Dragon's life in college

Registering for class & moving in

(Hi, the chapters will be posted every other week until summer break. My friend, who's writing the story, and I are going back to college. So, we won't have as much time on our hands to post and write the chapters.)

"Come on," Mother said briskly, "it's time to get you registered for your classes. You two oldest can leave unless the young ones want to explore with you." She looked down at the four young dragonets, who had ceased their game and were watching closely. "Do you want to go with your oldest siblings?" she asked.

In an instant all four of them had huddled themselves next to Nigel's leg. "No mother," they all replied.

"We want to stay with Nigel," Firefly announced, shoving Dragonfly off her tail.

Ember patted Nigel's leg with a wing. "Nigel needs our help." He announced. Nigel heard his father cough and mutter something under his breath.

His mother turned and glared at his father. Male dragons might pack more muscle and brute strength than the females, but females had better tactics for intimidation. Nigel had seen his imposing, terrifying, father melt with a single look from his mother.

"I didn't say anything, honey," his father said quickly.

His mother glared at him for a few more seconds, then began walking briskly toward the main entrance. "Well, hurry along then, children," she called. Everyone, except Nightroarer and Sunspear, quickly followed after her.

Nigel took a few minutes to place his siblings onto his back and then scurried after his family. As terrifying as college was, being absolutely alone with his family, even if most of them disliked him, was even more terrifying.

Several hours later, Nigel had only vague recollections of what had transpired. Class registration was a hazy blur to him of scary, intimidating dragons glaring at him and telling him what classes he was required to take. He remembered clearly the look on one dragon's face, when he asked what Nigel's major was.

"Accounting?" the dragon had asked. "Only dragons incapable of everything take accounting for a major."

Ember, currently sitting on Nigel's head, had puffed himself up. "Nigel is good at 'counting," he had told the other dragon. "Strange dragons not call Nigel good at nothing. Nigel very good at something." Then he had sat back down. Nigel hadn't been sure whether to be embarrassed or grateful, although he hadn't had time to consider that as his mother had pinned the dragon with one of her glares. Nigel noticed that his father looked relieved that for once the glare wasn't directed at him.

"My son," she said icily, "is an Accounting major. And if dragons such as him did not exist, then lumbering idiots like yourself would have no way of knowing how much gold you've managed to scare out of humans." The dragon had nodded his agreement and after that hadn't said a thing about Nigel's accounting major, out loud that is.

All dragons were taught to respect females. Thousands of years ago, during the wars, males had been the leaders. It was under Dragon Kings that the wars had been fought and much time and some lives wasted. Only when two females had taken the throne had peace and stability been established. From that point on, females ruled in the dragon hierarchy. And all males instantly respected a female's word and rule, it was dangerous not to.

After that there was another long stream of dragons, and more classes. Nigel had almost bolted when he learned he was required to take Drama class.

"One semester only," the dragon in charge had said. "You don't even get a grade on this class. The only way to fail it is to not show up for class or for any assigned parts."

I'll still manage to fail it, Nigel thought. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to show up. Dragonfly and Firefly had both seemed interested in that class. In fact, his four younger siblings seemed much more interested and excited about his classes than he was. The only classes he was excited about were his math classes, although he was certain he already knew the material.

After they had finished registering for classes, they had moved onto lodging. Swiftstrike and Blookclaw were both sharing a cave pretty close to the cave Nightroarer and Sunspear shared. His older siblings had requested each other as roommates.

Nigel would have asked to be placed with any of them, constant teasing even plain ignoral was better than sharing a cave with a complete stranger. However, the caves were designed to house only two dragons, so Nigel was stuck sharing a cave with another dragon.

"I don't believe your roommate has arrived yet," the rather harried looking dragon in charge said, shifting through a pile of metal sheets. She looked as though she'd been up since midnight. "I can try to find his name for you," she offered, glancing at the mess on her desk.

"That won't be necessary," his mother said. "Just tell us the cave number and we'll get him all set." The dragon had done so gratefully, and then the entire family had assisted Nigel and his siblings as they moved in.

Nightroarer and Sunspear had already stored a lot of their possessions over the summer, so they didn't have much to move in. Swiftstrike and Bloodclaw, on the other hand, had brought a lot of stuff with them. It had taken at least an hour to move all of their stuff to their cave and then for it to be arranged to their and Mother's liking. After that was done, they had moved onto Nigel's cave which was on the other end of the residence area.

Nigel had cautiously pushed aside the covering over the cave's entrance, absolutely petrified for fear that his roommate was going to be in there. Thankfully, neither his roommate or any sign of his roommate's stuff was in the room.

It only took a few minutes for Nigel to bring his few possessions in and arrange them next to his bed. After that was done, Mother had allowed everyone to go their different directions while she and Father took care of a few things.