Chapter Fourteen

(AKA epilogue)

((Present Day))

Dantenar's POV:

I laugh as a football sailshigh overhead, Kile chasing after it. After making an impressive aerial leap to grab it, he lands awkwardly and falls over, laughing as well. Zarathel looks up from her notebook to see what was going on, then takes a drink of her apple juice and goes back to writing.

Kile is just getting back on his feet when another form hurtls into him, effectively tackling him. Jaron grabbs the football and races off towards the "end zone," (actually just a large rectangle of grass sectioned off by orange cones) holding it high above his head in a victory gesture. He nearly has a touchdown when Kile makes a flying leap and tackles him. They stop playing after this, because Dad has opened the grill and is busily transferring the hamburgers and hotdogs to a plate.

Aileen had gone to the car to get the cooler with the drinks in it, and now she brings it back, carefully avoiding touching it to her side.

It's been two months since we destroyed Yahz'rod, and our lives are nearly back to normal. Aileen still has that wound, but it's healing nicely and the doctors say it won't leave much of a scar. Turns out that you do age in the game, since Kile is still twenty-two, and basically this little party is to celebrate his twenty-second birthday. The Makers were invited, but only Dreya and Jin could make it.

Their car pulls up right as we're going to say grace, so we wait for them to jog over before praying. Dad does the honors, being the oldest, and after his prayer, we dig in. Dreya and Jin are remarkably similar. Both have golden brown hair and brown eyes.

I grab a hamburger and a slice of cheese, then go to sit on a picnic table, grabbing a bottle of water on the way. Zarathel saunters over to sit beside me, then Kile and Jaron, talking together about – what else? - football. Jaron slides onto the bench in front of me, flashing a grin my way as the two young men continue to discuss plays and strategies. I rolled my eyes. Guy talk.

Dad, Dreya and Jin (who have decided to keep their names) come over and sit down on the picnic table as well. Dad raises his cup of Coke and toasts our future. We echo his words and all take a sip together, which makes me grin. I'm easily amused.

Zarathel is still writing in the notebook, and I try to tell what the title is. Without looking up, she angles the notebook so I can see the title scrawled on the front with green Sharpie marker: What is your FATE?

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A/N: THE END!!!!!!!!!!! This was such a fun story to write. Maybe I'll do a sequel! Anyway, review what you thought of the story, things I can improve on and things that you really liked. I know I said the epilogue would be up within the week, and you probably weren't expecting it so soon, but I just had to finish it. So this is it. The end of the story. Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks, as always, to my faithful reviewers:

almostinsane

Measha of Clomati

oroya edge

Dead Paw

fate-n-fable

Too bad there weren't more of you...grrr. Anyway, if you read it, thanks!