Inexperienced

We walked through my neighborhood, neither of us saying anything. The dull thuds of Aloisyus' sneakers and the slightly flappier thuds of my boots against the pavement were the only sounds between us.

At some point we stopped walking, though without a reason. I had no idea what to say or do. Aloisyus had all the reasons to be mad at me, but in the library it had seemed like he wasn't.

I watched as a leaf skittered by on the ground.

'Aren't you mad at me?' I asked.

He raked his hand through his hair.

'No. Yes. I mean, I am, but I understand that you did... The things you did. No one should be in the position you are in.' He took a deep breath.

'Anyway, whatever choice you make, don't do it for me. I know you hadn't noticed me properly until three days ago,-' I wanted to protest, but he went on, 'you know that as well as I do. You've been a goddess your entire life, you shouldn't give that up for me. Maybe you weren't even thinking of that and I'm making a complete idiot of myself right now, but I wanted to tell you anyway. Should you choose to give up your immortality or give it away, do it for yourself, not for anyone else.'

I wanted to hug him. He looked so miserable and afraid of my reaction.

'Thank you.' I touched his cheek. He was right. I didn't even know him for three days (well, we'd been classmates for over a year, but I never knew him properly), and I'd already decided I loved him. I didn't know what he liked to do, what his parents were called, or pretty much anything else about him. I'd barely recalled his name when he rescued me.

Could you fall in love with someone in three days? Did I even really love him? I had no idea what it was supposed to feel like, and with everything going on, my feelings had been a bit mixed up.

All of a sudden I went still. It was as if I could detect a presence, an evil presence. I had no idea how I knew it, and don't ask me to explain what it felt like, because I don't think I could.

'What is it?' Aloisyus was looking at me, concerned.

'There's a monster here,' I whispered. As soon as I'd said it, I knew it to be true. Aloisyus immediately became vigilant, pulling out his pan pipes and looking around.

I slowly zipped open my backpack to get out my sword.

Suddenly, my backpack was ripped open by large jaws, which swallowed half the contends, including my sword.

Great.

I quickly grabbed my e reader and slipped it under my shirt, but the rest of my possessions were eaten by the enormous creature, which seemed to have multiple heads, because Aloisyus was attacked at the same time, also robbed of his bag.

I turned around, and gasped, loudly.

'Is that- is that a hydra?' I whispered. Four of the seven monstrous heads hissed, and I decided this was not a convenient time for questions.

At the same time, Aloisyus was trying to do the thing he did with the manticore, but it wasn't really working. Only three of the Hydra's heads reacted to the tones, because the other four had focused on me. This resulted in a bit of confusion among the heads, but the monster's tail lashed out and knocked the instrument from Aloisyus' hands.

I heard people screaming and running around us, but the beast was only focused on us. I tried to remember what I had learned and read about the Hydra. Hercules had chopped off his heads, but new grew back, in larger numbers than before, so that wasn't a very good idea.
Seven heads was already dizzying. There had to be something else.

Yes! I remembered. Hercules had asked his friend to burn the stumps, so the heads couldn't regrow. Only... I had no fire. Like, at all. I mean, I was a goddess(apparently), but I hadn't really had proper goddess-training head.

I had to fight the urge to scream 'Heil Hydra' and hope the Hydra accepted it. That would probably not work.

The Hydra lashed out again, and I jumped back, acid spilling on the ground from his pointed teeth.

Acid.

You could receive the same results with some acid as with fire. Concentrated hydrochloric acid could cause severe burns on skin. I had no idea if it would work, or where I could get HCl-acid, and I still had to chop off the heads, but it was a start. I remembered what I had done with water earlier on, and after all I was the daughter of the sea god and the Muse of Science, so I should(maybe) be able to make it myself.

By this point we had backed into an alley, ducking behind a couple of thrash cans. I grabbed Aloisyus shoulder, making him look back at me.

'I need you to find something sharp to cut of it's heads.'

'You know that won't work unless you burn the stumps, right?'

I nodded. 'I've got a plan. I've got to get to that grocery store on the other side of the street. '

He looked at me questioningly, but went on with it anyway. He jumped up and ran in some direction, causing the hydra to look at him. I ran as fast as possible(which wasn't very fast) to the grocery store nearby. Inside, I grabbed a large pot of salt and a large bottle of water. People were yelling at me, but I ignored them. While running back towards Aloisyus and the monster, I tried to pour the salt into the bottle, spilling water and salt everywhere. I screwed the cap back on the bottle and shook it, then opened it again.

Leaning against a wall, I grabbed the bottle tight with both hands, and closed my eyes. I didn't really know how to do this, so I just imagined what I wanted to happen. The chloride from the salt had to bind with the hydrogen in the water, and the nitrogen in the salt had to vaporize into nitrogen gas. I could see something glowing through my eyelids, and I opened my eyes. I gasped, and almost dropped the bottle. It was glowing, and the plastic was bubbling.

I quickly ran towards the hydra, who was causing a lot of havoc. Aloisyus had gotten a large sharp piece of glass somewhere, and was trying to reach the heads. As I ran towards him, he slashed at one of them and succeeded in cutting of the lower jaw. He lashed out again. This time, he chopped of one of the heads.

I splashed some acid on the writhing neck, hoping that it would work. The flesh bubbled and shrank. I didn't stop to watch.

We went on for hours, or so it felt. Once, I didn't get the acid on in time, and two heads grew in the place of the old one. Both Aloisyus and I got some scratches and bruises, but mine healed almost instantly. Aloisyus was not so lucky. When I poured the last of my acid on the beast, and Aloisyus stabbed it in the body, we both collapsed on the ground, watching the spasms of the dying creature. Finally it dissolved into foul smelling dust.

I'd never felt more alive.

Notes

Hi guys, I'm back! *waves* This is a really, really long one, because of the fight. I hope you like it!

And I was thinking about doing some of the previous chapters from Aloisyus' P.O.V., when I've finished the story. Is that a good idea? Please let me know!