Arc 1 - Sand and Steel
CHAPTER 1 (Awakened in the Dunes)
Titan's orange dunes shimmered beneath a thin, pale sun.
The light felt wrong—too distant, as if it didn't belong to this sky.
A hand burst through the sand.
A man dragged himself upright, coughing dust, his black clothes crusted with frost. The air was thin but strangely breathable, metallic on his tongue, like he'd bitten into cold iron.
He had no memory.
Not of this place.
Not of himself.
His head throbbed like molten metal pressing outward. His vision warped, blurred, then snapped into focus—
endless dunes, rolling in every direction.
He tried to speak, but only a dry whisper escaped his throat.
"…Who am I?"
His legs buckled. He slipped, tumbling helplessly down the slope—
straight into something soft.
Someone soft.
"MMRRGH—WHHMP—HEY—!!"
A muffled shriek.
He landed face-first into a girl who had been sitting peacefully in the sand, eating. A half-finished ration bar flew from her hands and disappeared beneath the dunes.
She glared at him, cheeks puffed out with half-chewed food.
"Ahh wush jush eahhin—shittin down—an' jhen YOH FAH ON ME!"
He blinked slowly.
"…What?"
She froze. Her eyes narrowed. Then she swallowed aggressively.
She coughed once.
Then exploded.
"I SAID—I was eating! Minding my own business! And then you fall on me! OUT OF THE SKY OR SOMETHING!"
"…Sorry," he croaked. His voice sounded unfamiliar. Weak.
She stared at him for a long second, then sighed sharply and brushed sand from her cloak. After a moment's hesitation, she extended a hand.
"…You alive?"
"I'm… not sure."
"Okay. Basic question."
She pointed at him.
"What's your name?"
He searched his mind.
Nothing. Just static and pressure and pain—
until one fragile thought surfaced, like a word carved into stone.
"…Eren."
"I think… my name is Eren."
"Alright, Eren," she said, pulling him up. "I'm Avelin."
As he stood, the weight on his back shifted.
Heavy. Balanced. Familiar.
That scared him.
Avelin's expression changed.
Her eyes dropped to the black katana strapped across his back, its blade veined faintly like cooled magma. Then to the shorter blade at his hip. Then to his arms.
Faint metallic lines traced beneath his skin, catching the sunlight.
She stiffened and glanced around the dunes before lowering her voice.
"You… you have cybernetics."
Eren frowned, lifting his forearms.
"I don't… know what these are."
Avelin hesitated, then turned her back to him and lifted her shirt just enough to reveal her spine.
Glowing lines pulsed beneath her skin, slow and steady.
"See?" she whispered. "I've got them too. But keep yours hidden. Cybernetics are rare on Titan."
She pulled her shirt down quickly.
"Rare means dangerous. Rare means people start asking questions you don't want to answer."
Eren looked at her.
"Then why show me yours?"
She froze.
Her ears turned red.
"I—I just—! Don't ask weird questions!"
"I didn't know it was weird."
She groaned loudly and waved him off.
"Just—forget it. Come on. The temperature's dropping."
The wind picked up, carrying fine sand that stung his skin. The sun dimmed further, as if sinking too fast.
"We need to move."
She started walking, then stopped and extended her hand again.
Eren took it.
The moment he stood upright, something pulsed inside his skull.
Not a voice.
Not a word.
A feeling.
A name.
Ani.
Warmth flooded his chest—followed instantly by pain, sharp and suffocating, like a memory clawing its way toward the surface.
Avelin noticed him stiffen.
"You okay?"
Eren stared at the horizon, where the dunes blurred into the sky.
"…Yeah," he said. "Just… dizzy."
But he wasn't sure.
Who was Ani?
Why did the name feel like something he had lost—something he wasn't supposed to forget?
Avelin didn't press. She just waved him forward and kept walking.
Eren took one last look at the endless dunes—
and followed her into the unknown.