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chapter twenty-six. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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I HATE DONUT SHOPS maybe even more than I hate monsters. So when Tyson stumbled upon Monster Donut, a monster-infested donut shop chain, I just about wanted to punch him in the shoulder. The only thing that stopped me from doing so was the fact that he wouldn't have even felt it if I did, and the minor detail that a seven-headed Hydra was slithering past us.
It was hideous. It had leathery skin and a bib that read I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID! around its torso, but I wondered how one could possibly be such a fan of donuts with razor-sharp teeth like the ones the Hydra had on each of the seven mouths. I mean, wouldn't the donut be in shreds before it even reached its tongue? Tongues..? Bleh. I don't wanna think too much about that image.
Tyson was trembling in fear. If I wasn't so furious at him for getting us into this mess (and afraid that any sudden movements would attract the attention of the Hydra), I would've given the poor guy a pat on the back. I mean, he's just a kid, even though he doesn't exactly look like it. I thought maybe I could cut him some slack—until he stepped backwards and snapped a twig in half.
All seven Hydra heads turned toward us and hissed.
"Scatter!" Annabeth told us; we did not have to be told twice. I dove to the right. I didn't pay attention to where the others ducked off to.
One of the heads spat an arc of green liquid that shot past my shoulder and splashed against a tree trunk. Oh, great, I thought as the bark began to sizzle and disintegrate, the stupid Hydra's got poison spit. What else is new?
The tree the Hydra had spat its acid spit onto teetered back and forth, then toppled over and directly onto two of the seven heads. The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.
Percy uncapped his pen-sword and immediately captured the attention of all seven heads. In my haste to get out of the way, I dragged the toe of my shoe through the acidic, gooey remains of the elm and hissed at the burning sensation.
I looked up right as Percy swung his sword down onto one of the Hydra's heads. Annabeth and I both shouted for him to stop, but it was too late. He sliced the head clean off. I scrambled back as it rolled towards me.
"Great going, Aquaman!" I shouted, drawing my dagger. Two more heads grew from the stump.
"You just opened another Monster Donut somewhere!" Annabeth scolded.
"How do we kill it?" Percy asked, dodging a spray of acid.
"Fire!" Annabeth replied. Even as she said it, I knew we were beyond doomed. We didn't have any fire. The hottest thing we had was.. well, me, but not in that way. I meant my light abilities. Still, even if my entire body was glowing, I doubted it would generate enough heat to start a fire.
Annabeth moved in on my left and tried to distract one of the many heads, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck.
"No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Annabeth. As Annabeth got to her feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded me of the whack-a-mole game at the arcade. But even Tyson couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.
We kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but I knew we were only postponing our deaths. Eventually, we would make a mistake and the thing would kill us. The only solutions I could think of involved me shooting a fire-inducing trick arrow, but between dodging acid spit and eight mouths of razor-sharp teeth, I didn't have much time to scour through my quiver for a flame arrow.
Then, as I ducked under one of the Hydra heads and scraped my shoulder on some rough tree bark, I heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first I thought was my heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.
"What's that sound?" Annabeth shouted.
"Steam engine," Tyson said.
"What?" I ducked as the Hydra spat acid over my head.
Then from the river behind us, a familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!" I didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who I thought it was behind us, I figured we now had enemies on two fronts.
A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"
"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead! Fire!"
Annabeth understood what was happening a split second before I did. She yelled, "Hit the dirt!" and we dove for the ground as an earth-shattering BOOM echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of us, showering us with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.
"Gross!" I shouted, hiding my face in my hands.
When the sizzling stopped, I peeked over my shoulder and my stomach churned at the sight of who stood next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed us. Clarisse scowled at us. She looked almost unhappy to see us as we were to see her.
"Losers," she sneered. "But I guess I have to rescue you. Come aboard."
