Annabeth's POV

I sat on the grass, eating my lunch. It was only three more days until our deadline. I hoped today wasn't as dramatic as yesterday, with Grover arriving and Mormo attacking us. Harry had gone on ahead, because he heard a strange noise. I saw him running over, an expression on his face that obviously said "Uh Oh."

And of course I was right. "Monster… lake…" He whispered.

Oh great! I thought. It was probably Lake Lerna, where the Hydra and Karkinos (a giant crab) live, and no doubt we'd have to cross it. And it probably had even more monsters in it – just for us.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, "What does that mean?"

"There's a lake on a head, it seems to go on for ever… and I saw monsters in it… two to be exact. But there might be more," Harry replied, finally getting his breath back.

"So we'll need to cross it," I said.

Harry nodded. Grover spat out the crisp packet he had been chewing on. "I don't want to! I'm too scared! Please can we find another way over, like Hermione or Harry could conjure up a flying carpet or something!"

"Sorry, we haven't learned that spell yet," Harry said.

Grover groaned. "Just great," he whispered to himself.

"But how can we cross?" Percy asked.

"Using a simple spell that I learned in transfiguration class," Hermione said.

"I learned it too!" Harry said.

"Yeah, you did, but you weren't paying proper attention in class, so it would be best for me to cast it, since I know it better than you," Hermione replied. Harry nodded.

"Fine!"

"Annabeth, can you get me a stick?" Hermione said. I nodded and went to look for one. I found one under a nearby tree. I picked it up and handed it to Hermione. "Thanks," she said.

"It's nothing," I said.

She started walking down the hill. "Come on!" Hermione said. "I need to do it by the water's edge." We nodded and followed her down.

Once we got to the water, I saw two enormous shapes in the water.

Grover gulped. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"It's the only way across; it's so wide that both edges are over the horizon. Do you really want to walk round it?" I said.

"No."

"Okay, but we have to go over it using whatever Hermione is going to conjure up."

Grover didn't say anything. Hermione started casting the spell. She tapped the stick twice with her wand and said, "Boatio!" (A/N I just made it up) The most awesome thing happened… the stick turned into a boat! Yeah, a boat, you weren't misreading. Magic was so cool. The boat was big enough to fit all of us in, and had oars. We clambered in and Percy and Harry took the oars. The first couple of metres were okay, and neither of the monsters attacked us. Yet.

Suddenly there was hump rising in the water. The surface broke and there, was none other than Karkinos, the giant crab, with its pincers at the ready.

I quickly unsheathed my knife, oh how stupid I was, I stabbed and my knife blade hit Karkinos's shell, breaking the tip off my knife.

"Great!" I said. "Now how will we kill it if its shell is so hard?!"

"Dunno," Percy said, "we'll think about that later, right now it's about to lunge at us!"

"Well use the oars, that's what they're for; moving the boat!"

Percy rolled his eyes and started rowing quicker.

I needed to think of a way to kill Karkinos. Then I thought of something, his underneath, it didn't have shell on it.

"Percy?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Give me riptide," I said.

Percy passed me riptide and I unsheathed it. Quickly when karkinos was in the air, I stabbed, and suddenly it was raining dust.

"I did it!" I whispered to myself.

"We've still got the hydra to go, remember," Hermione said.

"I know."

Harry and Percy rowed on while Hermione and I looked on ahead. Grover just looked out over the lake, munching on a coke can. Suddenly, I saw something… the hydra…!

"Guys," I said. "Look!" I pointed at the Hydra, all its eight heads now out the water.

Percy unsheathed riptide and swung it at one of the Hydra's heads, just as he did it, I said: "Don't…!" But just as I said that, he cut its head off, and it fell down and went in the water with a loud Splash! "…cut its head off, it gets replaced with two," I finished.

"Oops," He said.

"But how are we going to kill it?" Harry asked me.

"We'll have to stab it in the body!" Hermione said instead of me.

"Exactly," I said. "But it will be really tricky, because its body is in the water."

Suddenly, Harry stabbed. But suddenly there was a horrible sound of metal scraping against rock. Harry had hit a rock. When he pulled his sword out of the water; it had a big chip on the blade. "Great," He muttered under his breath.

Hermione readied her bow. She shot her arrow at it, and missed, the arrow fell into the water, never to be seen again. Seriously, everyone seemed to be missing today.

"Oh, just give it here," I said, putting my hand out for the bow. "I'll try." Hermione handed it to me and I readied. I'd actually never really used a bow before. So I'd better be good. I readied it and fired. It hit the hydra right in the body. Easy, Peasy, Lemon, Squeezy. It squirmed it the water for a bit, but fell into the water like a stone. Well and truly dead. I'd probably better get a bow now, seeing that I was so good at it. But it must have just been beginner's luck.

"How the hades did you do that?!" Percy questioned me.

"I dunno," I replied. "Beginner's luck, I suppose!"

We carried on over the lake, safe and monster free. And once we finally reached the end of the huuuuuge lake, we got out of the boat, a little soaked, but completely fine. Grover suddenly turned a horrible green colour. He retched and puked on the grass. Ugh. I don't even want to mention what it was like. Everyone turned away, feeling sick. We walked over the grass, searching for a place to set up a camp for the night. We eventually found a clearing, and Grover was sick again. We was very prone to seasickness, or should I say, lakesickness. We settled down for the night, and I drifted off into sleep, waiting for what was to come in the morning…

A/N So that's that chapter done. Sorry it took so long to write, I was on holiday for two weeks, and then I just kept forgetting for the last four weeks. It's been 6 weeks since I last updated. That's terrible. And also the computer broke and took ages to fix. Yup, It's been VERY hectic. I like this chapter because I managed to put a little bit of funniness into it, which I'm not usually that great at. So now I only have six more chapters to write. It's sad. But I WILL be putting a sequel up. And I'm doing an OC contest for my next story. I need some wizards/witches and some demigods. Visit my profile to get the full details. Oh and P,s PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

Henny14