I WILL PROTECT YOU

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓𝟕

3rd POV

  "Mom, we're home!" Dina announced as she opened the door to the house and allowed Cameron to walk in first before she did. Their mother, a blonde but brown-eyed woman with freckles dotting her skin, turned from her spot in the kitchen and quickly went to greet her daughters. "We got all that you ask for," Dina told her— walking to the dining table to place the bag of groceries with Cameron trailing behind to place the medicine beside it.

With their hands free, the two rolled off their armbands and Dina went to settle them both on a table beside the front door.

"Thank you, girls. Your father will appreciate the two of you helping me while he's ill." Their mother said, digging the produce out of the bag to begin cooking. That's when her brown eyes fell on her youngest who had been chewing on bread the whole time.

"Cameron— what have I told you about eating before dinner?" She walked around the table and knelt in front of Cameron who began to feel guilty. "Sweetbread?" Her mother said when taking it out of her grasp. "You might get a cavity with how much you eat them. Aren't you worried you'll get fatter than you already are?" She scolded. Cameron widened her eyes and pouted at her.

"I'm not fat!" She yelled, her hands covering her belly. Her mother sighed and stood up to put away the baked good.

"Mom, it's my fault— I got them for Cameron without thinking." Dina stood beside her sister and defended her. "And just because she's a little chubby doesn't mean she's fat. I think she looks cute, just look at her cheeks!" Dina switched the mood and squished Cameron's chubby cheeks. The feeling of guilt washed away and Cameron began to push away her sister's hands while laughing.

Their mother watched the two before she sighed again. "A girl should be thin and proper. And you, Cameron, are chubby and boyish. Sometimes I think I gave birth to a son," she joked. "Though I am lucky you're not a delinquent. Instead, you're a sweet child, like a...bun." She said.

Dina lit up and nodded her head. "That's what you are, Cameron! A bun! My little sister is as cute and as sweet as a bun!" She chirped, ruffling her nine-year-old sister's hair. It took a second for Cameron to understand the reference, but when she did, she smiled so brightly that her mother forgot what she complained about minutes ago.

-

"It's such a shame."

Cameron looked up from her schoolwork and at her father who sat on an armchair. Today he felt well enough to be out of bed and in the living space. "What's wrong?" She asked. Her father coughed and took a dreadful sigh as he looked away from his newspaper. His pale fingers brushed against the edge of the pages.

"An Eldian girl around your age recently passed." He said. "Says here she'll have a closed casket funeral. Well, her death must have meant something if the Marleyans allowed it into the Eldian column—" he coughed again "—Cameron,"

"Yes?"

"Promise me you'll be careful and never bring the attention of Marley onto yourself. You and your sister are too important to be lost."

"I promise."

-

"One thousand, eight hundred and twenty years ago, our ancestor Ymir Fritz made contact with the Devil of All Earth and obtained the power of the Titans. Upon her death, Ymir's spirit was split into the Ten Titans who formed the Eldian Empire. After defeating the great nation of Marley, they ruled over the continent. Thus began the Dark Ages...The Subjects of Ymir called other races inferior and began to oppress them.

They stole lands and fortunes and forced other races to bear their children to increase their numbers. Their ethnic cleansing continued for some 1,700 more years. But the once great nation of Marley plotted to subvert Eldia and its arrogance from within. They brought seven of the Ten Titans under their control and were victorious in the Great Titan War eighty years ago.