My story | PJO x male reader

Chapter 29: Animals I feel sorry for

I watched the bike carrying the war god speed off into the distance. I don't think it hit me, yet. So I did the only thing I knew how... I joked.
'So, I'm dying.'

Almost immediately after, I felt something along the lines of a shove, on my right shoulder.

I turned to see Annabeth with an unreadable expression, how many of these has she pulled in the last few days?

"Don't say that," Annabeth said. I guess I said it out loud.

"C'mon, you were thinking it too." She went to say something but instead she just turned and walked away, toward the truck.

I looked down at the ground, running over the lines again.

'The bird shall descend into darkness.'

What darkness? As my mind came up blank, I eventually realized I was just staring at the ground and the converses I was wearing.

Ok, let's get into the truck. As soon as I took a step forward I was reminded of the possible, broken ribs I have.

I quickly looked up at the sky and saw the top of the moon barely visible. I instantly felt better as the pain seemed to be burned away.

I took another step and was met with almost no pain. I love the moon.

I then made my way over to the truck, climbed in, and shut the doors behind me, leaving the room dark. As soon as I got into the truck the smell hit me so hard that I thought I was about to pass out. The place reeked of wet cat, dog, feces, and urine. If I could only tune out my smells.

I sat down and looked over our area. On the far end of the room were multiple cages with three of them holding a different animal. In one of them was a lion who was thrown a massive bag of turnips, how do you even mess up that bad? In the other two were a zebra and an antelope, who were each given meat. Ok, they have to be trying now, right?

As I was observing the scene, Percy pulled out his sword. Wait, what is he doing?

"Hey, don't kill them," I asked in a panic.

"What?" He asked. All of a sudden the sword glowed and it illuminated the room. Sometimes I forget I have night vision.

"Never mind." I turned my attention back to the animals and I felt absolutely terrible. The lion was pacing on used blankets, and by pacing I mean barely having enough room to turn around in. The zebra had gum wrapped in its mane and the antelope had a balloon wrapped around its horn.

"This is kindness?!" Grover yelled. "Humane Zoo Transport!?!?" I was waiting for him to walk outside and goat-kick them to Tartarus, which I would've found heavily entertaining but the engine roared to life making us have to sit down.

We decided to sit in the corner, away from the cages to avoid the smell and the flies. The lion eventually stopped pacing, sat down, and looked at us.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, slightly hoping I could speak lion.

He didn't reply but just gave me a sad look. Grover and I did this for the other animals and the same thing happened.

Annabeth wanted to break the animals out of their cages but Percy quickly turned it down after explaining that it would do no good unless the truck stopped.

I looked over at the cages and saw their food still mismatched. I quickly scooted my way over to the two herbivores and grabbed the meat, repeatedly apologizing in hopes to calm it down and then throwing it to the lion. He quickly ate it and smiled.
Thank you, my lord.
"Anytime." I did the same for the other animals while Percy refilled their waters.

Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon from the antelope's horn, while Grover and I tried to calm it down.

Annabeth also wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane but Percy decided that would be too risky, seeing as we could barely stand in the bouncing truck. Percy told me to tell the animals.
"Hey, we'll help you guys tomorrow, but right now, we are super tired." They gave back an understanding nod as they returned to a sleeping position.

I leaned my head back on the wall, still running over the prophecy in hopes that anything would come out of it but nothing did.

I tried to look at the positive side of the situation but whenever I did, the negatives outweighed the positives. The more I thought about the more scared I got, so I decided to just push this out of my mind and I got some sleep.

I sat up, gasping for air. I immediately started taking in my surroundings, because I knew this was not going to be a fun dream. I was in a giant cavern, the walls being around 120-something feet tall with a red hue cascading down the rocks. In front of me was a giant hole that went pitch black as soon as you looked in it. I was holding my sword in my right hand

As I peered into the hole I heard Annabeth's voice behind me.

"Y/N. Are you ok? What's wrong?" No, why is she here? Leave her out of this. She walked around and was face to face with me now. Concern was clear on her face.

As soon as I was about to answer some invisible force pulled her towards the hole making her have to grab onto the edge dangling off the side.

"Down in this world, we're faced with choices." I heard the mysterious voice echo to my right.

I turned to see Percy, Luke, Grover, and the rest of camp choking as some of them fell to their knees from lack of oxygen.

Annabeth lost her grip on one hand.
"Join me, you won't have to make choices like these."

Annabeth looked up at me desperately.
"Y/N, help me. please." I couldn't move and... she fell.

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AN: Any criticism is welcome