Dragon's life in college

Meeting the Roommate

As soon as he could no longer see them, Nigel sprinted away from his siblings. With tears pouring down his cheeks he quickly made his way to the gardens, seeking a place to be alone. It was dusk now, and the mantle of night was quickly falling about the world. In the growing dark and blinded by his tears and consumed by his fears, Nigel didn't see the dragon in front of him until he had run headlong into him.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered out after tripping over the other dragon and doing an awkward summersault.

The other dragon picked himself off the ground. He didn't look scary, Nigel thought. In fact, he looked very average. He was smaller than Nigel, which most dragons were, and his scales were dark, forest green with woody-brown under tones. At least it wasn't one of the scary ones, Nigel thought to himself.

Then the dragon turned to look at Nigel, and all thoughts of anything under than sheer terror left Nigel. For while this dragon was smaller than average and non-intimidating in color, he had an air of lordly superiority and threat about him. And Nigel suddenly felt as small as a new-hatched dragonet.

"What dragon," the other said in a lordly voice, "runs into another like a comet hitting the earth?" He looked at Nigel. "A dragon with tears in his eyes. Crying like a lamb for its mother." The words weren't an insult, at least not like what his siblings what do, but they still carried the same undercurrent. "Dragons with tears in their eyes, should not run into some dragons." The strange dragon drew itself up and suddenly it seemed huge. Nigel saw the mouth openly slightly and suddenly his frozen muscles responded as he hurled himself into the air.

For a moment, it crossed his mind to fly after his family and ask to be allowed to stay with them and not attend college with threatening dragons like that. But he knew his parents wouldn't allow it.

Instead he quickly headed back to his cave, where he pulled out his favorite math book and began reading it. I will never go near that dragon again, he promised himself as he huddled into a ball.

After a while, the math began to relax and comfort him as it always did, although it wasn't as much comfort as normal without Ember sitting next to him asking questions and his other young siblings playing nearby. Still, it was much better than nothing and he didn't scream when a dragon had poked his head in to inform him that his roommate had arrived on campus and that his name was Ryu.

At least Ryu doesn't sound scary, Nigel thought. Maybe this won't be too bad.

About an hour after the dragon had informed him about his roommate, Nigel heard steps outside his cave and saw claws reach up and part the covering.

I am about to meet my roommate, Nigel thought as he peeked over the edge of his book. Please, don't be scary, he prayed as the covering parted and...

...the same dragon he had run into in the garden walked in.

For a moment they both stood there, staring at each other. Then the green dragon, Ryu, turned and settled onto his bed. Don't bother me, his attitude said.

Nigel quickly curled into as small a space as possible and buried his snout in the math book. How am I going to survive? Was all that he could think. How?