Dragon's life in college

chapter 20

Nigel eagerly sifted through his mail. Most of the letters were carelessly tossed aside as he quickly found the letter he was looking for. He quickly dumped the rest of his mail on his bed, grabbed the letter, and hurried out to the common area. It was almost three-quarters through the semester and the dragon’s festival of Scarefest had occurred about a week ago.

Scarefest was an annual holiday greatly looked forward to by all young dragons. It was the first time they were allowed to begin the long tradition of scaring humans. Or at least it was supposed to. Nigel winced slightly as he thought back to his first, and only, Scarefest. The only one terrified in that situation had been him. As usual, the exact opposite of what it was suppose to be. It was around then that even his father had started calling him Nigel.

Nigel quickly found his favorite spot and quickly settled down. He eagerly began reading the letter. He would read it later to his friends, they had practically ordered him to, but right now he wanted to read it himself.

He was chuckling to himself, the antics his younger siblings got into would never cease to be humerous, and had almost lost himself completely to the outside world. Almost. Which was why he was unfortunately very aware of a familiar voice.

Ever since the end of the play, he had fortunately been able to avoid his older siblings. His best idea was that the reputation of Ryu had been enough to keep them from bothering him. That and Oceania. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to complain. In fact, college had been quite enjoyable since the end of the play. The friendship between him and Ryu had deepened and expanded. Surprisingly, they had more in common than he had originally thought. Although most of that had been Ryu’s constant need for help in math and his constant ability to explain. Nigel was already fairly certain that he had a job lined up as Ryu’s personal accountant once college was done.

A good friendship had also grown between Ryu and Oceania. The casual relationship which had developed between them during preparing for their play had grown into a strong friendship. Originally, Nigel had been concerned that his two very strong willed friends would end up clashing. Thankfully, he had been proven wrong.

The weeks since the end of the play had been wonderful. He, Oceania, Ryu, and occasionally Turtle or one of Oceania’s other cousins had spent a lot of time together. And they had all started making him read the letters Ember sent him. Between the letters and Turtle’s constant tendency to get into very odd situations, there was no end of laughter. Nigel was certain that Ryu had never laughed so much in all of his life. And best of all, none of his siblings had ever bothered him. But now it seemed that it was done. As always. Whenever his siblings left him alone for a large period of time, they always came back to tease him eventually. Knowing that it would be even more hurtful after having left him alone for a while.

“Well, well, well,” Nightroarer said, slinking up. “Is our brother reading something other than a math book for once? Mark the day.”

“I know,” Sunspear flared her wings dramatically. “Maybe we should make this into a holiday. Nigel is not being a nerd day.”

All four roared in laughter as Nigel ducked his head. He still hadn’t found the courage to stand up to his siblings. One would think that after being friends with Ryu and Oceania that being able to stand up to annoying siblings would be easy. But it still wasn’t.

“What are you reading?” Nigel just barely managed to snatch the letter back before Bloodclaw ripped it out of his claws.

“Ohh, I know,” Swiftstrike hissed from behind him. “It’s a letter from our beloved little brother, Ember. The other really weird one. Along with the rest of them.”

“Don’t talk about them like that.” Nigel blurted out the response before he could check himself. If there was anything his siblings knew would bother him more than anything, it was insulting his younger siblings. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but blurt out something. And whenever he did, his siblings would have even more fodder with which to tease him.

“Oh, really. Why-what’s wrong with what Swiftstrike did? They are a little weird. Maybe not as weird as you brother, but quite weird still. Especially with the third person speech.” Sunspear shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that dragonet. Sometimes I think he must have fallen on his head.”

“No,” Bloodclaw said, smiling. “He just got the Nigel-factor. You know, like those symbols Nigel’s always using to determine the probability of something. Or some other such mathematical nonsense.”

“You’re right, brother.” Nightroarer and Bloodclaw bumped wings over Nigel’s head. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

“Don’t worry about that, brother. You don’t need to be smart. You just need to be a normal dragon. That’s all that Father wants in his children. Normal.” Swiftstrike smiled at Nigel. “It’s no wonder that we’re his favorites. Over you and those pathetic younger siblings.”

Nigel could feel the anger welling up in him. The only time it ever happened was when they talked this way about Ember and the younger siblings. And now it was so strong that he wanted only to try fighting one of his siblings Now while the logical part of Nigel’s brain told him that if he even attempted it he would be pounded into a mush. But the angry part of Nigel was currently overriding the logical part. He could actually feel his muscles tensing in preparation.

I will only be able to update this book every other week since the author and I are swamped in papers for our classes.