Dear Grover,

Well, it wasn't long before we left Camp Half-Blood and its perpetual smell of strawberries behind. The rowboat shot through the water like a speedboat, cutting a straight line and leaving a field of white foam behind us. The Swedish Fish--who would have ever thought I'd have fish for tour guides??--were definitely keeping up, but the most I ever saw of them was the occasional leap out of the water or the flash of fins under the surface. Otherwise, it was as if Annabeth and I were completely alone.

And ... nothing happened. Which, honestly, I think Annabeth and I were okay with.

"It feels like we never get to just slow down and think for a moment these days," Annabeth said. She dipped her fingers into the water and watched the wake trailing behind.

"Yeah," I agreed. "This whole saving-the-world stuff is a full-time job." Maybe now that we had some down time, Annabeth and I could have a heart-to-heart, some kind of boyfriend-girlfriend thing--

"Well, I think I'm going to take a nap," Annabeth said abruptly. She took off her jacket, rolled it up, and used it as a pillow as she settled onto the floor of the rowboat. "Can you hold down the fort?"

Okay ... looks like we'd have to postpone that one-on-one time. Although I was a little disappointed, I didn't blame her. Sleeping had been a little elusive lately.

I'm honestly not sure how much time passed next, Grover. Eventually, Long Island Sound opened up to the Atlantic, and the only thing to see for miles was the East coast of the U.S. on one side and an endless expanse of ocean on the other. Mostly I watched the sun sink lower and lower in the sky while thinking about my mom, Annabeth, the upcoming school year, and everything we'd been through the past several years. Oh, and I totally had to go to the bathroom, but I wasn't sure how to tell the rowboat to stop.

So basically, I had a full mind and bladder, and I was about to go crazy.

And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, enormous waves began rocking the boat, pitching it in every direction.

"Annabeth!" I yelped.

But before the words had even fully left my mouth, nine giant snake heads erupted from the water, twisting and writhing and giving me a look that clearly said I can't wait to eat you.

Annabeth was awake and on her feet in an instant, whipping out her bronze knife. "Percy!" she screamed. "It's the Hydra!"

"Like, Hercules's Hydra?" Great, even after Kronos was defeated, we still couldn't escape deadly monsters respawning everywhere.

"Yes, the only Hydra! But why did it find us?" Annabeth yelled.

One of the heads, not wanting to wait on our conversation, attempted to stab us, but only barely missed when Annabeth threw herself to the other side of the boat. The serpent's fangs sank into the wood of the boat's side, lodging themselves there. Although all of the Hydra heads shook, it couldn't free itself.

"I don't know, but I think I've had enough monsters!" I said. I pulled out my pen, and it transformed into my sword, Riptide, before I could blink. Triumphantly, I sliced through the Hydra's stuck head. "Okay, only eight more to go!"

"Percy!" Annabeth said again, this time sounding disappointed. "Did you forget about the Hydra's--?"

I watched in horror as the stump of Hydra neck sprouted not one, but two heads to replace the one I'd just severed.

"Oh, right," I muttered. "It regrows twice the number of heads."

Now, with ten serpent heads to contend with--all of them quite mad at this point, by the way--I didn't like our chances.

"Okay, what do we do?" I asked helplessly. "What did Hercules do again?"

Annabeth thought for only a moment. "I think he and Iolaus had to burn each neck after they severed a head, so that the wound cauterized and none could grow back."

"That seems smart!" I said. "Uhh, do you have any fire?"

She looked at me like I had lost my mind. I took that as a no. Looks like it was back to the drawing board, then.

All ten of the Hydra's heads hissed at once, and two darted down to strike at us again. This time, I reached my sword upwards reflexively, stabbing one while Annabeth dodged the other.

"Percy!" she yelled.

"Sorry, sorry!" I said as the Hydra regrew yet another head. Now we had eleven heads to deal with, each complete with a set of teeth and eyes--

That was it.

The eyes.

"What if we blinded the heads?" I called to Annabeth, scrambling over the rowboat's seats to avoid another head.

"Percy, that's it!" Annabeth yelled back, looking happy enough to kiss me. "If it can't see us, we'll just escape!"

I'll spare you the details of the fight, Grover, because I know you don't like that kind of thing. But suffice it to say that we managed to blind all eleven of the heads with some difficulty and epic heroics on my part. (Although Annabeth claims otherwise. I guess she blinded a few eyes with her knife.)

Eventually, we watched what was left of the Hydra sink slowly into the water. Only when our rowboat was speeding away again could I catch my breath. "We never get a break, do we?"

"I have a feeling this quest is going to be more eventful than we expected," Annabeth replied, shaking her head and staring at the Swedish Fish as if it were their fault we were in this mess.

Although the fish didn't help us during our battle, they're being helpful now at least--you've probably noticed the fish who delivered this letter, Grover. Assuming he makes it to you. I think fish have short-term memories ...

Sorry I couldn't save you a Hydra head souvenir,

Percy (and Annabeth)

The serpent's gaze of death

(David Clode on Unsplash)

Author's Note: The characters in my story (Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover) have been taken from Rick Riordan's popular Greek mythology series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. As described in the Introduction page, this adventure takes place immediately after the events of the fifth and final Percy Jackson book, The Last Olympian, as the characters are recovering from their victory over Kronos, the Titan who had been bent on world domination. Although I have altered the events by introducing a new quest at the conclusion of their previous adventure, it has been my intention to keep the personalities of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover as close to their canonical selves as possible. I also added the Hydra here, a creature originally from traditional Greek mythology. As I allude to in this story through Annabeth's short history lesson to Percy, the Hydra was a monster that Hercules encountered during his twelve labors. Originally "Hydra Lernaea," it was a water serpent with nine heads, the very center one being immortal while the rest regenerated in double whenever one was cut off, as my story depicts. In order to defeat the Hydra, Hercules and his companion Iolaus use hot firebrands to seal the neck wounds shut whenever they chopped off a head, so that more wouldn't grow to replace it. For the immortal middle head, Hercules had to put it under a rock. For brevity, I simplified the part of the mythology with the immortal head, due to constraints on the length of the story.

Bibliography: Lernaean Hydra, Theoi. Percy Jackson and the Olympians characters belong to Rick Riordan.