Recap of the last chapter
Morgan had a catch-up with Hiccup, and he was ultimately left disappointed. He talked to Hiccup about the things that had happened with Grimmel, but also about the things that happened when Hiccup had last seen Morgan. For Morgan, the disappointment came from the fact that Hiccup had peacefully declined his request to take him to The Hidden World. But Morgan pledged to continue trying, and it turns out that, according to Hiccup, Toothless was found in the forest some months after Morgan had 'left', crying. Morgan knew exactly what was going on there, and as a result, his intention of wanting to go to The Hidden World was only intensified.
CHAPTER 8: True or false return
It was morning, and boy did Morgan know it. By the time he opened his eyes, the cold, hard surface of the wooden floor was the first thing he felt. But he shouldn't really complain; he could've slept outside. He sat up straight, looking around Hiccup's working and inventions room, with his mind totally blank for the first few minutes of waking up.
Through the door, he could hear Hiccup's voice, Astrid's voice, and the sound of giggling coming from what sounded like young little kids. Evidently, they were in the hallway. Morgan didn't want to go through the awkwardness of Astrid finding a stranger like himself on the floor in here, so he was praying that Astrid was heading out with their kids. He had no idea why, but he kind of feared Astrid's reaction to him being in here. It sounded like she had stepped out, however, as did the two little kids. The wooden door had closed afterwards, and then, out of nowhere, the door to THIS room had opened. Luckily, it was Hiccup.
"Uh...how was it?" Hiccup asked, walking into the room.
"Yeah...it was alright, could've done with a softer like...surface, but it was bearable..." Morgan said, wiping his eyes as he held onto his bag besides his sat-down self.
"Yeah, so here's the deal...I figured that it'd be better for Astrid to meet you outside, uh...since my two kids were here, it'd be pretty hard to explain to her why you're just outta the blue, in here..., uh...so if you wanna just come near here later on in the day, then you can..." Hiccup said.
Morgan was relieved. It wasn't that he hated Astrid, far from it; he just didn't want to be put on the spot in what would have arguably been the most awkward situation for him. Meeting her outside was much better for him.
"Yeah..." Morgan sighed, getting onto his two feet from the floor.
He kept groaning as he stood up, with Hiccup noticing the repeated sound.
"You seem to be...how can I describe it? uh-"
"It's just what we were discussing last night, Hiccup...it's still in my head...you know, the whole thing about me wanting to go to The Hidden World...it's something I want..." Morgan said, yawning afterwards as he continued to rub his eyes.
Luckily, Morgan's styled hair was still in place from yesterday. It wasn't as strong from the gel, however.
"Don't make me feel bad...look, I'd love to do it, and if I could, I would...but it's like I said..." Hiccup said, crossing his arms as he shrugged his shoulders, "the dragons need their own sorta space for now...maybe one day they could come back? then you wouldn't need to go there...and I said 'for now' if you remember what I said yesterday, so I'm not closing the door on it...it's just...uh...near to impossible that it'll happen...does that give you more hope?"
"Honestly Hiccup, if you knew why I wanted to go there to find Toothless, I think you'd understand the context like...much much easier..." Morgan said, scratching the back of his neck as he looked around.
"Why? what context? oh, I know...you just miss him, isn't that it? I miss him too, in fact, I miss them ALL-"
"No...it goes way beyond that..."
"Well, what is it?"
Morgan had regretted telling Hiccup that it went beyond just missing Toothless. He wanted to steer the conversation right now away from that topic.
"It's fine...it's nothing, I'm just uh...really tired, so I might say stuff I don't mean...I'm just not too happy that I can't go to The Hidden World, honestly though..." Morgan said, with a serious tone, to make it sound legitimate.
"We'll talk about that at a later point...uh, do you want something to eat? like...it's morning, you need something to eat?" Hiccup offered.
Morgan remembered what the vikings had, both from his research back at home and his first time in this world, and he didn't like ANY of their food.
"I don't want fish soup...you know...yuck...do you not have any uh...you do have yaks here, don't you? don't yaks have milk? like...could I have a bowl of milk? or even an apple? preferably something sweet like that..." Morgan said.
"Yeah, we've got a ton of apples, and funnily enough, that's where Astrid is taking the two kids now...every morning, the three of them go off into the forests to pick some apples or...yeah. Kinda like how me and Toothless used to go riding early on in the morning back in the day...but listen, I'll get you an apple, an apple that every viking around here craves and enjoys, and then if you want, I'll help you out in finding Snotlout and uh...Fishlegs I guess? and in the meantime I'll give you a small 'tour' of what we've got around here?"
Morgan wanted the apple, but not so much the tour of the island. He just didn't feel in the mood for it, especially after Hiccup had peacefully said 'no' last night to his intent on going to The Hidden World.
"Yeah, can I have the apple?" Morgan asked, stretching his arms out into the air to relieve himself of the pins and needles he had in his elbows.
"I'll go and get em now..." Hiccup said, walking back through to the other room, getting the apple.
Morgan simply looked at the two chairs with the colours of Toothless on them, and let off one long sigh. He stared blankly at the painted colours, thinking about how he was going to get to The Hidden World.
Morgan was walking besides Hiccup, holding an apple in his hand that he was already munching into. You could tell that Hiccup was the top guy on the island due to the amount of vikings that were greeting him. None of the vikings gave strange looks at Morgan, this time, which was ideal for him. They were walking towards the main vicinity of one of the villages, and specifically, the one that Morgan had passed by yesterday when he was being escorted by Fistpunch and the other guy.
"Have you seen this already? I dunno if you have...looks historical, doesn't it?" Hiccup said, stopping with Morgan at the middle of one of the main villages, near the painted totem pole.
All that surrounded Hiccup and Morgan were roaming vikings, some carrying food supplies and wood, and some who were simply roaming around for the sake of it. Also surrounding them were the brown huts of the village, in which some had the honour to be painted in a vibrant colouring of the scales of all the dragons that used to stay with them. Stormfly's colours seemed to be popular, because the majority of the huts had a light blue painting colour on the front of their structures.
"I've seen it already, I instantly had like a flashback, you know what I mean?" Morgan said, taking another bite of his apple.
He had his bag with him, on his back once again. He had all his important essentials in the pockets of his shorts, so he was alright for now. He needed the sweetness of the apple to get rid of the dreadful morning taste.
"Of the...the old time?" Hiccup said.
"Yeah, yeah, like when I was here whilst you guys were still at Berk...when all the dragons were here...it just brought back good times of that...uh...sort of...you know..." Morgan said.
"Yeah, I feel the same way. We even painted the colours of the Light Fury on here, and it's a pretty big thing as well. We sorta struggled with building it because of stability issues, but eventually we did it and then...we painted our history onto it..."
"Why...why the Light Fury? white and blue is a cool combination, but what did she actually...uh...you know...do? Toothless was your best friend for those six years I think it was? she kinda just like...popped up at the last moment?" Morgan asked.
"Well...-" Hiccup said, before being interrupted.
"Morning, Hiccup!" a wandering viking nearby said, carrying buckets.
"Heya, lovely morning isn't it?" Hiccup said, as he and Morgan looked at the viking.
"Yeah, thank god, haha. I'll talk to you later, alright?"
"Yeah yeah, that's fine. And don't drop those buckets, we can't be spilling anymore of that yak milk!"
"For sure, Hiccup!" the viking responded.
"Anyways, haha..." Hiccup said, looking back at Morgan, "yeah, that tends to happen a lot...you know, we're still quite a clumsy lot sometimes...more so now without the dragons, but we're getting there, we're getting there...but anyways, what did you say?" Hiccup asked.
"Why is the Light Fury's colours painted on there?" Morgan repeated, pointing at the wooden, yet vibrant, totem pole.
"Oh yeah! well here's the thing...yeah, fair enough, she was a burden on us all when Toothless first found her...and she didn't exactly uh...see me as an ally, to put it to the least, but she's led Toothless to his uh...you know, to his destiny if you will...that opened up my eyes, so why not?"
"You and I both know that you never wanted her to see Toothless, otherwise he'd still be here...come on, Hiccup?" Morgan said.
"Well maybe I...I would've preferred Toothless to stay, but they're dragons man, they've gotta go back eventually...but I can say that with more comfort because I saw both Toothless and her a few days ago, and who knows? they might come on by here, which probably won't happen but...eh, gotta be hopeful, right?"
"Very much so, I agree with you on that..." Morgan said, looking back at the totem pole, taking another bite of his apple.
Emerging from the left of the village, Astrid Hofferson began walking up to Hiccup's direction. She had left the two kids with the other viking youths, looking for potential foods from the forest. That might sound dangerous to leave them, but as young vikings, it's essential for them to learn to be independent and not rely so much on other vikings. Plus, this island was pretty much secure all around.
Astrid herself looked no different from the last time Morgan was here. And even her viking clothing remained the same. She still had the same leather viking skirt with a belt that had mini skulls around it, and her viking top had those gigantic fluffy sides surrounded by metal pads underneath them. The rest of her clothing was just the regular brown leather clothing. She still looked pretty deceitful, in that despite the prettiness, she was one of the more skilled and competitive vikings across the island. Nobody would be able to tell that from her charming look.
"I thought I saw you here...why are you around here, Hiccup? the kids haven't seen you pretty much all morning?" Astrid said.
"Oh Astrid! I was about to look for you, actually...do you remember Morgan? uh, my mum gave him the name Morgan the Marvellous apparently...uh...here he is..." Hiccup said, stepping aside.
"Morgan? I don't remember anybody with that name...when were you last here?" Astrid said, at Morgan himself.
"Hiccup, you held that election back on Berk, right? Astrid, remember that election? do you remember when I uh...this is actually funny...do you remember when you first met me at the time, and I think I got too excited and I tried to ride Stormfly, but she like...threw me off her back and then I was knocked out...do you not remember that? it was me, Morgan, and ALSO, you were the one who trained me in what was uh...the dragon training academy arena I think? you know, when Tuffnut was trying to kill me?" Morgan said, lowering the apple.
"Oh...oh my god...is that you?" Astrid said, shocked and surprised, "wow...if nobody had told me that, I'd be asking just how relevant you are to be walking with Hiccup here, but wow...I sort of remember you, I certainly remember training you...wow...that's actually quite astonishing..."
"I'm just surprised you remembered me at all, to be honest..." Morgan said, chuckling.
"But this doesn't make sense...you look the same age, it's been over five years, how old are you?" Astrid asked.
"Well, you can call me weird for saying this, but it's true; when I left this uh...this place whilst you guys were on Berk, I returned to my place...it's been two years there now, so I'm 19 years old...I was 17 when I was last here..." Morgan said, "kinda like different universes, it sounds odd but...yeah..." Morgan shrugged.
"I'll have to fully refresh my mind to remember you more, but yeah, I do remember you...wow...but if you haven't aged pretty much at all then, you seem...genuinely...-"
"It's complicated stuff Astrid, I told Hiccup the same thing..." Morgan said.
"Yeah, but don't you think he looks the same, uh, Astrid?" Hiccup said, with him and Astrid looking at Morgan.
"Yeah, definitely...but in that election Hiccup stupidly held, and also," she turned to Hiccup, "where I made you look like a baby in that debate, the ONLY thing about that I remember..."
"Pfft, yeah right..." Hiccup whispered under his voice.
"But in that election he held, didn't you...leave afterwards, like...for good?" Astrid asked.
"I did...yeah...but something happened, luck struck me twice and now here I am...and also, this is very late but I need to tell you...uh...congratulations on your marriage, guys, and congratulations on being parents..." Morgan said, nodding with a smile at the two of them.
"Thanks...that's nice of you to acknowledge..." Hiccup said.
"Between you and me, Hiccup hasn't acknowledged that I'm the better parent, hence why they're more independent now like they're doing as we speak?" Astrid said, crossing her arms.
"I think me and Astrid are equally good parents, let's put it that way..." Hiccup said, rolling his eyes at Astrid's usual ego-talk.
"Astrid, I also wanna go to The Hidden World now that I'm back..." Morgan said.
Astrid was more of a straight-to-the-point type of person, and so, she didn't hesitate in her upcoming response.
"The thing is...that's hardly possible, is it, really?" Astrid said.
"It has to be...there's...there's no way it's impossible?" Morgan replied.
"We had a small discussion about it last night and...we'll talk about it later, but hey, we got totally carried away here, uh, shall I lead you around the rest of the island, Morgan?" Hiccup said.
"You can do, and I've almost finished my apple as well, hold on..." Morgan said.
"Uh, Astrid, have you checked on them?" Hiccup said, talking to Astrid, as Morgan finished off the remaining bits of his apple in the background.
"Yeah, I'll go back to em in a second. How bizarre is it that he hasn't aged...at all pretty much?" Astrid whispered, referring to Morgan.
"I know...but that's not really relevant now, is it? go check on the kids...I need to show him around and whatnot..."
Astrid gave Hiccup a small kiss on the cheek before walking back off. Morgan, meanwhile, continued looking around the village, and he stayed near the totem pole as the island was still in the midst of a warm dawn of the morning, with the sun's light making the sky appear with a sprinkle of shiny orange. Suddenly, a huge crowd of vikings were rushing beyond the totem pole, seemingly in a choreographed style, but it wasn't choreographed; something had just happened.
And it did just sound like right now, that a landing was made. Morgan took no notice of it, whereas Hiccup was noticing that all the vikings were walking/running towards the same direction together; they were going beyond the small forest ahead. The word was being spread about whatever the commotion was by all the other vikings in the forest already.
"W-Woah, what's going on? where's everyone going? ASTRID?! ASTRID!" Hiccup yelled, in the midst of the crowd of vikings getting louder in sound, and bigger in the numbers.
"Where are they going?" Morgan said, having to yell slightly at Hiccup so he could hear him.
"I, I dunno...WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHERE'S EVERYONE GOING?!" Hiccup yelled.
"HICCUP," a returning viking from the forest yelled, "IT'S YOUR DRAGON...HE'S AT THE SHORE...QUICK..." he yelled, patting Hiccup by the back.
Morgan dropped his apple almost instantly.
"T-TOOTHLESS?!" Hiccup said, with his heart suddenly beating about a thousand times faster than usual.
"YEAH, HE'S HERE...AND HE ISN'T ALONE, QUICK, COME!"
Hiccup didn't have a chance to tell Morgan to come along, because the Chief was being rushed by the other vikings to get to the shores of the 'new Berk'. Is it true that...Toothless and the Light Fury were at the shores? why would they be there when Toothless especially is the alpha of The Hidden World? what reason did they have?
"Holy fuck...I'M COMING!" Morgan said, not wasting any time; just the mentioning of the possibility of Toothless and the Light Fury being on the same land as him made him feel an energetic surge.
None of the vikings shot strange looks at him, again, as he joined their rush in getting towards Toothless and the Light Fury, as they're apparently on the island. This clearly meant that they didn't care about Morgan's entirely different style to the vikings. But for Morgan, he was hell bent on getting to the front of the crowd to see Toothless & the Light Fury; his morning tiredness was eliminated, for the one possibility of his that he wants to happen is now actually viable to happen; being remembered by Toothless.
He was energetic, internally excited, but most importantly, he was intent on getting Toothless to see him, in order to try and be remembered. Morgan kept chuckling to himself as he ran with the vikings, he was that excited. He was also eager to see the Light Fury in person, just to get an idea of how she is nowadays. He still didn't like her. Not a single bit.
Morgan has now seen Astrid, who didn't remember him at first, but after he and Hiccup recalled the past together, she sort of remembered him. This was during Hiccup's guiding of Morgan around the village and the island in general, getting him to know everything that there is, like the totem pole structure, an historical structure as it represents the dragons that used to be with the vikings. Most significantly, though, and this was already the biggest bombshell Morgan's heard since being back; Toothless and the Light Fury are apparently on the island, giving Morgan the chance to fulfill his intention already. The main question clearly was this; if Toothless DOES remember Morgan, (IF it's true the Night Fury is actually on the island firstly) what happens next? what does Morgan have in mind for the despicable Light Fury?
