Chapter 39

The next morning the Titans left at dawn. Athena would have missed them if Nyctimene hadn't woken her up. Quick, come quick! They're leaving.

She ran outside wearing only her dressing gown and caught Prometheus by the arm.

"Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?"

He looked surprised. "We go to the winter camp," he said. "It is time to return."

"OK." Athena got it. It wasn't the way of the Tribe to say goodbye. Then, with a wicked wink, "Maybe I'll see you there,"

Prometheus's face lit up in a grin. "Really? Would you come?"

"I think so. I think my father will be OK with it now."

Prometheus's grin, if anything, grew wider. He looked at her very intensely for a moment, then said, slowly and carefully, in an attempt at her own language, "Guud. Bai."

Then he turned and followed the others, cradling the fennel stalk with the sacred fire in his breast.