Chapter 5 – Eren Jaeger A4

When he awoke, he saw the Night Fury on the other end of the bay, the light skimming off the water between them. But when Eren got up, it slowly stalked towards his campsite, eyes only slightly downcast as she drew closer and closer. He returned to the position he was in the previous evening, not wanting to rile up the dragon at all. As she approached the boarder of the campsite, the Night Fury sat down a few paces back from him, but when Hiccup pushed forward a small portion of fish, she made no growl, instead taking it and then returning to the other end of the coast, but not all the way.

This repeated, meal after meal, day after day.

But each time the Dragon was less hostile and didn't pull away so quickly, nor did it stray so far down the beach from him when it left.

It was only on the 12th day that she stayed with Eren. She saw him fishing, catching them, and to Eren's surprise, decided to help to by walking into the water, utilising her long unused echolocation to hunt the fish and herd them towards the sand where Eren was.

Neither of them really knew it, but this built some unspoken mutual respect he thought as Eren gave the Night Fury an extra fish that day, with it then staying by the campsite, if even only in a sort of guard dog position.

This repeated for another 6 days until eventually the Night Fury had been so close to Eren that it made physical contact with him, but quickly retracting. Remembering what he was taught, Eren went to offer his palm to the Night Fury's snout who, after a brief hesitation accepted it. Eren was surprised that the Dragon had not yet flown away, even after near 18 days assuming that it's wings or legs were damaged, only then in that moment realising that it's wings and legs were fine, instead it actually liked him and had chosen to stay. Unable to keep the grin from his face, he watched the embers before him crackle under the stars that littered the heavens like drops of sand in the ocean.

He understood that it would not be able to fit in the boat, nor could he fly it, but he did know that they were intelligent. So he asked the Night Fury if it understood him, receiving a nod. After this, Eren was able to explain his situation, and after a day of waiting the night fury returned, nudging to the boat, indicating that it would be willingly to fly alongside the boat.

Whilst he wasn't completely sure where he was, Eren knew that friendly islands must be at least to his Northeast as he could tell from the constellations. And so, he eventually made his way back, arriving near dead from exhaustion at the Defenders of the Wings' Island, where the Night Fury stood protectively over his medical quarters as the Queen personally made contact with Berk through Terror Mail that one of their cadet's, Jaeger, needed medical attention and as such was given it, if someone could retrieve him it would be much appreciated. As such, a Shield rider came to pick him up, being dumbfounded by the night fury, asking assurance that it would follow them safely. Once received, he was swiftly taken back to the haven of Berk.

After he had recovered, the first thing he awoke to see was the Night Fury waiting by his side, it's head resting on Eren's legs, and Armin and Mikasa sitting resting on the seats at the other side of his room.

Upon awakening his Night Fury, he motioned for her to stay quiet, before pulling himself closer to her ear,

"We make a hell of a team out there huh? I like being with you, it feels ah, almost like we're… you know? Compatible?" He whispered in a hushed tone (He quickly made a mental note to ask Armin for the right word once he had woken up later.)

"Anyways," returning to the dragon's still sleepy eyes "I was wondering, can I be your rider? I promise to take care of you if you'd let me."

She then quickly got excited, nodding her head before beginning to lift her head upright to yelp in excitement, cutting her short, he shushed the dragon quickly, as to not wake up Armin and Mikasa. As she fell docile once more, he thought out loud

"You needed this as much as me didn't you? You were trapped, you needed freedom… Liberty… Hey why don't I call you that? It's not much of a name though… how about Libby?"

Upon hearing that, Libby yipped in excitement much to Eren's frustration as Armin and Mikasa were instantly awoken and rushed to him, asking him what happened and the like, after explaining his story, he then was able to get out of bed.

Once cleared, he began to learn to ride Libby, scoring some of the highest compatibly ratings seen since the Chief himself. And as such, whilst somewhat star struck he wasn't confused when the Chief personally met with him and his Night fury, bringing the famed Toothless and asking Eren about the island, who handed him a scroll with all the information he had written down whilst on the island about the cavern and its location, in the hopes that he'd be able to give it to the people of Berk that it may serve them. As the Chief dipped his head in respect, Eren felt his heart swell his pride as he realised he had just potentially helped the Chief, the military, maybe even Berk itself.

'Yeah' he thought, resting his hand on Libby's saddle 'This is what I signed up for'