Dragon's life in college

Ch 34

To say that the college was buzzing with a mixture of excitement and anxiety would have been an understatement. If one more nerve started tingling somewhere then the entire college would have been mistaken for an oversized beehive learning to how to become an orchestra. Or at least that was Turtle’s example before Oceania had whisked him off to the water dragon dorms with orders to get ready for the visit.

The two weeks before the visit had passed in a blur, and now every dragon on campus was frantically getting ready. Some, who had wisely prepared ahead of time, calmly shined their scales, brushed their wings, put on their jewelry and sat around waiting. Those who had completely forgotten about it until their roommates had reminded them of it that morning, were dashing around frantically trying to get ready in time and in general tripping over their own tails in excitement. And in between these two semi-minorities (it seemed that most of the campus had to some degree forgotten about it) were those who knew it was coming and had somewhat prepared, and were in a state of semi-rush as they got ready.

This was Ryu and Nigel’s situation. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for Ryu’s Human Intimidation project being due the next day, they probably would have completely forgotten about it. But thankfully they didn’t. Thus, they were both in their room getting ready for the arrival of the Dragon Queens which was due to occur in a few hours.

Ryu stood in front of the mirror, carefully putting on a pair of earrings. His dark green scales shone dully in the light while his broad wings were groomed to meticulous perfection. He had even taken the time to carefully shine his horns, and after hearing that Nigel didn’t know how to do his, had promptly done Nigel’s as well.

“Stop complaining,” he had lightly scolded when Nigel told him it wasn’t needed. “Your mother would kill both of us if she heard you let any part of your grooming slack for a royal visit.”

“All right,” Nigel agreed. He knew that Ryu was right. He busied himself polishing his arm scales while the smaller green dragon worked on his horns, and then polished his neck and back scales which he had trouble reaching.

“Thanks,” he said when the process was finally done.

“You’re welcome,” Ryu replied, as he carefully pulled out his jewelry box.

Nigel knew that Ryu tended to wear more jewelry than he did, most likely a side effect of his more elite background, but he didn’t know just exactly how much jewelry the other owned until he saw his jewelry box.

“My mother wouldn’t let me leave without this full of approved jewelry,” Ryu said, looking over.

Taking a peek at the contents, Nigel understood why Ryu preferred to leave the majority of it locked in the box. The large, sparkling pieces weren’t Ryu’s style. He preferred quieter, less eye-catching but more imposing jewelry.

“And I thought my mother was insistent on what jewelry I bring,” Nigel muttered.

“Trust me, our mothers are almost exactly the same. Just mine leans more into the strict, if you don’t listen then watch out attitude then your mother.”

My mother can be quite threatening when she wants to be.”

“Key phrase, wants to be. My mother is more like all the time.”

Nigel nodded.

“Don’t worry, she’s not mean or anything. Just very strict in appearance.”

“How does your father manage it?”

“Better than your father does. My father learned long ago to not argue with my mother when she sets her mind on something and to not to even mention something which she was firmly against.”