"That would have been better than getting et by a bear!" Twilly agrees. "But I's glad you found a different way to save me..." 

Elan smiles a little.

He's still a little shaken, though.

"… I know there's a magical destiny thing but I miss being in a bigger adventuring party. Do you think we'll meet other people to do hero stuff with together?"

"Of course! There's my friend Ash in Falconreach, and when we goes to Surewould Forest we can ask my friend Robina for help finding the sneevils and I bets she'll come with us, and there's Artix..." 

But first, here's a bridge! There's a knight guarding it, with the Pactagonal Knights' crest on his armour. 

"Hail, stranger! ...oh, and hello, Twilly, I didn't see you there." 

Yay, friends. And yay, a knight!

"Hi there! I'm Elan. We're on the way to Falconreach from Oaklore and we heard there was a hydra up ahead."

"I'm Sir Pent. And yes, I was sent to guard this bridge because there've been sightings of a giant hydra in this area. But I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. I certainly haven't seen any hint of it!" 

Elan wonders if he likes snakes!

"Hmmm. I wonder why! Maybe it's sleeping, or maybe it's hiding, or maybe it left…"

He kind of suspects that it's hiding.

"Hey, do you know if hydras really grow their heads back if you cut them off?"

"Not normally, but I've heard of it happening with really powerful legendary hydras! But, to be honest, if there's one of those in this river then you have bigger problems before you get to whether the heads come back."

"Oh, so it shouldn't be too hard to take care of…"

He still feels kind of scared thinking about trying to fight a monster on his own. Well, maybe it doesn't have to be on his own.

"Do you want to team up? Then the bridge will be a lot safer for everyone and people can go between Oaklore and Falconreach again."

"Oh, well, I'm not sure how much use I'd be in actual battle against a hydra...I mean, I know a lot about them and how to fight them, but I don't know about—" 

Something goes plish in the river behind him and he jumps about a foot. 

"...whew, that wasn't the hydra. I mean, alleged hydra. Which I definitely don't believe is there. It's all just rumours." He sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than Elan. "Anyhow, if there does turn out to be a hydra, I'll definitely have your back with advice about how to kill it!" 

…okay, so Elan will still have to do all the sword stuff. But honestly he feels better and less alone anyway.

"Okay! I'll just go along the bridge, then, and if there's no hydra I can be on my way and if there is a hydra I'll listen to your tips! Say, do you think a 'sleeping with the fishes' joke is still funny for a creature that lives in the water anyway?"

"Err...well, hydras eat fish? So I'm not sure it has quite the same connotations..." 

"Okay, good to know!"

Static in hand, he can approach the bridge and try to cross at a normal pace, the way an unsuspecting traveler would.

Twilly is right there with him.

"Don't worry, Elan, Twillies got your back too! We can do this!" 

(No hydra immediately appears.)

"Especially if it's just a perfectly normal bridge with no scary monsters!"

Perfectly normal bridge...no scary monsters...they're almost to the middle, and then...

CRASH! 

A massive serpentine head breaks through the centre of the bridge. It blocks their path, hissing down at them. From either side of the bridge, two smaller heads rise up out of the water to join it. 

Roll initiative.

"Oh man! I didn't expect that!"

He's not sure if he's strong enough to cut clean through the middle neck, but he can at least take a swing at it!

The energy sword, Static, crackles in his hand as it scores a line on the side of the hydra's neck. 

The hydra roars and spits a massive gobbet of water at Elan with enough force to hurt. The two smaller heads do the same from either side. (Twilly bashes one of them with his stick, which does very little to deter it.) 

"Ouch!"

Elan steps back a little. Maybe he should go for one of the smaller heads first? Like the one that Twilly's attacking. This time he tries to stab it, in case that works better than slashing.

"Hydra slaying tip! The smaller heads are more aggressive! Try to take them down first!" Sir Pent shouts from several feet away. 

Attacking the smaller head does seem to work better, especially with Twilly's help! Its dodges slow as it takes more damage and starts to droop, although it and the other two heads keep pelting Elan with water all the while. 

Oh good, he's on the right track.

"Thanks!"

The water is pretty annoying, though. Water puns, water puns… maybe fish or snake puns?

"This should tip the scales!" is what Elan goes with, when it seems like they're close to finishing this head off.

Static sizzles as it cuts clean through the neck. One down, two to go, but—

The central hydra head rears back, gargling deep in its throat.

"Watch out! The big head is getting ready for a more powerful attack!" 

"I'm watching!"

Hopefully this will be the kind of powerful attack he can dodge by standing in one place until it fires and then jumping to the side, and not some sort of water laser that it can chase him with.