20
Pigeon holed
🐦

With a lump of fear in your throat you slowly walk down the wooden steps that take you deep down into the dark hole.

What will you find down there? Everyone else emerged unscathed so it can't be dangerous can it? But will it be painful? What is this strange singing Percy creature?

You descend until all you can see above you is a circle of light and the noise of the hall fades to nothing.

"Hello? Percy?"

No answer.

Then: "Coo coo come closer, so I can see you better!"

The voice emerging from the blackness in front of you has a strange high pitched musical quality to it. Fear closes your throat and you are rooted to the spot. Then... ouch! Something has bitten you on the bum! You see a small spider dropping off your robes and scurrying away into the darkness.

The pain in your bum gets you moving.

You slowly walk forwards wishing you could run back up the wooden steps to the safety of the hall above.

As you get closer you can just make out two round yellow eyes staring back at you, and between them a large... beak? Is Percy some kind of monster? Is he going to leap out at you and attack?

Your eyes adjust to the dark and you realise that you are staring at a gigantic pigeon, that's as tall as you are even sitting down.

"Who are you?" you ask.

"Coo coo I'm Percy the Picking Pigeon and I will choose your house for you coo coo! Look into my eyes Arthur, look into my eyes..."

You stare into the yellow eyes of the pigeon which seem to grow until they become the entire world.

"Coo coo well, you're cowardly Arthur, coming here last in the line," says Percy. "Maybe Hedgehog House is the one for you. Or maybe you are just a bit sneaky - and Snakefang House is best? Or perhaps hanging around last was a clever ploy? It does show that you can plan ahead, so Ravenwing maybe? But certainly not brave Lionpaw. Coo coo."

As Percy the Picking Pigeon probes your mind, you concentrate with all your being, repeating to yourself: