He waved a hand in greeting, "Sky! Hayden! Find anything useful?" Sky shook his head.
"Not really. You?"
Aeolus shrugged. "Not really."
"Shall we go then?" Sera asked, gesturing towards the stables "Millie is probably getting a little restless."
"Do you mind if I stay here and rest? My feet are still sore." I interrupted before they could leave.
"Not at all," Sera said, giving me a soft smile. Behind her, Helia looked a little too happy.
"Sky, Azure, and I will go to the bathhouse with you when you get back," Aeolus offered though it felt like an order. I nodded, then realized what I was agreeing to. Before I could take the agreement back, the others were heading into the stables, leaving me standing outside.
I kicked the ground beneath my feet as I trudged back into the inn, dreading it. Ani blinked sleepily at me from the bed as I pulled my boots off, mindful of my injured feet. Outside the window, a burst of Milie's bright red flames flared up before dissipating, followed by Millie herself. I watched in awe as she was followed out of the stable by Aeolus, who had a tiny dragon curled around his neck. A dragon. I dropped the boot I was holding, and it landed on the floor with a FRUMP. Ani squeaked at the noise and trotted over, then perched on my lap to see what was going on. I shifted a little to give him a better view of the sight. The group walked across the courtyard before fading into the background of people as they stepped deeper into the city. With nothing else to do, Ani and I flopped back on the bed, letting the heat from the window blanket us and carry us to sleep.
What felt like seconds later, I was awakened by Aeolus banging on my door. "Hayden! Bathtime"
I groaned and flopped back over to put my boots on, almost crushing Ani in the process. Aeolus and Sky's excited faces greeted me at the door (with Azure's stoic one). Do they want to see me naked that badly?
Ani let out a meow from by my feet, and I asked, "Can he come with us?" he was pretty filthy, and if he hated it, I could leave all the sooner. Sky responded:
"Of course! There's a garden there I think he'd enjoy–birds like to play in the fountains."
I blinked. "Garden? In at the bath?" They officially lost me.
Noticing my confusion, Aeolus jumped in to explain, "For most classes of our society, the bathhouse is the cultural center. Since we keep them cheap to prevent the spread of disease and encourage our citizens to wash daily, it's become a social event. Bathhouses here and in the Dragon kingdom are usually connected to public athletic fields, libraries, and gardens…." he frowned and began to trail off "Do you people not bathe often? There are some neighboring countries–"
I hastily corrected him before he could make unsavory judgments about my hygene "Most of us bathe daily. All our houses and apartments are connected to running water, so it's more of a private affair."
Aeolus whistled. "Woah, your country must be rich."
Uncomfortable, I shifted on my feet. "I suppose."
"Better get a move on before it gets too crowded." Azure chimed in, placing his massive hands on Aeolus and Sky's shoulders and steering them out.
And so we left and made our way to the bathhouse I had used yesterday. We walked along the side of the massive building, which Aeolus explained was the largest bathhouse in the city, and into public gardens walled into the back of the building. There, we dropped Ani off to play and made our way back into the bathhouse and through area's, I hadn't explored yesterday.
As we walked, I marveled at the beauty of the exquisite murals that decorated the halls and floor while Sky and Aeolus pointed out various lecture halls and libraries along the outer edge. We made our way back to the men's main entry hall. As I had context for the social role the bathhouse played in society this time, the size and slow-moving speed of the crowd were less bothersome than it had been yesterday. Like yesterday, I kept my head up and my eyes and conversation to myself. Azure, Aeolus, and Sky clearly had no such reservations and walked around and spoke as if everything wasn't exposed to the whole world.
After much lecturing and nagging, Azure convinced Sky and Aeolus to exercise before our baths, and so I was dragged with them to the gymnasium, which was populated with men playing sports, lifting weights, and, to my surprise, a few board games. Azure led us in some warming stretches, leaving me embarrassed by my lack of flexibility. Though none of the others commented on it, their expressions spoke volumes. Sky, in particular, looked sympathetic.
The others moved onto the weights as I stood awkwardly off to the side, receiving odd looks from the men exercising around me. Noticing my awkwardness, Sky paused his exercise and approached me while Azure and Aeolus absorbed themselves in a competition of who could lift the most weights.
"Here, people think that physical fitness is a sign of health and intelligence. Hence why our lecture halls and library-intellectual health, and our baths and gymnasium-physical health, are all in one complex."
Well, that explained the board games. It was also a very polite way of explaining that everyone around me thought I was stupid.
Of course, I didn't care what they thought. It was, however, getting extremely awkward standing here by myself and pretending to look busy while trying not to stare. "Fine," I grumbled, "what should I do?"
"We're thinking about starting a trigon match - wanna play?"
"Does it require fighting?" I asked, gesturing off to the side where there were various groups of men wrestling and boxing, giving each other bruises galore.
Sky shook his head. "Nope. It's a ball game."
"Sure." I was in the camp that agreed all sports sucked, but it was better than getting beat up.
We joined Aeolus and Azure, who explained the rules of trigon to me before deciding it was best to demonstrate. From what they explained, trigon was a game played by three or more people, a hybrid between catch and juggling. The individuals stood in a circle, and each had two balls which would be passed to the next individual in the circle in a counter-clockwise direction. Throwing was done with your right hand and you caught with your left. Anyone who missed the catch has deducted a point until the game was over, and the player with the least missed catches won.
For the first round, I was assigned the role of referee, who would call out when one of the players missed a catch. I expected Azure to win the match, but, much to my surprise, Aeolus won, having only missed one of the catches. The biggest loser of the match was Sky, who'd missed 10, which ended the game, followed by Azure, who'd missed 4.
"Ready to play, Hayden?" Aeolus taunted, jugging a few of the balls with a wide grin.
Though I wouldn't win anyway, I didn't want to be completely thrashed by him. "Only if you referee."
Aeolus caught the balls with one hand, then shrugged. "Sure."
Next to me, Sky mumbled, "Someone else can finally win for once," and I fought to keep a stoic face. Azure, behind me, let loose a quiet chuckle.
"What was that?"
Sky plastered a smile on his face, "I said: someone else to play with for once."
Aeolus gave us a disbelieving stare, but neither Azure nor I outed Sky.
He waved a hand dismissively "Whatever. Grab your balls, and then we'll start."
Embarrassingly, I missed the first catch and got whacked in the side with a ball. After a few more rounds, each of which I lost, we were able to keep the balls going for more than a couple of seconds and ended up falling into a rhythm. Eventually, Sky and Azure each made mistakes, and I felt relatively accomplished and managed to narrow the gap. Sweaty with the minimal amount of exercise, I looked for an excuse to stop before noticing the board game again.
"Anyone want to teach me to play that?" I asked, pointing towards the game. They looked over to where I was pointing.
"Ludus Latrunculorum? Sure!" Aeolus offered to teach me the rules, and we'd soon gathered a decent crowd. It took me a couple of matches to learn the game, but once I was in the swing of things, Aeolus was no challenge. Soon, he was asking if we wanted to play trigon again and gave up. Much to Aeolus' joy, Sky challenged me next, followed by Azure, only for both to lose worse than Aeolus had. He didn't let them forget it.
Our observers offered their challenges as well. Most were worse than even Azure had been, although a few were quite challenging and nearly resulted in a loss for me. Bitter at their own losses, the individuals I had beaten cheered for my opponents and jeered at me. Rather than disrupt me, their jeers caused my competitive spirit to rise, and eventually, my discomfort at our state of undress faded and I felt lighter than I had in days.
The ambient noise in the courtyard swelled until Azure announced they'd had enough, and I remained unbeaten.
"Alright, we've had enough," he turned to Sky and said, " If ya want to get a massage," he turned to Aeolus, "and ya want to meet Sera for dinner," he turned back to me "then we'd best get going."
I perked up "A massage?"
"Only if ya start moving."
"Sorry, guys." I apologized to some in the audience who'd been patiently waiting for a match with me as I stood up. A few men groaned in protest.
"C'mon! One more match!" One begged.
"We'll be back tomorrow," Azure informed them "ya can challenge him them."
The crowd broke up, and we headed to the hot bath, followed by stragglers discussing the games.
"That's the most I've ever seen you smile," Sky commented.
I was smiling?
Azure nodded, and Aeolus agreed, "No kidding!"
"I like board games," I said by way of explanation. They suited me much better than physical exercise.
"I'd hate to see the monster you'd become if you exercised too," Sky mumbled.
I grimaced. "You don't have to worry about that."
The warm water felt amazing on my still-aching muscles, and I felt myself relax involuntarily in the water. This time, I interjected periodically with my own comments as we moved through the baths.
It was surprising how enjoyable I found the experience.
The highlight of my entire day was the massages, which, coupled with the scented oils, relaxed my aching muscles more than even the warm bath had, and they left me feeling better than I had perhaps even before I'd disappeared. They were heavenly.
Physically refreshed and relaxed, and, in my case, nearly pain-free for the first time in days, we made our way back to the gardens to pick up Ani, who ran right up to us. We took some time to explore the gardens, and I watched the afternoon sun reflect off fountains in front of the stunning forest wall mural, I was struck once again by the unique beauty of this world. The others explained to me that this garden contained trees, flowers, and other plants from all areas of the continent, chosen for their unique beauty. For the first time, I wondered if there was anything here I would miss when I returned home.
Certainly, I still missed many modern conveniences. I was certain, though, that upon returning, I'd never see any of these marvelous views ever again, and I wished I had a camera or some way of immortalizing the sights to share them with Ember, who would enjoy them far more than I was.
Perhaps sensing my mood, Ani let out a cry from his place at my feet.
"Don't worry. I still would rather be home." I told him, picking him u