-I Hate Snakes-

Note: So, I want to apologize to anyone who read the last chapter before I got to fix this little mistake. You see, sometimes, when I'm writing, I purposely leave sentences out when i know there's something i want to write there, but i can't quite write it yet, for whatever reason. Usually, i would either add in a sentence, or just remove the place holder and forget about it. Anyway, I forgot to do that for the last chapter and i ended up leaving the place holder in, which may or may not have annoyed people. So, sorry about that if you it got to you. Well, anyway, here we are at chapter four. I actually hoped to have this done a few days ago, but i ended up having more work than i thought i would over the weekend, and now test time is coming up and i'm just swamped right now *sighs* Anyway, i'm usually pretty good at managing time, so my writing shouldn't be affected too much by my increased work, but there may be some delay in coming posts.

Well, for now, as always, enjoy the chapter.

After managing to get over the realization that I may have just brought the wrath of hell down upon myself, Thalia and I started off toward the everglades on foot. It would've been nice if we could get a ride there, but we had spent the last of our money getting to Florida. That was going to make things very complicated for the rest of our trip, but I was hoping that the problem would be solved once Sarah and Justin got there. We would've waited for them, but we both agreed that it would be better if we had dealt with the hydra before they got there.

Walking wasn't so bad honestly, it wasn't like we had to go that far, and walking actually felt good for a change. Okay, let me rephrase that a bit. Walking wouldn't have been so bad if the two of us weren't demigods, and worse, children of two of the most powerful gods in existence. Yeah, that sounds more like how it felt.

I had neglected to realize that Miami was right on the edge of the sea of monsters, the Bermuda Triangle, and the fact that Thalia and I were both demigods must have caused every monster within a thirty mile radius to come running towards us thinking that they were about to get a free meal. I don't know how we managed to get through that Iris message without being attacked, but the monsters were making up for lost time. We were pretty much running for our lives by the time we made it to the everglades. Apparently the last time I was here wasn't enough to convince me that Miami is one of the top ten worst places to visit if you're a demigod.

We found ourselves in the everglades, a pack of hellhounds on our tail. I distinctly remembered that hellhounds had trouble running in wet, swampy areas like this. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly easy for Thalia and me to run through wetlands either. Luckily, we managed to lose the pack after a short time and we found ourselves hiding in a thick brush and hoping that no other monsters would find us anytime soon.

"This isn't exactly the way I pictured this going," Thalia said.

I looked over at her. She was covered in mud, due to the fact that she had slipped while we were running from the hellhounds. She also had a number of fresh wounds covering her body, a result of the numerous monsters we encountered on our way out of Miami, but she hardly took any notice of them. I was in no better shape, my hands and feet were caked in mud, so much so that I had trouble holding onto Heartstopper, which I had hidden away for the time being. I was also sporting multiple cuts and scrapes, but no serious injuries. Well, at least we were still alive.

"Does anything ever go the way you think it will," I said.

"Not really," Thalia said, "But it would be nice if it did for once."

We pulled ourselves out of our hiding spot and took a look around. The land was flat, covered in tall grass, trees, various other kinds of brush, and a lot of water. The ground was muddy, it looked like it might've just rained, but I guessed that it was like that naturally. There were plenty of places for monsters, animals, or a couple of demigods running from said monsters to hide. This wasn't even half of the land we had to search either. Who knew how many other hiding places there were over the everglades.

"Well," Thalia said, "Guess we should get started then."

"Where," I asked.

Thalia shrugged. "Anywhere that looks like it might be housing a giant, multi-headed snake," she said. She started forward but stopped and turned back to me. "By the way," she said as she tore a piece of cloth from the bottom of her garment, "The air around the Lernaean Hydra's lair is supposed to be toxic. You might want to have something to cover your mouth and nose when we get there." She turned and moved on again. I followed, tearing a piece of cloth off of my pant leg as I did.

We searched anywhere that came off as suspicious, a thick brush, a large, hollowed out tree, a mass of water that no animal seemed to want to get near, anywhere. Whenever we got close to a possible Hydra lair or whenever it felt like it was becoming hard for us to breathe, we would quickly cover our faces so we wouldn't be breathing in poison. I wasn't really sure if it would work, but Hercules had done the same thing in the myth so I had to bet that it would.

We had been searching for an hour with little luck. A few times, we thought that we had come across something, but it turned out to be a regular snake or some other animal that lived out in the everglades. Most of the animals we disturbed were not too happy to see us and we usually had to fend them off somehow, luckily my powers were enough to handle them.

The dangerous animals were the least of our worries though. We were attacked by monsters several times while we searched. It was nothing that we couldn't handle, a young Cyclopes or two here, a couple of hellhounds there, but they were annoying and did manage to keep us distracted from what we were supposed to be doing, which we were already having enough trouble with.

We fended off another group of hellhounds, after which Thalia punched a nearby tree. "Gods this is frustrating," she said, "Aren't we having enough trouble finding this thing without the monster attacks?"

"You didn't expect it to be too easy did you," I asked as I looked around expecting more enemies.

"Of course not," she said, "But we could catch a bit of a break here and there right?"

"We could," I said, "But that doesn't mean that we have to."

Thalia sighed. "Let's just get moving I guess."

We continued our search. We had both decided by that point to keep our weapons ready in case we were attacked. I held onto Heartstopper and Thalia kept her bow and quiver slung over her back. The hunter's weapons were enchanted much like Justin's bow was, but the Hunter's bow and quiver only appeared whenever they needed them. Plus, they didn't have an infinite supply of arrows in a quiver that always looked like it was empty. Thalia also had a spear and shield that she used, but only if she really needed them.

"So," Thalia spoke up while we searched, "Do you think that we'll be able to kill the hydra? It won't be an easy target."

"I've killed a hydra before," I said, "It wasn't easy, but I hardly think it'll be much of a problem."

"Yeah, but this is THE hydra, Hirius," she said, "The first hydra, the one that even Hercules couldn't kill on his own. It won't be like any other hydra you might've come across."

"I wouldn't worry about it," I said, "I'm sure I'll think of something when the time comes."

Thalia looked like she had more to say, but she decided to drop the topic. To be honest, I wasn't as confident as I sounded. I knew that the Lernaean Hydra would be much stronger than the one that I fought a few years ago. Even though I managed to kill the one that attacked me back then, I had barely survived the encounter and I only beat the thing because I lost control of myself and uprooted half of the forest where I had fought it and nearly killed Justin in the process. If I had to resort to something like that again. Would I be able to snap out of it before I did something that I might regret? Would I even be able to trigger something like that again? No, I had to beat this hydra the old fashioned way.

I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard something moving around us. Thalia turned to say something to me, but I stopped her with a quick sign telling her to keep quiet. The air was silent, but I could still sense something near us, though I didn't have a complete idea of what it was, it did feel familiar. We were surrounded by trees and brush, so it was impossible to see anything. Thalia readied her bow. The two of us waited and listened.

"Maybe it left," Thalia whispered after a while.

I could still feel it though, faintly, but it was still somewhere close. "I'm not so sure," I said.

Thalia lowered her bow and replaced the arrow she had pulled from her quiver. "What do you think we should do," she asked.

I wasn't sure. Whatever I had just sensed was still out there and I had no idea what it actually was. It could've been the hydra, but why wouldn't it attack us? Maybe it was trying to lure us into a trap. Or maybe it was trying to stalk us, to wait for the perfect moment to strike while our defenses were down. Whatever the case, I didn't like not knowing what it was that was out there.

"Maybe we should just move on," I said.

"Really," Thalia asked, "With something following us?"

"It's far off now," I said, "It can probably still smell us, but if it didn't attack right away then I feel like it might be leading us into a trap."

"You think it's that smart?"

"Predators are always a lot sharper than you give them credit for." I started walking again. "We'll just have to keep a closer eye on our surroundings."

Thalia looked ready to object, but she followed me without saying a word. We continued our search, Thalia keeping a close watch for anything that might try to kill us. It was only a few minutes before I felt the monster again. It followed us slowly at first, but it quickened its pace with every passing second. Clearly this thing was a hunter and we were it's pray. I would have to lure it out if I wanted to find out what it was.

We walked on in silence. I didn't tell Thalia that the monster was trailing us again. I didn't want to risk letting it know that I was aware of its presence, and telling Thalia that it was near might cause her to jump at every little noise and scare whatever was stalking us off. Instead, I let her be, and I pretended like I was no wiser to the monster's existence than she was.

I felt whatever was following us moving closer, it could probably see us by now, but I didn't dare risk looking back at it in case I scared it off again. I waited for it to attack us. I would have to act quickly once it did. I heard it moving behind us, a sound I was used to, the sound of a snake as it slithered across the ground. Thalia stopped. She must have heard it too. Whatever it was, it was ready to attack.

"What…"

"Look out," I yelled.

I pushed Thalia to the side. As I did, a massive snake, probably the size of a small house, burst out of the brush around us and lashed out at me with one of its five heads. I dodged to the side quickly and slashed at the first head with Heartstopper, forcing the hydra to retreat. Thalia stood up and readied her bow, shooting me an angry glance as she did so. The hydra eyed us cautiously.

"This isn't the right hydra," I said, "Is it?"

Thalia shook her head.

I spat a silent curse. Of course this wasn't the right hydra, this one was even smaller than the hydra Justin and I faced. And it only had five heads, the one I fought before had to of had at least eight heads, and that was just a guess, I imagined that the Lernaean Hydra must have had at least twenty, and probably more than that. This one must have been a baby by the Lernaean Hydra's standards.

The hydra lashed out at us again, two of its heads going for me, two going for Thalia and the middle one remaining behind to defend its body. Thalia fired and arrow that stuck one of the heads in between its eyes, but it barely did much damage. I quickly summoned a shade to protect us. I used the shade to throw the hydra off of the ground and into a nearby tree.

Thalia and I looked at each other. This was our chance. We turned tail and ran as fast as we could away from the hydra. The monster shook itself out of its daze and chased after us, but we were already far ahead of it. I thought for sure that we were going to get away, but then I felt something. I could sense more monsters nearby. And there were a lot of them.

"There are more," I yelled to Thalia.

"What," she yelled back.

"Duck!"

She looked confused, but she got the message. The two of us fell to the ground and slid over the mud. As we did, the head of another hydra snapped at the air above us where we had been only a moment ago. We came close to being half the demigods we used to be.

We slid to a stop and Thalia got onto her knees. She turned around and fired an arrow at the hydra head behind us, aiming to blind it, but the monster was quick to retract its head into the foliage again. Thalia readied another arrow for when it came back, but I was hardly worried about that one anymore. Another hydra burst out of the trees in front of me. I grabbed Thalia and pulled her with me as I dodged the third hydra's attack.

Thalia and I scrambled to our feet and ran, hoping to put as much distance between us and the hydras as possible. I knew right away that it was no use. The three behind us were already chasing after us, and I could still sense more of them lurking out in the brush. I had no idea how many of them had yet to attack us, but I knew that there were too many of them for Thalia and I to deal with ourselves. We had no choice but to try and get away from them.

I grabbed Thalia again and pulled her left so that we both changed direction. We barely avoided having our heads bitten off by two more hydras that were waiting to ambush us. We avoided them, but we didn't get far before three more appeared from out of nowhere and attacked us. We dodged them and tried to go back the way we came, but before we could so much as move the three hydras from before blocked our path. We were surrounded.

"What now," Thalia yelled.

I held my sword up. Thalia readied her bow and aimed at the closest monster to us. I looked around. There were eight hydras in all, each of them with at least five heads, a few of them had more, but none of them were any bigger than the first one that we encountered. There was no way that we could kill all of them, but maybe we didn't have to. Maybe we just needed to knock a few of them around.

"Follow my lead," I said.

I charged at one of the hydras. Right away, I realized how big of a mistake that was. I thought that I could throw the monsters off guard if I charged them, but I was horribly mistaken. Two hydras lashed out at me, forcing me to dodge them before I could attack the one I was aiming for. Thalia fired an arrow that hit one of my attackers in one of its many eyes, but that barely seemed to do anything other than make it angry.

I dodged the hydra as it went into a mad fury, snapping at me repeatedly. Thalia tried to help, but three of the remaining hydras attacked her before she could. I dodged another head and stabbed Heartstopper into the top of it, pinning one of the hydras heads to the ground, but the others quickly jumped in to help the immobilized head. I dodged the other heads and tried to counter attack, but it was no use.

I dodged the three hydras again and again, trying to think of some way to kill them. Eventually I was pushed back to the point that I was standing back to back with Thalia, her bow aimed at her three attackers. The three hydras on my side closed in on us and the ones on Thalia's side did the same. The two remaining hydras patrolled the rim of the battlefield, daring us to try and make a run for it. I looked around for a way out. We were trapped.

"Okay, Hirius," Thalia said, "If you have some kind of amazing plan, now would be the time to put it into action."

"I wish I could tell you that I did," I said.

"You can't just shadow travel us out of this?"

"I could try," I said, "But it'd be kind of hard to concentrate and I'd likely end up trapping us in a world in between this one and Hades' as opposed to saving us. Plus, we would probably be dead before I could actually get us out of here."

The hydras drew closer. Thalia shot an arrow at one of them, which barely missed it, and the monster backed off. Another hydra stormed forward and attacked her. I turned around and slashed at the hydra leaving a nice cut along the side of one of its heads. The rest of them, except for the two keeping us from running, attacked us at once. Thalia dodged two of them and stuck one with an arrow. I dodged and hacked at the others, my strikes connecting, but none of them doing any real damage.

Thlaia dodged another attack, but she lost her footing in the mud and fell to the ground, losing her grip on her bow as she did. I tried to get over to protect her, but four of the hydras had me surrounded and I was barely keeping myself alive. One of the hydras moved in to attack Thalia. She pulled something out of her pocket that expanded into the spear I had seen her using before. She was able to keep the hydra at a distance, but a second one was closing in on her from behind.

"Enough of this," I screamed at the monsters.

I felt myself become light-headed without warning. I hadn't intended to put so much power into the command, I didn't think that I would be able to control these monsters in the first place, but I nearly passed out from the effort. The hydras stopped in their tracks, all of them looking at me now. All was silent for a moment, and then one of them attacked me.

"Defend," I yelled.

One of the hydras on the outer edge moved up. It rammed into the hydra that attacked me and bit into one of its heads. The others backed away as the two began ripping and biting at each other. I released my control on the monster, feeling like I was going to black out if I tried to hold on to it, but the two continued battling, one of them having already ripped a head off of the other.

This gave me an idea. I couldn't control all of them at once, not if I wanted to kill myself from the effort, but I might be able to use my control to at least get us out of this alive. If I could control one of them at a time for just a few seconds, then I might be able to set them all against each other, providing a distraction and allowing Thalia and I to get out of this without being turned into snake food.

Before I could act, I heard hissing behind me. I turned around. Two of the hydras had ceased watching the others fight and had their attention turned to me. I backed away as one of them lunged at me. I held my sword up and prepared to put my power behind my next command. I felt myself becoming light-headed once again.

"Kill it," I yelled at the second hydra.

The command went through as the second hydra bit down on the tail of the one attacking me. The hydra lifted its brother into the air and tossed it aside like a rag doll. The hydra stood up and bit down on the head of the monster under my control, which began biting frantically at the body of its attacker. As the two continued their brawl, I relinquished my control over the hydra. I looked over at Thalia and mouthed a single word, run.

Thalia pushed herself onto her feet, grabbed her bow off the ground, and ran. I followed her, hoping that the remaining four hydras would be distracted enough by the sudden turn of events that they wouldn't chase after us. Unfortunately, that hope was wrong. Before we were far enough that the monsters were out of sight, I already heard the hydras chasing us. I stopped and turned to them.

"What're you doing," Thalia called to me as she ran ahead.

"Keep going," I called back.

She didn't question me, and I was glad that she didn't. I saw the four remaining hydras slithering after us, knocking aside trees, brush, and anything else that got in there way. I summoned what energy I had left and put it into my last two commands, yelling the first things that came to my mind that I thought would turn the monsters against each other.

"He called you a wimp," I yelled to one hydra as I pointed to the one next to him. The hydra turned and bit the one next to it, causing both of them to fall over and begin biting at each other. I pointed at one of the last two hydras. "He called your mother fat," I yelled. I didn't think it would do anything, but the hydra I had called to lashed out at the one next to it, causing the two to fall over in a similar fashion as the others had done.

With the hydras all fighting with each other, I ran off as fast as I could, aiming to put as much distance between myself and them. I was running for about five minutes when I finally came across Thalia. She had stopped in an open area, nowhere for anything to hide or to ambush her from. Her bow and quiver had disappeared and she looked exhausted, which was no surprise since I probably looked no better than her. I stopped next to her and we allowed ourselves a minute to catch our breath.

"I…" Thalia said between breaths, "I hate snakes."

"You should try getting to know one," I said.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

We were silent for a moment. "Where do you think they all came from," I asked.

Thalia shrugged. "Who knows," she said, "This place is probably a breeding ground for them or something. It certainly looks like a good place for them to live."

I looked back to see if any of them had followed us. When I was sure that we had safely escaped the monsters, I scanned the area around us. We had emerged into an open field, the grass was short there, and there was nowhere for anything to hide from us. Ahead of us, I could see what looked like the edge of a town, or maybe it was just a lone warehouse or something, but it looked like it could be somewhere for us to rest.

"Come on," I said walking forward, "We should probably call it a night."

I hadn't realized after everything that happened, but it was starting to get late already. The sun was beginning to set and it was going to be dark soon. It wouldn't be a good idea for us to go stumbling around the everglades in the dark, especially with who knew how many hydras running around. We needed to find some place safe to sleep before night fell.

Thalia caught up to me. "Aren't your friends supposed to be flying to Miami?"

"I'm sure they'll be okay," I said, "They'll find somewhere to stay. We can meet them tomorrow morning."

"If you say so," she said.

We walked along, but we soon found that our path was impeded by a long, winding river. I looked up and down the stream for a way across, a bridge or something, but there was none. I looked down at the water. It was too muddy to see how deep it was, but we didn't seem to have any other choice.

"Guess we'll have to cross," I said.

"No way," Thalia said, "There has to be another way."

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the opposite bank. I dragged the shadows toward me, but a feeling of nausea came over me and I had to let go of the darkness before I passed out. Controlling the hydras took a lot more out of me than I had anticipated. We had no choice but to walk.

"No good," I said, "I'm too tired to shadow travel."

I stepped forward and slowly lowered myself into the water. At first, I thought that it was going to be too deep to cross, but then my foot sank into what I could only guess was the muddy bed of the river. I stood up, the water coming up to my chest making it difficult to breath. It wouldn't be easy to move through, but we could make it across. I turned to Thalia.

"It's shallow enough," I said, "Come on."

She looked hesitant, but she followed me and lowered herself into the creek slowly. The water rose to her chest, but she was still able to stand and walk. We moved forward, me taking the lead. I chose my steps carefully, hoping that nothing dangerous was living in the water. We were about halfway across the river when an uneasy feeling came over me. That was when I heard Thalia scream.

"What is it," I asked turning to face her.

"Something just touched me," she said.

I looked around in the water, but it was impossible to see anything. I focused, trying to sense if any monsters were nearby, but it was impossible to think clearly when I was so tired. If only the sun would set, then I would have enough darkness to replenish myself. Until then, we were flying blind.

Thalia drew her spear and shield, prepared to defend against an attack. I continued to search the surface of the water, hoping to spot something, but there was no way that I could. Thalia screamed again and stabbed her spear into the water, but missed whatever she was aiming for. I felt something rubbing against the side of my leg. Whatever it was, it was big and its skin was slimy and rough.

I dived down under the water and tried to search for the thing. Even under the surface the water was muddy and I could feel my eyes stinging as I struggled to keep them open. I saw something move, only for a second, but that was all I needed. I summoned Heartstopper again, thankful that the sword had its own store of energy that I could use to call it, and slashed it through the water. The blade connected with something hiding in the water and I saw a flicker of movement again. I pushed myself up and broke the surface of the creek, coughing up muddy water as I did.

"Look out," I yelled through a mouthful of water.

Before Thalia could react, a massive creature broke the surface next to her, sending a gush of muddy water flying in all directions. Thalia brought her shield up as fast as she could. The monster lurched forward and bit down on the edges of Thalia's shield, luckily, she remained unharmed. The monster lifted her out of the water and threw her onto the bank opposite where we had been standing before.

The monster turned its eyes on me. All of its eyes. The hydra in front of me must have been three times the size of the others we had faced before and it must have had ten times as many heads, maybe more, how it managed to hide from us under water I could only guess at. The monster eyed me, each of its fifty-plus heads hissing angrily. I held Heartstopper, but it would be impossible for me to fight while I was chest deep in water. I had to get onto the land.

I backed away slowly, but the monster kept the distance between us to a minimum. Its heads fanned out, like they were trying to surround me. I watched them, wondering how it would attack me. Then it happened. One of the heads lunged at me. I tried to dodge, but there was no way for me to maneuver in the water. The hydra was about to bite my head off when an arrow soared over me and pieced the upper part of the hydra's mouth.

"Run," I heard Thalia yell from the bank behind me, "Now!"

I didn't need to be told twice. I turned and waded through the water as fast as I could. Behind me, the hydra, now recovered from Thalia's attack, charged after me. Its heads attacked me again and again, but Thalia was able to keep them from getting to me. She must have been firing arrows three at a time with the pace she was moving at. Despite that, the hydra was still able to get past her attacks. Luckily, I was barely able to keep myself defended with the use of my powers, but even a slight use of them was taking a huge toll on me.

I reached the bank and climbed up it quickly. Thalia and I tried to run, but we scarcely made it a few feet before I tripped over myself and fell into the mud too tired to even move. The hydra slithered its way out of the water and onto the land. It moved in on us slowly, arrows sticking out of its heads at various angles. Thalia held her bow aimed at the monster, but she was no match for it on her own. We were as good as snake food.

I watched the sun as it began to set. I just needed a little more time, just a few more seconds. The sun sank down, the world was plunged into darkness, even the moon was dark that night. I felt myself growing strong again as I drew in every bit of darkness around me. I don't think I had ever been more thankful to be a child of the Underworld. It was probably one of the only times.

I stood up. The hydra moved in on us and attacked. I summoned a shade and formed a shield all around us. One after the other, the hydra's heads slammed into the shield. Thalia fired her bow, the arrow piercing one of the monster's necks, but it was hardly necessary. I commanded the shade to form in front of me and I used it to launch the hydra into the air and it crashed down into the river once more.

Thalia looked at me in amazement. "How did you…"

"I'll tell you later," I said, "But first, we need to get out of here."

Thalia and I ran ahead together. Behind us, the Lernaean Hydra got out of the water and slithered after us. I held back a curse. I hoped that it would at least be dazed enough that it wouldn't be able to chase us, but I must not have hit it as hard as I had thought. Now we didn't have much choice but to turn and fight, but that didn't come off as the best idea. After all, Thalia was barely in any shape to fight after the first group of hydras and, even though I had recovered energy wise, there was no way that I could heal my wounds from our earlier encounter.

We ran forward, the hydra easily keeping up with us. We had to hide, but where, all around us there was nothing but open field. Up ahead, I was beginning to make out what it was that I had seen earlier. It wasn't a town, or a warehouse even, it was a junkyard, an old abandoned one by the looks of it, but there were still a lot of old cars and trucks scattered across the area.

I directed Thlia toward the junkyard, thinking that we could find a place to hide there. By the looks of it, the place was a couple of acres worth of land all surrounded by a metal fence that was several feet high. A dirt road led out of the place, the mud of the everglades having been left behind a while ago, and there was a single building at the front of the place, which I had mistaken for a warehouse before. Beyond the junkyard, I could see what was indeed the edge of a town, but I didn't want to lead the hydra to a place where people might get hurt.

Lucky for us, the gate was open, so we didn't have to waste any time trying to climb the fence. By that time, it was too dark for Thalia to see, so I had to guide her through a labyrinth of junked up vehicles. The darkness might have been an advantage for us, but I knew that most snakes had a way of seeing in the dark, like infrared vision. Of course, I had no idea if hydras were anything like normal snakes, but I wasn't going to test the idea.

I pulled Thalia down and the two of us ducked behind a car on the far end of the junkyard. I poked my head around the car and watched the hydra. It slithered through the junkyard, its heads fanning out in all directions, some of them snatching up cars and tossing them aside as it searched for us. It was still a good distance away from us, but it would only be a matter of time before it caught up.

I looked all around the junkyard hoping to find something that I could use to fight this thing. The ground below me felt wet. I wouldn't have thought it strange at first, but I could smell something that told me it wasn't water on the ground. Was that gasoline? My mind went into overdrive. I thought back to how Hercules had defeated the hydra in the myth. Hydras only had one weakness.

I reached into my pocket and pulled a lighter out that I had been carrying around for what felt like forever. I never thought that I would find a use for it other than lighting campfires at night, but it was about to become my most useful weapon. "Thalia," I whispered, "Hand me an arrow."

"What," she whispered back.

"Hand me an arrow."

She pulled one from her quiver and handed it to me. I took the arrow and soaked the tip of it in the gasoline as best I could. I looked at it for a moment, wondering if this was a good idea. I lit the tip of the arrow with the lighter. The flames danced for about a minute before dying out. I checked on the hydra again. It hadn't taken notice of us yet.

"Do you think you can hit it from here," I asked Thalia.

She poked her head over the car. "I can see it, but just barely," she said, "Yeah, I could probably hit it from here, but what are you planning?"

I handed her the lighter. "The ground here is covered in gasoline, it must've leaked from the car," I said, "Soak the tip of the arrow, when I cut off one of its heads, light the arrow with this and shoot."

Thalia looked at me for a moment. "This is crazy you know," she said.

"Just another day in my life." I jumped over the car and ran toward the hydra. "Hey," I yelled as I charged it, "Over here, come get me!"

The hydra turned all of its heads toward me and charged. I dodged its first attack and tried to hack one of its heads off, but I missed it by just a few inches. The hydra attacked me again. I dodged around it, but before I could counter, another head attacked me and I was forced to move.

The hydra attacked me again and again and I was barely keeping up with it. I was just lucky that it was nighttime, otherwise it would've tired me out a long time ago. I dodged around another bite and brought Heartstopper down on the back of one of its necks. The head hissed angrily as my blade cut through the hydras skin and the head was severed from the rest of its body, falling lifelessly to the ground.

The hydra backed away from me, the other heads looking at the spot where I had cut one of them off. I watched as the stub began to split in two, two more heads growing in place of the one I had cut off. However, before the new ones grew in, an arrow with a burning tip hit the stub of the hydras neck. The other heads hissed in frustration, but there was nothing they could do. Alright, one head down, fifty more to go.

The hydra, now with one less head, attacked me again. I fought, shielding and dodging, attacking when I could. Slowly, one by one, I severed the hydras heads and their re-growth was stopped by another one of Thalia's flaming arrows. My plan was working, slowly but surely, we were killing the Lernaean Hydra.

The monster was starting to get angry, more so than it already was. With only twenty heads left, the hydra's attacks were becoming more and more aggressive. I was doing everything I could to keep myself alive. The monster bit down at me. I backed away just in time to avoid it and the monster bit up a mouthful of dirt. I parried the monster several more times, trying to get to it again, but it was much more careful now that we had found its weakness.

I dodged another head and found my back against an old car. The hydra loomed in front of me. One of its mouths opened and shot at me. I dove into the car behind me through the broken window, shards of glass cutting into my back and sides as I did. The hydra bit into the side of the car and lifted it off of the ground. I felt like I was weightless as the car was thrown up into the air only to slam onto the ground again in front of the hydra.

I was shaken up a bit by the ride, but I hadn't taken any serious injuries. Outside, the hydra tried to fit several of its heads through the windows, but they were much too small. I tried to hack at the monster from the inside, but there wasn't enough room for me to do anything to it. The monster picked the car up and slammed it off of the ground several more times. I was only able to keep myself alive by using the darkness as a shield.

The car smashed into the ground for what felt like the hundredth time. Then I heard something slam into the roof. I looked up in time to see the roof torn right off of the car and thrown aside by one of the hydras heads. Another head tried to bite down on me while I was still in the back seat of the car. I was barely able to roll away in time to avoid being eaten for the millionth time today and I jumped onto the back of the monster's neck. Before it could react, I severed the head from its body and another flaming arrow was shot into the stub of a neck.

The hydra flailed around in frustration at the loss of another one of its heads. I moved in to attack again, hoping to catch it off guard while it threw its little temper tantrum, but an uneasy feeling hit me again. I could sense more monsters moving toward the junkyard, more hydras. I looked at the flailing one in front of me. There was no way we would be able to finish it off in time. We would have to retreat for now.

Before I could make a move, I heard the sound of something, or multiple somethings, crashing through the fence surrounding the junkyard. That was when I made the mistake of taking my eyes off of the Lernaean Hydra. The moment I turned away from it, the monster unleashed a fury of attacks. It was lucky that I saw it move out of the corner of my eye and managed to get away from it in time.

I tried to get another one of its heads, but another hydra, a much smaller, attacked me from out of nowhere. I dodged it and almost jumped right into the mouth of a third one, but I was able to kick its head away from me. I was about to make a run for it, but a fourth hydra stood in my path.

I looked around at the four hydras. The three smaller ones were clearly what was left of the group that attacked us earlier. They each had more heads now than I remembered, but I guessed that was from the fact that they were fighting with their brothers. The four hydras hissed at me, watching me closely, waiting, daring me to make a move and give them an opening.

I was starting to agree with Thalia now.

"I hate snakes," I whispered to myself.

I looked around frantically for Thalia. She was a distance away, moved from where we had been hiding before, her bow aimed at the Lernaean Hydra, the biggest one in the group. She was looking at me, looking for an answer to our problem. I tried to tell her to run, but there was no way that she would be able to see me signaling to her.

I looked at the hydras one after the other, prepared to defend myself if one of them decided to attack. Come on think, I told myself, there has to be a way out of this. There was always a way out, but there didn't seem to be one this time. But what was that smell? I could still smell gasoline and it was strong, it must have been everywhere. Maybe that was what I needed. I looked at Thalia. I needed to get to her.

One of the smaller hydras attacked. I summoned a shade and used it to throw the hydra across the junkyard. I ran forward, the other hydras attacked me. I turned and used the darkness to toss another one of the smaller hydras away, but the second one got to me, giving me just a moment to dodge it. I turned and slashed the head of the monster, causing it to rear back in pain. I called another shade and launched the third hydra across the junkyard.

I tried to get to Thalia again, who was now doing her best to keep the hydras away from me, but my old friend the Lernaean Hydra got in my way. I dodged its heads one at a time as they came at me, but I was wasting time. I needed to get passed it. Another head tried to bite me. I stabbed Heartstopper into the roof of the hydras mouth. I felt a searing pain in my arm as one of the hydras teeth pierced through my sword arm, forcing me to release my grip on the blade.

The hydra backed away from me, hissing in complaint of the pain. Heartstopper was still stuck in its mouth, but I didn't have time for that. I ran passed the monster, which was trying in vain to remove my blade from its mouth. I clutched my arm as I ran, trying to stop it from bleeding. Thalia saw me coming and ran toward me. I held my good hand out.

"The lighter," I yelled, "Throw it!" She did so without hesitation. "Now run!"

She turned and ran with me toward the front gates of the junkyard. I lit the lighter and tossed it behind me. The moment it touched the ground, the gasoline ignited, engulfing everything in flames. Thalia and I were barely able to keep ourselves from catching on fire along with everything else as we reached the front gates.

Once we were outside of the fence, I looked back. Huge flames were dancing over the land where we had been a moment ago. The building was on fire as well. I couldn't see the hydras, but I couldn't imagine that they were fairing well. Then I heard a loud boom. Something was about to explode.

"Hit the deck," I yelled.

Thalia and I fell to the ground, our hands over our heads, and I quickly made a shield around us. Just then, a massive explosion went off somewhere behind us, shaking the land around it. I looked back in time to see chunks of flaming metal fly into the air and come raining down in the field surrounding the junkyard. It was a good thing I had put a shield up, otherwise we would've been crushed.

When I was sure it was safe, I put the shield down and rolled over onto my back, Thalia did the same. I looked up at the night sky, drinking in the darkness, feeling better with every passing second. My arm was still bleeding, it wasn't bad, but it still stung. I don't know how long we were laying there, but as long as I didn't have a reason to get up, I wasn't going to.

"Well, now it's definite," Thalia said after a long time, "I really hate snakes."

"They aren't all that bad," I said, "I'll have to introduce you to Greg sometime." I was sure that Thalia had no idea what I was talking about, but she didn't say anything.

"We should take care of that wound," she said. I took my shirt off and tore it into strips. Thalia and I fashioned a crude dressing for my wound. It wasn't much, but the bleeding stopped after some time. My arm still burned like crazy and I wondered if hydras were venomous. After a minute though, I decided to forget about it and I fell onto my back again.

We lay on the ground in silence for a long time. I watched the flames in the distance, waiting to see if the Lernaean Hydra would come charging out of the inferno after us. After a while, I saw two people appear from out of nowhere. They apparently didn't see us lying there, but they were clearly looking for someone.

I didn't think that there was anything strange about two people being out in a field in the middle of the night, though I probably should have, but then they called my name. "Hirius," I heard one of them call.

I sat up and watched them. "Over here," I called back.

The two turned toward us. "I heard him," one of them said, "This way."

They started running toward us and I got up and did the same, leaving Thalia to continue lying on the ground behind me. Before I even got a good look at the two of them, Sarah's arms were around me, holding me so tight that I thought she would never let go, and I'm sure that she didn't want to.

"Dude," Justin said as he caught up, "Where in the world have you been?" He looked passed me. "And who's the chick?"

Sarah let go of me and looked at Thalia, who had gotten up and followed after me. The look on Sarah's face told me that she was not happy. Alright, I could handle this. I had taken on and defeated the lord of time, I even defeated one of the most powerful gods that ever existed. Surely this was child's play compared to that.

"Okay," I said, "Just give me a second to explain." I paused for a minute to gather my thoughts. "Ummm," I said. I was at a loss for words.

"I'm Thalia," Thalia stepped in and introduced herself, holding her hand out to Sarah in a friendly gesture.

Sarah stared at Thalia, who had the biggest smile on her face. Sarah didn't look quite as happy. I could practically see lightning shooting from Sarah's eyes, which was strange because Thalia was the one that should've been shooting lightning, you know, being the daughter of Zeus and all.

"I'm Sarah," Sarah said slowly as she shook Thalia's hand. She had a smile on her face, but I clearly saw her shoot an angry glance at me.

"Nice to meet you," Thalia said. The four of us went silent for a moment. "Well, we should find somewhere safe to talk. I'm sure you guys want to hear all about what Hirius has been up to."

"Yeah," Sarah said, "I can't wait." She was still smiling, but I wasn't buying it. She was clearly mad at me.

The girls started walking toward the town beyond the still burning junkyard. Justin and I stayed behind for a moment.

"I think you might be in trouble bro," Justin said as we followed the girls.

I sighed. "It's gonna be a long night."