Morgan

When Guts and his party encounter him, Morgan is an old villager of Enoch, worn down by long years of rough country living. As a youth he was a restless dreamer forever wandering off into the hills, and his story traces that entire arc, from daydreaming child to white-haired elder who finally sees his unbelievable hope confirmed.

In boyhood Morgan is a daydreamer, always picturing some life past his chores. Grown old, he endures with humility the sharp suspicion of his neighbors that his grief for the men who died at his side hides some secret guilt. He takes quickly to Isidro, showing the boy simple warmth, and he finds real solace in seeing Flora unchanged from their first meeting, as if she had awaited his return all along. His mind circles the question of dreaming, which he regards as something that can spur brave undertakings or serve as a handy escape, and he presses Isidro to settle where he himself falls on it.

In his younger days Morgan chases after witches and elves, ditching his chores to roam the mountains and woodlands whenever the chance arises, dreaming that he might one day steal away and sail off alone from Vritannis. That wanderlust breaks when his mother sickens. Drifting deep into the woods in a half-dream, he comes upon a witch's home, the Spirit Tree's mansion, where Flora hands him a medicine that draws his mother back from death's edge. All of this happens roughly fifty years before he meets the Black Swordsman Party. With no one believing him, the recollection curdles over the decades into what he takes for a mere dream, and as his mother ages he abandons the forest and grows old in turn. Only much later does he confess he had truly bolted into the trees to flee his chores and his failing mother rather than to hunt a cure.

When trolls raid Enoch without respite, Morgan and five companions venture into the forest to plead for a witch's aid. Days afterward the trolls ambush them, killing the rest and leaving Morgan hurt, until the Black Swordsman Party discovers him and Puck and Serpico see to his wounds. He leads them to Flora's sanctuary, the two recognize one another, and she agrees to help. Back in Enoch the locals doubt Schierke and the priest forbids magic outright, though Guts wins the group a single night's stay.

While Schierke readies her defenses, Morgan wanders off after fish and finds Isidro drilling with his sword. He lights a fire to dry the boy's clothes, and the two talk of the village and of Guts. Pressed by Isidro on why he never quit Enoch after the neighbors scorned the witch he brought home, Morgan says he remains from old age, that a famine buried his family there, and that the village once placed its fate in his hands. Wounded by the old man's talk of dreams, Isidro stalks off. When the trolls storm the village, Morgan saves the pinned boy at his own cost, and Puck soon heals the wound. With the trolls destroyed, Morgan thanks Puck and Isidro, presses on the boy a falchion heirloom sized better for him, and muses aloud that dreams may be daring quests or convenient flights, leaving Isidro to judge which they are for himself.