Fractured

“First day on your shift and you're already late, serious Ig?” Cinder grumbled.

The two brothers were at the entrance level of the Library. Sitting at one of the many tables.

Many of the other workers, both dragon and Mordi, were working on their sections. The Mordi were once humans gifted by dragon magic eons ago. The Queen's army. But during the War against Sombra, a lot of the Mordi crossed over from Earth, taking on their equestrian forms. Their mane and tails move like flames, some horns, having scales more than fur. The males had the moving flames on their hooves while the females didn't.

“If this was a regular job, you'd get fired.” Cinder continues.

Iggy was leaning back on a chair, his feet on the table relaxed. “I'm here aren't I?”

Cinder gave him a small zap of electricity. Enough charge to get his brother's feet off of it.

“Other creatures read and do paperwork here,” Cinder grunted.

Iggy rubbed where he got zapped. “Okay, message received. Also, why is the Library opened after there was an attack?” He gestures to a couple of civilians going through the shelves of books.

Cinder sighed. “It's my call. Crow's Talon doesn't go after civilians, so the Library is open, with a few more guards. Speaking of which,”

He pulls a cart full of returned books. “Your job is to take these and put them in the right spots. There is a small service lift you can use to go between levels.” He motions to the lift next to the spiral staircases.

“Oh good, I don't have to drag this up the stairs.” Igneous said, looking at the stack. No doubt heavy to carry by weight and fly up the numerous levels.

“With how late you are, I should make you.” Cinder muttered. “If you're late again, you're not gonna like me very well. Now, let's hope you have some brain cells left and put them up. It's not that hard.”

Igneous sighed heavily, getting up from his seat and getting to the cart. He looked at them for a moment before looking back at his brother. “Sooo, are any of these books going to your and Splinter's secret sex spot?” He joked with a smirk.

Cinder just gave him a good shock right on the ass that got him moving with a laugh.

Cinder watches him run before taking off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Just who is this asshole inside my brother's body?”

A part of him wishes it was a changeling pulling their chains.

Igneous goes and does what he had believed was the most boring thing he had done in awhile. Going on multiple levels throughout the Library many times. If he couldn't find a ladder to climb the high bookshelves, he'd fly up and down.

So when he got to the last book, he was relieved to be done.

Iggy quickly goes to find Cinder at the reception desk, checking out a family's books.

“Hey there bro. So the job is done like you said, so I'm just gonna clock out, bye!” Igneous goes to leave.

Cinder snapped his claws, used his magic, a mop and a rolling soapy bucket appeared before Igneous.

His eyes widened. “What?”

“Some kid threw up in the children's section, I need you to clean it up. Might as well clean up the messes they made.” Cinder said, not bothered by how bewildered he looked. “You only worked for an hour, you got three more hours left.”

The family was watching the two.

Iggy bites his tongue before grabbing the mop and bucket and rolls off.

When he got to the kids section, Igneous stiffened.

Knowing how much menaces baby dragons are, especially with infants, they will tear up everything they get their claws on.

The children were screaming, fighting, bursts of fire blowing. Granted the majority of everything, books, toys, were all dragon fire proof, so was the bright and colorful decorated walls.

Igneous remembers how all of his younger siblings were that age. The stories heard about himself over the years.

He was briefly reminded of an infamous moment he was told constantly, of him eating his parents' wedding rings during the ceremony of their wedding. There were pictures where he saw himself having a ribbon sticking out of his mouth and holding a pillow, he was supposed to be the ring barrer, he became the ring eater.

Igneous jumped when he heard something crashed in the section, he slowly put the mop and bucket to the side. He slowly walks away from the many raging babies.

“I'll get that later.” He tells himself as he goes to find something else to either do or go find himself a spot to take a nap.

As he went to the stairs, he noticed something quite…weird.

At the foot of the stairs leading down to the Royals section, there was a rope with a sign that says no access and restricted sections, there was this strange red device.

Curiously, he walked over to it and picked it up. At first glance he thought they were earphones with one earpiece, but he realizes quite quickly that it was some sort of magnet. The piece that goes over an ear was modified to fit a creature, not a human.

He looked more until he saw an etching on the magnet. Jet's Ears.

“Jet’s Ears? Wait, is this a cochlear piece?” Igneous asked himself. He heard about these things, it was designed to help deaf beings hear a little. He never really saw it in person but he had heard of it before.

Igneous pockets the piece before he goes over the rope and goes down the spiral stairs.

The farther he goes down, the less light source he has to see.

He ended up grabbing a torch and used it to see.

His claws were slightly shaking, he never liked going down there. It brought a sense of fear to him.

“Hello?” Igneous asked, his voice shook before clearing his throat. “Hello, is anyone here?” He asked again but in his normal voice.

The bottom nine levels had more of the royal secrets and many lore the public are not allowed to know. Some of the texts were so old they were still scrolls. Some books were chained.

Everything about the bottom level is off limits and has an ominous feel to it.

It took him a couple of levels before he heard what sounds like a group of kids, all of them dragons.

When he turns the corner, he sees light sources from their phones shining. What looked like four boys were kneeling in front of a hole in the wall, they were laughing.

And what sounds like mocking sounds.

“Ooh look at me, look at my hands.” One of the boys mocked. They were waving their hands.

“What a little freak he is.” Another laughed.

“Aw, you gonna cry, freak?”

“HEY!” Igneous shouted.

The four boys screamed in fright, fallen and tripped over themselves as they grabbed their phones and bolts.

Igneous took off after them but all of them had split up, gave him a runaround before hearing them running up the stairs.

“Little shits.” He grumbled to himself, kicking himself in the ass for having four kids outrunning him.

Holding his sides he huffed. “Maybe Ember's right about me letting myself go.”

Sounds of moaning and whimpering caught his ears.

Igneous sighed, following the source of the sound back to where those punks were at. He goes to the hole, trying to shine a light in. “Hello?”

He saw a black mass inside it. Hearing it continue to make sounds.

Now realizing they were crying.

“Hey, hey kid, are you alright?” He asked. “The others are gone, you're not supposed to be in here.”

It continued to sob without responding.

“Kid.” He spoke louder but again the creature was still not responding.

Igneous was about to get frustrated but remembers the piece in his pockets. He pulls the torch back, having his tail hold it before digging into his leather pants and pulling out the cochlear piece.

He quickly read the etching again before taking the piece and reached his hand into the hole. Pushing it as far as he could into the piece bumped into it.

Finally he got it to move, it moved its arms to reveal a completely black dragon. The whites of his eyes and teeth were the only things Igneous could see that were of color at the moment.

Igneous waved at him and then pointed at the piece.

The kid looked at him before seeing the piece. He grabs it and attaches it to his head.

Igneous quickly thinks of his past learning. Remembering some sign language he and his siblings went through when they were still babies.

When having a bunch of double scepter infants who were smarter than average baby dragons, mom and dad had begun to teach them to sign to talk.

Granted it had been sixty years since he last signed to the twins.

What could possibly go wrong?

“Hi…kid, you need to come out.” Igneous both spoke and attempted to sign.

He hoped he signed correctly and not accidentally hurt the kid's feelings.

The kid nodded and began to crawl forward to him.

Igneous help him come out of the hole. When he picked the kid up, he was wearing clothes, Jean shorts and a graphic red tee of a loaf of bread with a cute facial expression. Unlike the other kids who looked like they were ten, this kid was younger.

When he puts him down, the kid smooths his clothes before he starts signing and speaking. He spoke not very well but his hands were fluid. “Thank you.”

Igneous kneels to him. “Are you okay?” He asks him. Still not very confident with how well he was signing.

The kid nodded with a sniffle, rubbing his nose with his arms. “Those guys are jerks.”

Igneous let out a chuckle. “Yeah, they were. Is your name Jet?” He asks.

Jet nodded.

“That's a cool name, Jet. My name is Igneous.” Igneous introduced himself. “Where are your parents? Who are you with?”

Jet starts to mumble and his hands signing was going too fast for Igneous to comprehend.

“Hey Jet,” Iggy taps the kid's shoulder to get him to stop. “I'm a little…rusty with signing. You're going too fast.”

Jet digs into his pockets then, pulls out a notepad and pencil and starts scribbling.

“Oh wow, resourceful.” Igneous compliments as Jet wrote down what he was saying and showed it to Iggy.

I'm here with my Aunt. I snuck away to play with the kids…you know how that ends.

Iggy nodded. “Okay, let's get you back to your aunt. These levels are off limits to little boys like you. Need me to help?”

Jet nodded, signing thanks again before grabbing Iggy's hand.

Igneous sighed before helping the little boy out. When it came to climbing up several levels of stairs, the Prince had asked and was granted permission to pick up Jet and carry him up all the way to the main level.

Finally being surrounded by bright lights, Igneous puts the kid down. “Okay, Jet, let's go find your Aunt.”

“Jet!”

Well that was fast.

Iggy and Jet turned to see Cinder and a dragoness wearing a sundress running over.

Igneous suddenly froze. His heart starts to thump in his chest hard, his wings flung open in interest as he stared at this particular dragoness.

Her scales were mainly pink with a red undercarriage, the bluest pair of eyes he had ever seen. She had a frill headpiece and he saw pictures of dinosaurs and horns growing behind it. She wore a floral pattern sundress.

And he recognized who this beautiful dragoness was.

The dragoness got on her knees to Jet’s level. “Jet, what did I say about sneaking off, are you okay?” She spoke and signed fluently.

Jet nodded. “I'm okay. This guy helped me.” he gestured to Iggy who looked like was glitching.

More like his mind was buffering.

Cinder tried to get Igneous's attention to control his wings but words could not compute.

The dragoness looks up. She tilts her head looking at him before gasping. “Iggy?” She calls his name.

That seemed to have rebooted the prince and he quickly snaps back to existence. “Ivory! Hey there!” He had a big smile on his face.

Ivory stood, him standing a foot taller than her. “Oh my god, Iggy, it's been ages, how are you?” She asks him.

“i-I’ve been good..wow you look incredible.” Iggy said. Was completely shocked to see her again.

Ivory giggled. “Why thank you, you look well. Gosh we haven't seen each other since we were little kids.”

“It's been decades.” Iggy smoothed his fur out as he spoke. Feeling his palms were getting sweaty.

“Thank you for finding Jet. He's a little Houdini and likes to hide.” Ivory said.

“Oh its no problem.” Igneous said then signed to Jet that they were good.

“Oh you sign?” Ivory asked, sounding impressed.

“We all know how to sign in some way.” Cinder said.

“But there's more I can do with my hands that I can show you, Ivory.” The second Igneous just blurted that, he wanted to go crawl in a hole and die from sheer embarrassment. He faced palms with a groan. “Oh that was bad…” Cinder facepalms as well.

“Uh yeah…” Ivory spoke rather uncomfortably. “Thanks for helping my nephew out.” She grabs Jet’s hand. “Let's get your book and go, say bye.”

“Bye! Good luck with dying from what you said.” Jet laughs before the two walk away from the royal brothers.

Cinder steps closer. “Ig…” he started when the two were alone.

“Don't…” Iggy groaned. “I'm gonna go die now.”

“Go die after cleaning up the kid section. There's more I can do with my hands that I can show you, Ivory? Igneous! That was just bad.”

“That was so fucking bad…. When did Ivory come back?” He asked Cinder.

“She came back to Dragon's Lair three years ago with her nephew. They come to the library often.”

Igneous hummed at that and looked at the direction Ivory and Jet went.

He could just see the two at the reception desk, the two checking books out.

He watched Ivory walk away, it was in slow motion to him.

Time quickly came back when the mop and bucket was bumped into him, reminding him that he was still on the clock.