Dragon's life in college

ch 38

“My father was a teacher here when he and my mother mated. During the school year, he teaches here while she stays at the palace and helps Aunt Mer govern. They stay together during the breakseasons. My mother knows that I wanted a chance at having a normal life away from the palace and Aunt Mer’s expectations. She and father both agreed that I could come here, so I could be close to at least one of them. And while Aunt Mer does know father teaches here, she does tend to overlook the obvious sometimes.

“So I applied here and was accepted. Before coming, I was careful to pack my plainest things possible, so that no one would grow suspicious of me. The hardest part was my birthmark,” she tapped the necklace of amethyst scales, “which is something all females of the royal family have. But fortunately, it is not mentioned in any textbooks and while the royal family does interact outside of the palace quite often, not many normal dragons would know of it.

“It was a risk, and I was constantly expecting someone to call me out on it. But it does help that the royal family is quite large, and all one has to do is be part of it to have the birthmark. Even if the only connection to the royal family is as far as twenty generations ago, you’ll have it. So I think that the few who did notice simply figured I was from one of the very distant branches, of which there are many.”

“One advantage to being a male in the royal family,” Turtle cut in. “Our birthmark is smaller and it moves around.”

“Your birthmark?” Nigel asked.

Turtle pointed to the seashell mark on his wing. “All males have this mark somewhere on their wings. But unlike the females, it can be any color or size or by anywhere on the wing.”

“Yes, us females have the exact same marking in the exact same place. The only difference is the exact shade can vary a little bit, although not by much.”

“Interesting,” Ryu mused. “Please continue with the story.”

“Well, anyway, I got in and managed to dodge questions about my birthmark. The fact that this is a school for both fire and water dragons helped, as it was easier to blend in. I wore the oldest, plainest jewelry I had so as to avoid detection. Wearing no jewelry would have been a little too strange to not go unnoticed. And the fact that my father was a teacher here helped deflect questions, as most dragons simply assumed that I couldn’t afford fancy jewelry.

“I would have put some on for this morning, although I knew that none of the jewelry I had been wearing would be appropriate for the visit and I couldn’t risk one of the matching sets. So I figured I would take a chance with no jewelry at all. If my aunt did spot me, it would be easier to explain no jewelry than a mismatching set of old jewelry.”

“You could have worn the earrings we got you,” Ryu pointed out.

“I did consider it, but my aunt tends to be hyper focused on jewelry. If she saw me wearing a piece she didn’t recognize, she would have asked me about it and where I got it. And the last thing I wanted was for her to assume I was courting one of you because of the earrings. I know that it’s perfectly normal for friends to get each other jewelry, but with my aunt and me being her heir she tends to jump to conclusions. I figured the conversation would be awkward enough with you being my friends and her practically interrogating you with questions, so I left off the earrings so I didn’t have to explain those. Besides, if she thought I was interested in either of you she would have dragged you to the banquet to see which of you would be better suited for a future king.”

“If she tried that, I would still be flying to get away from her,” Nigel said. Oceania might be one of his closest friends, but he had no desire to be considered as a future husband for her.

Clearly, Ryu agreed. “That does make sense. But isn’t that a large gap to jump to, from a pair of earrings to future king.”

“True, and with any of her daughters or my other cousins she wouldn’t have assumed it. For real, her oldest daughter had to literally announce in the throne room that she was engaged before Aunt Mer even realized she was interested in someone. But with me, all it takes is one glance or conversation and she’s suddenly assessing whether he’s a worthy husband. My own mother doesn’t worry that much.”

“Trust me,” Turtle said, “you do not want to get caught under one of Aunt Mer’s future husband interrogation investigations.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Ryu said.

“So anyway, that’s how I ended up here and why I didn’t tell you.”

“Now that your aunt knows, is she going to force you to go back to the capital to study?” Nigel asked, fervently hoping the answer was no.

“No, she’s not. She’s not that crazy. She did drop a few hints, but after I explained that I love being here and how close we are as friends, she dropped it completely. She might try dropping by for a visit now that she knows I’m here, but I trust Mother to do her best to keep that from happening. My mother is in charge of scheduling visits, so she can easily fill Aunt’s schedule too full for a visit. But I am staying here.”

“Good,” Nigel said. “The water dragons can have their queen later. For now, we want our friend.”

“It’s good to be friends with you,” Oceania said as she embraced them. “And, for real, this doesn’t affect our friendship?”

“We see no reason why it should,” Ryu told her. “Your Highness,” he added jokingly.