Four in the morning might have been an excessively early time to wake up at, but today was the third day of our camp and the beginning of our horse riding course.

"LINE UP!" The bald man, Keith Sadies yelled. "The one's who know how to ride a horse, stand to the right, the one's who don't, stand to the left! Don't try to show off if you're not good at it. You'll only get hurt! By me and then the horse."

Mikasa, Armin, and I promptly separated to the right along with a few other people while the majority went to the left.

"Sasha, I didn't think you'd know how to ride the horse." Connie said from across the field. He's in the 'don't know' group too.

"I come from a family of gatherers." She patted her chest proudly.

"Did you guys hunt on horses? You'd be pretty familiar with this then."

"Nope... we ate them." I would've loved to say that I saw this coming, but I didn't. And precisely because of that it took me every inch of my sanity to hold myself back from laughing.

"You what now?"

"Horse meat is pretty good, you know?" She rubbed her horse's belly.

"Oi, don't even think about it." Jean slapped her hand away.

"Tsk..."

"QUIET WORMS! SASHA DO YOU WANT ANOTHER WEEK OF RUNNING AROUND?"

I could practically see the others biting their cheeks to stop the laughter.

"WHY JUST ME?" Sasha shouted.

"DO YOU WANT IT?"

"NO, SIR!" She straightened up and saluted.

After that, the group that knew how to ride horses rode them while we stood there under the scorching sun. Was it inhumane? Perhaps. But soldiers should be able to handle at least that much without breaking.

"Now, the incompetents! Line up!" I didn't want to be rude to my superiors, but Keith commandant had some personality definite issues. "First you have to climb on top of the horse! This even you should be able to do!"

And sure enough, almost everyone was able to do that. Everyone except me.

As soon as I came near the horse, it swerved away. When I tried to get a hold of him, it got violent. But it wasn't only that horse, every horse in my vicinity started to move away from me.

Was I stinky? I don't think so. Even trying to lock eyes with them, they just turned away. Some of their legs were shivering. It was unprecedented.

"Eren, do you have something on you?" Mikasa looked down from her horse.

I patted my body and except for my clothes, I had nothing on me.

'Are they perhaps scared of me?'

Do animals sense this sort of thing? I've heard that horses run away when they come close to a titan, but for them to run away from me was definitely unordinary, to say the least. I'm not even a whole titan in the first place. Rather I'd consider myself the opposite of a titan.

The sort of behaviour the horses displayed was uncalled for. Especially because all of this would add to the final score.

Moreover, horses are essential to killing titans, so I had to master them. No, I must master them to qualify into the survey corps.

I held the horse's back down with brute strength and forced my body on top of it. As soon as I got on, it started to jump around.

"Damn it!" I grabbed onto the leash. "How do I make him walk!" If I can't make him stand still, I'll just make it submit into moving. That's what you need horses for anyway.

"You kick the side!" I could hear Reiner yell from across the field.

I pulled my leg back and kicked it. The horse stumbled to the right while neighing loudly. Its body tried its damndest to knock me off.

"That was too hard!" This time it's Bertholdt. Both of them were really good at riding horses making their advice credible.

So I pulled back my leg and hit the horse gently.

It started to move in a single direction instead of jumping around aimlessly. But it walked slowly and as if it was getting oppressed.

"Faster!" I kick it again.

It reaches a medium gait.

"Faster!"

The horse breaks into a gallop.

"Now, how do I turn?"

"Pull the leash to the side!"

I pulled the leash, but the horse lost its sense of balance and tumbled down. It got up immediately and I, holding onto his back, was unaffected. That I believe was an abrupt change of direction. Lower your strength, increase the time you give it.

It broke out into a gallop again, after a couple of kicks.

"How do I stop?!"

"Pull the leash back!"

I pulled it back and the horse came to an immediate stall. I took the opportunity to jump off. As soon as I do, the horse galloped away. What a frightened horse.

I could safely say that I now knew how to horse ride now. Although it wasn't great, it was something.

"How was that?" I walked back to my group.

"So-so... you got the basics down, now you only need to get the horse to trust you." Connie said.

"That means it was pretty good, huh?"

"It was terrible!" The angry yet familiar voice rang across the field.

"Commandant?"

"You aren't supposed to ride a horse as you did." I didn't have to be a genius to know that I was riding the horse wrong. The thing was that the horse not cooperating was not my fault.

"But it worked." I muttered under my breath.

"Did I hear you talk back to me?" He jumped onto the field from his stage.

"No, sir. No!" I saluted him.

"You're starting to look a lot like Sasha now." Bertholdt said with a face that was a second away from bursting into laughter.

But what actually burst into laughter was Reiner and the stern look on his face.

He laughed uncontrollably, and almost everyone joined in.

Unable to hold my own laughter back I let loose. I didn't know whether the butt of the joke was me or Sasha, and I still don't. But that one moment made me wonder if it was ever alright for me to laugh like that.

That was all an issue for a later day.

I had already lost myself in the moment.

And also that day we got the same 1-week worth of laps as punishment as Sasha got before us.