Blood Of The Hero

Chapter 11

"Done."

I dropped the shield on the diner table, smirking and keeping eye contact with the god of war as I did so.

Annabeth and Grover were flanking either side of me, and I just knew they had the same smug grin I had on, enjoying the shocked look on Ares' face.

We'd made it back from the waterpark in record time, somehow flagging down a taxi in the middle of nowhere which took us back to the diner.

Thankfully, Ares was still there, but it seemed like the whole diner had frozen in his prescence, all of their conversations stopped but everybody refused to look his way. I didn't care though.

He stared down at his shield for a couple of seconds before picking it up and weighing it in his hands, confirming it was definetly the real deal. He looked back up at us, almost annoyed but he still had that stupid smirk on his face.

He whistled. "Wow. You really did it, huh? That's good."

Ares stood up and Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "What about what you're gonna give to us?"

He sighed and nodded, like it was an inconvenience. Ares snapped his fingers, and a beige backpack appeared on the table. He pointed to it.

"Ambrosia, nectar, mortal money and drachmas. Some clothes too. That should be enough to last you till you reach DOA." He pushed it into my chest, and I grabbed it, slinging it on immediately.

"And our transport?" Grover asked.

Ares didn't even speak, just pointed outside to the car park. Beside his Harley bike was a large truck, maybe an 18 wheeler, parked precariously and taking up about four parking spots at a time.

On the side was a sign. "FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL".

Grover immediately tensed up when he laid his eyes upon it and Ares bumped his shoulder.

"Grow some balls, ya dumb satyr. It's only a few captive animals, y'know. If you care so much about their freedom, release 'em when you reach LA or something, I dunno. But that's your ticket outta Vegas." Ares grunted before smirking again.

"Aren't ya glad I came? Who knows, you coulda been wasting away at the Lotus Hotel right now, but I saved the day, didn't I? So what do you say to me, brats?" He bent down, as if I wasn't taller than him, and spoke to us like toddlers.

"Thanks." I muttered through gritted teeth.

"There you go!" He laughed to himself and I felt the urge to punch his stupid fucking face, but that probably wouldn't end well for me.

Annabeth sighed. "Let's go."

She turned around and began to walk towards the truck, and Grover hesitantly followed. I gave Ares one last glare before spinning around and leaving, but he just had to aggravate me more.

"Good luck with your momma!" He yelled.

I flipped him off. I couldn't resist. I just had to. But that seemed to only amuse him.

"Fuck you too, kid!" He yelled.

With that, I closed the door behind me and left the diner, walking around to the back of the truck. Amazingly, it was already open, and we climbed our way inside.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. It was horrific. Like seriously bad. Think of a stable. But much worse. Fit that into a small, warm, dark container, leave it to stew for however long, and that's what the smell was. Awful.

I looked around, and sure enough, there were animals everywhere, holed up in extremely small cages, filled to the brim with their own waste. They all looked severely malnourished. It was terribly sad. I could see why Grover was so upset honestly.