[centre][h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones - Wall Maria: Shiganshina District[/color][/h2][/centre]

[Color=teal]"Oh, Lauren!"[/color] She had been calmly observing the untold mysteries of cloud movement until the familiar voice broke her calm reverie, making her shoot up into a sitting position and glance all around.  Her eyes fell on a girl her age, with a slightly older boy standing beside her, waving and calling her name again. [Color=teal]"Lauren! Come join us!"[/color]

Lauren grinned and stood up, brushing her trousers free of the loose grass that clung to them, before hurrying up the slight incline to join the two siblings.  Another, younger, girl was there and Mora seemed to know her, at least by name.  When Jade mentioned about the bakery Lauren was able to place the vaguely familiar face; she bore considerably resemblance to the the bakers her mother often took her to visit after returning from occasional tours of the outer walls.

[color=7ea7d8]"Hi, I'm Lauren."[/color] She greeted Jade and took a seat as the basket was laid down.  Mora was calling other people she knew over, a boy Lauren didn't know, who proferred hand as way of a greeting and introduced himself as Gabriel.  Lauren, after Jade, shook it and introduce herself as well.  They sat eating as Reese, a boy she remembered as not being native to Shiganshina, joined them and took a seat.  As they sat, talking, eating and laughing, she noticed the Cain was a little quiet and looked quite red in the face.

[color=7ea7d8]"Are you feeling okay, Cain?"[/color] She asked, leaning forward to catch his gaze.  He looked uncomfortable and jittery to her, like he was coming down with a cold or the flu.  [color=7ea7d8]"You look like you've got a temperature!"[/color]  Pushing her hair back she leaned over, without letting him respond, and pressed her forehead against us, his skin much warmer than her own. [color=7ea7d8]"You're probably working too hard in this heat, Pa tells me it's important to drink water especially if you're working.  You should take better care of yourself or you'll come down with something."[/color]

She sat back down, munching on a bread roll, as the ground shook beneath them and a flash of light, momentarily brighter than the rays of the sun, cast long shadows from the walls.  An eerie silence settled on the group; on all of Shinganshina, as all eyes turned to the gate.  Dust or smoke rose above the gates, obscuring the Sun, and then a giant hand apparently made up only of muscle and bone, rose over the wall and gripped it, cracks visible even from their picnic.

Then the head, with eyes casting their implacable gaze across the town, reared above the wall.  They sat frozen, out of shock or fear it did not matter, for the Titans were coming.  The gate exploded under an impact unseen to them, a wave of dust and shattered mortar consuming the neighbourhoods around the gate and huge boulders crushing houses and people with impunity.

Lauren broke free of her reverie, launching to her feet, her thoughts zeroing in on her mother who was somewhere up on those walls, or by the gatehouse itself.  She began to run down the field, towards the gate, seeing the Titans emerge out of the whole but desperate to find her mother.  Words rang in her head, the strong and commanding voice of a soldier.  The voice of the person she ran to help.

[i]"If you ever see Titans, you run.  Do you hear me, Law?"[/i]

[i][color=7ea7d8]"But you'll be fighting, won't you?"[/color][/i]

[i]"Yes, so that you can run.  So you run, my little girl, you take your friends or your father and you run.  You go to the gate or you go to the river and get on a boat.  Don't turn back, don't come for me.  Don't go home.  Just run.  Do you understand me, Law? I need to know, so Ma can fight without worrying for you.[/i]

She stopped dead still, her muscles tense, every part of her screaming that she should find her Ma or her Pa, find someone.  Someone who could fix this all, make it all just a bad dream and let her return to the spontaneous picnic surrounded by friendly faces in a lush field with a brilliant Sun shining from above.  But this was real.  Ma was fighting out there so that she could run.  She couldn't make her worry, or Ma couldn't fight.

With every ounce of willpower she had, Lauren turned and trod up the field to the others.  She wasn't a leader, she couldn't get them to follow her, it wasn't in her nature.  But she had to do something.  She knew Mora, she was her friend, and that meant she had to help her.  They had to escape.  She caught her by the hand, forcing the other girl to focus on her.

[color=7ea7d8]"Mora, we need to go.  Now.  We need to go now! Ma said so, to the gate or a boat, so she could fight.  Please, help me get the others!"[/color]