Grounded

before his father again. "I only meant she is out of control and there is no one, save yourself, who is able to control her."
    Zeus grinned, obviously pacified by Ira’s backhanded compliment.
    "I have not paid much attention to your mother as of late," he admitted. "She is still furious with me over my latest human playmate, but I will speak with her." He turned to Dion. "Come here, boy. Tell me all about this human your mother is so taken with. What makes her different from all the other ones you have played with?"
    Dion stood face-to-face with the only man he truly feared. The only man he had ever tried to emulate. The man he loved even more now, as an adult, than he had when he was a child. And a man, he knew, that love d him . Taking a seat next to his father, Dion simply said, "I’m in love with her."
    "Well, then. Love’s a grand thing, son. Are you sure it’s love with this one and not just lust?"
    Dion snorted. "After all the women I’ve known, Father, I think I can tell the difference between lust and love by now."
    "Well, you’ve got me there." Zeus smiled mischievously. "I, on the other hand, have loved every one of the women I’ve known."
    " Tha t would be lust, Father," Ira said, shaking his head. "It’s the reason Mother is
    constantly irate with you."
    "Your mother just doesn’t understand men." Zeus waved his hand and lightning struck in the middle of the room, the ozone hanging heavily in the air.
    Both of his sons looked at the black spot on the floor then turned amused looks on their father. Zeus laughed out loud.
    ~ * ~
    Aurora and Patty walked side-by-side through gardens that perpetually bloomed with roses, tulips, daffodils, and a broad range of other flowers, shrubs and trees that Patty couldn’t name. Thunder rolled somewhere in the distance and Patty looked up, expecting to see rain clouds, but there were none.
    "It’s beautiful here," Patty commented.
    "It’s one of my favorite places," Aurora told her. "I spend a lot of time out here."
    "I can’t imagine you digging in the dirt."
    Aurora’s lilting laughter rang out across the vast gardens. "I don’t dig in the dirt, my dear. This just sort of happens," she said and waved her hand. An area that was green with grass suddenly sprouted a bed of flowers.
    Patty gasped. "I wish I could do that!"
    Aurora linked her arm through Patty’s. "Tell me about my son. What do you think of him?"
    "I think he’s gorgeous and brilliant and wonderful and I can’t get enough of him," she said dreamily. "He’s a god!"
    "Yes, he’s a god. A quite powerful one, at that. He simply refuses to be godlike, except when it suits him."
    "I don’t believe any of this," Patty declared. "How can any of this be real? Yet, here I am and I don’t understand it."
    "Yet, you do accept it, don’t you?"
    "Yes, I guess I do."
    "That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. Zeus keeps going after human females and never seems to find one who can accept him for what he is. He keeps them a few days then they tend to go quite mad." Aurora smiled smugly. "Perhaps one day he’ll realize all he needs has been right in front of his nose the whole time."
    "Z eus? He exists too. Oh my goodness!"
    "Yes, he exists, too. Sometimes I wish he—"
    " Woman ! " a disembodied voice thundered.
    "Speak of the devil," Aurora whispered. "Yes, Highness, how may I serve you?"
    Zeus appeared, riding a lightning bolt, and Patty shrieked and tried to hide behind Aurora.
    "You don’t have to be so dramatic. You scared the girl," Aurora chided.
    Zeus eyed Patty with what she imagined was supposed to be a hard, frightening look but for some reason, that’s not what Patty saw. She smiled at him, somehow knowing he was mostly bluster and show.
    "Your Highness," Patty said and bowed.
    "You may rise," he said loudly.
    Aurora rolled her eyes; the man did love his theatrics. Zeus released the lightning bolt, which disappeared into thin air, and fell in stride beside the two women. He took Patty’s arm in a gentlemanly gesture and offered her a warm smile before addressing Aurora.
    "I’ve been speaking with my sons. It seems they are upset with you, woman."
    "Hmmm," Aurora said. "That makes this day different from all others in what way?"
    Zeus laughed and thunder boomed in the distance. "Woman, you will never learn to control that tongue with me, will you?"
    Aurora looked up at him and smiled, and Patty could see the love she had for him on her face.
    "And you, my girl. What do you have to say