Y/n Pov:
The war god was waiting for us in the diner car park.
"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."
"You knew it was a trap," Percy said.
Ares gave me a wicked grin.
"Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."
Percy shoved his shield at him.
"You're a jerk."
Annabeth and Grover caught their breath. Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.
"See that truck over there?"
He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner.
"That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
I said, "You're kidding."
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched.
"Freeride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."
He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me. Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty dollars in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos.
I said, "I don't want your lousy—"
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, glaring at me. "Thanks a lot."
I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose.
I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window like she was afraid of Ares. She dragged the fry cookout from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.
Great, we'll make the papers again tomorrow. Imagine the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENCELESS BIKER.
"You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares."You promised me information about my mother."
"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle."She's not dead."
The ground seemed to spin beneath us.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."
"Kept. Why?"
"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling me."
Ares laughed.
"Oh yeah? See you around, kid."
I balled up my fists.
"You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues," I told him.
Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind on my face.
"We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back. And you Y/n Hunter, you've got my girlfriend's nerve, yet you have your mother's bravery. I would seriously hate to see you fall in battle."
He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delaney Street.
Annabeth said, "That was not smart you two."
"I don't care." Percy and I said at the same time.
"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."
"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but..."
He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on theKINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.
"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."
I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver. We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. The trailer was dark inside until Percy uncapped Riptide. 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'dever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and an antelope.
Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he 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!
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 truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall.
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 was in favour of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.
I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then 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 the night.
Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and she and I nibbled on some Oreos half-heartedly.
"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park guys."
"That's okay," I told her.
"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."
"Because of the Arachne story," Percy guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"
Annabeth nodded.
"Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."
"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."
I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"
The three of us laughed. I pulled apart an Oreo, handed Percy half.
"In the Iris message ... did Luke say nothing?" Annabeth asked.
I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening.
"Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree." Answered Percy.
In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions. Grover let out a mournful bray.
"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."
"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."
He nodded glumly.
"And the other three half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp ..." Percy looked at me. "That was you two and Luke, wasn't it?"
I finished my Oreo.
"As you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like Annabeth. They were ...amazing monster-fighters, even without training. Grover and I found them travelling through Virginia.
"I was supposed to escort Thalia and Y/n to camp," Grover said, sniffling. "Only Thalia and Y/n. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. But I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all four of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker ..."
"Stop it," I said. "No one blames you. I don't blame you and Thalia didn't blame you either."
"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of ClovenElders said so."
"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" Percy said. "That's not fair."
"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither wouldLuke. We don't care what the council says."
Grover kept sniffling in the dark.
"It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the three most powerful half-bloods of the century, Y/n, Thalia and Percy."
"You're not lame," I insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name another who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."
"Yeah," Percy said. "It's not luck that you found Thalia, Y/n and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."
I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snore, I realized he'd fallen asleep.
"How does he do that?" Percy marvelled.
"I don't know," I said. "But that was a nice thing you told him."
"I meant it."
We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. Thelion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips. Annabeth had fallen asleep on my lap. I fiddled with my camp necklace, while softly humming 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor.
"That pine-tree bead," Percy said. "Is that from your first year?"
I looked at him. I stopped humming.
"Yeah," I said. "Every August, the counsellors pick the most important event of the summer and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress-now that was a weird summer...."
I chuckled at the thought.
"Can I see your ring?"
I showed him my hand. He grabbed it while examining the arrow-shaped ring.
"It's really pretty. Where'd you get it?"
I sighed.
"My mother gave it to me."
"O-oh, you don't have to tell me if you don't - "
"It's alright."
I took a deep breath.
"Artemis gave it to my mortal mother when my mother left the hunters. She enchanted it so a bow and arrow would form when said a special word. When my mother died, Artemis kept the ring and gave it to me on my first birthday at camp. It has both my mothers in it."
"Why did your mom leave the hunters?"
"The hunters swore an oath to be virgins forever, therefore, when my mother got pregnant, she had to get kicked out."
"How did your mother get pregnant anyway?"
"Artemis made a treaty with Zeus so my mortal mother could get pregnant, so she could stay a virgin. Artemis swore to the River Styx she would stay a virgin forever, so she can't get pregnant."
"Oh."
There were a few moments of silence.
"You used to live in an orphanage right?" Percy said. "That's were Grover found you."
"Yeah."
"Have you ever tried, you know, leaving camp?"
"I wouldn't. I can't leave Annabeth, or Luke, or my cousins. I lived seven years of my life having no one there for me, and now I do and I won't let that opportunity go to waste. Even if I did, I have nowhere to go."
"How about Annabeth? Has she got a place to go?"
"With her father. I've tried convincing her, but ever since last time, she hasn't listened."
"What happened last time?"
"She tried to go home for that school year, but her stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a 'freak'. Monsters attacked. She didn't even make it through winter break. She came right back to Camp Half-Blood."
We stayed in silence.
"I want to leave someday," I said. "There's this boarding school in New York, called 'Atlantic High'. The school has a view of the Atlantic and there's a scholarship I'd like to apply for. There's an archery range, a drama studio and gods, you should see the classes there is! There's Crafts, but, not your usual Crafts, like actual crafts with wood and machines and all. If I ever leave Camp Half-Blood, I want to go there."
"You should apply for the scholarship."
"Thanks for the advice, but I can't leave my friends and family alone."
"Alright, but at least promise me you'll think about it?"
"Promise."
We passed another few miles of silence.
"So if the gods fight," Percy said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War?"
I put my head against the backpack Ares had given us and closed my eyes.
"I don't know what will happen. I just know I'll fight next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain."
I closed my eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
~
When I woke up, Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said.
"What if they've come check on the animals?" asked Annabeth.
We all gave each other worrying glances.
"I'll wake up the Seaweed," I offered.
I turned to Percy. I nudged him continuously.
"Wake up, Percy, the truck's stopped."
"Wassapenin?" he croaked.
"The truck's stopped. We think they're coming to check on the animals."
Percy groggily sat up.
Before he could even say anything, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!"
She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. I pushed Percy and Grover behind some seed sacks.
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.
I tensed. The only thing I saw was red. I was angry.
How can they treat the animals so badly?
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!"
There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.
The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"
A voice outside - it must've been Eddie's - shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"
"What are you banging for?"
Knock, knock, knock.
Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"
Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.
A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of thetrailer.
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!"
"We've got to free them!" I said.
We looked over to Percy, looking for approval. After all, he was the leader of this quest.
Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside totorment the animals again any minute. Percy grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.
The zebra burst out. It turned to Percy 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 andinto the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailerin time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs.We'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 apermit for that!"
"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.
"The other animals first," I said.
Percy cut the locks with his sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used forthe zebra.
"Good luck," Percy told the animals.
The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off togetherinto the streets.Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind ofstunt by one of the casinos.
"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all-"
"Don't worry," Grover said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," Grover said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they needuntil they find a safe place to live."
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" Percy asked.
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," I reasoned.
"Hey!" Percy protested.
"Kidding," I said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."