Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament (Goblet of Fire)

Chapter 30: Winter has Come

Charlie sprinted a few more meters into the woods, before stopping to catch his breath. He had ran for 10 minutes now, and the dragon was nowhere in sight. Other wizards had departed in different directions, searching other parts of the woods... but he could've sworn he heard a shout in the distance. Not of the dragon, but it seemed human.

It had stopped moments ago, and all he could follow was the faint memory of the sound of leaves and footsteps. Charlie leaned against the tree, shaking his head in loss of hope. He looked up again, starting to head back.

But that is when he saw it.

He literally stumbled back in shock, his wand was thrown forward in front of him as he had fallen. His mouth open wide, he stared at the shadowy figure in front of him, now illuminated because of the light from his wand. The wand now sat 3 paces away from the snake-like eye of the Hungarian Horntail.

The dragon's head lay motionless in front of him; its left eye was swollen shut, but had no visual reason to why it was gushing blood. Blood seemed to drip from his forehead as well, but once again there was no trace of a spell or weapon left other than the nasty, curved gash nearby his horns.

The dragon stayed unnaturally still...

The dragon was dead.

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"Thalia!" Annabeth slid onto the bench next to her, embracing her in a warm hug just as Thalia dropped another hash brown into the flaming goblet. The smoke crackled, as Thalia jumped back in surprise.

"Hi," she grinned towards her, but Annabeth's calculated glare quickly noticed the demigod's slow, sluggish movements. Annabeth already concluded that last night, fighting the dragon, must've caused Thalia's exhaustion to heighten to the brink of collapsing.

"Did you..." she looked around to see if nobody could hear, "Did you kill it?"

Thalia's eyes darted to the goblet, a ball of fire now burning up the last of her hash brown. She stiffly nodded, and met her friend's eyes once more, "It's done. I even got rid of the arrows, in case anyone thought they looked... odd."

Annabeth's posture softened, seeming quite relieved, "Percy and I managed to write down the egg's clue last night... Then talk over the prophecy..."

Thalia raised an eyebrow, "What about it?"

She bit her lip, after quickly glancing to Percy now entering the Great Hall for breakfast. He waved towards her as Annabeth turned back towards Thalia, "Are you going to stay?"

The huntress grinned, "Sure am. After Iris Messaging the others last night, Artemis thought it was a good idea to tag along to your quest... now that you guys dragged me along in your death prophecy."

Percy had walked towards them by now, and sat across from the two, "You're staying?" His mouth formed into a smile, as Thalia nodded once more, "That's great!"

"I'm only staying 'till the end of the year... but yeah, I am," Thalia blew the fire out of the goblet, just after Percy dropped a handful of blueberries into the cup. The last of the food burned away, then she looked up to face them, "Now what were you guys saying about the prophecy? And the Golden Egg?"

Percy was about to open her mouth, just as Hermione slid onto the bench next to him, "Did you guys hear?"

Annabeth frowned, "Hear what?"

Ron slammed Today's edition of the Daily Prophet onto the table, as he sat beside them on the bench too,

"The Hungarian Horntail was murdered!"