The breakfast's mood was finally taking an uphill turn.

Well, until a foot was put to the door and a young man kicked it open with his full force.
The boom of the door hitting the wall was loud enough to make Fern jump and nearly fall out her chair.

"I'm finally here, fashionably late, fashionably fashionable and practically perfect." The man exclaimed, dropping down into the seat Queen Snow had said was for Cypress.

Fern couldn't help but stare. This must be Oak. Her husband.
She tried to form words but came up empty handed.
Fern was thankful to realize everyone else at the table was staring flabbergasted too.

"What are you doing?" Asked Queen Snow in her signature powerful but quiet tone.

"Well, your majesty- I was invited." He claimed.

Next to him, Fern saw Sage shrink down in his seat, wary to not make any eye contact with this madman. However, such things cannot be helped as the man leaned as far as he could in his seat and asked
"You want to be on the new -and improved- guard?"

Sage looked around as if the man could be talking to anyone else.
He pointed to himself and squeaked
"Me?"

"I don't even know who you are..." Sage whispered and the young man jumped up in his seat.

"Ah, I'm Cypress! General Cypress Junior!"
He held out his left hand, as if anyone would shake it.

The Queen looked downright offended as she leaned forward.
"You're Cypress' son?" She pointed a bony finger at him.

"Think of me as a newer, funner version of the dead one."
Cypress said, putting an arm around Sage who looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Are you even q-qualified to become a general?" Sage asked.

Cypress slammed his hand against the table as he whipped around to face Sage
"Qualifications don't matter! According to your Pa it's alllll in the blood!"

Everybody looked at Elm as subtly as they could for his response. He clearly saw everyone's eyes land on him and he grunted.

"Cypress...I should have you know the wine in this castle is forbidden to the staff."

Cypress laughed for what must have been the millionth time.

"Did you just call me drunk?" Before Elm could answer Cypress assured him
"Nah, I ain't. I just look on the positive side, you should try it."

'This man is clearly too chaotic and reckless to be our general.' Fern expected to hear, but nobody at the table had the guts to say such a thing to the king.

Fern wanted to, anything to knock him off that pedestal of his, but she didn't dare.

Elm knew, however, what everyone was thinking.
"Cypress The Second is in no way what his mother was, but his attitude isn't as important as his combat abilities. We'll have him fight against our best soldiers, that will test his qualification."

"However, because of the lack of new weaponry," Elm gave Sage a hateful glare,
"We lost many of our best in the last fire battle..."

"I volunteer!" Came an excited voice.
Everyone turned to see who had said it and Fern realized that it was her. She clamped her hands over her mouth but the words were already out.

"You?" King Elm and Queen Snow drawled in perfect unison. They were surprised, yes, but more angry.

Fern let out a sound like an 'eep' and stuttered
"I...ah...N-never mind..." as she tried to replicate the way Sage shrunk down in his chair.

Even though Snow was across the table when she met eyes with Fern it felt like she was holding her down, forcing her to answer.
"What could ever make you think you could fight Cypress' son? Is this a joke? A public display of your disrespect?"

"No!! It's just...I...the water general...taught me how to...to...defend myself and...I wanted to put it to the test..." Fern wished she had remembered her veil, if this was royal life she could easily understand why Tsunami wore one all the time.

Elm crossed his arms and waved a hand at Fern.
"Fine. If you think you can take out our general, why don't you go find out?" He hissed.

Fern was taken a back by this comment but she nodded in the most princess-like way she could.
"So I will."

Sage had his hands in a praying position when Fern looked to him. She would definitely do the same her next chance.

Cypress smiled a nearly face splitting grin that could only be described as dangerous.
There was a flame to it, which made Fern second guess her decision.
"Twelve O'Clock at the sparring field. I'll be waiting."

Fern gave a firm
"Yeah!"
(Even though she had no idea where that was.)
And excused herself.
"Thank you for breakfast..."

She thought about what she could say to bother King Elm as much as possible -because he couldn't do anything about it.
"Can I call you 'papa'?"

"No." Elm immediately responded.

Fern's eyes were on Sage and the silent pink haired girl, they looked stunned.

"Thanks pops." She waved and flashed a smile as she dipped through the door and into the hallway.

She had really hoped that Thorn and Carnation would be there, or at least one of them, but they weren't.

So Fern walked back up to her room, entirely alone.

A/N originally I had planned for Cypress Jr. to be like Sage fused with Ash from Harpy Gee, he wasn't general either. He was adorkable but didn't serve much purpose.

Making him general was a pretty impulsive choice. However, now he needed a personality reboot.
This time I decided to base him off of an amped up Hawks from My Hero Academia with a bit of Present Mic (MHA also) and Lance McClain (Voltron).

Take this chapter as proof that though it takes way longer than average I am physically capable of not writing about Thorn.