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the first thing that hit me was the smell. it was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.
"oh, gods. that is horrible," i said covering my nose with my shirt.
the trailer was dark inside until percy uncapped anaklusmos, his sword. the blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals i'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing i didn't know the name for.
someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. the zebra and the antelope had each gotten a styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. the zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. the antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read 'over the hill!'
apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. he had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.
"this is kindness?" grover yelled. "humane zoo transport?"
he probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and i would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.
we huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. annabeth, and i were in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but percy pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving.
i found a water jug and refilled their bowls. percy used anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. he gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.
grover calmed the antelope down, while annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. she wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. we told grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night.
