Dragon's life in college

Chapter 12

Nigel lay on his bed, trying to stave on the mounting terror of having to spend time with Ryu. He tried to distract himself with math, but when that failed he picked up a letter he had started for Ember. Writing to his younger brother helped to calm him, but it wasn't as good as having Ember next to him. He had no doubt that Ember would not be scared of Ryu no matter what his terrifying roommate did or said.

After finishing the letter, Nigel fell asleep. He really was pretty sick and ended up sleeping for several hours. He didn't wake up until the covering over the entry moved and a dragon entered.

Nigel knew instantly that it wasn't Oceania coming in. He froze on his bed, trying to look as small as possible as Ryu walked in. He could feel the other dragon's look as he studied the scene. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Nigel saw Ryu shrug and climb onto his bed and beginning working on homework. The green dragon sent one last look Nigel's way. Don't bother me. Nigel burrowed deeper into his blankets. He wouldn't bother Ryu for all the gold and jewels in the world, which would be a lot. Quickly he grabbed a sheet of fire-proofed paper, his preferred medium for scribble work, and began calculating exactly how much that would be.

And so the situation continued for several days. Every time Ryu moved Nigel instantly froze, terrified that Ryu's patience had finally worn out that he was about to get seriously injured. But every time it was either Ryu leaving or grabbing another book. In either case, once Ryu had either left or was again working on homework or studying, Nigel would work on his math problems. He couldn't do his homework while Ryu was in the cave with him, so he instead worked on those problems whenever Ryu left.

Oceania came every day, never when Ryu was there, to check up on him and keep him supplied with food and medicine. She also brought him the homework assignments from all his classes, as his fellow classmates weren't willing to do so. Whenever she had time she would stay, sometimes chatting and sometimes working on her own schoolwork.

Nigel loved it when she was there, as he could forget about being sick and stuck with a roommate that terrified him. But Oceania could never stay the whole time, and when she left Nigel was once again left alone with the most terrifying roommate ever.

Strangely enough, during this time, Nigel developed a new habit. Or rather he applied an old habit in a new way. Nigel had always watched other dragons. For as far back as he could remember, if he wasn't cowering in terror or working math problems, he was watching other dragons. After a few days of being stuck in his room, Nigel found himself watching Ryu. It was more like spying, done quickly from over the top of a math book or under the edge of a wing. But despite his terror that Ryu would look up and catch him spying, Nigel found it oddly interesting. It was this watching that opened up the first opportunity for Nigel.

He had been watching Ryu for almost an hour now. By now Nigel was feeling much better, although still not better enough to go to classes by Oceania's standards. Normally he would have been working on math but he was bored that evening. So he instead chose to watch Ryu from under the edge of one of his blankets as he pretended to be asleep.

What he noticed was that Ryu was struggling with his math homework. Very much struggling, Nigel noted as Ryu tossed another shredded piece of paper into the small mountain beside his bed. Several sheets of metal were also close at claw, most of them still glowing from the fire Ryu had used to erase earlier problems.

Nigel had completed this particular assignment in under twenty minutes, and while he knew not every dragon was as good at math as he was, he still found it odd that Ryu was having so much trouble. It was then that he noticed that one of Ryu's discarded papers had rolled away from the pile and was now next to his bed.

Curious and bored, but also terrified, Nigel quickly snatched up the papers before ducking under the blankets again. After several minutes passed without any sign from Ryu that he had noticed the movement, Nigel carefully uncrumpled the paper, keeping a close eye of Ryu as he did so.

Nigel lay in bed, studying Ryu's scribblings. He could easily tell what Ryu was doing wrong and how the other dragon could easily fix his mistakes, but he was too scared to tell Ryu that. Then, for some reason, an idea popped into his mind that he decided to act on.