Dragon's life in college

chapter 21

But before he could do anything that could would get him killed, he heard a familiar voice.

“Ah, there you are.” Ryu strode through the common room. The dragons there quickly moved out of his path. Ryu’s reputation could single-handedly terrify a whole school. And Nigel got the sudden sensation that his siblings were about to find out exactly why.

Ryu stopped a few paces shy of Nigel and his siblings. His smaller frame looked unthreatening as he just stood there, calmly surveying the scene. But Nigel had seen him look exactly like that a few times before, and it had never ended quite as calmly as it appeared.

Not even Nigel’s siblings were as clueless as to provoke Ryu into anger. His reputation was more than well known. But, his appearance was not quite as well-known. All of the dragons at the school knew of him. But very few knew exactly what he looked like. In fact, if any dragon had gone around asking what the other students thought he looked like, most of them would have actually described a dragon which looked like Nigel. Very few would even guess that he looked like he did, let alone be able to pick him out from a crowd. So, although Nigel’s siblings would not have messed with Ryu, they could hardly be completely blamed for messing with who they knew was their brother’s roommate.

Now, in hindsight, Nigel admitted that maybe he should have actually told his siblings who his roommate was. But, and by hindsight like a hundred years, hindsight is always twenty/twenty. And considering his lack of attachment with his siblings, he could hardly have been blamed for failing to inform them of his roommate’s name.

All that to say, all that Nigel’s siblings saw was an average sized, unassuming looking, green dragon. They knew he was their brother’s roommate, but that was all. And since the majority of the room was behind them, they were completely clueless as to the exact identity of the dragon in front of them. They were slightly put off by the air of lordly calmness the strange dragon in front of them. They were use to bullying their younger brother, who even at his most protective still couldn’t help but cringe away from them in terror. On the other hand, this strange dragon simply stood there, calmly looking at them as though they were nothing more than lawn ornaments he was assessing for sale value. But their stubborn ego would not allow them to back down.

“Well, who have we here?” Nightroarer swaggered over. He loomed his large frame over Ryu.

Ryu simply looked at him. “Would you mind moving? You’re in my way.”

Again, the calm, powerful delivery was enough to send his siblings back a bit. But their swaggering pride came back again.

“Of course, your lordship.” Bloodclaw sniggered as he made an exaggerated bow. The siblings moved aside. Ryu walked forward.

“Nigel, how have you been?”

Nigel sat silent. He was fairly certain that Ryu had heard what his siblings had said. And he knew that if Ryu had heard, then it did not bode well for his siblings. One of the surprising details of his and Ryu’s friendship was the fondness Ryu had developed for his younger siblings. Especially Ember. And fondness with Ryu also equaled extremely protective.

“Good,” he finally answered.

“Is that a letter from Ember?”

My siblings’ are going to be in trouble, Nigel thought. “Yes,” he answered, looking around nervously. Please, don’t say anything, he thought, staring at his siblings. They said something.

“Our other weird brother,” Swiftstrike said.

“Along with the others,” Sunspear added.

If Nigel had any lingering hopes that perhaps Ryu might not have heard the original comments and might be willing to overlook the recent ones, they shriveled away in the look in Ryu’s eyes. Just please, don’t damage them too badly, was all that he thought.

“What did you say?” Ryu’s voice took on a slight icy edge as he turned to face Nigel’s siblings.

Now, if any of them had remembered their one encounter with Oceania, they might have gotten out of this encounter fairly safely. But their memory was even shorter than Nigel’s courage.

“Just that our younger siblings are a complete waste of-ah!”

Nightroarer’s comment was cut off, quite literally, by a sudden spurt of clear fire.

The four dragons stared in complete shock. The dragons in the Academy might not know what Ryu looked like, but they all knew what his fire looked like. And Nigel’s siblings had just had a very sudden reminder.

Ryu glared at them. If Oceania’s glare could melt a glacier, than Ryu’s could at least crack it, a lot. And currently, Nigel was fairly certain that his siblings whole outlook on life was cracking.

“Do not speak about my friend’s siblings like that.” Ryu’s voice was filled with lordly authority.

Nigel’s siblings stood in shocked complacency. Only Sunspear had enough wits left to nod in agreement. She had always had more self-preservation than her brothers. And it served her well today.

“Good. You may leave.” Ryu swept a wing lazily toward the exit. “Only the one who agreed,” he said, when the others made a move to leave. “The rest of you, will stay.”

Nigel watched as Sunspear quickly moved away. Not too surprisingly, she didn’t stick around to see what happened to her brothers. Nigel, however, was pretty concerned for them. Ryu had been uncommonly generous in allowing Sunspear to leave. But Nigel highly doubted that he was going to be as generous with the others.

“Now, as for you.”

Nigel suddenly got a very good impression of how he must look whenever his siblings started teasing him.

“What exactly were you saying when I so rudely interrupted your family conversation?”

“We were just…” Nightroarer trailed off, not sure what to say.

“Just asking how our younger siblings were?” Bloodclaw blurted out.

Ryu nodded. “How nice of you. I am sure that your wonderful younger siblings must be overjoyed to hear that you are concerned about them. Those other things I was hearing must have been a mistake. Surely you weren’t speaking like that about them…were you.”

It wasn’t a question. And Nigel was relieved to see that this time all of them had the wits to nod their heads rapidly in response. Although he wasn’t sure that Ryu was going to be as benevolent this time around though.

“Good. But, just to make sure.” He turned toward Nigel. “Were your siblings simply inquiring as to how your younger siblings are doing?” Nigel froze. He had a feeling that no matter what he said Ryu would do something drastic to them. However, the amount of drastic could be greatly affected by whatever he said next. And Nigel had no clue what to say.