Dragon's life in college

chapter 10

I Realize, I forgot to give you guys a chapter last Sunday so I'll give you 2 this Sunday.  You will still get one next Sunday.

As it turned out, meeting Oceania turned out to be the best thing that had happened to him so far. Actually, the only good thing that had happened to him at all since arriving at college. She was friendly, cheerful, and quick to try to cheer up any dragons she saw having a hard day. But she could also be quite intimidating when she wanted to be.

Over the next several weeks, Nigel learned a lot about Oceania. She was an only child, a rarity among the dragons. She had been part of a clutch of five, the first clutch of eggs her parents had had, but only her egg had hatched. It was a rare occurrence among the dragons, but something that did occasionally happen. After that, her parents had decided to not have any more eggs and had instead contended themselves with raising their daughter. Although she had been raised without siblings, Oceania wasn't spoiled in the least bit, a fact Nigel was grateful for.

He also learned that her father was a professor at the college. "Only teaching water dragon subjects," Oceania told him. Her mother didn't teach at the college but instead lived in the ocean. But she came to visit her husband, and now daughter, on a fairly regular basis.

When Nigel learned that Oceania's father taught at the college, he wondered about the dented, mismatched jewelry she always seemed to be wearing. He thought that it was more than likely that a teacher could afford to buy his daughter at least one matching set of new jewelry, but he never asked. Maybe she didn't care about jewelry or she thought the necklace of scales was jewelry enough, he thought. Whatever the matter, Oceania didn't seem to be the type to let anything superficial bother her.

Her major was Dragon Overlord, similar to Evil Dragon Overlord, but less focused on being scary and intimidating and more on learning to be a good leader or ruler. Nigel guessed she was hoping to eventually find a place in the government of the water dragons, a likely possibility for her considering that females were always preferred in those positions over males.

Either way, it wasn't long before Nigel and Oceania were close friends. She was always quick to look after him and if she caught any dragons teasing him, a single icy glare was enough to send them melting away. Nigel had confided in her early on his fear of everything, and he was surprised when she didn't make fun of him for it or even bring it up after that.

She enjoyed hearing all about his family, especially his younger siblings. Nigel supposed that this was because she had missed out on such relationships. All of her cousins were around her age, and while here at college she definitely didn't have any opportunities to interact with young dragons.

It was wonderful having a friend in college, Nigel found out. He and Oceania did as much together as they could, and he soon found himself looking forward to spending time with a dragon his own age. He had never liked even being around dragons his own age before, so to have one for a friend was a new and amazing experience for him. He wrote home, telling his mother all about Oceania. He was pleased when his mother wrote back, approving of the friendship.

Letters from home were always a highlight for Nigel, who would always immediately take them to a private spot and read them over and over again. His mother wrote the most often, with Ember writing him the second most. Comet, Firefly, and Dragonfly also wrote, although their letters were often bundled into one. Ember's third person speaking carried over into his letter writing, which combined with his spelling made for interesting and sometimes confusing reads.

After he and Oceania became friends, Nigel began telling her what his younger siblings wrote. They never failed to elicit a laugh from her. All in all, several weeks after meeting Oceania Nigel began to think that he might be able to survive college after all.