Chapter Sixteen, Viva la Vages!
Grover and Percy dove behind feed sacks just before the doors opened and one of the truck drivers walked in.
"Man!" He waved his hand in front of his nose. "I wish I hauled appliances!" He poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.
"You hot, big boy?" He asked the lion. Then he dumped the rest of the water in the bucket right on the lion's face.
The lion roared in anger, but the man just waved his hand and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
The man threw a Happy Meal bag into the antelope's cage. I glared. Everyone, especially people who transported animals, should know that antelopes don't eat McDonald's!
The trucker 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!"
I couldn't believe this! Why did that man just treat those animals like that? I looked around and inspected the truck more. It was in such a bad condition. Almost as bad as the condition the animals were in. I knew then that the transport business couldn't be legal. I had to do something to drive away the guy inside, but what?
My eyes fell open the door. It was still open from when the man went in. In two seconds, I had run out of the truck.
Outside, it was bright. It was such a change from being inside a dark and stuffy truck. I ran around to the front side of the truck and saw another man sleeping on the passenger's seat. Suddenly, I got an idea.
I banged the side of the truck loudly. It startled the man sleeping and woke him up. I heard the man inside yell, "What do you want, Eddie?"
I was already running back into the truck when Eddie responded, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"
I was back in the truck on the side when the guy named Maurice responded, "What are you banging for?"
I raised my fist again and banged the inside of the trailer.
"What banging?" Eddie yelled outside.
Maurice clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. He went out of the truck saying, "Stupid Eddie is such an idiot! Why do I even put up with him? He doesn't do anything."
I ran over to where Percy and Grover were having and took of my cap. "This transport business can't be legal." I said.
"No kidding!" Grover said as he listened to what the animals were saying, another "super power" of satyrs. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers! We've got to free them!"
Grover looked over at Percy. I also did, grudgingly. But Percy just looked frozen with thoughts running through his mind. I almost waved my hand in front of his face when all of a sudden, Percy grabbed his sword and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.
The zebra jumped out of the cage in one second, glad to be freed. He turned to Percy and bowed.
I was sort of confused and wondered why the zebra was bowing to Percy. Then I remembered how Poseidon created the horses. Zebras were somewhat related to horses, so therefore Percy could communicate with both zebras and horses.
Grover held up his hands and bleated a blessing to the zebra in goat talk.
Just then, Maurice poked his head inside the truck to check out the noise, and I feared we'd be discovered when the zebra leaped over Maurice and ran into the streets.
I heard screams, honks, and lots of chaos. We ran to the doors of the trailer and saw the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard with hotels and casinos. The sight was kind of funny. I mean, a zebra galloping by hotels and casinos? I wish I had a camera.
