•as the world caves in•

•we have a nice old story time on a zoo truck•

Some antelope with a balloon tied to one of its horns.

And a lion who was pacing around, with flies all around it, panting from the stuffy heat.

"This is kindness?" Grover almost yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

Suddenly the truck started and shook and I fell down, along with the others.

We all huddled in the corner on some food and I did my best to ignore everything.

Grover talked to the animals sadly, me and Annabeth tried to argue that we should set them free, but Percy told us it wouldn't do any good til we stopped.

Percy and I found a water jug and we both refilled their bowls. We then used our swords to switch out their food.

Grover and Annabeth, on the other hand, were calming the antelope down as Annabeth cut the balloon off.

We would cut the gum out of the zebras hair, but it might be risky with the truck moving and all.

Grover then promised the animals that we'd help them in the morning.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack, and Annabeth laid down on the ground. I ate some Oreos.

"Hey," I said and looked at Percy. "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."

"That's okay."

"It's just..." I shuddered. "Scorpions."

Percy looked at me with some confusion. "Why are you so scared of scorpions?"

I looked at my hands. "When I was traveling with Annabeth, Luke and... another friend, we came across a cave somewhere in Pennsylvania. I was the first to walk in the cave, and there were hundreds of them."

"Scorpions?"

"Yeah. I don't know why, but they all attacked me. It was before I had my sword, so I was defenseless. Luke had to end up saving me and drag me out of the cave."

"And you've been scared ever since?"

"Yeah. After that, we'd randomly see scorpions, no matter where we went, there was always a few just around."

"Weird."

"Yeah, I know, trust me. Anyway, I owe you."

"We're a team, remember?" Percy said and I smiled. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."

"I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?" Grover mumbled.

We all laughed.

Annabeth looked at us. "In the Iris message... did Luke really say nothing?"

I froze.

"Luke said you, Coriane, and him go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."

Oh gods, there he goes, saying that like it's nothing.

"I should've told you the truth from the beginning," Grover said as his voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me a long."

"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."

Percy, please shut up.

"And the other three half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp..." Percy looked at me. "That was you, Luke and Annabeth, wasn't it?"