Dragon's life in college

chapter 16

"I'm sure Nigel will be more than happy to write to Mother and tell her about his new role," Swiftstrike said, slinking forward, knowing that Nigel wouldn't do such a thing and that if he did, he would leave out the teasing. He froze when Oceania snarled at him.

"Maybe I will write to her and tell her everything you've done to him so far," Oceania replied icily. "After all, I'm sure she'll want to know all the wonderful things his siblings have done to him to help him through college." She glared at them even harder. "After all, you've both gone so far out of your way to be so helpful."

Now both of Nigel's brothers were scared. He had seen Oceania intimidate other dragons before, but this was even more intense. The only other dragon Nigel had seen elicit such a reaction had been his mother.

Bloodclaw and Swiftstrike looked at each other. They both knew that Nigel wasn't likely to write to their mother and tell her anything about what had happened today. But they weren't so sure about Oceania. The icily regal water dragon had a presence about her, and right now she was using it. After a quick moment of contemplation, they decided that the joy of teasing their brother wasn't worth risking Mother's wrath and left.

"Don't worry about them, Nigel," Oceania said after they had gone. "They're just being mean. I'm sure you'll do fine, and this play doesn't have a lot of lines either, so you'll mostly just have to stand there and look intimidating."

"That's the problem," Nigel said. "I can't look intimidating."

Oceania sized him up. "You look somewhat intimidating. If you could just get the attitude right, you could convince other dragons that you were."

"But I can't. I'm just not intimidating."

Oceania settled a wing around him. "I'm sure you'll work it out. You just need to believe in yourself a little bit."

That's the hard part, Nigel thought.

He went the rest of the day trying to believe it, and trying to ignore the stares and whisperings from other dragons as he went by. He also tried his hardest to avoid any confrontation with Ryu, after he saw the green dragon absolutely transfix a senior who had teased him about his role as Snail.

After his classes were done and homework completed, Nigel slipped off by himself to a secluded area of the campus. There he tried his best to look and feel intimidating, striking several poses, all of which only served to make him feel ridiculous and less intimidating.

Nigel stopped, feeling frustrated at himself. He noticed a butterfly on a nearby bush and decided to try one last pose, looking as ferocious and intimidating as possible. The butterfly didn't even pat an eyelash. Nigel flopped down next to the bush.

"What am I going to do?" he asked the butterfly. The butterfly fluttered its wings.

"That's not much help." Nigel wished that Ember was there. Ember would know exactly what to say to cheer him up and suggest a possible solution.

The butterfly watched Nigel and the two of them lay there for about fifteen minutes. Nigel considering whether it was worth it to leave college and run away and risk his father's wrath or attempting the play and earning his father's wrath for completely making a fool of himself.

"I can't even scare a butterfly," Nigel said outloud. "So how am I supposed to at least look like I could scare a dragon?" The butterfly fluttered its wings again, and then flitted away. A dark green leaf dropped from the bush it had been sitting on and fell on Nigel's nose.

Nigel brushed the leaf off, then stopped a moment to look at its color. There was possibly one thing he could do, but as he though about it Nigel was certain that he'd rather risk his father being angry at him for his entire life than try this. He was almost willing to incur his mother's anger as well, but just almost.

At last, Nigel stood up and made his way back to the cave. He was relieved to see that Ryu wasn't there, but the sight of two scripts did little to encourage him. He picked up his and took it over to his bed, but after reading half a page he put it down. Dread and terror overwhelmed him as he thought again about how unsuitable he was for the role and how badly he was going to fail. Again the thought he had had outside came to him, but he brushed it aside. Jumping into a volcano would be more appealing, at least he would die faster. Nigel wondered exactly how long it would take for a volcano to kill a dragon, and began calculating the answer. It might be a depressing topic, but at least he would know how long it would take if he ended up trying it.

Several hours later, Nigel, still unable to sleep and by now having worked through all the math problems he could think of, heard Ryu enter. He quickly burrowed under his blankets and did his best to pretend he was asleep.

Ryu didn't even bother looking at his script and instead laid down on his bed and pulled out his homework.

Nigel lay under his blankets, listening to Ryu as he flipped through the pages of one of his textbooks. He could feel his claws shaking as he considered his options. At last, he decided that it was worth it, and his calculations had shown him that maybe dying by volcano would be more painful. Maybe.

Slowly, Nigel pulled out a piece of paper. On it he wrote a single question. "Can you help me look intimidating?" He then slid the piece of paper toward Ryu.

He quickly pulled the covers tight around him, his heart pounding as he waited for Ryu to act, to do something.

Ryu picked up the paper, read it once, looked at Nigel, looked back at the note. Then he spoke.