Recap of the last chapter

Intent on trying to make the most of his time in The Hidden World whilst the majority of the dragons there are asleep, Morgan began his exploration of the crystal paradise, with plenty of hopes, only to find out that his hopes were not only dangerous, but simply impossible. How did he conclude on that? as soon as he saw a sleeping Rumblehorn amongst the mushroom forest. Toothless, in the midst of the alpha's sleep, managed to recall a quote from Morgan from the time that he was here whilst the Hairy Hooligans were on Old Berk, possibly suggesting that the Night Fury's starting to remember just who Morgan was from all those years ago.

CHAPTER 25: Reptile of colours

Walking like lava was at the very edge of his shoes, Morgan was cautious about moving too quickly in case he catches the attention of the sleeping Rumblehorn he's just seen. His heart was pounding, silently emitting a phase of fright in his system, but the 19 year old had seen it through. He was now at the edge of the mushroom forest, at a seemingly dead end.

What was approaching him ahead was the purple, vibrant, crystal covered walls of The Hidden World, implying that this was where the mushroom forest had came to an end. This made Morgan feel a lot safer, because although he can still hear roars, the roars themselves were sounding a distance away, and he was further away from the Rumblehorn to the point he couldn't even see it whenever he looked behind himself. All that was seen were the red mushrooms, covered in crystal, purple shades.

On top of that, the only dragons flying above this portion of the mushroom forest were ones that were super high in altitude, to the point they were tiny-looking, meaning they couldn't possibly see anything in the mushroom forest below them. Morgan was mainly surprised at how easy it was to keep your cover in a place like this; not once has he been seen by a dragon(s).

But he needed to spray another bit of his deodorant in a new area near here soon, because the one he sprayed at the top of that surface wasn't going to keep the Rumblehorns from the deodorant physically on his body. Morgan loved spraying excessive amounts of deodorant on himself, in line with his good hygiene, so it was a given that sooner or later, the dragons with the best scent senses will find him. He needed to go to an area far from here and spray more deodorant there, to keep the Rumblehorns off his back.

He was running out of it, so he needed to conserve the deodorant for as long as possible. But now that he's at this part of the mushroom forest, he could finally relax for a few minutes, with a drink of water from his bag. That is, assuming he actually brought one with him in his bag when he was packing to go to college. Again, he had no idea that that day would be the one where he'd return to the How To Train Your Dragon world; had he known, he would've packed as much food/drinks as possible.

Stopping besides a roofing red mushroom, near the crystal-filled, purple shaded walls of hard rock and ancient stalagmites, Morgan slowly removed his bag and placed it down. Wanting to sit down for a moment to rest his legs, he leaned against the red mushroom besides him, back-first, and slid down slowly to a sat down position. He opened up his bag, scrambling his hand through it for a potential bottle of water; at this point, it'll probably be warm, but it's still better than no water.

He felt something plastic and round; instantly, he gripped his fingers around it and pulled it out from the bag; a medium-sized bottle with clear water in it. But the bad news was that this was his only water.

"Yesss.." Morgan said to himself, relieved that he had a bottle of water in his bag.

As he held it and pushed the bag aside, whilst sat down, Morgan's eyes turned to the rocky, ancient stalagmite walls nearby, which were emitting sun-set-like lightning of violet and purple, like mist. On the lower parts he made out a couple of clear crystals, one of an orange colour, and the other of a plain white colour; both were as shiny as the other. Morgan was curious about them, and since he's at this spot to rest, he may as well go ahead and fulfill his curiosity of the crystals; it's hardly a task, after all.

Still surprised that he hasn't been seen yet, Morgan had no hesitation in doing what he was about to do; touch one of those shiny, vibrant-looking crystals that are famous for being scattered all across the majority of The Hidden World. Morgan had no idea why he was curious of the crystals to the point he'd want to touch one, but he didn't question it.

Here's what Morgan doesn't know; he's already been seen by a certain dragon, and it's actually FOLLOWED him throughout the mushroom forest up to this point. It's only a matter of time until it makes its presence known and alerts the other dragons of The Hidden World.

Morgan stood up, using the mushroom behind him to do so, subsequently taking a sip of his water. It felt super refreshing to finally cure his thirst for the time being. Keeping the bottle in his grasp, he began walking, somewhat cautiously, up to the ancient stalagmite structure of purple/violet mists. He took another sip of his water whilst walking to it.

Meanwhile, the reptile amongst the mushroom forest was hiding amongst the forest, instantly becoming super aggressive in its hidey position upon seeing that it was a human that it was sighting. It didn't reveal itself, nor did it roar to alert the other dragons, yet. As of right now, its scales were a glaring, fierce red, just waiting to unveil from wherever it was seeing Morgan from within the mushroom forest.

These crystals Morgan was about to touch are, in reality, boiling. Not boiling like mild heat, they were boiling excessively, to the point if you were to touch them, you'd instantly be on the floor, in pure agony, as your skin gradually turns into a painful blister. Not that Morgan knew that. But The Hidden World was near the earth's crusts, so these crystals being boiling hot was unsurprising.

"Woah..." Morgan said, feeling the shine of the white crystal in his eyes.

He held his water bottle firmly in his grasp, as his eyes were aching from the sheer shine of the crystal. He initially walked over here with his free hand in his shorts pocket; taking it out to touch the crystal, Morgan was predicting inside his head what it could feel like; a hardened plastic texture? rock-solid? unfortunately, what he isn't predicting is just how hot it's about to be for him.

It was like a light bulb; pure lightness, without any transparency. He moved his fingers towards the surface of the crystal to touch it.

It's worth pointing out here that the withdrawal reflex, which is where you instantly withdraw your hand from a hot object without thinking about it, is about to happen to Morgan. The body uses this reflex to protect itself from the damage of the excessive hotness, whether that'd be a flame or so on.

Morgan made collision to the crystal with one of his fingers, for his curiosity to touch one. Instantly, the heat flew right up into his system like a bomb.

"AAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Morgan yelled, spilling his water and his bottle to the floor, rapidly leaping from the crystal, dropping down to his knees, holding onto the hand he touched the crystal with just now.

He gritted his teeth, his finger felt numb, and the pain at the tip of the finger felt as if lava was being poured upon it. Morgan remained on his knees, crunching his eyes, and he just couldn't help but yell without thinking.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH...GODDDDDDDD..." he moaned, falling down to his side on the rocky hard surface of the mushroom forest, crunching his other hand directly around his affected one.

He not only felt sweaty, but his entire hand felt numb; he couldn't move it. Already, bits of skin was starting to tear off of the tip of his finger. Morgan continued to yell, for the pain was firing at him like a bullet.

"OH GOD...AHHH...OH MY GOD..AH...AH..." he panted, nearly rolling all over the floor at this point as he was on his ribs, trying to put as much pressure as possible on his affected hand to ease the severe burning sensation on his finger.

He raised his affected hand up ever so briefly to blow onto the finger, but it was no use, and instantly, he put his affected finger back into as much pressure as possible; with his other hand crunched over it, and shoving it right against his chest.

His two hands were shaking, vibrate-style, as he struggled to push his legs across the floor to move himself back-first against the stalagmite wall behind him; he couldn't stand up, he couldn't even get on his knees, not with just one usable hand. His other hand was feeling the burn.

He could easily start flowing tears from his eyes at this point, the burning pain on his finger was that bad, which was where he was heading. His yells were going from pure, straight yelling to softer, crying-like tones. His teeth kept gritting every five seconds, and every time he opened his eyes to look ahead whilst on the floor, he'd crunch them back closed. He was breathing like he was being suffocated. Rapid breathing, panting-like.

He was lucky he was in an area where not many dragons of The Hidden World were, but he was already doomed. The very reptile that stalked him through the mushroom forest emerged out from the shadows, and Morgan didn't even know a dragon was in front of him, albeit quite a space away amongst the mushrooms, since his eyes were still crunched shut with his gritted teeth; what else could he do apart from that, alongside yelling, nearly-cry-like? with pain THIS severe?

He spilt all his water from the instant touch of the crystal just now, so he can't pour any on his finger. He began stamping his feet up and down against the floor, colliding his red trainers against it, as a new resort to try and combat the reaction his body has just had to the overly-boiling crystal. It was no use. His finger at this point had teared skin, and the blister was already starting to take shape. But the dragon, the stealthy reptile, in its fierce, dangerous-looking scales of red, seemingly expressing anger/aggressiveness, was about to be seen by Morgan whilst he was in a state of pure pain, vulnerable.

What the heck could he do, though? when this dragon inevitably roars to alert the other dragons of The Hidden World of the 19 year old's presence, what can Morgan do about that? NOTHING.

This dragon, though, for the threat it posed, had a long thin neck with a large head, a large under-bite that exposed its teeth, looking like they were in their hundreds, with a small nose horn, with its eyes behind the horn. Its scales were of a fierce pure red too. It sounded like a Monstrous Nightmare, but it wasn't. What the heck type of species was this dragon that Morgan was about to see for the first time, in his painful, vulnerable state on the ground on his sides?

His yells, although quieting down, were turning into higher pitched ones, ones that sounded like crying. His teeth remained gritted together as he felt his eyes slightly water; his higher pitched yells were becoming more and more common. He opened his eyes, keeping as much pressure on his affected finger as possible, but what he saw ahead within the intertwining red mushrooms and shades of purple mist was a figure; a figure of a DRAGON.

It was close enough now to the point that Morgan had seen its two legs, which both looked somewhat similar to the legs of a Deadly Nadder. Its only two feet had three sharp spikes from the middle, left and right. Its arms were small, but the dragon overall certainly wasn't. It was a fierce, threatening red colour. The dragon had a giant fin at the back of its skull, which was as wide as its head. Its under-bite jaw was clear, and the dragon's decent size was enough to frighten Morgan, who even now, couldn't fully react to the beast's emergence given the pain he was in.

Instantly, Morgan tried to back himself up using his legs against the ground, but he could hardly move himself.

"WHAT-OH-AAARGHHGHHHH..." Morgan exclaimed, returning to a higher pitched squeal as the burning pain was still present.

The dragon dirtily stared this human on the ground down. It must've been bloodthirsty given its red, dangerous looking scales and its overall physical appearance. It sensed that this thing, this human, was in pain; that was something only a dragon of this species could do, detect the states/emotions of other dragons/humans around it.

Morgan rushed his legs against the ground in a bid to push himself against the stalagmite wall behind himself; this dragon was getting too close for comfort, and he could hear its subtle growls.

He opened his eyes again, looking at the dangerous beast from the ground on his ribs, as he continued to push himself backwards.

"NO! NOOO! DON'T ROAR! DON'T ROAR, DON'T-AAARGHHHH..."

The dragon stopped for a moment, with its senses picking up that this human was not only in pain, but nearly crying. It was particularly surprised at the human's plea 'not to roar'. Still, the reptile continued to make its way forwards, dragging its long tail across The Hidden World's hard surface as it neared Morgan.

It seemed like every time Morgan closed his eyes and opened them, this decently-sized reptile had gotten closer. With the dragon walking to close the distance between itself and this young-looking human, Morgan caught more detail of the reptile; it had clawed wings, and its red scales had occasional orange dots. Its low noises, growls, only caused Morgan to panic in the midst of his pain. The dragon was clearly getting ready to roar. Its eyes, not too small but not that big either, behind the horn on it, had sighted Morgan intensely.

Morgan closed his eyes; his heart pounded like 100x the rate. The dragon approaching, and a big, dangerous looking one at that, alongside his vulnerability as he simply couldn't let go of his affected hand, made him panic like a crying child internally.

"I DON'T WANNA LOOK, I DON'T WANNA LOOK..." Morgan said, once again crunching his eyes not just because of the pain, but because he didn't want to see the jaws of the dragon any longer.

As he rapidly pushed himself back with his legs one last time, he felt his back collide with a steep, somewhat spiky surface; he was as far back as he could go at this point, colliding with the purple stalagmite wall. He just didn't want to look at the dragon ahead. All he could think of doing was giving pleas, but this was a wild Hidden World dragon; pleas meant NOTHING.

Morgan opened his eyes, with his head low to the ground; what he saw were two clawed, spiky, red scaled feet; he slowly ascended his sights up to the dragon itself; its jaws, its giant red fin behind its horned nose, its arms which were surprisingly small, (like T-rex arms), just everything about it was enough to make Morgan flinch the second he opened his eyes. He panicked and flinched, just as the pain from the burning came back as he let go of his hand.

"NO! NO! DON'T ROAR! JUST DON'T KILL ME, PLEAASEEE... I CAN'T-AAAARGHHHHHH, OH MY GOD..." he yelled, higher pitched, before finally breaking down into tears from the pain.

He clutched the pressure back onto the affected hand.

The dragon seemed startled. It sensed that this human laying on its side right in front of the dragon itself was in pain, but hearing the human yell in the manner it just did, sounding like a cry, seemed to catch the dragon off guard. The reptile calmed down, and with its ability to predict certain things of a good or bad nature a second before they actually happened, backed up briefly to allow this young-looking human some space.

Morgan opened his eyes to the dragon's face; it was emitting low noises, as its under-bite jaws, similar to Monstrous Nightmares, were unable to not be looked at every time. The dragon saw the tears in this human's eyes; as Morgan stared right up at it, the dragon did the same too, back to Morgan.

Morgan panted, breaking down at long last from the severe pain; all he could think of on the spot was to look at this dragon straight up, to calm it down. It was already calm since it had sensed the vulnerable state of the 19 year old.

"P-P-please...please don't hurt me...d-don't kill me or don't ro-roar...please?" Morgan pleaded to the reptile, even though he knew it was hopeless to do so to a wild dragon. He pleaded in a whispery voice, due to the weakness brought upon him by his crying emotion from the pain, affecting his ability to yell or speak.

Morgan's teary eyes exposed directly to the dragon seemed to be enough to the reptile to determine that this human was far from a threat, and instead, was one that was in severe sadness, pain, and vulnerability.

He panted in panic against the stalagmite wall, as the dragon seemed to ease back on its initially threatening posture it had whilst coming over here. Then, out of nowhere, the dragon's scales underwent a drastic transformation, which further startled Morgan as tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

The scales, one by one, went from red and orange to purple...did...did a dragon just transform the colours of its own scales? how did it even do that? the transformation of the scales emitted a crunch-like sound briefly as they made the change. The orange spots had turned into blue spots amongst the now purple scales. The dragon afterwards leaned down, with its under-bite jaws, towards Morgan, who...felt a sense of calm emerge through his system...what was happening?

"I-...I...uh...-" a taken aback Morgan said, as he couldn't make himself take his other hand off his affected one; for whatever reason, seeing the dragon change from a fierce red and orange colouration of its scales into a purple and blue one was calming...and now the dragon itself seemed to be calm.

Its wings remained above the ground, surprisingly, as it stood in front of a shocked Morgan.

It leaned its head right down to Morgan, as the 19 year old too felt more calmer from the dragon at this point. Its ability to calm things down around it from its colours was nothing strange; indeed, this dragon was none other than the Hobblegrunt.

It leaned its jaws gently over to Morgan's chest; briefly it panicked Morgan to have such a scaly and sharp jaw, from the top and the teeth themselves, collide, especially from a wild dragon, but the Hobblegrunt seemed to be entirely calm and sensitive with Morgan for whatever reason. Slowly, it moved its head upwards with Morgan's weak grip; t-the dragon was helping Morgan sit up...w-why?

"W-Wha-wha...you...you..." Morgan stuttered, shocked by the dragon's actions.

Little did he know though that the colours of this dragon were significant; when it was red and orange, it was in an aggressive state. When it was purple and blue as it is now, it was curious, but when it was yellow, it was happy. Hobblegrunts could predict things happening a second before they do, and they had that soothing ability to calm down distressed dragons/humans around it with its colours. This Hobblegrunt had tons of sympathy for this young human, but it was also curious.

Morgan was finally sat up in thanks to the Hobblegrunt, and far from before, he was much more calmer. He wanted to interact with the dragon, even though he felt semi-scared still due to the unpredictable nature of trying to avoid a wild dragon roaring to alert the other dragons. He took his hands off of his other hand, but it was useless.

"OH GOD...OOOUCHH..." Morgan yelled, crunching his whole face again as he did his hand.

And with that, the dragon's prediction was right; this human was in pain and was saddened by the pain.

"Y-You're gonna roar to alert the others, aren't you? please...please...do-just don't roar...pleas-" he was stopped by the dragon's warming gesture; cuddling its scaly head into him; the underbite jaw was mainly what Morgan felt.

A soothing low purr was also heard by Morgan, and it was hard for Morgan NOT to embrace the wild dragon.

The Hobblegrunt wanted to make it clear to this human that it too was as curious of him as the human was to him, and that it wasn't going to roar to alert the other dragons. It knew this human was in pain, and its purple scales showed its curiosity of the situation; it knew this human was terrified at first, but the dragon had sensed the lad's calmed emotional state, which made the reptile all the more inclined to show the human its soft side.

Morgan resorted to resting the side of his head just below the horn in front of the dragon's two eyes; he couldn't move his hands to touch the dragon yet due to the pain of the burn. But...by a remarkable outcome, he seemed to have made somewhat of a bond between a wild Hidden World dragon; Hobblegrunts were, after all, one of the more sensitive and calm dragons once they acknowledged that something wasn't a threat at all.

Far from wanting to kill Morgan, it wanted to comfort, stay with, and fulfill its curiosity, hence its still purple and blue scales, with Morgan. This Hobblegrunt was truly one that any fan of How To Train Your Dragon fan would want to encounter. It had just helped Morgan return to a sitting-stance against the stalagmite wall, and its soothing actions had clearly shown a sense of empathy on the dragon's behalf. Above all, it could sense the pain the human was in, and so, the dragon wanted to help him get out of it.

Morgan might've just bumped into an accidental bond with somewhat of a Monstrous Nightmare look alike. Not that he knew of the species called 'Hobblegrunt' hence his shocked reaction to the dragon changing the colour of its scales just now. He had no idea what the colours meant, but sooner or later, he will.

Morgan had a curiosity of The Hidden World, to the point he went ahead and touched one of the crystals on the stalagmite wall. What he didn't know was that the crystals were exceedingly boiling due to the Hidden World being near the crusts of the Earth, so when he touched it, it felt like touching lava, hence the super long and drawn out reaction on Morgan's behalf. So much so that the burning made him CRY. But...when he was seen without realizing it in the last chapter, the dragon that had seen him was this Hobblegrunt, which has turned out to be a sensitive, empathy-felt, curious, remarkable, and soothing dragon. But given Morgan's yelling and pain-felt cries just now, will his surprisingly lucky emergence of a sensitive dragon curious of him be interrupted by the other Hidden World dragons once they see him? has Morgan fully calmed down from the Hobblegrunt, and is he willing to fully take that risk (even though there's no risk with a Hobblegrunt of this type) to try and establish a full on bond with the dragon? what about his goal of trying to find the Light Fury and Toothless in The Hidden World? the dragon itself is as curious of Morgan as Morgan is of itself, so it's bound to be okay, right?