Gillian stares at the instructor standing in front of him. The man is tall and intimidating with a voice that can scare even titans into pissing themselves. However, compared to Uncle Levi, this man is nothing.
"Are you a mute? Are you to good to answer me? Do you think your status as the son of a commander means shit here?" The man screams, the pitch of his voice causing Gillian to flinch just from the legitimate pain.
"No sir!" Gil shouts while slamming his right fist over the left side of his chest. Gil's medium length bright blond hair blows in the gentle breeze as the man stares at him.
"Good." He growls before moving on.
The other Cadets all begin to shake as the Sargent continues down the line, screaming at those who he deemed weak willed.
Watching this happen, Gil can't help but to notice a number of other Cadets whom the Sargent doesn't even bother with.
Gil can't help but think to himself, 'So these are the people who saw the fall of Wall Maria.'
Of all the people who the Sargent skips over, one in particular catches his eye.
A boy three rows in front of him. The boy is shorter than average, and he has short well kept redish brown hair swept back, and large hazel eyes.
Gil can't place it, but for some reason the boy seems familiar.
As if noticing the eyes looking at him from behind, the boy slightly turns his head and makes direct eye contact with Gil.
The two look at each other for a minute before Gil briefly nods his head, and both turn their eyes away.
The brief exchange didn't really do much else except to make the two keenly aware of each other.
Gil then glances left, and noticed the gaze of another young man to his left. The boy has short messy brown hair and a deep anger poorly hidden behind his current facade.
The boy notices Gil turning to seem him and smiles. 'So your the son of the famous commander Erwin….' He thinks to himself before turning away.
Gil simply glances away after a moment. It seems that the same process was happening amongst all those who didn't have the scare tactics of the Sargent used on them.
It's as if they all realized, that in many ways they are similar to each other. They have all seen hell.
As the Sargent continues down the line, some Cadet's can't even handle the introduction collapse to the ground, tears pouring out of their eyes and fearful expressions etched into their faces.
Who can blame them though? Gil shakes his head. They were more than likely raised in homes deep inside the walls where their biggest worry would be about the reading test the next day.
People like that will rarely be able to put up with the intensity of a drill Sargent screaming in their face.
"What the fuck are you doing on the ground? Get up you lazy ass piece of trash! You begging for the titans to eat you?" The Sargent screams.
After noticing the boy's lack of response, he shakes his head before scoffing, "Pathetic."
The Sargent shakes his head and turns to continue his berating when he hears…
*Crunch*
The Sargent freezes in place.
The tears stop.
The sounds of all the birds in the area stop.
Gil feels his blood run cold as his heart almost stops. Then, a single thought runs through his mind. 'That poor soul.'
Everyone's heads turn to the young girl, who happens to be biting deep into a steamed potato.
"W-what are you doing?" The Sargent asks, his normally loud and booming voice now deathly quiet.
"Um. I'm eating a potato sir?" She responds, seemingly confused as to why he would ask such a thing.
"But why?"
"Because I'm hungry sir? It looked delicious when I walked by the mess hall, so I couldn't help myself and I grabbed it." The girl says, trying to explain the situation.
"That's not what I mean. Why would you eat it now? Why not wait until your alone? Are you not aware of what will happen next?" He asks, still quietly as he can barely comprehend the situation in front of him.
"I felt ie would be a waste of a perfectly good, warm, delicious potato sir!" She replies.
After a moment, she hesitates before breaking the potato in two. Then, she proceeds to hold out the smaller half. "Here sir…. You can have half." She states. While offering it she attempts to smile, but it is so clearly forced Gil has to physically cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing.
The Sargent freezes before a huge, demonic smile etched itself into his tanned, wrinkled, cruel face.
"CADET BROUSE! RUN UNTIL YOUR FEET FALL OFF AND THE SUN SETS! IF YOU STOP EVEN FOR A SECOND, YOU WILL LOSE FOOD PRIVILEGES FOR A WEEK!" He screams.
The cadets all can't help but facepalm at the girl's foolishness.
After this event, the rest of the day passes without anything particularly interesting occurring.
While the Potato Girl, aka Sasha Brause has to run the entire day around the lake, which is located at the center of the training grounds, the rest of the cadets go through a long and lengthy introduction speech. The speech lays out everything the cadets can expect to happen over the next three years.
After this ends, Gillian finds himself sitting on the porch to his assigned barracks with three other boys his age.
One, is a short kid with a shaved head and a bright smile. His name is Connie Springer, from the country side within Wall Rose.
The other, is a boy with medium length shaggy brown hair, average height, and deep blue eyes. His name is Eren Jaeger. He is from The Shiganshina District. That's probably where that fierce hatred in the boys eyes come from.
The last one is a average height, has short dark hair swept back, and an upturned nose. His name is Marcel. He is from the countryside of wall Maria.
"I can't believe she would openly eat that potato. What was she thinking!" Marcel chuckles, a bright smile on his face as he watches the girl continue to run.
Eren shakes his head a bit before also laughing a bit. "I don't know. What's was she possibly thinking?"
Gillian shrugs with a soft smile, "She was just that hungry I guess."
The trio then falls silent as they continue to watch. As they do, the sounds of wooden wheels creaking fills the air.
Looking over, they can see a large number of Cadets within the wagons heading north, leaving the camp.
"Hm. Giving up already. I can't believe they would rather work on the farms than become a soldier." Eren mutters, annoyed.
Marcel shakes his head, "Give them a break Eren. You realize not everyone is like us. Not everyone has seen the horrors of the titans first hand. For them, they joined hoping for an easy job after finishing. This was never about fighting for them."
Gillian nods before saying, "For people like that, it's better for everyone if they give up now. They lack the mental strength to fight. Soon as they gave a Titan they will lose all hope."
Connie can't help but grimace upon hearing this.
"Yo. So have all three of you guys actually seen the titans?" He asks, looking at them curiously.
The three of them nod. "Yeah. I have." They all say.
Connie then asks, "Are they really as terrifying as people make them sound? Do they really…. Eat people?" Connie asks, his stomach turning from disgust.
"Let's talk about this later yeah? It's dinner time. Let's go eat first." Marcel states with a smile before standing up.
"Sure." Connie says before following along.