7 The Four Elites

Queen Lucia had to make a tough decision. With Robert gone who could she trust to protect her royal secret. Among her 500 elite guards she needed the best of the best. She decided to hold a competition among her guards to see what they specialize in. She divided the guards into fighters, hunters, strategist and medic.

To test the fighters she broke them up into 6 groups of 50. They were given wooden swords but only the last person standing from each group would be selected. It took 3 days before the six girls were selected. Among the six she reviewed their appearances, reputation and romantic preferences. Before pitching them against each other again to reduce their numbers to three. The remaining 3 were told a false secret. Then they were tortured to see who would last the longest. From being stretched to watering boarding. These girls were good. But after day 3 only one survived with out giving up. The queen thanked the other two and gave them promotion for evening getting this far. in addition, she treated them to a lot of booze. The first guard selected was Elizabeth. She had long red hair and an extremely lean build. She was incredibly flat chested. She had a particular strong romantic preference to females over males.

To tested the Hunters the queen held a scavenger hunt. She had hid 2 owls in two extremely odd locations. She divided the 75 hunters into two groups to see who would fetch the owls. Some hunters worked in a groups while some worked alone. The first owl was found suspended over a waterfall. This particular hunter acted alone. While the other owl was found at the top of a tall tree. Three hunters found that one. Among the three they had to pick one. The three talked for a few hours before picking one individual. The finally test between the two women was to hunt an outlaw male. The first hunter was quiet quick and swift. The other hunter was more social and left a memorable trail. Appearance, reputation and romantic preferences came into play. Between the two the Queen picked the first hunter. Her name was Bethany. She had short wild blonde hair. She was very muscular towering at 6'2". She had no romantic preference. The other hunter was promoted and rewards with a new crossbow.

The Queens next task was to find a strategist.

To test the strategist they were pair into teams of 5 to war against each other. There were 5 teams labeled A through E. Each person was assigned by a number to formulate the teams. The team that sat out the first round was chosen at random. Team A lost to Team C as lack of teamwork was their demise. Team B won against Team E due to speed. Team C won against Team D due to team work. Team C won against Team B due to speed. Team C was tired but was only given ten hours to relax before going against each other. Among the 5 one individual dominated all the team members. Her Name was Talika. She had half her head shaved and worn a few braids. She was a bit more hairy then the rest of the girls. But she has the laughter that could rumble the leaves off a tree. she was quick and sharp. The rest of her team members were promoted to avoid suspicion of what the queen was planning. The king was curious though of why his wife was suddenly promoting these warriors rather quickly. However, he was afraid to ask for she may have had war on her mind again for the expansion of their territory. War equaled money and he had just only started teaching Ethan the basics of how the western kingdom did their trading.

The queen was happy as her search was coming to an end. She was worried that Princess Aviva might not last a few more days. Every report she received stated that she was getting paler and her eyes were becoming more vacant. The last test was first a good medic. The 35 medics had a 3-part challenge. The first challenge was herb picking. The second was Medicine making and the last was treating patients. The leading doctors took notes on the first two challenges but the third one mattered the most. Since they were all tasked with treating the same illness the rate of the recovery would determine if they stayed. Among the 35 medics only 2 medics were bold enough to treat the male patients while the rest preferred to work with female patients. By the end of the third part of the trial, Even though 4 medics healed the females clients the fastest the queen only focused on the two that healed the men. Even with the strict rules of the western kingdom the queen was looking for a medic that felt that everyone needed treatment regardless of gender. Between the two one medic failed to treat the male client due to lack of experience. While the other healed him completely. The queen promoted the 4 medics based on their speed. But she gave the medic that healed the male a higher promotion. As for the medic that failed the queen took into consideration of her skills and asked her to received additional training before adding her the Princesses Aviva's personal guard. The decision was based on preference and skill. The queen was still on the fence about killing her son. She felt divided in wanting to protect him and killing him. The medic was called Lilac. Her hair was dark as a raven but her voice was deep. A bit on the raspy side for she smoked alot of tobacco with a pipe. She had the biggest chest among the group and a lot of experience with men. She enjoyed visiting the brothels. For they were filled mostly with men and young boys. One day if Princess Aviva learned the truth, she wouldn't be completely hopeless.