Dragon's life in college

Packing for college and arriving

Author's note I added a little bit to the end of the last chapter

Sure enough, as soon as he and Ember landed, Mother was already coming toward them.

"Just where have you been, Ember?" she asked.

Ember looked up with her, wide-eyed and full of innocence. "Getting help with math homework from Nigel." He patted the scroll on his back. "Ember is all done."

"All right," Mother said. Nigel noticed she didn't ask how Ember had gotten to him. Then she turned her attention to Nigel.

"Are you all packed?" she asked. "And not just your math books and typewriter. You've brought everything else I told you and your siblings to pack?"

"Yes, Mother. It's all packed up and in my cave." He knew his siblings wouldn't have bothered with his stuff.

"Sheet metal, charcoal, medicine?" she asked.

"All packed."

"What about jewelry."

Nigel chewed on his lip. "I forgot," he admitted. "But I don't think I need to bring any with me."

Mother drew herself up to her full height. "You are going to pack up your best jewelry right now, Nigel. Stormcrest Academy is one of the dragon colleges visited every year by the Dragon Queens. And I will not have my son greeting them without wearing jewelry like some ruffian dragon."

"Yes, Mother," Nigel said. He didn't like picking jewelry, let alone wearing it.

Ember raised his head. "Ember will help Nigel pick jewelry," he said.

"Good," Mother said. "Go on now and help your brother before it gets too late. And don't worry Nigel, your siblings left about thirty minutes ago to go to a party." Nigel smiled at her, then hurried off after Ember who had already scampered off.

Between the five of them, Ember's siblings joined them, they managed to select jewelry which passed Mother's inspection after the third attempt. Nigel didn't enjoy wearing any of the jewelry selected, but at least Mother had allowed him to leave his especially dislike jewelry behind. The only piece of jewelry that Nigel owned that he enjoyed wearing was the armlet his younger siblings had made for him. Actually, calling it a piece of jewelry was probably polite. It was a mess of tangled wires with bright colored pebbles caught in between them. It was messy, but Nigel liked it. It reminded him that not all his family thought he was a disgrace.

Several weeks later, Nigel was doing his best to remember the happiness he had felt with his siblings as he stood, frozen stiff with fear, in the front courtyard of Stormcrest Academy.

His older siblings were standing in a little group of their own, chatting and laughing about how wonderful college would be. For once their conversation wasn't aimed at teasing him. But why would they? After all, Nigel was fairly certain that he was too terrified to move even if a comet had dropped out of the sky and threatened to land on him.

At that exact moment, a Comet did drop out of the sky and actually land on him. But it was only his younger brother, who had once again forgotten to fly and started dreaming about art.

"Oof," Nigel said softly. Comet didn't weigh much, but still the sensation of having your little brother tumble out of the sky and land on your head could be a little surprising, although Nigel was pretty use to it.

"Sorry," Comet said, scrambling upright, still on Nigel's head. "But I was trying to pick the best angle to paint the college from. And I got knocked out of the sky by the wind."

Nigel reached up and helped his brother down. Stormcrest Academy did have a lot of strong winds which blew through intermittently. All the dragon colleges did, it was the best way to teach Flight School. Nothing like a sudden blast of wind to keep the students on their toes, or their wings flapping.

"Try to be a little more careful," Nigel warned his brother. "Mother told you and your siblings to not fly above head level. You don't want her to catch you trying to get a high view of the place."

Comet shook his head no. Then he immediately pounced on Dragonfly, who had bumped into him after Firefly had pushed her.

Nigel watched as a game of wrestling broke out between the four of them. He would greatly miss his younger siblings, especially Ember, who had been his constant companion since he had crawled out of his egg.

If only he would stop speaking in third person the entire time, Nigel thought. Oh well, I guess we all have our oddities. And mine is being terrified of everything.

He glanced over at the rest of his family. Nightroarer and Sunspear were eager to go and meet the friends they had made last year in college. His other two siblings were itching to get registered for classes and then go explore the college. His father looked ready to do anything that got him as far away from Nigel as possible, usual. And his mother, of course, was quite firmly in charge of the entire situation.