Her Royal Highness

Alinas guard

Now with her history it makes perfect sense that Alina would require some extra protection. From the outside it's just a paranoid grandparent protecting his last living family member and heir. For Alina to have her own personal protection why it's the only reasonable scenario here.

But if you really get to thinking about it what threat did Alina have to her life. Her father was gone. And that was the only one real threat there ever was to her. But who are we but mear peasants compared the the almighty king himself. When he ordered a head to Alinas guard as she got older and more suitors came calling just to gaze upon her, well I guess it just made sense to everyone why the security around her needed to be solidified as impenetrable. And who better you ask to be head of her guard? Well look no farther than my knightly brother. Son of the head of the house royal guard. It just kind of made sense.

If I'm being honest the roles as head of the guard for the castle and Alina were looked at as more honorary. No true harm could ever come to them in the safety of their castle. Who would dare? But that made no difference to my father who couldn't have been more proud when his son was chosen for the job. And my dear beloved brother who now got to spend the majority of his day gazing upon Alina. The love of his life and the apple of his eye.

I cannot blame my brother for the love he had for my best friend. She was the most beautiful being anyone had ever set their eyes upon. If a man did not love her at first site his eyes were clearly no longer working. But I'll tell ypu what truly made my brother fall for her whole heartedly was not her looks, but her charm and her charisma. When Charles took his new position as head of her guard he made it his duty to oversee her every day. And why shouldn't he have? It was now his soul duty in life to protect her, and to show his seriousness and dedication to the role it just made sense. But the thing about Alina is she was more than just and idle beauty awaiting her marriage announcement whenever her grandfather decided he had found a suitable suitor.

She wanted to learn more than dancing and signing and to speak every language under the sun. So when she walked onto the trianing growns one morning and picked up a sword my brother could do nothing but laugh whole heartedly at her sincerity in the matter or learning to wield it. The other guards of course were completely baffled what she thought she was doing, and the other girls were just beside themselves begging her to put it down before she hurt herself. But there Alina stood tall and proud, she didn't waver, no uncertainty crossed her face, she just smiled and very calmly and quickly slashed thru the air at my brother.

The astonishment on his face when she made contact with his blade all but dissolved into a proud smirk when he saw how gracefully and naturally so moved with the sword. It made no sense to me however. Swords are long and solid steel and metal. They're heavy and it takes years of practice for the men to swing them so freely and precisely like they do in battle. So how was it Alina picked up the sword and with one arm moved so gracefully and precisely across the grounds like she'd been doing it all her life. Didn't her arm hurt? Didn't she want to cry from the unfamilair pain of such a heavy object pushing against her muscles as she swung it around? She was so delicate, so we all thought, but there she was in her natural splendor surprising us all. Making me laugh. Reminding us all how utterly invested in life she was. Never afraid. Always curious. And ever fearless.

Now when I say fearless I refer to the terror her grandfather strikes in us all. For you see it is wholly unexceptable for a proper young princess to be on the training ground swinging swords with sworn knights. So it came as no shock that word immediately got to her grandfather. And when I tell you the fear we all feel towards him is not unnatural this is one of the many reasons why...