Unbeknownst to Igneous, who was completely passed out on his bed and snoring loudly, Ember, Spike's Second and Adviser walked inside his chambers.

In her claws was a large bucket of freezing cold water.

“Hey Ig.” Ember kicks the foot of the round bed hard enough to make it shift. “Get up, dude, you got work to do.” She grunted.

Igneous groaned but didn't nudge.

She smacked the side of his tail with hers. “Get up, you lazy sack.” Ember spoke again, this time in a warning tone.

When Igneous didn't wake up, Ember had enough, and took the bucket.

And dumps the contents all on his bed and on his head.

The cold shock and the amount startled the Prince and gasped loudly. Scrambled in his soaked sheets before ending up rolling off and hitting the floor.

Ember laughs. “Oh that never gets old, Kid.” She grinned.

Igneous pants and huffs, looking up at Ember with an intense look. “What the heck was that, Ember?! Seriously!” He sputtered. Looking more like a wet dog than a dragon.

“Oh quit it, I did it to you during your training days. Speaking of which.” She walked over to his wardrobe, dug through the clothes.

Even though it was common for dragons to walk around either completely nude or barely covered by thin cloths, unless they are from Dragon Town, the kids grew up how their parents were raised, which is them having more clothes. Ember dug deep into the clothes before finding a set of dark training leathers.

Leathers were typically worn on dragons who were going through training and were part of the Royal Guard. She turned and tossed them at him. “Put them on, you gotta eat and then we got work to do.”

Igneous snorted. “I'm not part of the Guard anymore,” he said as he tossed the leathers on the soaked bed.

“Don't care, your father's orders. For four hours, you will be going through physical training, get a thirty minute break before you begin your shift at the Library.” Ember explained, crossing her arms. “So for four hours, you're going to be my personal bitch.”

“Not going to happen, get out.” Igneous snarled, standing up. The blue dragoness dwarfing him like she always has.

Ember held her ground. “Not gonna happen. Kid, don't make this hard.”

“I'm not doing this. I can’t be here.” He walks to the on suite bathroom.

“And I'm not going to let you go even more nuts, especially what happened to Rachel.” She grunted.

Despite the two butting heads over the years since Rach was once human, Ember respects her greatly.

And knew she would hate how Iggy was acting.

Heck, Ember can't stand how the prince was acting.

Igneous stopped his momentum when Ember said that. He swallowed before grunted. “What happened to mom was not my fault.” He lied. “And I don't need a damn babysitter.”

He goes into the bathroom and quickly closes the door.

Igneous quickly washed up, did a quick shake to get the water droplets out. When he got the water off his fur, he did puff up.

A brief glance at the mirror, seeing that Iggy looked like a deranged, sick dog. Sunken dark eyes, thinner than he thought he had looked - lesser than dragon standards-, haven't taken really good care of himself the past years.

He grumbled to himself as he smoothed himself out before looking at the window.

His chambers were high above the ground. Large enough to squeeze himself through right above the toilet.

Igneous glances at the closed door before he hops on top of the lid of the tank and goes to sneak out.

However, when he goes to stick his head out, he is met with a barrier that causes him to be blasted backwards, getting flung into the wall.

Ember, on the other side of the bathroom, was in hysterics, laughing her tail off.

“Nice try, Kid. Now shake it off.” She snickered.

“Fuck….off…” Igneous groaned, rubbing his snout.

However, Igneous ended up leaving the bathroom. He glared at the older dragon before looking at the leathers. By now it was damp from the soaked bed.

“I need new ones. Those are soaked.”

“Not my problem. You have five minutes to get dressed, don't make me come back in here and make you.” She turned on her claws and headed out the room.

“You think you can just tell me what to do, Ember?” Igneous snarled as she left.

“I told you Ig, your dad's orders.” She turns to give him a toothy grin he knew all too well that trouble was brewing. “Like I said, you're my personal bitch.”

She closes the door casually, just misses him blowing fire at her but it hits the door.

After putting on the once fit but now loose, ill-fitted leathers soaked in some places, Igneous and Ember went to the dining hall where his siblings and brother-in-law were already eating.

They were eating an arrangement of breakfast items like waffles, cooked meats, fruits that looked and smelled incredible.

They were chatting away but stopped briefly when they saw their older brother finally came in.

There were glares before going back to talk to themselves.

Cinder did give him a nod of acknowledgement and Splinter waved.

“Morning, Iggy.” Splinter greeted.

“Hey,” Igneous muttered as he went to sit down next to Gorge who had a mountain of nothing but bacon for his large needs on a plate.

Gorge let out a grunt when he sat down and drank his large mug.

Flare was eating a fruit bowl with whipped cream on top, looking at him. “Wow, you look like absolute crap, it's a nice fit.” She mocked before popping a strawberry in her mouth.

“Says the shitty popstar.” Igneous retorted before going to grab himself a plate.

But Ember stopped him by sliding a bowl of wheat that looked like slop in front of him. “Excuse me?” He looked at her with wide eyes.

“Ig, you know the rules, those in training are to refrain from eating anything sweet, sugary and with carbs. The good stuff is earned at the end of the week. I won't tolerate you throwing up all over my training yard on your first day back.” Ember said, eating her own bowl of the same mixture.

“Ember, come the fuck on, I'm not some new recruit.” Igneous snarled, pushing the bowl a bit to the side.

“But it's for your own good. If you do well on your first day, I'll give you a tweet.” She spoke in a baby gushy mocking tone before slurping the rest. “Hurry up, we're already late.”

Igneous glared at her, his bowl and looked at Gorge. “I'll give you a handful of gems for some of that bacon.”

Gorge maliciously smirks as he picks up his mountain of a plate, raises high, opens his mouth wide and dumps the entire pile of delicious and savory bacon into his gullet.

Igneous watched mortified. Flare, Forge and Splinter couldn't help but snicker. Cinder sighed heavily at this.

Gorge licks the gristle and grease off the plate until it is sparkling and hands it to Igneous. “I work at the mines where I get gems every single day, why would I want yours?” He grins before standing up and stretches. “Heigh ho the way I go!” He deeply laughs before walking out.

Ember snorted at that.

Iggy groaned as the bowl of wheat was pushed back to him.

“I can already tell what a day this will be.” Igneous bitterly says before grabbing the spoon and began eating the bowl.

Author's Note

Heigh ho, Heigh ho, it's off to work they go