller," Nile quipped back with an irritated irk mark. "say that when you've mastered your shitty math skills."

Adalaide's face fell upon his remark, clearly offended at how the man poked her weak spot. Everybody knew her math skills sucked big time. 

"Screw you! I've been practicing with Isa!" She puffed her cheeks and huffed, crossing her arms before she added proudly, lifting her chin higher. "I'm now an expert in quick math."

"Yeah?" Nile rolled his eyes, not convinced. "then what's 53 times 21?"

"15."

Nile's brows knitted together in a frown, face wearing a look of utter disbelief at how someone could be as stupid. "That wasn't even close!"

"But it was quick," Adalaide smoothly added, hands raised in a finger gun gesture as she pointed at him, completely shameless despite the wrong, far-off product. 

Adrian, who was merely listening on to their conversation along with Mike, shook his head. He didn't know if he should be amazed or what. He wasn't the brightest guy out there, but put him beside Adalaide and he'll look as smart as Einstein. "Her mathing did not math well."

Chiara, who was standing beside him and heard his remark, groaned and face palmed. She was ashamed for Adalaide's sake. And to think she's joining the Scouts like that.. I fear for her. 

But then again, despite being a blockhead, Adalaide was pretty quick when it came to using her 3DM gear. She had fast reflexes and could cut pretty deep. A dumbass, but a strong dumbass. It was actually a good fit for a soon-to-be Scout soldier. Among the female cadets, she was probably the most skilled next to Isanna.

Speaking of Isa, Chiara looked over towards the table nearest to her, where the dark-haired girl was currently sitting on, with her back to them. She was quiet ever since this morning, and for good reason. After waking up, Isanna had dashed straight to the bathroom to barf out the hangover she had from drinking past her limit the night before. Chiara didn't get the complete details, but she remembered the look Erwin wore as he brought his snoozing best friend over to their cabin room yesterday night. 

All he had told her was that Isanna had drank a lot and would probably be having a bad hangover in the next morning - to which he was correct. Both Chiara and Adalaide had to act as Isanna's personal, human crutches as they made their way to the mess hall earlier. 

She worriedly looked over towards the said girl, who had already slumped the top of her body over the picnic table, arms stretched across the surface. Sitting right across was Erwin, wearing his usual blank face while keeping Isanna company - as he always did. 

Well.. as long as Erwin's with her I shouldn't be so worried, Chiara thought.

Meanwhile, Isanna was currently having her midlife crisis. At the young age of 17, at that. She tried to push back the bubbling uneasiness in her stomach with her face planted down directly on the wooden picnic table. She could perfectly, regrettably, recall every single detail that had happened the night before, as well as her untimely, drunkenly, semi-emotional outburst at Erwin. 

I am never drinking again for the rest of my life, she groaned loudly with a vow. 

"How are you feeling?"

Isanna groaned for a second time, desperately praying for a black hole to conjure out of nowhere and suck her in to a world of nothingness. She'd rather disappear than face Erwin after that pathetic show she had put up in front of him. The horror. She wasn't in her right mind back then and mentally convinced herself that it was all the alcohol's fault. 

To top it off, she shut her eyes closed. I was so harsh to him - thank gods I still had some little self-control and didn't confess..

"Isanna?"

OH MY GOD please leave me alone please go away please don't talk to me - 

Her train of thoughts were abruptly cut off when she felt a warm hand pat her on the head, gently stroking her strands of dark hair. It was a familiar, caring gesture that screamed of concern- a gesture only one person could do.  

"Are you sleeping?"

Isanna bit her lip, cursing the heavens why they decided to gift this man with the most irresistible deepest, sexiest, and huskiest endearing voice. 

"I'm awake," she finally lifted her head, casually shielding her face with a palm so as to not be obvious at her discomfort. 

Erwin mutely sighed through his nose at Isanna's stiffness but chose not to add anything else. While she definitely seemed to be back to normal after her.. drunk mode yesterday, Erwin could tell the girl was beyond embarrassed about what happened. Personally, he didn't really care that much and crossed the occurrence out as an insignificant event caused by Isanna's drunkenness. 

"We'll be riding through the mountains in this storm," he said, catching the girl's attention as she looked at him. "can you do it with your hangover?"

"Who do you take me for?" Isanna mumbled, barely audible, burying her chin on her open palm. "Riding horses in a storm is a piece of cake - I can handle it."

Moments later, their instructor had called the cadets outside and the batch filed out of the mess hall, their green cloaks pulled over in a hood as a weak attempt to block out the harsh rain. It was morning, but the sky could very well pass as a late afternoon sky because of the dark clouds obscuring the sun. After pulling their horses from the stables, the cadets listened as their instructor gave her final instructions, announcing something along the lines of 'horse-back riding practice in heavy rainfalls' before she ordered them to line up in a thick file. 

Isanna adjusted the strap of the heavy bag filled with stuffings on her back, making sure it won't detach and fall off later on during the ride, before she mounted up on her dark brown-furred steed. 

Their instructor roared a signal and blew on her whistle before the line of cadets followed her, the group trotting away from their training grounds as they all headed to the thicket of forest trees that were looming just a few meters after a hill. The rain had not let up even a little bit (much to Adrian's dismay), the horse hooves splashing on puddles of rainwater and drenching the legs of the cadets as they galloped along their muddy route. As the group entered the foliage of plantation, what little light they previously had was now lost, an eery dim space enveloping their vision.

Isanna held on tightly to the reigns strapped to her horse, squinting her eyes through the foggy path and careful of any bumps on the road. The instructor yelled at them to be high on alert if they didn't want to roll down through the steep cliff and potentially break a few bones.

Their ride went on for about half an hour, with the rain pouring even harder as the group arrived to an area where they were sandwiched between a high ridge of a mountainside on their left and a precipitous cliff to their right where a deep crevice stretched below. The line the cadets have been trying so hard to maintain during the exercise was now broken and they were unevenly scattered from each other, the fog and the rain trapping their sight. 

Mike, who was located somewhere in the middle of the broken file, whipped his face towards a direction where an earthy, muddy smell was twitching his nose, the smell coming from the mountainside on their left and falling towards them with considerable speed. 

He looked back at his batchmates and yelled a warning, "A landslide! Hold your horses!"

Thanks to his shout, the cadets behind him were able to pull back their reigns, horses coming into an abrupt halt as the animals snorted at the sudden movement, hooves clopping on the sandy ground. Just seconds later, a torrent of muddled earth came crashing down on the narrow pathway and the ground shook at the force as clouds of dirt billowed around the impact, some stones and boulders rolling down the cliff on their right.

When the clouds of smoke dissipated, Mike lowered the arm he had raised and frowned at the blockage. He turned to Erwin. "We can't go through."

The blond's steel gaze locked on the earthy wreckage that was now plugging their route. The landslide had cut away any access from the other side, separating their file into two, and Erwin doubted they could cross over and continue on with this training exercise. 

"Is everyone alright? Nobody fell over or anything?" He heard Adrian ask from behind him as he checked their batchmates to see if everyone was safe. Luckily, no one had been caught up with the accident. 

Erwin heard hooves trotting beside him and saw Chiara on her horse. "I hope the group on the other side is safe," despite the downpour, he managed to hear her worry. 

"Erwin! Are you there?!"

It was faint, but the voice of Isanna coming from the other side of the wreckage reached him. Relief flooded into Erwin's system when realization that she was okay struck him. 

"Isa!" Chiara yelled back. "He's fine! What about you guys?!"

"We're fine!"

A second, gruff voice boomed this time from the other side. "Bauer! Tell Smith to take back the cadets to the training camp! We'll make a U-turn when we step out of the forest and meet you there! Training's cancelled today!" 

Chiara shot a look at Erwin, who nodded at her before she confirmed their instructor's orders. "Roger that, instructor!"

Erwin jerked the reigns of his white horse, its bright fur now soaked in water and mud on its legs. His horse trotted around as the blond looked over towards his fellow training cadets and announced through the thundering rain. "We are to head back to the training camp, instructor's orders!"

As the cadets all directed their horses to trace back their path, Erwin briefly shot a worried look over his shoulder towards the blockage, the molded dirt getting drenched with the rain and mud.

•

The cold rain had become harsher, Isanna's drenched clothes sticking to her freezing skin as the group led by their instructor continued on with their route. Her knuckles had already turned a pale white due to her holding on to the reigns tightly, and the discomfort from her hangover was still hanging inside the pits of her stomach.

"Keep up or be left behind!" Isanna heard her instructor yell from the very front of the group. Blinking, the girl tried to shake away the mild headache to focus on the path before her, realizing that she was trailing at a considerable distance at the back of the line. 

Isanna was about to kick the sides of her horse to pick up her pace when a quick flash of light erupted from the heavens, followed by a booming, ear-splitting roar of thunder. Isanna's horse neighed sharply and leaned back, its front legs raised from the ground, frightened out of its wits and jerked around nervously. Horses used in the Training Corps were different from the quick and calm bred of steeds in the Survey Corps, so they were more easy to scare. With a curse, the girl tried to calm it down, but the violent jerking had caused Isanna to lose her balance on its saddle as she fell off her mount, her backpack tumbling down on the mud.

"Shit - !" With mild panic welling in her chest, the slippery mud pushed Isanna near the ledge of the steep cliff as she rolled threateningly close to it, catching a short glimpse of the flowing river below - it didn't look that far off, but Isanna was definitely sure she'd escape the fall with more than two broken bones, and she'd rather avoid that. She frantically flailed her hands around in search for some ledge she could grab on to as her feet slipped down, her stomach churning at the idea of falling over. Just her luck, her fingers managed to dug onto a stray ledge, just inches below the top edge of the cliff, her figure suspending and swaying. 

Isanna could hear a neigh from her horse followed by the fading clap of hooves slapping the ground, telling her that her horse had frisked away. Great, just great, she thought. With a gulp, she reached out with a hand for the top, her other hand gripping on to the ledge for dear life. It just barely grazed her fingertips, small rubble falling off and lightly hitting her cheeks, and Isanna realized with dread that she couldn't help herself up. 

Her arms were now starting to shake not only from the freezing cold of the rain but also from the weight of her own body. She gulped. "Is anybody up there?!" Only the loud rain replied to her plea for help.

Then, she heard crunches of footsteps atop her, and it was like the sound of music to Isanna's ears. She lifted her eyes to get a good view of whoever was her future savior, but her relieved smile fell down just as quickly when she realized who it was. 

"You?!" Isanna bursted when she recognized Baldrick Lovof, the trainee who had joined them right in the middle of their training a year ago. 

Baldrick rolled his eyes and crouched down, a gaze of indifference as he took his sweet time scanning Isanna's predicament, amusement dancing on his features. "Not happy to see me, Herrmann?"

Isanna gritted her teeth. "Cut the crap Lovof, and help me up!"

"That's not what you should say to someone who's going to help you."

"Just - !" Isanna cut herself off and decided to get it over with, the hangover in her stomach acting up again. "Help me up, please."

A cheeky grin etched on Baldrick's lips, clearly satisfied at her answer before he held out a hand for her. "Now that's more like it."

Wasting no time, Isanna quickly clutched on to his outstretched hand, closing her grasp around his hand and waited for him to pull her up. 

"On second thought," Baldrick added, his grin disappearing. "I don't wanna help you."

Isanna frowned at him. "What?"

Without warning, Baldrick roughly pushed Isanna's hand in his grasp away, the force pushing the girl from her hold on the ledge as Isanna tried grasping for Baldrick's hand, her grip latching onto his gold-plated watch and snapping it off of his wrist. She felt her stomach churn - the kind of feeling one would get when you accidentally skip a step on the stairs. The only thing different was, her situation was more grave than a simple fall from a flight of stairs.

In a slow-mo, Isanna could only watch as Baldrick mockingly waved a hand at her. 

Fucking shit, Isanna gritted her teeth as gravity started pulling her body downwards, plummeting towards the snaking river below. 

This isn't fucking Lion King!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

just added that last line for my own amusement