#parasites

The feral dog stumbled, its loose skin dragged against the ground, chunks of fur simply falling out. It wasn't alive, hadn't been for days now. But the parasite piloting it was, in fact, it refused to die. It hauled the corpse along, tendrils feeling the air for signs of other nervous systems.

It found some.

x~x

Siades swept the grounds with his eyes after the cadets, went to bed. Ever since the most recent expedition, he's been rather on edge. A pervasive feeling of wrongness seeping into his very being. He didn't take a torch, instead he used his own natural night vision, and the light of the moon.

Sometimes he found cadets goofing around after curfew, and he'd yell at them to go to their dorms. He never said it, but he was glad those were the only disturbances he found. Though, the night was usually without issues. He hoped they were learning, that they could understand what they were facing before they faced it.

But it never seemed to matter.

Siades froze when a foul stench hit his nose. He looked out into the wilderness beyond the barbed wire gate. An animal must've died somewhere. He hummed to himself, thinking. He might have to keep an eye out for wolves, make sure they don't attack his class. Still, maybe this could provide a good learning opportunity. Learn the smell of death, before it's one of their comrades.

However, by the next morning's light, Siades had noticed the smell was gone. He assumed that someone had dumped the carcass. Which was fine, he wasn't exactly a fan of dead animal smell. But, when he walked the grounds that night, checking along the perimeter. He found clumps of fur and rotting flesh clinging to the barbed wire where something had gotten in.

x~x

Mina was talking a walk at night. Siades had warned them multiples times not to leave their dorms after curfew, but she couldn't sleep. A sort of nervous excitement was bubbling up within her. She'd be graduating soon, and she was so proud of herself for going through with everything!

She paused suddenly, smelling something rather disgusting. She looked around, but didn't see anything. She was about to call out, when she spotted eyes staring at her from the darkness. But something about them didn't look right… No something was wrong, she needed to-

There was a pain in her neck, and everything fell apart.

x~x

Annie had found Mina the next morning, she was lying on the ground, but didn't have any visible wounds.

"Mina?" She asked, feeling confused. Why was she just lying on the ground like that? She knelt down and rolled her over, flinching from what she saw. Mina's eyes were wide open and glassy, foam oozed from her mouth. She made a painful sounding wheeze, twitching. The only indication she was still alive.

Annie jumped to her feet and ran to get help.

x~x

Hanna fidgeted, sitting on the training grounds next to Franz. She'd heard of what happened to Mina. Poor girl was found on the ground, apparently she'd suffered some sort of seizure, and now she was deathly ill. Siades wouldn't say what was going on, just that they all needed to keep an eye out.

"An eye out for what? What happened to Mina?" She put her head in her hands.

Franz wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. "It's okay, Hanna, I won't let anything happen to you."

She leaned against him, feeling much safer in his arms.

The two stayed out longer than they wanted, the other cadets had already gone to the mess hall. However, Hanna wasn't too concerned, she had Franz. He would protect her. He always did. They were rather far, though.

She paused, looking around. "Do you smell that?" Something foul hit her nose, it smelled sickly sweet, but also utterly disgusting. She wasn't sure how to describe it.

"Smell wha-" Franz suddenly pulled her behind him. She peeked out, seeing something standing in the dark. Uncanny eyes gazing back at them. She froze. He gripped the wooden training sword hard, and ran at the thing, swinging. However, it moved blindingly fast.

Then, Franz was on the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

"Franz!" Hanna screamed, ignoring the danger, she ran to his side. She tried to restrain him, to shake him, to turn him over. Nothing helped. She didn't know what to do, she didn't-

x~x

Three people. Three people attacked by something.

Ymir was concerned. She could smell something rotten wandering around the grounds. It had gotten in and was picking them off one by one. She did her best to keep Krista close by. However, she couldn't keep Krista in her sight forever. She wasn't doing so well during exercises, so Siades sent her on a run during the rain. He didn't send her alone, but he did send Nack and Milieus to accompany her.

She imagined that they would've complained under any other circumstance.

x~x

"Come, on! Hurry!" Nack shouted from ahead of Krista. "The sooner you're done, the sooner we can go back inside!"

"I-I'm trying!" She panted, her pack pressing painfully on her back. She yelped as she tumbled to the ground.

Nack sighed, and walked over, helping her up. He adjusted the pack and suddenly her back hurt a lot less. "This'll distribute the weight more evenly, and make it easier to carry."

"Oh? Thanks!" Krista said. "Wait- where's Milieus?" The two turned, seeing him stumble forwards, head lolling from side to side, before unceremoniously falling to the ground. But… there was nothing behind him?

Krista jumped back, hearing Nack shout. Suddenly, he was nowhere to be seen. She ran, but something caught her leg-

x~x

A combination of fear, and rage filled Thomas as he stalked the training grounds. Something was hunting down his classmates, and he wasn't going to stand for it. He held out a torch, carefully searching around.

"Come, on!" A distorted voice called out.

He jolted, looking around frantically.

"Hurry! Hurry!" It sounded like someone had somehow copied the sound of someone speaking, and was just repeating it. But they had gotten something wrong, and it sounded off. Then, he saw it. It's body crunched and snapped, bones visible, and ensnared in some sort of blue worm. The head split open, the worm shooting out.

It hit him in the chest. He breathed hard, feeling it eat through his skin and sternum, and wrapping itself around his organs. It prodded and squeezed his insides, like it was testing something. He wheezed, falling to the ground. It pushed its whole, fractal-like body into him, writhing and twisting itself to fit his shape. Faint blue pulsed, where it bulged out under his skin.

His eyes rolled up into his head, and the world froze.

x~x

It was a few days since Mina had been bitten by that strange bug, and while her arms and legs were back to normal, for the most part at least, she couldn't help but feel a strange itching in her face. The fever had reduced to a much lower grade, and she was well enough to walk around, so she went back to training.

But she couldn't stop scratching under her chin, and around her mouth and eyes. It was just, so itchy for some reason. During a particularly bad itching session, Ymir grabbed her hands and pulled them away.

"Don't scratch at that." She seemed uncharacteristically concerned, making Mina raise a brow. Ymir let out a sigh. "Here, try this." She rubbed circles into the areas.

Mina felt herself relax, the itching fading away into a soothing sensation. "Oh, wow. That feels so much better, thank you!"

Ymir waved her off. "It happens to me sometimes. Don't scratch it, that only makes it worse."

Mina perked up. "Wait, it happens to you, is… is this normal?"

"Oh, uh. Yeah, absolutely. Eren would get it too, but he doesn't shave." She hustled off.

x~x

She was certain that her performance was suffering due to the illness. Which, while she was able to continue training, was being rather stubborn. The low fever was persistent, and her body ached in the mornings.

She kept doing the thing Ymir showed her, and it kept the itching at bay. But it wasn't too long before she noticed hair growing from those spots. It was white, and thicker than her normal hair. Also, considerably sensitive. A sharp pain shot through her when she attempted to pluck one out.

It honestly seemed like a liability. But when she attempted to ask Ymir with help for shaving it, she would avoid her. Thankfully, Reiner didn't mind helping her out. Double thankfully, he didn't make any comments about her growing hair along her upper lip and jawline. She already felt rather self conscious about it…

But it wasn't the only thing that was bothering her. There was this… craving she felt. She kept thinking about meat and blood, and wanting to crack a skull open and gobble up the contents. While she ate her rations heartily, the didn't seem to fill her. It only sat in her stomach like a rock, while she continued to suffer from hunger pain.