She heard a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves. She turned around slowly and saw it: a rhino-size thing moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. Aurora's eyes quickly adjusted to the Mist, as if it wasn't there, and saw the monster's multiple necks—at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID!

If Annabeth had been there, she would've advised that Aurora didn't turn her ring into a sword just yet. If Aurora had thought before she acted, she would've remembered that a lot of monsters had terrible eyesight and the possibility the Hydra might pass her was high. But she was impulsive, and she unsheathed Oleander with ease.

The gold glow of Oleander alerted the Hydra, who had been sniffing the ground and trees casually before snapping their heads towards Aurora.

The sight of celestial bronze was hateful to most monsters, but Stygian iron and imperial gold would make them seriously depressed. As soon as Aurora's glowing blade appeared, the Hydra bared its teeth.

"Boo hoo!" Aurora sneered. One of the heads snapped at her experimentally, and without thinking, she swung her sword. The Hydra's head was sliced clean off, rolling away into the grass, leaving a flailing stump, which immediately stopped bleeding and began to swell like a balloon. In a matter of seconds the wounded neck split into two necks, each of which grew a full-size head.

"Oops," she murmured awkwardly. The eight-headed Hydra stared back at her, and sprayed acid.

"Ro!" Percy yelled, and Aurora turned around. She couldn't help it, she smiled a bit as Oleander turned into a bow. Her eyes met Percy's as she aimed an arrow at the Hydra's chest, nearly hitting its heart.

And, for a split second, Aurora wanted Percy's eyes to stay on her. For the slightest bit of time, Aurora wanted to try to do everything to keep him looking at her.

But that time was over, and Aurora would rather Percy put her dead last than for him to watch her die. How embarrassing.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" Percy asked, uncapping his ballpoint pen.

"I'm just fantastic!" She shouted back, dancing between spits of acid. "Thanks for asking. So polite. You?"

"Shut up! We need fire!" Annabeth screamed, providing the answers. "We have to have fire to kill it!" The blonde joined the right, moving in on Aurora's left, trying to distract one of the heads.

Aurora's bow gleamed in the sunlight, and though it was pointless, she managed to cause some pain as she shot an arrow to the Hydra's heart.

Annabeth parried its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck. The other head spit acid at Aurora, and she hissed with pain as she failed to run away from it and it hit her calf.

"No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Aurora. He started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded her of the whack-a-mole game she had seen at the Lotus Casino last summer. But even Tyson couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.

Aurora kept inching backward toward the river—Percy leading, of course—dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but she knew they were only postponing our deaths. Eventually, Aurora would make a mistake and the thing would kill them all.

Then, Aurora heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that was so powerful it made the riverbank shake. Aurora recognized it, and she grinned. She tended to smile in the worst situations, and Annabeth caught her eye, staring at her like she needed to be checked into a psych ward.

"What's that noise?" Annabeth shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.

"Steam engine," Tyson answered.

"What?" Percy ducked as the Hydra spat acid over his head.

"I'm so happy," Aurora sighed, as if she was swooning, and she shot another arrow before turning Oleander back into a ring.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth shrieked.

Then from the river behind them, an oh-so-familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"

Aurora jumped up giddily. She knew that voice so well, and if she had to rely on anyone to get her out of this situation, it would be here.

A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"

"Fuck the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"

"Aye, m'lady."

"Fire at will, Captain!"

Aurora's voice was lilted, as if she was singing with joy, and she commanded just in time, "Hit the dirt!"

They 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 them, showering them with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.

"Gross!" screamed Annabeth.

"Steamship!" yelled Tyson.

Aurora stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks. Chugging toward them down the river was the ship Aurora had almost boarded a couple days ago.

And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed us, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.

"Hey princess... and the losers, I guess." Clarisse called, her voice turning into a sneer as she made eye contact with Percy. "I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."

"I love you!" Aurora screamed, and she ran toward Clarisse with a huge smile. She had never been so grateful that she didn't die. And she didn't notice Percy's eyes trained on the back of her head, following her every movement. She didn't know he had been keeping note of everything she had done, everything she wanted and everything he thought she would feel. Aurora didn't know.

ೀ⋆｡🌷 the mother of perora speaks ...

word count: 4505

date published: july 5, 2024

thoughts: soo sorry for the long chapters recently. blame rick, not me! but woah, this week has been insane, and i just wanted to open with a HUGE THANK YOU SO MUCH!! i am just so amazed. haven reached 100k reads and 4k votes. 100 THOUSAND READS AND 4 THOUSAND VOTES. this is UNREAL. additionally, i reached 200 FUCKING FOLLOWERS YESTERDAY. this is absolutely crazy and i can't believe it. i can't fathom it. ugh just thank you so much.

very importantly, though: there is an author on quotev Michelle-Kacee plagiarizing haven completely. word for word, it is the same exact story. all they did was change the oc's name. i am so upset because haven is so dear to me and i worked so hard on it, and they stole every aspect of haven—including layout and playlist—without crediting me and claiming it is their own story. i confronted them and asked them to take it down, but they ignored me and deleted my comment. please, please report this fic and use the link to haven as evidence that this is the original story. here's the link to the copied version: https://www.quotev.com/story/16520151/Haven-Percy-Jackson/1.

also, for my marauders fans out there, i published a book called midnights, a remus lupin fic! original story, academic rivals, all that jazz. i am overwhelmed and so grateful for all the love and support it has received, and for all the love and support haven has received since it was published in february. this is insane and i never would've expected this. i genuinely can't express how grateful i am. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH ❤️