Chapter 8

Unfortunately, the training sessions didn't get better. The next four sessions were the same nightmare, with small variations he presumed was to keep it scary for him. The worst was when they threw bunches of rotten fruit and vegetables at him, covering him in putrid slime. Had it been his real fur, he wasn't sure he could've ever gotten clean again.

By the end of the fifth session with the 'cage nightmare', he was feeling pretty done with it. Though he struggled to keep a cheery face with Alva, they seemed to be generally unperturbed, at least by the sessions.

They were back in their house, after having finished dinner. Max started to head to his room, when Alva piped up. "I was thinking about going to the bathhouse tonight. Would you like to come with me?"

Max stopped just outside of the safety of his room. "Oh, uh, I dunno..."

Max flinched when Alva put their arm around Max's shoulders. "Oh, come now. You've seemed so stressed by the sessions, you could use a good hot bath to relax in. I've been meaning to go and check it out anyways."

Max sighed. "Yeah, I guess I'll go." Hot baths were a lot of work, so he seldom got them back home. The idea of having one just ready for him sounded amazing.

Alva patted Max on the back. "Good. Let me get my things and I'll be right out."

Alva stepped away, disappearing in their room. When they came back, they had a basketful of items hanging on one arm. They looked at Max critically. "Where's your things?"

"Oh, uh, what things?"

"Your bath things. Surely you at least have clothes to change into?"

"Oh, uh, I was just gonna put these back on." Max said, ears pinning back in embarrassment.

"I wouldn't put soiled clothes back on after bathing, personally. It seems to defeat the purpose of bathing, doesn't it?"

"Uh, I guess I can grab clothes. One sec."

Max ducked into his room, quickly grabbing a tunic and a pair of pants. Alva nodded, satisfied. "If need be, you can borrow some soap from me. There might be some available there, but you never know."

The two of them set out across the dark ground outside the Academy, going around the castle to the low building behind it. It was squat compared most of the buildings around it and had two doors on each side. One was labeled 'Men' and the other 'Women'. Alva looked at the two of them, then started to head towards the women's side.

"Wait, shouldn't we go in the men's side?"

Alva turned to look at Max. "Does it matter?"

Max hesitated. "No, probably not...I'd just prefer being on the men's side."

Alva shrugged. "If you say so."

The two of them stepped into the building, closing the door behind them. The inside of the room was muggy, the floors made of simple stone tiles. The room seemed to be divided into several 'stalls', and in the closest one, Max could see a large stone tub, big enough for four people, along with a few stone benches. Max looked around, hoping to find a private bath, but he quickly realized that there was no place for a private bath to be.

"Alva, where's the-whoa, Alva!" Max had turned to look and had gotten an eyeful of their nude body. He quickly turned away, trying to maintain Alva's modesty.

"What?" They sounded confused.

"Why'd you take your clothes off here?"

There was a beat of silence. "We're in a bathhouse, aren't we?"

"Yeah, but isn't there someplace more...private?"

"Private? In a public bathhouse?" Alva laughed. "Why would there be private baths in a public bathhouse?"

"I dunno..." Max said, beginning to wish he hadn't come. "I guess I was expecting something else."

"Well, this is what I know to be a bath, so I'm not sure what else you might've expected. Anyways, come join me." They said, Max hearing water move. He chanced a glance over in Alva's direction, and found that the water covered them from the chest down. "The water's nice and hot."

The idea of sharing a bath with someone repulsed Max. "Oh, uh, I think I might use one of the other baths."

"Why?" It wasn't an accusation, but sounded like one.

"I just, uh, want some privacy."

"What for? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Well, yes-"

"Then what are you worried about? I won't impose on you, if that's what you're worried about. I can keep my hands to myself."

Max had no idea what they might 'impose' on him, but he was feeling trapped again. Clearly Alva expected him to share a bath, and perhaps that was proper bathhouse etiquette, but having never been in one he didn't know for sure. "I'm sure you, uh, could. On second thought, maybe I just don't need a bath at all."

The corners of Alva's mouth turned down. "Come now, you're already here, you might as well make use of the bath." They said, their voice carrying a displeased edge.

Fearing it would be a big offense to continue turn them down, Max began to undress, despite the discomfort he felt in doing it in their presence. Furtive glances at Alva told him that they were watching Max with mild interest, which made him all the more uncomfortable. "Uh, do you, uh, mind closing your eyes for a second?" Max said, once he got to his pants.

Alva made an exasperated sigh. "If it gets you in here with me, fine." They said, closing their eyes while Max continued to undress. Once undressed, Max did his best to cover himself while he climbed in the bath where the water would cover him.

Alva waited while Max got settled in the hot water opposite to them before speaking testily, "May I open my eyes now?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess."

Alva opened their eyes, staring at Max for a moment with slight suspicion. They grunted in a way that seemed to imply a shrug, then reached out of the water to pluck a small bar from the basket they'd left in arm's reach. They proceeded to make use of what Max presumed to be soap, forcing Max to look away again when they stood up to wash their legs. The room began to fill with a spicy scent the longer they worked. When they were done, and back in the water, they held it out to Max. "Want some?"

"Sure." He took the bar of soap, and smelled it tentatively. It was the source of the spicy smell, though Max couldn't identify what it was. He made use of it on his upper body, but didn't dare to stand up in the tub.

Max tried to give it back to Alva, but they smirked at him. "You've missed half of your body, you know."

"It's fine." Max said hurriedly. "I'm done with it."

"Okay." They drew the word out in confusion, but they took the soap anyways and set it aside to dry. They laid back in the tub, sighing contentedly. "See, Max, isn't this nice?"

"Yeah." Max trying to sound convincing. Though, even to his own ears he didn't sound convincing. So, he wasn't surprised when Alva stared at him like they were less than convinced as well. "There are certainly nicer baths for sure, but this one is more than serviceable. Oh, I know what might make it better!"

They grabbed a little phial from their basket of supplies, and very carefully put a little drop of the clear liquid into the bath, swirling the water with their hand. Amid the spicy smell of Alva's soap, a flowery scent wafted up from the steaming water, quickly becoming overpowering. Max fought the urge to sneeze.

Alva took a deep breath of the steam coming off of the bathwater. "Ah, that smells so good. It reminds me of home. If I close my eyes, I could almost imagine I'm back home in our small lavender garden. They'd be blooming right about now, actually." Their eyes were distant. "I spent a lot of days in that garden, in the company of others. Even when the company was less than desirable, I could at least admire the flowers. Not to mention it was just public enough to keep them from making presumptions about how I saw them."

Max sneezed, unable to resist it, though it didn't alleviate the need to sneeze from the strong smell burning his nose. "Yeah?"

"It wasn't all bad though. There were times I stumbled upon those I would actually consider for a bondmate."

"A what?" Max said, sneezing again.

"A bondmate? Hm, how to explain..." They thought for a moment. "It's difficult to explain to you. I suppose at its simplest, it is like a marriage between more than two people, though no more than six. It also does not guarantee inheritance rights; only ones birthright guarantees any inheritance. I could bond with children of the richest family members and be left completely destitute for it. They would be justified in leaving me destitute, too."

"That's...how could they do that?" Max said, staring at them.

"Let me put it to you this way, you might understand this. Would you ever marry someone who was crippled to the point they could never work?"

"No, probably not."

"Marrying a crippled person is like making a bond with only others who have no inheritance rights. A bond like that would have no family livelihood to take ownership of, and no place to live. They would either have to resort to theft, or take work in the dockside brothels, whoring themselves out to anyone with the copper to pay for it just to feed themselves. Even if this ill-fated bond were to secure better work than whoring, and if they did it would be the lowest forms of work that could be found, they would never be able to own a house and secure themselves as a new family line. They'd be forced to work until the day they die."

Max was silent, unsure of what to say to the description of a world that sounded so alien to the one he knew. Why would they own their house? Or be able to ever stop working? Wouldn't they starve? "Why couldn't they find work? Surely there's always work to be found in the fields."

"Who would loan them the land to farm? Or even rights to merely farm the land, as is traditional here? A group of people who made such a foolish decision is certainly not wise enough to manage land by themselves. The land would be ruined within a few years, I'm sure."

Max was beginning to understand, if only on a surface level. It was strange to imagine owning the land he and his parents had farmed. "I guess."

Alva sighed, standing up and forcing Max to avert his eyes again. "Well, I suppose we ought to start drying off, if we're going to be in bed any time soon." They stepped out of the tub, and grabbed a towel from out of their basket, and began using it to dry themselves off.

Still feeling deeply self-conscious about being nude, Max didn't climb out of the tub. He was still looking away, so only when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, did he turn to Alva to find they were holding a towel out to him.

"I thought you might appreciate a towel."

Max took the towel. "Thanks." He muttered. Thinking the towel a kind of mercy, Max stood up, holding the towel to his front as he stepped out of the bathtub. Once out, he hurriedly fixed the towel about his waist so as to cover himself. He took a seat on the bench next to his clothes and made it a point to stare down at the floor, having seen Alva's naked form out of the corner of his eye.

"Is something the matter?" Alva asked, their speech tainted by a slight edge. "You've been quite interested in the floor ever since we got here."

"Oh, uh, nothing's the matter."

Max heard Alva make a scornful grunt, and he chanced a glance up. They had turned away to pick something up from out of their basket, but Max could see the edges of their mouth were tinged with a frown.

"I hope you don't mind me taking the time to oil my feathers." The edge in their voice had grown more pronounced.

"That's okay, I'm not dry yet. Won't be for a while." Max knew he wouldn't be good and dry for at least an hour, especially in the steamy room of the bathhouse.

"Hmph." They said, their tone seeming to sniff down at Max. Max didn't dare to look up again, but if he had to guess, Alva was now angry at him, but he had no idea what he might've done to do it. The only guess he could come up with was that he'd failed to do some key thing that one does in bathhouses. He felt angry that Alva was holding that against him. Did they not realize how uncomfortable he was? It was bad enough to be blindsided by the complete and utter lack of privacy, but expecting him to know how to handle himself in a bathhouse was just too much.

Max sat in sulky silence, staring down at the floor. Time seemed to pass slowly, and he was thankful when Alva cleared their throat loudly. He chanced a peek, and found them dressed in a simple nightshift. There was a hardness in their eyes as they stared down at Max where he was sitting.

"Are you ready to leave?"

"Yeah," He said, though his thick fur was still quite damp. "just give me a second."

Max picked up his clothes and stalked to the other side of the divider between bathtubs, hoping for a little privacy so he could finish drying himself off and put on his clothes. He was thankful Alva didn't follow him, but when he came back around fully dressed, they seemed even less happy. "My towel, please." They said, holding out their hand.

Max dropped the wet towel in their hand, and they dropped it in their basket. Without another word, the two of them went back to the house in stony silence, both going to their rooms with a curt goodnight. The next morning, Max had cooled off enough to try and talk to Alva again while eating breakfast in the dining hall.

"Sleep well?" Max asked.

They hesitated a second before responding. "Well enough."

"'Well enough'? Have you been having more nightmares or something?"

"No." They said, stressing the word. "It's just different than I'm used to."

"What're you used to?"

They sighed, seemingly annoyed by the question. "It's just very different here than back home."

Max took the abrupt response to mean that they were still angry at him from last night. So, he opted to remain quiet and let them finish their breakfast in peace, since it was clear to Max they didn't want to talk to him at the moment.

They still didn't talk as they went to the day's session. Max took the vial from Blair, preparing himself for another day of being ridiculed by vicious onlookers.