For the last two hundred years the knights order have protocted the land of Arendale from all manner of evil creatures. Frome terrfying fire breathing dragons to power hungry sorceres that tried to enslave towns and villiages. And for the better part of ten years Anna has been training as a squire to one day be a knight and join their order. When she'd first joined them at the age of eight she was nothing but a hungry orphan that wanted a place to sleep and food in her belly, but after a few months of watching the knights train and seeing how they were like a big family she decided she was not only going to become a kinght but become one of the bravest knights of all time. But because she didn't come from nobility or have recommendation from a top ranking knight she had to join the hard way. Which meant ten years serving as a squire to one of the knights.

And as she quickly discovered a squrie was nothing more then a knights servant, cleaning their armor, fetching their meals, whatever they asked she was forced to do. But among the group of squires she was in she got lucky and got an unsually kind female knight to serve. Anna alwalys admired her long black hair and scars along her arms. She'd always told her that her scars represented the victories she'd had and reminders of her mistakes.

Knight Freya wasn't the nicest person in the world but she treated Anna more like a younger sister then a servant at least most of the time. While the other knights would tell their squires that they'd only become knights if they worked through their pain and obyed orders without question Freya would teach Anna how to properly swing a sword and regall her with her tales of the creatures shes killed. But there were also times when Freya would work Anna to the bone. Such as the time she left a twelve year old Anna on a small island with nothing but a knife and told her to surrive for two weeks.

Throught all of this Anna never gave up on her dreams. She would become a knight and she'd finally have everything she ever wanted. As the years went by the number of squires dropped as more and more of them decided that they'd had enough torment. By the time she was fifteen the number of squires had dropped from twenty to just seven. Among the seven Anna was only friends with one of them. A young man named Hans, although Hans had come from a noble family he'd choose to serve as a squre instead of directly becoming a knight. When she asked him why he choose that he'd only said that he wished to prove his own worth instead of using his family's name. They way he spoke made it clear that there were issues with his family but she'd never pressed him for details. The knight he served was pretty famous, what with him being one of the few knights to surrive the attack by the black dragon. From how the stories went one night nearly two decades ago a giant black dragon had descended on a knight fortress in the mountains and killed nearly everyone. The surrving knights barely mananged to drive it off by taking out one of it's eyes but it still mananged to burn the fortress to ruins before fleeing into the skies. Nobody has seen it since but to this day the knights still keep watch.

So for Hans to be his squire meant that nearly every day he was taught how to defend agaisnt such creatures and their weakness. Over the years they'd become friends and helped each other with their training for they knew that among the five remaining squires only three would become knights. There was only one thing that worreid them and his name was Rannis. Of all the squires he was by far the biggest and aggressive. Nearly twice the size of everyone else with half the intelligence was was known for his temper, there were already rumors that three squires had left due to the injuries he inflicted upon them. He'd made it clear that he would become a knight and he'd crush everyone and everything that got in his way.

Despite this Anna still trained whenever she got the chance with her weapon of choice the scimitar. At first she'd trained with a longsword but it didn't suit her fighting style. Freaya had seen this one day and given her the weapon from the armory saying that it would work better for her. She'd become accoustomed to it remarkably quickly and enjoyed the slightly exotic look to it. It was tradtion that upon attaining the rank of knight the castle blacksmith would fashion you any weapon you wished and she long ago decided that not only would she have a scimitar made but she'd have the training scimitar melted down and reforged into her new blade.

Now after ten years of waiting she was finally able to take the test to become a proper knight. Once she woke up and got dressed she quickly descened the stairs to start work on breakfast for her and Freya as was her duty.

"Today's the day Anna. After ten years of wating all you have to do is pass the three challanges and you'll be a knight. No more shield polishing, no more running arrends and certanitly no more pretending to listen to her stories."

"Pretending? And here I thought you truely enjoyed our precious story time." Freya said appearing out of knowere slightly sweaty from her morning training routine. As she said down at the table she sat her trusty halberd against the table.

"Don't get me wrong Freya I truely enjoyed your stories the first dozen or so times you told them, but at this point I could recite all of them word for word."

"Oh and what about the time I was hunting a dangerous werewolf?"

"You spent three days and knights following the trail of dead sheep untill you finally found it's den in a old mining shaft. Then you covered your body in wolfs bane to hide your scent and snuck your way into the cave where you fount it sleeping off it's kill. After getting close you poked it with your halbared to wake it up. The moment it lifted it's head you cut if off whith one swing." she recited seeing the look of joy on Freya's face hearing her story once more.

"But was that the end?"

"No because the werewolf wasn't alone there was another and it attacked you right as you left the cave. It tackled you down the hill but as you fell you mananged to pull out your knife and plunge it into it's heart killing it."

"Very good Anna now tell me have you prepared for the test?"

"It's kind of hard to prepare for a test when you don't know what it entails."

"Yes well that's part of being a knight. Somtimes you don't have all the details. Just remember your training and the knights code and you should pass easily."

After enjoying their meal Anna prepared as best she could and made her way to the main hall where all the squires and knights had gathered. At the main table stood the eldest knights as well as the knight commander. Despite his age he was still a master swordsmen and was even respected among his enemies. Once everyone was gathered he stood up and began to speak.

"Attention everyone as you might now we have a new crop of promishing squires that will attempt to attain the rank of knight and join our order. But of course first they must prove themselves by passing the tests of skill, intellect and valor. I wish you luck young squires."

As he sat down Orthern the battlemaster stood up. "You heard the knight commander, first test you need to pass is the test of skill. If you think you have what it takes then meet in the training grounds in one hour."

Not wanting to be late Anna hurridly to the training grounds and began to think. As she did so Hans made his way toward her his longsword hanging on his belt.

"So todays the day Anna. After years of training and torment we'll finally become knights."

"Yeah but only three of us."

"Oh come on Anna we both know that with the amount of trainning you've had your sure to become a knight."

"And what about you?"

"Me? well I may have trouble with the test of skill but as for intellect I should pass. I've read more of their books and listened to their tales more times then I can count. But as for valor we'll have to see how that unfolds."

She couldn't help but laugh. Han's always seemed to make light of even the worst situations. The passed the time wating by telling stories of the worst parts of their training. But the time Han's got through thelling how he'd to be bait for a sea serpent Orthern and the other squires began showing up.

"Alright everyone for the test of skill I'll pair you up and you'll have to best your oppenent in combat. But don't kill them! Force them to yeild or knock them out, you kill them you'r banned." he made his point by looking at Rannis who only smiled. "Alright funnly guy your first with squire Smith."

They took their places in the arena and Rannis picked up his two handed mace. It was a weapon that suited his brute strength nicely. As the match began Smith tried to keep to his defense with his sword and shield but after only a few swings of his mace Rannis had knocked his sword out of his grip and forced him to his knees as he hammared away on his shield. As Rannis brought his mace up for another strike Smith surrendred.

Rannis laughed and exitced the arena stating how easy it was. After a few more matches it was Anna's turn agaisnt the only other female squire Ren.

Anna unsheathed her sword and Ren raised her spear and lunged foward, but Anna quickly rolled to the side and slashed at her feet. Ren jumped back and tried to smack her with the spear but Anna deflected it and rushed fowared slamming her hilt into her stomach. She dropped the spear and Anna reachted by quickly raising the blade to her throat.

"I yield" she said still clutching her stomach.

With a smile Anna helped her up and walked over to the standes just as Hans entered the arena and unsheathed his sword. His match was by far the quickest as his oppened rushed foward with his war axe and tried to slice at Han's throat. But he mearly side stepped and smacked his hilt on his head knocking him out in seconds.

When the matches were over five victors and four losers. There would have been a final match for the reminder but upon seeing who he would fight he gave up and left.

"Alright you lot you proved you know how to fight, but the next test will be far more challanging. Report to the dungones for your test of intellect."

At the mention of the dungerons Hans and Anna grew nervous. For down in the dungons is where the knights housed the magical creatures. One by one they descended the stairs and down the dark passages untill they marched inside the massive cage filled dungons. Below them were the beast pens where most magicl creatures were held and often killed. But from their level they could hear the very creatures howling in rage and thrashing about in their cages.

"Alright eveyone as you know knights deal with magical creatures either by captureing them or killing them. Each one of you will have to subdue once such creature and prove you have a brain to back up your skills. Squre Anna your first up." She gulped and walked down into the beast pens and waited for whatever beast to come up.

She heard the sounds of gears moving and saw as one of the large wooden doors were lifted up. Anna raised her sword and began thiking about which creature it was and how to defeat it. As the door finnaly rose up a large green lizard with spikey scales and angry red eys shot out and roared. It might not have been a dragon but for Anna it was close enough.

Is that a drake! How long has this been down here! she thought as it charged at her. The drake was faster then she thought and quickly put her on the defensive. Anna had only heard about drakes from Freya's stories.

Come on Anna what did Freya say about drakes. Drakes can't breath fire but their bite is venomous, they have tough hides and are drawn toward shiny things, Wait that's it!

Quickly she looked around and found a stray sunbeam gleaming into the dark dungon. She rolled toward it just as the drake lunged and tried to bite her.

Once in the sunbeam she angled her sword to create a small beam of light on the floor. Once the drake saw this it became transfixed and follwed the beam as Anna began to angle it back into it's cell. Just as she pointed it at the wall it lunged and hit the wall with a smack. As it was just getting back up the doors slammed close.

"Well done squire." she heard as she began back up the steps. As she sat down to rest a single thought ran through her mind. Two tests down and one to go. Hopefully the last one will be the easist.