The royal babysitter hot on her tail

While the princess is taking her sweet time communing with nature, one figure is having a decidedly less relaxing day. Karabel Montevenue, Kara for short, is the personal bodyguard to Princess Farcadia and the most skilled swordfighter in the castle. She's also the princess's closest friend, and has been since they were both children. All of this makes her just about the only person brave and qualified enough to serve as the royal handmaiden, and pulling double duty means she hardly ever gets a chance to rest.

So it happens that when she enters Farcadia's room to help her into her birthday attire, and sees the billowing rope of formal wear hanging out the window, that all Kara wants is to go back to bed and write the day off as a bad dream.

The knight dresses in a custom maid dress that incorporated plate armor to maintain her, complete with a helmet draped in a handkerchief, white silk-laden gauntlets, and a scalemail floor-length skirt. The fabric of her dress is tough, woven in such a way that hides some of her more dangerous armor; her sleeves are long and flowy enough to cover the metal gauntlets she wore, and the skirt and apron hide the metal spikes on the tips and heels of her boots. Her jet-black hair is also tightly tied in a bun underneath her headwear. Indeed, she neither sacrifices form nor function for her role as knight and lady in waiting, which would also be obvious by her striking musculature underneath her prim and proper decorum.

Unfortunately for the prospective adventurer, Kara's years of training have not served her in slaying dragons or leading armies as she dreamed of doing as a child. Taking care of Farcadia and her antics is a much harder and more dangerous task, or so she's been told. Whether it's locking the door to 8-year-old Farcadia's powder room to prevent the child from running around naked after her bath, or keeping a young teen princess from taking a dip in the royal wine cellar at night, Kara can never let her guard down for fear of some ruckus coming from the royal chambers. If she didn't love Farcadia like family, she'd have certainly locked her away in the dungeon many times over by now.

Still, this is the one day when her antics can be tolerated least. Strapping her shortsword to her waist, Kara dives out the window and rappels down the makeshift rope. They have about an hour before the first guests are set to arrive, which leaves very little time to find Farcadia, take her back to the castle, and find her something to wear (since her gowns had all been turned into rope). Not great odds, all things considered.

Meanwhile, Farcadia floats in the water on her back, blissfully unaware of her pursuer. And how couldn't she be in such a soothing, relaxing bath?