The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

14. The Lotus Casino

Y/N woke with a start.

Annabeth was shaking his shoulder. Behind her, Grover and Percy were slowly getting up, and Ethan was up to something with the locks on the animals' cages.

"The truck's stopped," Annabeth said. "We think they're going to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Ethan hissed.

What a joke, he thought.

Annabeth had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Y/N, Grover and Percy had to dive behind feed sacks and hope they looked like turnips. Ethan joined them, squeezing against the wall. His hoof crushed Y/N's foot, but he refrained from making a sound. This was no time to get caught.

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.

Next to Y/N, under the turnip sacks, Ethan 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, backed away.

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—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?"

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

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to Y/N. She must have 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!"

"We've got to free them!" Ethan said.

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

The zebra burst out. It even bowed to Percy.

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. They rushed to the doors of the trailers in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. They had 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.