Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files Read Online Free PDF

keep out monsters—the counselors tried all sorts of different ways to protect themselves. The most famous was the bronze dragon. The Hephaestus cabin made it with the blessing of their father. Supposedly it was so fierce and powerful that it kept the camp safe for over a decade. And then . . . about fifteen years ago, it disappeared into the woods.”
    “And you think this is its head?”
    “It has to be! The Myrmekes probably dug it up while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn’t move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can’t be far away.”
    “But they chewed it apart. It’s useless.”
    “Not necessarily.” Annabeth’s eyes narrowed, and I could tell her brain was working overtime. “We could reassemble it. If we could activate it—”
    “It could help us rescue Charlie!” Silena said.
    “Hold up,” I said. “That’s a lot of ifs. If we find it, if we can reactivate it in time, if it will help us. You said this thing disappeared fifteen years ago?”
    Annabeth nodded. “Some say its motor wore out so it went into the woods to deactivate itself. Or its programming went haywire. No one knows.”
    “You want to reassemble a haywire metal dragon?”
    “We have to try!” Annabeth said. “It’s Beckendorf’s only hope! Besides, this could be a sign from Hephaestus. The dragon should want to help one of Hephaestus’s kids. Beckendorf would want us to try.”
    I didn’t like the idea. On the other hand, I didn’t have any better suggestions. We were running out of time, and Silena looked like she was about to go into shock if we didn’t do something soon. Beckendorf had said something about a sign from Hephaestus. Maybe it was time to find out.
    “All right,” I said. “Let’s go find a headless dragon.”
    We searched forever , or maybe it just seemed that way, because the whole time, I was imagining Beckendorf in the Ant Hill, scared and paralyzed, while a bunch of armored critters scuttled around him, waiting for him to be tenderized.
    It wasn’t hard to follow the ants’ trail. They’d dragged the dragon’s head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud, and we dragged the head right back the way they’d come.
    We must’ve gone a quarter of a mile—and I was getting worried about our time—when Annabeth said, “Di immortales.”
    We’d come to the rim of a crater—like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and dotted with tree roots. Ant tracks led to the bottom, where a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from a bronze stump on one end.
    “The dragon’s neck,” I said. “You think the ants made this crater?”
    Annabeth shook her head. “Looks more like a meteor blast. . . .”
    “Hephaestus,” Silena said. “The god must’ve unearthed this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon. He wanted Charlie to . . .” She choked up.
    “Come on,” I said. “Let’s reconnect this bad boy.”
    Getting the dragon’s head to the bottom was easy. It tumbled right down the slope and hit the neck with a loud, metallic BONK! Reconnecting it was harder.
    We had no tools and no experience.
    Annabeth fiddled with the wires and cursed in Ancient Greek. “We need Beckendorf. He could do this in seconds.”
    “Isn’t your mom the goddess of inventors?” I asked.
    Annabeth glared at me. “Yes, but this is different. I’m good with ideas . Not mechanics.”
    “If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head,” I said, “I’d pick you.”
    I just blurted it out—to give her confidence, I guess— but immediately I realized it sounded pretty stupid.
    “Awww. . .” Silena sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Percy, that is so sweet!”
    Annabeth blushed. “Shut up, Silena. Hand me your dagger.”
    I was afraid Annabeth was going to stab me with it. Instead she used it as a screwdriver, to open a panel in the dragon’s neck. “Here goes nothing,” she