Dragon's life in college

Chapter 19

A couple of hours later, the curtain fell with the applause of the audience still going on outside. Nigel breathed out a long sigh, feeling like himself for the first time since the curtain had gone up. The performance, surprisingly, had gone perfectly. All throughout the play Nigel had managed to portray the fearless, intimidation of Stormrider to his complete surprise. And Ryu had nailed the character of Snail in such convincing detail that Nigel almost wondered if they had switched roles for the night. But now the curtain was down and he could go back to being terrified, math nerd, Nigel and Ryu could go back to being terrifying, intimidating Ryu. The rest of the cast had also performed well, and the crew had done an amazing job in portraying many different locations all on the same piece of ground. Although Nigel had seen Turtle almost drop a huge lantern, meant to evoke sunlight, when he waved at another dragon while forgetting that he still had the rope in his claws. Thankfully he had remembered before the lantern had crashed onto the stage and buried the actors currently below at the time.

"Nigel, you did wonderfully," Oceania exclaimed as she hugged him. "See, I told you that you could do it."

"Great job," Turtle called as he bounded over. "Sorry about almost dropping the lamp on you, didn't remember I still had the rope. But you did a perfect job of pretending like there wasn't a huge lantern about to crash down on you."

"I can assure you, that it was not an easy task to do," Ryu said, slipping up. He and Nigel had already shed their costumes, eager to return to their proper selves. "Perhaps next time you are in such work, you should remember what is in your claws before waving to someone. Next time you may not be so lucky."

"It's all right, Turtle," Nigel said. "I wasn't too worried. I knew that if you didn't catch if someone else would. And besides, I had other things on my mind. I almost forgot my lines for that entire scene. Thanks for helping me remember, Ryu."

"It was the least I could do for a fellow actor and friend."

"Friend?" Nigel asked. "You consider me your friend."

"Why of course I do," Ryu answered, looking surprised. "How else would I consider you after you have helped me with my math and I have helped you with this. Besides all the other things we did together."

Nigel was silent. He was shocked that Ryu considered him a friend.

"That's perfectly true," Oceania agreed. "You and Nigel have become very close friends through this play. And all for the better I am certain."

"Not just Nigel and I, but you as well. And Turtle to some degree," Ryu looked carefully at Turtle as he he wasn't sure if the water dragon would do something ridiculous at that moment. Thankfully, Turtle didn't.

"See, Nigel," Oceania said, nudging him. "College isn't that bad. All you need is some good friends beside you and it will all seem easy."

"Yes, that is true," Nigel agreed. He looked around at his small group of friends. Yes, college wasn't that bad after all, he thought. All you needed was a little confidence in yourself and some close friends beside you and there wasn't anything which couldn't be tackled.

Later that night, after everything had been put away and the audience properly greeted, Nigel had had to slip back into Stormrider for that part, he and Ryu were at last relaxing in their room. It had been a much better evening than Nigel could have ever dreamed, but he still had one question on his mind. And now that he and Ryu were officially friends, he could ask it without any fear at all.

"Ryu?" he asked.

"What?" Ryu answered, looking up from the book he was reading.

"I have a question for you. How did you do so well playing Snail? I mean, you actually had me convinced for part of the play."

Ryu looked at him. "Nigel, what did I tell you was the key for portraying Stormrider?"

"To convince myself that I was him."

"And how did you do that?"

"Well, I thought about how Stormrider behaved and tried to emulate that. And I also copied from other dragons, like you, who were similar to Stormrider."

"Exactly. I simply thought of myself as Snail, and I had the perfect role model for parts of that character."

"Oh," Nigel said, nodding in agreement. "I still think the teacher would have saved everyone a lot of trouble by simply switching those roles to begin with."

"Perhaps," Ryu agreed, stretching back out on his bed. "But if she had, I would be missing a friend. And so would you. Good night."