Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament (Goblet of Fire)

Chapter 16: There's Dragons in the Woods

Thalia couldn't sleep, it has been almost a week and she has gotten nowhere. That is how she ended up crouched down on the floor behind her bed in the empty girl's dormitory. Well, it wasn't really empty, but everyone else was already in a deep sleep.

"Is there anything else? Any tracks of some sort?" she grumbled, before looking up and eyeing the Iris Message against the wall.

The hunter shook her head, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear she replied, "There isn't much we know about it. Only Samantha came back from the scouting trip alive, and she's still in the infirmary."

Thalia wedged an arrow into the wooden floor, her grip tightened through irritation, "There has to be something that could help me track-"

There was an unmistakable roar. It was faint yes, but Thalia's keen hunter 'senses' caused her to crane her neck and look at the window.

The hunter through the IM message frowned, "What is it?"

A few seconds it was completely silent and Thalia froze, continuing to stare out the window. It was quite dark and deep into the night; she could only faintly retrace the outlines of trees over the marshy landscape. A fog - no, it was nothing like the mist - a normal cloud of fog rolled over the small hills, but never passed outskirts of the forest.

Yes, Thalia and the others have heard of the Forbidden Forest. Even though they were dying to explore, their curiosity hadn't gotten the best of them... yet.

Thalia saw it as sign of welcome when a puff of smoke poked out from beneath the trees, quickly followed by a fiery blast of flames.

She smiled, yanking the arrow out of the floorboard, "I found it," and she swiped through the Iris Message just before the huntress wore an unmistakable grin.

She sprinted downstairs to bring the others, and she told herself with quite pleasure,

"They wouldn't want to miss out on the fun, now would they?"

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Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia managed to sneak out of the castle. To be honest, it wasn't that hard. All they had to do was bribe the Fat Lady (promising to listen to her singing for the next week), and have Annabeth scout the hallways with her invisibility cap beforehand, then lead them in the right direction.

By the time they had reached the greenhouse, both Percy and Annabeth began to hear the faint bellows from the dragons too. They crept closer, now a few yards away from Hagrid's Hut, and pushed themselves upward and over the fence of his pumpkin patch one-by-one.

"Thalia..." Annabeth tapped her on the shoulder, "That sounds like more than one dragon," her face paled. It was hard to see Thalia in the dark, but her whole body stiffened before she silently nodded.

They continued forward.

The noise became louder and louder, until they were so close they began to hear human voices too. Percy quickly gestured for them to follow, leading them behind a fallen log. It's position strategically based for the three to have a good look at what was going on.

Percy lifted his head, just for enough to take in the environment.

The clearing was surrounded by gigantic pine trees and various scorch marks and leaf piles burnt to the crisp. But the most shocking intake of information, was the five different dragons trapped inside iron cages in the very center. Dangling around each of their necks, wings, and claws were various chains. Some being tugged outward on both sides (by either magic or force alike) to force the dragons lower onto their cages' surfaces. A group of nearly 2 dozen wizards walked about, scouting the perimeter or either joining in on holding the dragons in place.