A/N It's late, I know. I'm sorry. It's also a bit short and not where I wanted it to be. I wanted to upload before I hit the border and lose my data. Enjoy!
Eren gently stroked his horse, his was the only one that wasn't bucking or squealing but it still looked terrified. Eren was doing his best to calm it down but was having little luck, well, better luck than his comrades. Jean had almost been kicked by his horse, narrowly dodging the blows. Hange was practically being dragged around by theirs. And Levi was having a stare off with his, neither horse nor man were relenting.
Eren just assumed that his horse was used to the unnatural, Eren would just jump off of him mid battle then practically explode after all. A horse that could stick through that could stick through anything, well, anything other than dragons apparently.
Eren turned to look at the Vikings, they were staying a respectable distance from the horses but they were still close enough to freak the horses out. They looked restless too, not the dragons, Snotlout was restless. He apparently said something he shouldn't have as Astrid walked up to him and punched him in the face. Eren snorted, Only if Mikasa would do that to Jean, he thought.
"Toothless, what are you doing?" Hiccup called.
Eren turned around to see Toothless slowly approaching him. No, not him, his horse. Toothless was in a low, curious stance, creeping forward slowly, and sniffing as he went. Eren's horse tried to jump back but Eren kept a calm hand stroking its neck.
Hiccup came to a stop just behind Toothless and made eye contact with Eren; "No sudden moves," He called, not that Eren needed a reminder.
With each step that Toothless took the horse became more and more agitated. Toothless paused for a moment and relaxed his stance. This did nothing to calm the horse, it just kept on pulling at its tie to the tree. It couldn't pull any further.
Toothless turned to look back at Hiccup. With one glance Hiccup knew what Toothless needed, help. Hiccup pondered for a moment then it came to him.
"Eren, take a few steps towards Toothless and let him approach you."
What. Was Eren's first thought. Hell no. Was his second. He hadn't had the time to formulate an opinion on the dragons. He looked to find Armin for advice but rather than finding Armin he found all of the Scouts staring at him. He gulped, he was not ready for this. He took in a deep breath and took his hand off of his horse. He took another step forward slowly, very slowly. Once he had started it was easier to find the courage to keep on going. Soon enough he was equal distances from his horse and the dragon. He turned back to look at his horse and his horse stared at him like he had just sprouted his own set of wings. Eren turned towards Hiccup and he gave him an encouraging nod with determination in his eyes. Eren turned towards the scally beast and waited. He didn't have to wait long.
Toothless began to approach, just as slow and as cautious as he did to the horse. Eren heard his horse neigh and kick in fright but he kept his eye on the dragon. Toothless's eyes were analyzing him, scrutinizing his every detail. He was in a low crouch moving slowly around him but coming closer. He was sniffing as he went, learning everything he could about Eren. He eventually came to a stop in front of Eren and sat on hind legs with his tongue hanging out a little. He looked adorable.
Eren took a few steps forwards until he was an arms length from Toothless. He reached his arm out just as Armin did earlier that morning and waited for Toothless. Toothless sniffed his hand then went in for the touch. Eren's hand felt the same as any other however his scent was also unusual just like Armins. The dragon and the human each pulled back and Eren slowly made his way to the side then inched around Toothless towards his horse.
The horse was a lot calmer now but still not 100% with Toothless. Toothless carefully crept forward. This time the horse did not try to run, it watched Toothless with an unwavering gaze. Toothless got close enough to try and circle the horse but he could not completely go around him as the tie to the tree was in his way. This unnerved the horse somewhat but with its newfound courage the horse managed to stay calm. Toothless made his way around the horse and sat in front of him just like he did to Eren. Then everyone waited. And waited. And waited. The horse didn't move a muscle and Eren had no idea what to do.
Seeing this Armin slowly made his way over to Eren after leaving his horse in the care of Mikasa.
"You have to lead your horse around Toothless," He whispered.
Eren nodded and untied the horses reigns from the tree, he expected the horse to try an bolt, but it didn't. He led the horse a bit closer to Toothless and allowed the horse to get comfortable at this distance. But the horse made no move to get closer to Toothless.
"Try leading him around Toothless," Armin suggested.
And that's what Eren did. He slowly guided his horse around Toothless letting the horse stop and inspect part of Toothless all while Toothless watched him with his head cocked and a curious gleam in his eyes.
Eren was vaguely aware of his surroundings, of Levi's penetrating glare because this was taking too long, of Astrid whacking Snotlout probably for the same reason.
The horse circled Toothless and stopped in front of him. He lowered his head towards the horse and the horse moved in rubbing his face against Toothless's. When the two broke apart the horse was no longer terrified of the dragon and the other horses looked calmer.
Armin had led his horse a bit closer and it inspected Toothless a little, it was a lot more comfortable now.
Hiccup signaled Astrid to have the other dragons move in a bit closer.
"Whoa, you really are a genius, Hiccup!" Hange said, leading her horse towards Hiccup.
"Thank you. But I really can't take the credit, it was Toothless's idea and Armin did help."
"I'll have to thank them too. How do you thank a dragon?"
"That'll have to wait, four eyes. We've wasted enough time."
"You're right, Levi. We should start heading back. Alright Scouts and Vikings, let's head out!"
Fishlegs, who had been taking mental notes of the entire interaction, ran to Hange with questions.
"Um, why are we walking?" Tuffnut asked no one in particular.
"They don't want us flying, duh," Ruffnut said.
"We're fast when we fly, it doesn't make sense."
"They aren't sure how fast we can fly and they're not sure what we can do when we're flying. It makes logical sense to not want us to fly."
"Can you two drop the subject?" Astrid said, walking by them with Stormfly.
"Anything for you, Astird," Ruff said with the most sarcasm possible.
Astrid just rolled her eyes and kept on walking.
"I never realised that you two were good with animals," Hiccup said walking up to Eren and Armin.
"We've had plenty of training," Armin said, "I've always loved learning about new things though, that's how I ended up reading about horses in my spare time."