Chapter 8: The Bathing Pool
"I'm telling you," Ragnar argued at the table, "there's bound to be something at this 'secret playground.' We should try to interrogate him further!"
"It's no use," Harald said, leaning on the table. "He acts like a child and children have an annoying ability of keeping secrets really good when they don't want adults to find out." He sat up then, and said, "Besides, it's probably just that crazy guy's home."
"But it is very possible that he kidnapped them," Garn argued. Ragnar looked at the fellow soldier. At least someone was supporting him.
"I couldn't agree with you more," Harald replied, "but so far, we have no evidence of that." He turned to Ragnar and added, "Besides, trying to reason with him is nearly impossible with the state of mind he's in."
Denuve returned to the table then, bringing them all mugs of ale. "Let's not worry about that now," he said. "Let's just sit back and enjoy the bit of rest we can get now."
Garn and Harald nodded, and eagerly grabbed a mug each. Ragnar hesitated.
"Come on, Ragnar," Harald said, patting his friend on the back. "We all know how you feel, but, right now, there's nothing we can do."
Ragnar looked at Harald and said, "There's plenty we could be doing besides sharing mugs of ale. We could be questioning that crazy man further, or talking with the children, or searching for this playground, or-"
"Or just trying to relax for a bit," Harald interrupted. "We can resume our search tomorrow. The children are probably already put to bed by now, anyway."
Ragnar nodded slowly, reluctantly agreeing. He took a mug for himself and took a large gulp. "Yeah," he muttered, wiping the foam from his mustache, "I guess you're right."
The others nodded, and began to indulge in the nightlife of Izmit.
A little while later, when the eatery began to clear out of drunken men, Harald and Garn helped the passed-out Denuve off of the table to go to their rooms. Ragnar said that he'd be up later. He wanted to clear his head a bit before he went to sleep. Garn and Harald nodded and dragged Denuve upstairs.
Ragnar walked slowly outside, taking in the cool spring air. He had to admit, he did have a pleasant time tonight. He had fun having a few arm wrestles with his fellow soldiers, he enjoyed sharing moments with his friends, and he especially laughed when Denuve tried to hit on some of the serving girls, only to fall on his face in the attempts. Times like that were rare at Burland Castle. Although they weren't up all night like the guardsmen, the royal soldiers had to keep their heads clear should anything suddenly happen.
Izmit was relatively quiet at night. A few drunks wandered the streets but nothing else could be seen. Ragnar had quite a few drinks but wasn't overly drunk. Every Calgor in his family history had been able to hold their liquor easily, and a table would have to be full of empty mugs before a Calgor would be on the brink of passing out. Ragnar's own father was among the best of them.
After a moment, Ragnar noticed that he had wondered some ways from the inn. Actually, he had no idea where he was at this moment. Izmit seemed much larger at night. He stood near someone's house with trees surrounding the back. He heard someone behind the house, so Ragnar thought he would ask directions from whoever was behind the house.
As he walked over, he noticed he was starting to stumble a bit. The alcohol was beginning to take a stronger effect on him for some reason. Maybe a walk outside wasn't such a good idea, he thought.
He burst through the wall of trees and came to small pool of water. In the water was a woman bathing! She turned and saw Ragnar, letting out an ear-piercing screech.
"Aahh!" Ragnar cried, covering his ears. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!"
"Get out of here, you drunk!" she screamed, covering herself with her arms.
"Yes, yes!" Ragnar said, slowly backing up. "I'm leaving!"
A few seconds later, he was behind the tree barrier. He was about to leave but stopped for a second. He had an overpowering urge to just take a quick peek again. A voice inside of him said, "No, it is wrong. You are a Royal Soldier. It is indecent. And what of Mary?"
However, another voice, which the alcohol had seemed to unleash, argued, "Guys do it all the time. Tonight's a time to let go of your responsibilities. And besides, Mary wouldn't mind if you just took a quick peek. How would she find out, anyway?"
In the end, Ragnar's primal instinct got the better of him and he sneaked back to the tree barrier. However, when he looked, he didn't see anything. The woman had submerged all but her head. She was obviously taking no chances this time. Ragnar sighed and started to head back when he noticed some movement on the other side of the bathing pool. Someone else was trying to get a peep show as well!
Ragnar's alcohol-fueled logic didn't want another person to have what he was denied, so he sneaked around to the other side of the pool. Once there, he saw a young man was trying to catch a glimpse of the naked woman. Quietly, he crept up to the young man and tapped him on the shoulder.
The young man jumped in shock and spun around, seeing Ragnar with arms crossed over his large chest. "W...what?" the young man stammered. "I wasn't snooping!"
"You expect me to believe that?" Ragnar asked, trying to sound imposing between slightly slurred words.
The young man went up to Ragnar with a pleading look in his eyes and said, "Please keep quiet! I'll do anything!"
Ragnar rubbed his mustache for a moment. "Anything?" Ragnar asked. The young man nodded quickly, taking a quick glance back to the pool to see if he missed anything. Ragnar still wasn't thinking too clearly, so he thought that maybe this young man might know something about the secret playground that had been plaguing his mind. He asked the young man about it.
"Secret playground?" the young man said, confused.
"Yeah," Ragnar said. "You know, the one that Al keeps bragging about."
"Oh," the young man said, suddenly realizing. "You mean Alex in the jail."
"Yeah, whatever," Ragnar muttered, beginning to get a little irritated.
"Beats me," the young man shrugged. "Far as I know, he came from the Burland Castle. Could be there."
"Right," Ragnar mumbled, shaking his head. He couldn't believe he just wasted his time with this young man. "Thanks," he said, before walking away. The young man smiled broadly and resumed his snooping position.
As he walked away, Ragnar suddenly had a thought. He turned and shouted as loud as he could, "Thanks for nothing!" The sound of a startled gasp and splashing confirmed that Ragnar's little plan worked. Chuckling to himself, he made his way back to the inn.
Ragnar woke the next morning with a mild headache. He half expected it, going to bed a bit dizzy. He groggily made his way downstairs and joined the other royal soldiers at a table in the eatery.
"Well, look who's finally up," Harald said, smiling. "Have a long night?"
"Sort of," Ragnar replied, scratching his head. "I got a bit...lost."
Garn chuckled, while Denuve just smiled weakly. Apparently, Denuve was in worse shape than Ragnar was.
Ragnar sat down, ordered some porridge, and leaned back in his chair. The others were looking at him. "What?" he asked.
"Well," Harald said, smiling. "Tell us what happened."
"Nothing," Ragnar muttered. "I wandered around for a bit, talked to a few people, and came back." He stopped for a moment and sat up. "What? Is there something wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Garn smiled. "We just heard that someone matching your description made an unexpected visit at a bathing pool."
Ragnar flushed. The others began to laugh. Ragnar tried to explain his side of the story. "I was lost, and heard someone. I was going to ask directions. I never realized that it was a bathing pool. It was an accident!" He could see that he was not going to win the support of his fellow soldiers.
"I'll have you know that I stopped another voyeur," Ragnar argued further.
"Yeah, how?" Garn managed to ask between laughs.
"He gave me some false information, so, to get back at him, I yelled out his position," Ragnar said, although he could tell that they were not really paying attention.
"What did he say?" laughed Harald.
"Oh, nothing much," Ragnar muttered, not really seeing the point in it if it did not defend his position. "He just said that guy in the jail was from Burland Castle and that..."
Ragnar's voice trailed off. Something just dawned onto him. He remembered where he had heard the name Alex before. Mary had mentioned that her friend's husband, Alex, was missing. Could this be the same Alex?
"Guys!" Ragnar said, bolting up. "I think I know of a way to jog that crazy guy's memory and find out where this secret playground is."
"How's that?" Harald asked, wiping a few tears from his eyes.
"His name is Alex," Ragnar explained, "and he has a wife in Burland Castle. If he were to see her, maybe he'd snap out of that state of mind he's in, and he'd be able to tell us the whereabouts of the secret playground."
"Are you nuts?" Garn asked, looking seriously at Ragnar. "Are you going to go on the word of a lunatic?"
"It's the best lead we've gotten," Ragnar argued. "It won't hurt to try."
"What if you're right?" Harald asked. "How do we bring him back to Burland Castle? He's in no traveling condition right now. There's no way we could bring him back to the castle, especially with the increase of monster activity."
"That is a problem," Ragnar muttered, rubbing his mustache.
"Maybe we could bring his wife here," Denuve mumbled, rubbing his temples.
The others looked at him. "That's just about all we can do," Ragnar said. "I think it would be safer if we brought a sane person on the road."
Harald shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "We'd be risking the life of a woman for a shot in the dark." He looked sternly at Ragnar and added, "And what if this man isn't her husband? Do you realize how devastated she would be?"
Ragnar hadn't taken that into consideration. Harald spoke true. It really was a shot in the dark and he'd be violating one of the most important codes of the royal soldiers: always protect the commoners.
Still, it was the best lead they had, no matter how remote it was. Ragnar stood up and said, "I don't care what you may think. I'm going on my intuition for once. I'm going back to the castle." At that, he began to head up to his room to gather his things.
"Ragnar, wait!" Harald called out to him. Ragnar turned and was ready to say he wasn't going to change his mind. However, before he could speak, Harald said, "I'll come with you. It's too dangerous to travel alone now."
Ragnar looked at his friend and smiled. "Thanks."