Choose wisely
Elsa was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable actually, but Anna didn´t want to listen to her. To be honest, Anna pretty much never listened to her, but still, this was something entirely different. Her advisors, too, thought it to be a good idea, a good opportunity to show herself in public and strengthen the positive image of her that they were trying to establish as soon as the "early winter" had stopped. So now here she was, sitting next to Anna on the platform and watched a young man being thrown against the wooden fence of the little arena. The reason behind this was that Anna and all the advisors had in unity decided upon her getting a personal guard, and before she could have said no, Anna had already announced a public competition in the courtyard of the castle, in which everyone could participate. The winner would get a 14/7 job and only mediocre pay, but obviously especially Arendelle´s younger men were oblivious to that. So far, two people had mastered the course that she had created. The task was to knock off the guards, get around the giant snowman that Olaf had named Marshmallow and climb on top of a small ice tower to obtain a frozen mistletoe. The last few attempts hadn´t really been promising and Elsa guessed that it was not going to get better after another hour, but Anna insisted on three finalists. The queen thought herself right when the next young man entered. He was about eighteen, with tanned skin and dark blond hair that needed to be cut. He was tall, broad shouldered and dressed like your ordinary Arendelle citizen. She didn´t know what had him thinking he should take part in this competition after navy and army officers failed, just like sons of rich merchants or members of the gentry. He bowed into her direction and seemed to prepare himself for what was coming. It was three guards approaching him from three different sides. She just now realised the boy didn´t carry any kind of weapon with him, not even something to defend himself with. The first guard tried to put a stride, but the boy just sidestepped him and the guard fell to the ground. The two other guards now slowly paced toward him, and they were clever enough to prevent any possibility for evading. The boy hesitated for a second and then took to his heels. Some people in the crowd yelled angrily. But the boy wasn´t running from the guards, specifically, he was running to something else. A spear, crossbow and crossbow bolts, as well as two ropes were leaned against the fence. The next part seemed to be easy. He took the spear to defend himself and knocked the guards down one by one. He then tied their feet together with one of the ropes. Next was the giant snowman, whom the boy now carefully approached. His trick was again quite simple but effective. He shot one of the bolts with one end of the second rope at Marshmallow, tied the other one to the fence and shot another few to get the snowman angry and all tangled up in the rope mess so he couldn´t move. "Really creative, that one, don´t you think?" Anna whispered. The youngster now aimed at the tower. He shot six bolts into the wall beneath the first platform and started to climb up. He then took the two last crossbow bolts, pushed them into the wall in front of him at circa speaking half a meters height, grabbed two others with his hands and climbed up. Well, actually once he stood on the bolts with his feet, he just had to pull himself up to the second platform, get to his feet and take the mistletoe. The ordinary boy who didn´t stand a chance did it. He jumped down to the first platform, then the ground and came toward them. He handed the mistletoe to a servant and bowed again with a huge smile. He was already leaving when Anna shouted: "Hey, wait! You´ve got to tell us your name!" "I´m sorry, I didn´t know. The name´s Robin Johanson, at your service." Now it was Elsa´s turn to speak up. "Mr Johanson, you have earned yourself a place among the three finalists of this competition and are therefore scheduled to return to the palace tomorrow morning for a meeting with myself and your two competitors." "Yes, of course, your majesty." He nodded at them and left the arena. Now Karlson, the royal butler, came forth and declared the competition to be over.
Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, who was of course sitting next to the princess, stood up, winked and then walked down the stairs to enter the palace. "This was sooo great, I think we should do this more often!" Anna declared. "Oh, oh, I got it! We are going to arrange a tournament for Elsa´s birthday! Or for my birthday!" "No!" Elsa objected intensely. "No tournaments! No big public parties! I thought we had agreed on that, Anna." Anna rolled her eyes. "Anna!" "Alright, I will never plan a giant, super fun surprise for you, ever." Elsa was about to continue the quarrel when Kristoff prevented the sisters fight to escalate. "So, Elsa, do you think your three finalists are qualified for the job, or was this just totally useless?" "Well," the queen began. "I haven´t really thought about it. What do you think?" "Well, that lordling looked a bit too smug for my liking, this officer guy seemed overly serious and the boy, well, he pulled of a good show and all, but how good is he in real life, and is he well-behaved enough to live in the palace?" "Aw, come on, it´s not like you were born into royalty, my dear boyfriend" Anna threw in. "Come on yourself, Anna, I was raised by trolls, I had a job and a family." "Maybe he has no family because of some tragic incident that happened to him when he was younger!" "Really? You seriously read to many books Anna!" "I´m going to go to my chambers now, if you will excuse me", Elsa said and took a different hallway then the others without them even noticing. She was tempted to go straight to bed, but Anna would surely miss her at dinner and would tomorrow go on about how she wasn´t eating enough.
Elsa waited for her guests´ arrival in the entrance hall where Anna and Kristoff soon joined her. The first one to arrive was the army officer, naturally wearing his green uniform. He was tall, broad shouldered, had dark hair, tanned skin and serious looking grey eyes. "Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Mr Royal Ice Master." He took of his headpiece and nodded to them. He then placed himself somewhere a little off to the side and stayed silent. The next one to come was the boy, wearing a white shirt, brown trousers, boots and vest with green decorations. He bowed, lower in front of Elsa than the others, and said: "Your majesties." He too strolled off to the side and waited for the aristocrat. He entered the palace about ten minutes late and gave a somewhat excusing smile. Elsa was blinded by his bright orange clothing and Anna snickered quietly. "I´m sorry for the delay, but my horse made some problems and I had to organise another." Anna pulled out a parchment and a quill. "What are you doing there, Princess Anna, if I might ask?" He looked curious. "I note the first minus point for you. What if you have horse problems when my sister is in great danger, huh?" The lordling seemed baffled, the officer raised an eyebrow and the young boy smirked. "Actually, there was a change made to the original plan. It was decided that Princess Anna is more in need for a personal guard than I am, so you are now competiting to become her guard. Good luck."
"So, what do you think?" Elsa asked when she, Anna and Kristoff met to make a decision. "Well, I obviously don´t want this Alvarr guy to be my guard, I couldn´t stand having him around twenty four hours a day, I would surely be tempted to murder the stupid, arrogant, smug little brat", Anna explained. "What about Nils Anderson?" Kristoff asked. "I like him best, he has a family, though", Elsa stated. "I don´t see how that´s relevant, sorry." "He has two little children who can´t spent time with their father when he is busy guarding Anna the whole day. I don´t want to do that to a family." "Yeah, and besides that, he´s so deadly serious, I mean, does he even know how to laugh?" was Anna´s comment. "I don´t see how that´s relevant, either." "Well, it´s Robin Johanson, then. I have to admit, he does not seem like the perfect guard, but he is a very nice and sympathetic young boy." "Would you not say that, Elsa? You make it sound like he was ten or something, but he is pretty much my age", Anna demanded. "And I congratulate myself, my new guard is not only highly qualified but also not unpleasant to look at, not to forget funny, polite and respectful. I mean, the guy treated me just like the princess I am." Elsa and Kristoff shared confused looks. "Alright, what I meant with that is, that Alvarr jerk, I just now realise, he even has the name of a jerk, well, he just tried to impress and influence me and stuff, and this Nils, aka Mr Grumpyface, was all business and stuff, he didn´t even look at me or talk to me or something", Anna explained. "So Robin talked to you and was polite and didn´t look grumpy, and that tells you he is a thoughtful, attentive, sensitive person?" "I didn´t say that, but yeah", Anna replied as if that was totally obvious. "And he´s handsome." Elsa rolled her eyes and Kristoff looked kind of grumpy.
Robin was sworn in right the next morning, after he had been given a call that he did get the job. But before the ceremony he had a makeover done by the palace maids so that he would look presentable. He had his hair cut, took a warm bath and was then given a brand new uniform which he would exclusively wear. It was a shirt, tight green trousers, brown boots and gloves, a dark green belt and uniform jacket. The young man was really nervous now that he was about to be sworn in in front of the queen, her family, her advisors and some staff members. "Good luck", Gerda told him and then shoved him into the throne room. He passed the people standing on both sides of the room, knelt down in front of the queen and spoke his vows. "I swear to her majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, that I will protect her sister, Princess Anna, from anything or anyone intending to do her any harm in whatever way possible, I pledge that I will always come to her aid if she needs protection, that I will be her loyal guardian who keeps her safe, who defends her life with his own, from now on until I am no longer needed." He looked up and smiled. "I accept your vows and your service. Now, stand up", Elsa demanded. He stood up and Princess Anna gave a bronze badge in shape of a flower to the Queen, who pinned it to his uniform jacket.