Chasing Legends (Male Reader x Annabeth Chase)

Chapter Thirteen

13| A Quick Casino Run

Y/N groggily stirred from his sleep.

Grover was shaking his shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

"Give me a break." Y/N thought.

Annabeth had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover, Percy and Y/N had to dive behind feed sacks and hope they looked like turnips.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

The lion roared in indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.

In between Y/N and Percy, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, back up into the cage and looked straight at Percy.

There wasn't any noise, but the look on Percy's faced definitely suggested otherwise.

There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.

The trucker inside with them yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

A voice outside—belonging to Eddie—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Knock, knock, knock.

Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"

Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to Y/N. He figured that she must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

"It's not like we have all the time in the world," Y/N looked at the door. "If we're gonna do something, we got to do it now."

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, and they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. Realizing this, Percy grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

The zebra burst out. It turned to him and bowed.

Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. The group rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. They'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.

Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.