Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files

Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files is a companion volume to the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, collecting three short stories along with in-character interviews and supplementary materials. The book is framed by a letter from Rick Riordan, writing in the mock role of "Senior Scribe," or camp chronicler, of Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for demigods, the half-human children of the Greek gods. The letter introduces the stories as previously unrecorded adventures of Percy Jackson, a teenage son of the sea god Poseidon.

In the first story, "Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot," Percy spots Clarisse La Rue, a daughter of the war god Ares and Percy's longtime rival, fighting arrow-shooting birds outside his school. After helping Clarisse defeat them with his magical sword Riptide, Percy learns her predicament. Ares gave Clarisse his war chariot to drive as a rite of passage usually reserved for his sons, and she must return it to his temple by sunset. Her two immortal brothers, Phobos, the god of fear, and Deimos, the god of terror, stole the chariot because they resent a daughter receiving the honor.

Phobos appears, uses his power to make Clarisse see her worst fears, and gives a cryptic clue: The chariot is "across the water" where "the little wild animals live." Percy deduces this means the Staten Island Zoo. After surviving Deimos's attack on the ferry, they find the chariot at the zoo, camouflaged from mortal sight by the Mist, the magical veil that hides the supernatural from ordinary humans. Phobos and Deimos ambush them. Inside the aquarium, Phobos traps Percy in a vision of Camp Half-Blood in flames, his friends begging for help, invoking the prophecy that Percy will one day choose to save or destroy Mount Olympus. The voices of aquarium fish break the spell, and Percy overpowers Phobos, who proves a poor fighter without his fear power. Percy then finds Clarisse on her knees before Deimos, who has shapeshifted into the form of Ares to exploit her deepest fear: her father's disapproval. Percy urges her to stand. She rises, declares she is tired of being afraid, and defeats Deimos. Percy solidifies the ocean surface so Clarisse can drive the chariot across New York Harbor to the USS Intrepid, Ares's temple, arriving at sunset. Before parting, Percy confides that Clarisse was among the friends in his fear vision, and she accepts the gesture with quiet gratitude.

The second story, "Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon," takes place during a Capture the Flag game at Camp Half-Blood. Percy and Charles Beckendorf, lead counselor of the camp's cabin for children of the forge god Hephaestus, scout enemy territory and discover a massive mound teeming with Myrmekes, giant ants that hoard shiny metal. Beckendorf spots ants dragging a severed automaton dragon's head and charges toward it, but the ants paralyze him and drag him underground. Annabeth Chase, Percy's best friend and daughter of Athena, and Silena Beauregard, head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, capture Percy during the confusion.

Rather than attempt a suicidal direct rescue, Annabeth proposes reactivating the bronze dragon, an automaton built by the Hephaestus cabin decades ago that once guarded the camp. They find the headless body buried in a crater, and Annabeth reattaches the head by splicing its wires. Silena commands the reactivated dragon to protect a son of Hephaestus, and it charges the Ant Hill. While the ants swarm the dragon, Percy, Annabeth, and Silena slip into the tunnels and find Beckendorf alive but paralyzed. They drag him free, and Beckendorf triggers the dragon's electrical defense, routing the remaining ants. When the haywire dragon turns on the demigods, Beckendorf leaps onto its neck from a cliff and deactivates it. Silena kisses his cheek, and Beckendorf asks her to the Fourth of July fireworks; she happily accepts. As Percy limps back to camp leaning on Annabeth, she asks, "See you at the fireworks?" and darts away, leaving Percy wondering if she just asked him out.

The book includes five in-character interviews with campers. Highlights include Annabeth growing flustered while discussing Percy's inability to notice how people feel around him, hinting at her unspoken feelings, and Percy advising potential demigods to find a satyr and get to Camp Half-Blood immediately.

The third and longest story, "Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades," begins when Percy's pet hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, interrupts his English exam. He chases her to a park where he encounters Thalia, daughter of Zeus and first lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, a band of immortal maiden warriors, and Nico di Angelo, a 12-year-old son of Hades. Percy realizes the children of the three most powerful gods have been deliberately gathered.

The ground opens, and they fall into the Underworld. Persephone, goddess of springtime and Hades's wife, reveals that Hades has been secretly forging a sword of Stygian iron, a dark Underworld metal, with one of his magical golden keys of death set in its base. The sword can raise the dead or kill any living thing with a single touch. A demigod servant of the Titan lord Kronos stole the nearly finished blade. Persephone needs demigods to catch the thief, since divine law forbids gods from intervening directly. She argues that if the children of all three major gods return the sword, the act will signal trust among their divine fathers and prevent a power struggle. She gives them a tracking carnation whose petals fall as the thief nears an exit, along with enchanted roses that will transport them home afterward. Percy demands Hades swear on the River Styx, an oath even gods cannot break, never to use the sword against the Olympians. Persephone agrees on his behalf.

The three trek through the Fields of Asphodel, the dismal meadow where ordinary dead wander, and the Fields of Punishment, where condemned souls are tortured. They interrogate Sisyphus, the legendary trickster doomed to roll a boulder for eternity, who reveals that a one-eyed young man carrying a wrapped package asked about escaping and was directed to Melinoe, the goddess of ghosts. Percy suspects the thief is Ethan Nakamura, a son of the goddess Nemesis. They are ambushed by Keres, bat-like battlefield spirits who declare allegiance to Iapetus, a Titan imprisoned in Tartarus, the abyss-prison beneath the Underworld. One slashes Percy's shoulder with poisoned claws, leaving a wound that will require divine healing.

Weakened, Percy raises the River Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness, into an arc so the group can cross its dry bed. His strength fails, and the water crashes down on him, but he creates a protective shell of dry air and staggers to the far bank. At Melinoe's cave, ghostly images of Thalia's and Nico's dead mothers entrance both demigods, draining the life from them. Percy, who has made peace with his fallen friends, is unaffected and breaks the spell. The last petal falls from the carnation. At the cave mouth stands Ethan holding the unfinished sword, beside Iapetus, a 10-foot-tall Titan freshly freed from Tartarus.

A battle erupts. Thalia pins Iapetus with arrows while Nico summons skeletons to engage Ethan, who drops the sword. Percy wounds the Titan but is smashed to the edge of the Lethe. He taunts Iapetus into lunging, dodges, grabs the Titan's collar, and pulls them both into the river. Percy's Poseidon-born power keeps him dry and aware while the current erases the Titan's memory. He drags the bewildered Iapetus from the water and names him "Bob," a friend. The Titan accepts completely. Ethan flees. Nico retrieves the sword, and Bob heals Percy's wound with a touch.

At Hades's palace, Percy makes Hades swear on the Styx before accepting the blade. Hades then turns on Persephone, and the truth emerges: She orchestrated the sword's creation without his knowledge. When it was stolen, she recruited the demigods to retrieve it and force his hand. Hades orders the blade returned to the forges for completion. Percy threatens Persephone for manipulating them, and she vanishes. Nico stays in the Underworld to advise his father and reminds Percy of a mysterious offer from the previous summer, a dangerous way to fight Kronos. Percy says he is still considering it. Thalia and Percy crush the enchanted roses and return to the living world, heading off together for cheeseburgers.