The Mysterious Room, Hogwarts

Percy

A demon-like hiss echoed around the room. Gray smoke poured out from the hole. "Uh... what is that?" Percy asked, dumbfounded. Annabeth shook her head, mystified.

"Did we get it wrong? How-" Annabeth started. She froze in horror as a large, slimy beast crawled out of the hole. As it emerged, it solidified into a hellhound.

"Of course," Thalia muttered, drawing her spear. Percy winced, remembering that Thalia had bad experiences with them. Two more slime monsters crawled in behind it, both turning into hellhounds of their own.

"How are they doing that?" Percy asked, astonished.

"Well... this portal is reaching down towards Tartarus... and that's the monster's home court... so..." Jason replied.

"Tartarus?" Percy questioned skeptically.

"Don't you see the red?" Jason pointed to behind the hellhounds. Percy saw.

"Oh. But why-" The hellhounds lost their patience. Growling, they sprang up. One hellhound landed in between their group, forcing them to duck and split into two. The others attacked the right flank, where Calypso, Leo, Piper and Thalia were trapped. The middle one launched itself at Percy, Jason and Will.

Jason blasted it with lightning, distracting it for a few seconds, but then leaped up, using the winds to stay aloft while bringing his lance down on the hellhound's head. It immediately turned into a pool of darkness.

Percy charged at the other two, Riptide flashing like an arc of pure energy before slicing at a hellhound's leg. The large dog shadow-traveled away, vanishing back into wherever shadow-travel leads you to.

The last dog hunched over Percy for a second, before vanishing due to a spear stuck in its throat. Thalia's spear, Percy realized. The dogs were gone for now.

The tiles reappeared, but this time they were different. Even Calypso scrunched her brow and shook her head. "What was the answer to the riddle, then?" Percy asked, confused.

"Oh!" Annabeth lit up. "I know! The Big Banana!"

Haha! Tricked you there, didn't I?

~Faraway Dragon