[b]"Certain am I that I have made the right choice in this most dubious of matters. The Princess, my lovely daughter, I believe she has a trust in you,as do I, Sir Irina."[/b]

Quiet was the knight as she knelt in full armor before the King, the steel now polished and reinforced by the crafty and magnificent hands of the royal blacksmiths, glimmering in the early morning sunlight pouring in from the grand and majestic windows of the royal throne room. Her longsword, now freshly sharpened, hung to her side in its ornate black and gold scabbard of polished cherry wood, speckles of light gleaming and sparkling off the shined brass hilt, and her helm rested at the side of her thigh and knee set upon the lavishly colorful rug that trailed almost endlessly down the length of the room until it reached the gargantuan gilded doors, decorated with ornate carvings, small cutouts that told in image the ancient history of this beautiful and prosperous Kingdom and the royal family who presided over it for almost thousands of years. Twas upon this glorious morning hour that Irina rose, gathered her armor and sword after they had been tended to carefully by the blacksmiths on the King's behalf, and made her way to the throne room so she and the King could have their appointed exchange of words, and the words exchanged definitely brought the brightest of smiles to the knight's face, almost beaming as bright as the sun upon her armor. And her heart, it was pulsing with such excitement, such joy. [b]And so...if I may borrow your blade for a moment, Sir Irina."[/b]

Irina nodded to the King and unsheathed her sword, offering the hilt to the elderly man who grasped it in his plump hand and gently tapped the blade upon Irina's pauldrons as he proclaimed, his voice deep with the utmost Kingly authority, [b]"By the power invested in me by the Love and Courage of the Goddess and of the Kingdom of Alegasia, I dub thee, Sir Irina, Royal Attendant and Protector to The Princess Crystal Belle. You may rise now, Sir Irina."[/b] Quite difficult though the knight found it to rise, for her legs were practically buckling at the overwhelming glee she felt this very moment, finally a King who accepted her, though not exactly as a knight mind you, as the King spoke earlier that would come whenever Irina had proven herself more to him, but this would do just nicely to the woman, as she was finally serving the Kingdom properly. Soon finding the strength to be on her feet, she kindly re-accepted her sword from the King and bowed graciously yet again, sheathing her weapon and smiling proudly, "You have my word, Your Majesty, I shall not fail you. It will be the greatest of honors to serve the Princess Crystal, and soon to serve the Kingdom of Alegasia as well."

[b]"Aye, splendid, brave knight!"[/b] The King replied happily clasping his hands together with an equally joyous smile. [b]"I have full faith in the Goddess you shall not disappoint either me or my daughter. Now then, get thee to The Princess and tell her the wonderful news. I have important matters I must discuss in private as well with my subjects soon. Best of luck to you, Sir Irina."[/b] Firmly his hand landed on her back as he chuckled heartily, [b]"And godspeed. Now, hie you make haste!"[/b] And with that joyous send-off, out the doors of the throne room went Irina and into the hallways of the castle, a bounce in her step sort of as she made her way to the Princess' chamber, expecting she was awake by now, but as she tarried down the halls, the weight of her armor not bothering her once, she apparently had caught the attention of two guardsmen. [i]"Oi now, what 'ave we 'ere, Pindel?"[/i] Irina heard one of the men croon as they approached her, just as she was turning heel on her sabatons to meet the two rather unscrupulous sounding characters with a bit of a confused expression, but a slight chuckle as she noticed their...appearance. One of the guards was rather fat and short statured with a scraggly grayish brown beard while the lad next to him was tall and indeed lanky, no beard but stubble about his narrow chin. [i]"I dunno, guvnor."[/i] The fat one, Irina believed to be named [i]Pindel[/i], chimed in, a bit of a mocking sneer to the woman. [i]"Looks like a woman in armor. Tell me, lass, did you make this outta yer kitchen pots?"[/i]

Soon from that biting comment followed laughter, jovial, jesting laughter that only made Irina sigh irritably and cross her arms over her chest with a deep scowl to the men. The thin bloke soon joined in on the fun in making sport of the knight, [i]"Aye Pindel, thems must certainly be some fancy kitchen pots to make this hunk of tin out of."[/i] Just to slight the woman, hiss tiny fist rapped on her cuirass with a few clanks. It was clear as day to the nefarious duo of imbeciles they were getting under Irina's skin as she huffed and curtly pushed aside the lanky guard's hand from her armor. "And just who do you think you are to judge a woman for wearing armor, hmm?" She retorted, her scowl slitting her ice cold eyes into frozen daggers of dismay. "Funny to me, you're not wearing any, but...." Then her scowl became a smirk, a sly and devious one to equal the malice of the two, "It must be quite the challenge for the Royal Blacksmiths to fit for armor a yammering potato and his sidekick the bumbling leek."

[i]"What?! Why you li'l wench you?!"[/i] That certainly riled them up, at least the skinny one, as he was ready to pounce on Irina and possibly teach her a lesson she'd never forget in insulting others, had it not been of course for his buddy the potato holding him back. [i]"Damn!"[/i] The fat one chortled, effortlessly pushing his lanky sidekick aside. [i]"This one's sure got the tongue on her, eh lad? Sorry for the rudeness, lass. We forgot to introduce ourselves. I am Pindel, Royal Guardsmen of His Majesty The King, and uh...this is..."[/i]

[i]"Spaghetti!"[/i] the thin one chimed happily, but soon his head was met with a most heinous of thwacks from Pindel's leather gloved hand. [i]"Ouch!!"[/i]

[i]"Versetti! Not spaghetti you twit! What, you're such an idiot that you forgot your name already?![/i] Growled the fat Pindel to lanky Versetti, who replied squeakily, painfully rubbing his burning hot cheek, the impact point of his plump comrade's hardened attack. [i]"I can't help it, Pindel! I was dropped on me head as a wee lad by me mum!"[/i]

[i]"Aye and probably out a window too."[/i] Pindel gruffly remarked with all cynicism due, leading to Versetti's retort of, [i]"You take that back!"[/i]

And all while the two argued amongst themselves rather humorously, a war of insults being hurled back and forth between the guardsmen, Irina carefully slipped away unnoticed and continued on her way to the Princess' chamber. My....weren't those two quite the eclectic cards....

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Stepping into Crystal's abode, the knight soon took a knee, just as she would before the King, and smiled with a welcoming expression to the Princess, indeed looking just as wonderful as before. "Good Morning, M'lady." Irina said to her. "I see that you are well rested." Perhaps Irina would wait till later to to elaborate upon Crystal the news, that of Irina...being her newly appointed attendant.