Two heads converted, one resists the effects

“Something’s happening…” the hydra’s middle head began to say, before getting cut off by the right head letting out a positively transcendental moan. In less than a second, all three heads had joined in creating a cacophony of unholy howls of pleasure, thrashing around in the water so much that Tally’s raft began to wobble dangerously on the waves. The hydra’s long necks went limp and slapped onto the surface of the water like pool noodles, before sinking beneath the surface one-by-one.

“What happened?” Prennel asked in the ensuing silence. “Are they dead?”

Suddenly, all three heads rose again, this time even higher than before. The hydra stood up to her full height, revealing all three necks’ attachment to the same pair of shoulders. She was large enough to be able to stand on the bottom of the lake and only have the water come up to bicep-level. From what Tally could see in the murky water, the rest of her body appeared inexplicably human below the neck.

“That felt amazing,” whispered the central head. “We have decided that you shall go free, in return for giving us this experience. We shall also pledge ourselves to your service as a token of thanks.”

“What?” the head on the left sounded surprised. “That’s going a bit far, isn’t it? Sure, it felt nice, but it doesn’t justify…”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” the right head interrupted her. “Yes, we must return the favor. Tell us, knight, how may we serve you?”

“Wait a moment,” the left on the head said, “this decision is rash. We must fulfil our duty to the queen. Kill them!”

“No,” the right head retorted, “this knight is far more deserving of our loyalty than the Queen ever was. If there’s any duty we must fulfil, it is to him.”

Tally and his harem watched in silence as the hydra argued with herself. No one said anything, preferring to just let the three heads work this out on their own. “Looks like it didn’t fully work,” Brim commented sadly, “damnit. We’ll have to give it a while before I can try again, her minds will still be in flux.”

“Silence,” the center head demanded over the bickering of the other two. “Need I remind you, we are a democracy? We must follow the decision of the majority. Decision is two to one, we help them.”

“No! What's gotten into you guys?” The left head protested. “If you won’t kill them, then simply avert your eyes, and I'll do it.”

The hydra’s left arm raised out of the water, presumably under the control of the left head, and made a grab for Tally. The hydra stopped herself by slapping her hand out of the way with her right hand.

“Do not go against the majority decision,” the center head warned. “You are out of line.”

“You are out of line!” the left head insisted. “You're talking about mutiny here.”

The hydra reached over the raft again, with her right hand this time. But instead of making a grab for Tally, she gingerly picked up a belt from the pile of clothes next to him. Next, the left hand grabbed the left head's neck and held it in place, so she could start fastening the head’s jaws closed with the belt.

“Hey! Stop hogging both hands! Let me… mmph!” the hydra finished tightening the belt, and the left head was powerless to protest anymore.

“We will let you have a turn with your arm when you are ready to cooperate with the rest of us,” the center head hissed. “Until then, I will be using it in your stead.”

At last, the hydra’s rightmost two heads looked down from their infighting to gaze upon Tally and the others. “We must apologize,” the center head said over the non-verbal hisses of anger continuing to come from the left. “We are usually of one mind, it is uncommon for us to have such a heated disagreement. How may we be of service, sir knight?”

Tally looked up at her. “Well, you could start by letting us across this lake.”

“Wait!” Prennel said, “My axe! Our weapons, you threw them in the lake! Go get them back!”

“Unfortunately, it would take some time to find them,” the hydra’s central head apologized to her. “If you wish, we can search for them, but it may take days.”

“First, let’s just get to shore,” Mi Iau suggested, “we can worry about our weapons later.”

“Agreed,” Tally said. “For now, just come with us to the other side of the lake.”

Reaching the opposing bank took practically no time at all, since the hydra was easily able to pull the raft behind her as she strode across the lake bed. As the water began to grow more shallow again, more of the Hydra’s body began to rise above the water level. It was just as Tally had suspected earlier. Apart from a long tail, her body had all the same proportions as a human woman- most unusual for a multi-headed lake-dwelling monster.

“Excuse me!” Tally called up to the hydra, whose heads were now even further above thanks to the shallow waters. She was needing to stoop down now to keep holding onto the raft, and it took a second shout from Tally before she heard.

“Yes, sir knight?” Both central and right heads asked in unison. The left one rolled her eyes.

“I can’t help but noticing you’re a little odd for a reptile,” Tally said. “To put it bluntly… what’s the deal with, um…” He gestured at around his own chest level.

The right head looked down, the central head continued to look at him. “You meet a three-headed serpent woman as tall as a house, and the first odd thing on your mind is our breasts,” the central head scoffed, turning back round to continue pulling the raft. “Typical of your kind.”

“That said,” the right head added over her shoulder, “you can feel free to play with our boobs if it would please you.”

The left head whipped around to glare at her sharply.

“Okay, very well,” the center head decided. “We shall split the difference. You are allowed to play only with the boob on the right.” The left head rolled her eyes even harder and shook in disbelief.

Brim burst into a fit of cackling laughter at this concept. If she'd had any weight, her rolling around on the raft clutching her sides would have almost certainly rocked her and Tally off of it.

“Thank you,” Tally said politely, “but you haven't answered my question- surely you are reptilian, yes? Scales, snakes for a head, etcetera. What are you doing with such mammalian… features?”

“We do not belong to any single species, reptile or otherwise,” the hydra’s rightmost head said, as she began to drag the raft onto dry land. Here, her full height became a problem, and she had lay down on her stomach in the water, facing the shore, to keep her heads low enough to continue conversing with Tally. “We were created, not born. A product of the queen’s sorcerers. we were made to guard this lake.”

“Created by sorcery?” Tally repeated. “Created from what? From nothing? Or did you used to be human?”

“Almost certainly the latter. But we retain no memory of any beings that were used in our creation,” The middlemost head hissed.

“Are you happy, being turned into a monster?” Tally inquired, while all around him the other members of his harem were catching up and collapsing on the shore to catch their breath.

“As we said, we have no memory of anything else,” the middle head replied. “We can only speculate as to what went on before our creation. Most likely, any donor humans would not have led very exciting lives.”

“Why’s that?” Tally continued.

“The Queen’s sorcerers tend to harvest peasants of low status,” the right head explained, “people who won’t be missed if they got kidnapped in the night, turned into monsters and sent to guard a lake. Whoever we used to be would at least have been happy to know that her raw material is being put to a more important use now.”

“Would she?” the middle head challenged. “Perhaps the idea would have been a frightful one. We can never know for sure.”

“Either way,” the right head dismissed, “we are quite content with the life we lead now, thank you for asking.”

“Would you be willing to turn your back on the people who created you?” Tally asked.

“For you, sir knight, we would do anything,” the central head promised. “What would you have us do?”

“You might be useful as a secret agent,” Tally said. “Do you talk to any superiors?”

“We report every evening. Don't worry, we will not tell anyone about you.”

“Good. Try to remember any useful information you overhear until the next time we see each other. Mentions of schedules, rumors, upcoming events, anything that might be useful for when we try to get inside the castle.”

“Understood,” the head on the right nodded. The head on the left violently waggled back and forth like someone trying to make waves with a jump rope, to express her frustration at what her neighbors were agreeing to. “Is there anything specific you want us to try and weasel out?”

“For now, since we're starting with no information at all, anything you can tell us will be helpful. We need a decent idea on the general goings-on of that place before we make a move. But remember to be subtle, don't let them realize you're fishing for information.”

“We won't,” the hydra said out of both available mouths. “But now, regretfully, we must return to the water,” the central head informed him. “It’s not healthy for our skin to be drying out in the air for very long. And besides, we have some work to do recovering those weapons we threw away.”

“Goodbye,” Tally waved the hydra off as she slunk back into the murky water. “Keep an eye on this beach, it's where we'll be when we come back”.

Tally turned around to assess his harem. Mi Iau, Prennel, Ance, and Zori had been busy putting their dry clothes back on and shouldering the various supply bags while he had been talking to their new spy. …Except for Prennel, whose pants were around her ankles. “That hydra stole my belt,” she complained, when Tally looked inquiringly at her.

“So, what do we do now, sir?” Zori asked Tally, politely awaiting instructions.

Tally looked up above at the castle looming behind them, much closer now. Then he looked down at his 'army' consisting of five people, three of whom had just lost their weapons, and one of whom had just lost properly functioning pants. We're not ready yet, he decided. We need somewhere to stop and plan.