Let's Not Do The Time Warp Again

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Grover and I were furiously shaking Percy away.

He woke up with a start.

"The truck's stopped," Grover told him. 

I added, "They're most likely coming to check on the animals." 

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed. 

She had it easy.

She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover, Percy, and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.

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.

I was tempted to hop out and smash that bucket on his face for messing with Leon. That's the name I've been calling the Albino Lion.

Leon the Lion.

Not exactly creative, I know.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said. 

Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. 

For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked about just as murderous as I did. Percy was holding him back from trotting over to the man and potentially hoofing his face in.

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. 

Annabeth must have hopped out the back to cause a distraction.

The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

A voice outside, Eddie , 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. Takes one to know one though.

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to us, "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening, "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!" 

"Then we free them. The true animals aren't in the cages," I told them.

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but they'd definitely be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute.

Percy grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage. 

The zebra burst out. It turned to him and bowed.

Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, 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.

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