CHAPTER FOUR

Tamara and I stared up at the monster, our knees shaking at the sheer size of the thing. Its necks were bent in half because of the small space, making the room appear even more cramped. We backed up into the kitchen part of the shack, running into the huge cooler. The monster made its way towards us, its huge claws grinding against the shack's filthy floor. All of the heads growled at us, making it sound more like a lion roaring.

"Oh darlings, if you just let them kill you without a struggle, it will be much less painful!" the woman offered.

I looked at Tamara, trying to send her a message. No way were we going to just give up and die, but getting out of this wasn't going to be easy either. I tried to formulate a plan. The walls of the shack were pretty weak. We could probably break through them easily. But then what? I didn't know the jungle very well, and I had no clue how fast the hydra could run.

The heads hissed at us, and I could see a ball of fire forming in the middle head's throat.

"Dive!" Tamara cried.

I dove to my right as the monster shot a ball of fire at us. It sped straight through the shack's walls and exploded onto a tree in the jungle, setting it on fire.

"Run!" I told Tamara.

We jumped through the smoking hole in the wall and into the jungle. Behind us, I could hear the hydra hiss angrily as we escaped. I looked back to see what it would do, and my foot caught on a vine. I tripped and startled rolling down a hill. I passed Tamara, who put on more speed to try and stop me, but it wasn't any use. I rolled faster and faster down the hill, running over sharp rocks and thorny plants. I felt my leg scrape against something sharp, but I ignored it. I finally hit the trunk of tree with a loud crack, and I gasped. My chest hurt badly, as did my head, thanks to a coconut I had knocked down from the tree.

Tamara, half-way down the hill, was trying desperately to not trip like I had. There was no sign of the hydra behind her, and I wondered if maybe the beast had given up. As soon as the thought popped into my head, however, it evaporated. The trees behind Tamara burst apart and a very angry, brown and scaly monster hissed at us. The old woman had somehow climbed onto the thing's back and she shook her head at us. "You should have just stayed put, girls," she chided. "It would have been much easier."
Tamara turned away from the monster and rushed over to me. "Tina, are you alright?"

I finally noticed that I was starting to feel light-headed. Black dots were popping up in my vision, and I felt very weak.

"My chest hurts," I managed to breathe out. "And my leg aches."

Tamara looked like she wanted to examine me, but we didn't have time. The hydra was making its way down the hill. Slowly, yes, because of its great size, but it was quickly coming into fireball-shooting-range.

Tamara quickly looked at my leg and her eyes widened. I didn't dare look down, fearing that I would pass out if the damage was severe. I thought back to a few days ago, when Tamara and Dakota had journeyed to find Isis's crown. They had gone into the cave of a giant crocodile named Petsuchos, and the huge monster had managed to bite down on Tamara's leg. Because of it, Tamara now bore a twenty-inch long cut on her left leg that was still heavily bandaged to prevent bleeding. Was my cut as bad?

"Come on," Tamara said. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around my chest. Careful not pain me too much, she managed to lift me up so I was standing.

I tried as much as possible to keep my weight off of my right leg. Looking back at the hydra, I jumped over to the left, pulling Tamara with me. A good thing too, because right where Tamara had been standing was now a fiery crater. Tamara and I, as fast as we could with my injuries, jogged to the sound of the beach. I focused on the water in my head, hoping that maybe a wave could come to me and attack the hydra. I had seen Percy do the same thing at our battle in Hawaii. Though the beach had been miles away, Percy had somehow summoned a twenty-foot tall wave to crash down on Horus.

"Faster!" the old woman cried atop her monster. "It will be harder to kill them on the beach!"

Behind us, I could hear the hydra put on more speed, trying to gain on us. It produced a fireball, and it sailed past us and exploded onto a huge rock. Smoke was clouding the air, and I could hear the crackle of fire behind us. The jungle was on fire.

Twenty-feet away, I spotted the aqua-blue ocean and I sighed, thinking that maybe we could make it. That is, before I found myself rising in the air. One moment, I had been on the jungle ground, hobbling along-side Tamara towards the beach. Now I was in the air, something holding me up from my backpack. Below me, Tamara was pulling something out of her leather bag. Her eyes flashed gold, and she started to rise into her avatar.

Now, if you've never seen Tamara in her avatar, it can be quite scary at first. The very first time she summoned one, Tamara ended up knocking over a stone pillar in Camp Half-Blood's mess hall, which resulted in a piece of stone fracturing my leg. It was nerve wracking whenever Tamara summoned an avatar now. Her eyes turned completely gold, and ancient hieroglyphics started glowing on her arms and legs. And then she rose up into a fifteen-foot avatar that looked like a hologram, but was very much a solid mass.

Tamara held a staff in her hands, her avatar doing the same thing. She swung that staff at the hydra and made contact with three of its heads. The beast screamed, and I felt myself falling. I quickly grasped at its slimy neck and managed to wrap my arms around one of the beast's necks. I clung there, trying desperately to hang on.

All of the hydra's heads turned to look at Tamara. They hissed at her and swung their heads at her torso. Tamara's avatar stumbled over backwards, nearly falling to the ground before she regained her balance.

I placed my foot on the neck I was holding and slowly inched myself around the monster's neck. It was hard, trying to cling to the very thick and slimy neck. Carefully, I managed to move myself around so that I was on the back of the hydra's neck. Below me, the old lady stood on her monster's back, her fist raised as she bounced up and down in excitement. With her bright pink track suit and wispy white hair, she reminded me of a grandmother who got too enthusiastic at sporting events.

The hydra screeched and stumbled as a strong wave of power collided with its body. My hold loosened and I started rapidly sliding down the beast's neck. The woman below me had been thrown backwards, and was now sitting on her butt, looking a little dazed. She quickly snapped herself out of it, however, and said, "Come on, my boys! Don't give up!"

I risked a glance around the neck I was hanging onto and looked at Tamara. Her avatar was flickering and her knees shook. I didn't know how much longer she could go on. I wracked my brain for the story about the hydra. I recalled Annabeth telling me about when she, Percy, and my half-brother Tyson had encountered a hydra. It was a difficult monster to kill, not only because it had so many heads, but because if someone cut one head off, two more would grow back. So that ruled that plan out. I had to think of some other way to defeat the thing.

There was a scream from Tamara, and I peered around the neck. Tamara was no longer in her avatar. Instead, she was on the jungle floor, one hand clutching her khopesh, the other gripping her shoulder. Her knees shook violently, and her head kept bobbing up and down.

"That's it, boys! Finish her off!" the old lady cried.

I gritted my teeth. I had had enough of this lady. I looked down at her, trying to judge the distance between us.

Alright, I thought. Here goes nothing. I released my hold on the beast's neck. The wind whipped at my hair as I plummeted straight for the old lady.

The shock of the landing was what pained me the most. Instead of tucking and rolling onto the monster's back, I kind of slid down the its neck and landed on its back, feet first. I cried out as pain shot up my legs. My vision went black for a few seconds, but I quickly shook my head to clear it.

The old lady looked at me and chuckled. "Tina Gonzalez, the daughter of Poseidon. My, you don't look like much of a hero."

I clenched my fist. "Leave us alone."

The old lady shook her head like I was a pathetic puppy on the streets. Then her eyes, which I hadn't noticed were a bright yellow, started changing shape. They grew into slits, and the black pupils dilated. She literally hissed at me, flicking out a black snake's tongue. Her body started morphing, her torso growing longer, her legs melting together. Dark-brown scales popped out from beneath her skin and spread across her body.

I watched in horror as the old lady turned into a huge, thick and muscular python, at least ten-feet long and as thick around as my thigh. She hissed again, revealing very sharp fangs, already dripping with venom. I gripped the hilt of my sword tightly and stared at the snake, my eyes locked onto her own.

The hydra beneath us stumbled and nearly fell to its knees. I lost my balance and fell backwards. The python, however, used the hydra's stumble to an advantage. The snake propelled herself toward at me and sank her fangs into my already injured leg. I cried out in pain and whacked my sword's blade against the snake's head. She flew off to the side but managed not to slide off.

The hydra roared, and I heard Tamara grunt. I wanted to turn around and see what was happening, but I didn't dare take my eyes off the python. The huge snake stared at me, her tongue flicking in and out of her mouth. I slowly got to me feet, blinking black dots out of my vision, and thought about the ocean. The blue waves as they reached the sandy shore, the power they had as they tumbled through tons and tons of water. The power I had to control those waves. I focused on the water, and I felt something tighten in my stomach. Every part of me strained as I concentrated on the waves. And then, I felt it. I had the ocean at my command.

The python revealed her fangs and suddenly jumped out at me. As she did, I let out a scream and a gigantic wave raced towards me from the ocean. Just as the python was about to sink its fangs into my arm, the wave crashed into her. The water swirled around the snake, and I commanded it to trap the python into a sphere of water. The remaining water crashed down on top of the hydra, who barely even noticed as it battled Tamara.

The python glared at me with her striking yellow eyes and struck the sphere of water, attempting to break the orb. With every strike, I felt myself weakening. I tightened my stomach and raised my arm. The sphere of water mimicked my motions. Then I turned around and thrust my arm out at the ocean. The sphere of water with the python in it sailed through the air and crashed into the ocean. Hopefully that would keep the python away for now.

"Ah!" Tamara screamed as I heard something fall to the ground.

I turned around and saw that the hydra had managed to rip her khopesh out of her hands and toss it to the side. Tamara was now standing in front of the beast, clutching desperately to her boomerang shaped wand. Her face was set hard, and every few seconds a golden glow would encase her before dying out again. She was trying to call back her avatar, but she didn't have the strength to do it.

I felt myself rapidly weakening as well. My legs shook and my right leg felt wet from blood. My whole chest area ached from my broken ribs, and I could feel a knot forming on my head from the stupid coconut.

The hydra below me screeched in triumph. I looked at Tamara and saw her lying at the hydra's feet, unconscious, with her right shoulder smoking and charred. I felt hope escape me at our conditions. Tamara was completely out of commission, and I wasn't doing so well myself. There was no way I would be able to kill the hydra on my own.

You have to keep fighting, I thought to myself. You can't give up. I gripped the hilt of my sword tightly and raised it above my head and with my last remaining strength, I thrust it into the hydra's back.

The hydra let out a scream so terrifying, it scared me. The gigantic monster swung its heads around and they all stared at me in anger. The middle one opened its mouth and I had just enough time to roll of the thing's back before it shot a fireball at me. My chest screamed with pain as I hit the hard ground, and I could no longer feel my right leg.

The hydra pulled my sword out of its back and threw it down next to me. Then it stared at me and opened its mouths. I looked into their throats as they came closer and closer, and I knew this was it. I would never see Archer's face ever again. I had failed him.

The hydra's mouths were about five-feet away when I heard a whizzing sound to my right. Something shot through the air and with a sickening squelch, flew into one of the hydra's sides and out the other. The hydra's eyes widened, and it started breathing heavily. The monster stumbled backwards, knocking down trees as it did so, and finally collapsed in a heap of necks.

I looked to my right to see who had saved me, but my vision was already disappearing. I only caught the words of a girl muttering something about stupid Greeks before I blacked out.