Dragon's life in college

32

Turtle would have been in for the scolding of his life as soon as the three of them returned from their impromptu shopping trip, except for the arrival of even more concerning news. A letter from Turtle’s mother telling him she was expecting another clutch of eggs.

Thankfully, Turtle’s father was back in the ocean with the rest of the family so the group of friends did not need to worry about calming him down. Handling Turtle was already more than enough work.

As soon as Turtle had received the letter, he had immediately rushed into the common room of the college and screamed the distressing news out to everyone. The issue wasn’t that Turtle didn’t want siblings, he was happy about that idea although a little worried about accidentally dropping one of them, the issue was names. If the history of Turtle and his siblings names repeated itself, the soon to arrive dragonets were destined to live their life with some of the oddest monikers ever.

Turtle, understandably, was equal parts concerned, excited, and stressed, all of which only served to wind him up tighter than a strangle vine on its target. And a wound up Turtle was a lot of work to handle. A lot.

So, poor Oceania now had even more to handle. Finding out a way for Nigel to control his fire and trying to keep Turtle from hurting himself or going crazy, and in the process driving the whole school crazy. By now, everyone in the school either knew all about Turtle’s mother’s naming sense or was just purposely ignoring it, as Turtle talked about it everywhere he went.

Nigel and Ryu found the two of them sitting together. Oceania was attempting to do homework and Turtle was nervously bouncing in place, twisting some wires into a mess as he rambled on about potential names.

“I know Mother said she always wished she had a Clownfish, oh if one of my future siblings end up with that name I’ll feel so sorry for them. I mean, I thought being named Sea Turtle was odd but at least you can shorten it so something more normal. What are you suppose to shorten Clownfish to? Clown? And then there’s the more obscure names she wants to use like Nudibranch, how is that even pronounced- “

“Turtle, relax,” Oceania said calmly, looking up from her homework. “I’m sure your father will keep her from using names like Nudibranch or some other strange name.”

“But all of her names are strange.” Turtle gave up on the wires and flopped down. “My poor siblings are going to be doomed for life.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t chose Drama as his major,” Ryu murmured.

“Oh, shush,” Nigel scolded. “Hi, guys.”

Turtle glanced up and immediately bounded over. “Nigel, Ryu, at last someone who can understand my worries. Oceania keeps saying that its unlikely that mother will name my siblings something like Goblin Shark but I think it’s perfectly reasonable. I mean, she did name one of us Octopus and we eat octopus for lunch all the time.”

“I’m sure she won’t use that name,” Nigel assured. He was certain that there was a very high likelihood of that name being discarded, but Clownfish, unfortunately, seemed like a very real possibility. He couldn’t give a percentage on Nudibranch, as it was the first time he had heard the name suggested.

“That’s what I keep telling him,” Oceania said, setting aside the homework. “Hello, Nigel. How’d incineration practice go?”

“Terrible.”

“Better.”

Nigel and Ryu said at the same time.

“Well, at least it’s something,” Oceania said. “I still know we’re going to find something to help you, Nigel.”

“Thanks,” Nigel said.

“I see we’re in the same predicament as always,” Ryu said, referring to Turtle who was mumbling something to himself about Nudibranchs and Sea Hares and something else Nigel couldn’t hear.

“And we will be until the dragonets are hatched and named,” Oceania sighed. “I wonder if this is how my parents felt when my Aunt had her first clutch?”

“No. I’m sure they had it much easier.”
“I’m not so certain. You haven’t seen my Uncle worry about names before.”

“True.”

“If you think we’re bad, you should see Kelp,” Turtle piped up.

“Why, is he worse?” Ryu asked, his patient frown on his face.

"Yes, but he doesn’t worry.”

“Then I fail to see how that is worse.”

“Because he helps suggest the names! Do you think that Mother came up with the name Sea Hare on her own? Kelp suggested it, which is the main reason why I think no one will end up with that name.”

“Why?” Nigel asked.

“Because Kelp’s idea is that Mother wants to come up with the names completely on her own, so he suggests extremely odd names in order to steer Mom toward more normal names.”

“And does it work?”

“So far, but this is the second clutch Mother’s had so his theory isn’t that well tested. But the problem is that Mother won’t even think of some of those really odd names if Kelp doesn’t suggest it and I’m worried that one of these days she’s actually going to like his suggestion and use it. And if you think my Mother comes up with strange names, Kelp’s are even stranger.”

“I have a hard time seeing that when she’s thinking of names like Nudibranch and Goblin Shark,” Ryu muttered.

“Those aren’t odd if you’ve heard some of the things Kelp suggests. Have you ever considered naming a dragonet Peacock Mantis Shrimp or Sarcastic Fringehead?”

Nigel had to admit, compared to those names Clownfish seemed perfectly normal.

“Ok, I’m certain that Aunty will have better sense than naming one of her children Sarcastic Fringehead,” Oceania said.

“You can never be certain with my Mother,” Turtle replied.