The Alyta Trilogy: Handmaids, Heroes, and Hierarchy.

They all leave the stadium together and look through the market.  Alyta finds some dried figs and buys them.  Looking at the same food booth, she wonders out loud, �hmm� do they have fish and feta popovers here?�
Jason hears her, and laughs.  �You don�t really like fish and feta popovers do you?�
�Yes I do.  And don�t diss food that you haven�t tasted either.  It�s actually delicious.  My favorite food in the entire world.�  She says with fervor.
�Mine too!� he says.  She softens and they laugh together. 
�Sorry about yelling about that.  I guess I�m too headstrong for my own good sometimes.  Just ask my father.�
�Why�s that?�
�He thinks that at 17, I should be getting married.  I should have told him I wouldn�t.  But nobody ever says no to my father.  Before this trip, I hadn�t even been allowed off the island.  Talk about strict, hunh?�
�Yeah.  I think that everybody should get married when they�re ready.  That shouldn�t be dictated by their parents.�  Jason says, a little softly, thinking about how his father had started telling him that he should find himself a good and fair woman, like his mother, before Aason died.  Now he�ll never have his father telling him that again.  But it would be different from this girl, a commoner.  He thinks about how he can easily
talk to this girl, how different she is from royalty, how truly unfair the royal system is by making him marry a princess who he could never love.  Maybe she was right.  Maybe there shouldn�t be a royal system.  Wait!  He stops his train of thought.  She doesn�t know what it�s like.  She doesn�t know who you really are.  She can come here and sound off all she wants, but what background does that give her in politics?  That she had a strict father?
�Thank you,� Jason hears Alyta say to the man in the booth, who is handing her something.
�You wanna let�s go and find someplace to eat?� she asks.  Jason looks over at Herc and Iolaus.  If we take them with us, they might slip up on who I am.  I can�t let her know, not with all her ideas of government.  Not yet, Jason thinks.  He calls to the guys that they�ll see them later, to which Hercules yells back something, but Iolaus is too busy trying to offer a female vendor the chance for a drink after her shift.  Jason leads Alyta through the streets, to the courtyard where they keep the fowl, away from the castle.  They sit down and Alyta opens her parcel. 
�Two fish and feta popovers, made to order, with extra feta,� she says, smiling.  All afternoon they talk
about the differences between Corinth, and Atlantis.  They feed the chickens the leftover figs, and one comes up and sits on Jason�s lap.
�Ha!  Looks like you�ve found yourself a girlfriend, Jason!� Alyta roars as the hen starts pecking at Jason�s
hair. 
�Yes, well, could you please get her off me now?� Jason asks, and Alyta takes her off him. �I knew it.  Gobbles.  Alyta, meet Gobbles.  I�ve known her since she was a chick.  She was about to be eaten by a fox, and I saved her.  I think she thinks she�s part human.�
�Oh, I see, so you�re not her boyfriend, you�re her mommy.� Alyta exclaims, trying to keep a straight face.
They look at each other, Alyta trying to keep a serious expression and Jason looking like anything but a mother.  They both burst out laughing and walk through the market.

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