There's someone else in the water

The journey across the lake went relatively smoothly until about the halfway point. The water was calm, the raft held its integrity, and it was relatively easy for the members of Tally’s harem to push it across the surface. Tally tried paddling with his hands, but really, it was the others who were doing the heavy lifting in terms of the raft’s speed. Tally was impressed with their swimming power; any human being would have to train as an athlete just to match the natural ability of these monsters.

Ance suddenly splashed around in panic for a few seconds. “You okay?” Tally asked her.

“Yeah, sorry…” Ance panted, looking down at the murky green water. “I thought I felt something touch my leg.”

“Probably just a plant or something,” said Zori, “let’s keep going.” However, they only traveled a few more meters before Zori would backtrack on that statement. “Gah! Okay, I felt it too,” Zori stammered. She tried sticking her head under the water, but it was too cloudy to see anything. Everyone stopped to tread water for a few moments, waiting to see if it happened again.

“Waah!”

Everyone whirled around to see Prennel suddenly start moving sideways through the water, obviously not under her own power. “Something’s got me!” She sputtered. Whatever had hold of her was dragging her around in figure-eights. Eventually it let go, sending Prennel drifting away at an odd angle from the rest of the group. She hesitated for a moment before deciding to swim back into the danger-zone, but her desire to protect Tally easily overpowered self-preservation.

Then, the creatures revealed themselves. Three enormous serpents rose out of the water, each one almost a foot thick. Water rained off of their heads as they settled roughly ten feet in the air: high enough to bear down upon everyone imposingly. Their skin was a reflective bottle-green, their yellow eyes sported vertical pupils. Forked tongues flitted in and out of their mouths.

Tally followed the three snakes’ bodies down, and noticed that they seemed angled so as to converge just beneath the water’s surface. Tally could just about make out what looked like a common pair of shoulders shared by all three necks under the surface of the water. This wasn’t three serpents, they were all one creature. This was a hydra.

“Who dares cross our waters?” demanded the hydra’s left head in a loud, strained hiss. Tally was rather surprised this monster could talk- he wasn’t sure whether such intelligence made the situation better or worse.

“Tally,” he answered quickly. “That's Ance, over there is Mi...”

“We were being rhetorical, idiot,” the right head snapped, in an identical voice. “It doesn’t matter who you people are, you’re all just prey to us… were you perhaps trying to reach the castle?” The head that was speaking looked over to indicate the distant castle, while the other two remained looking at Tally’s party.

“Why do you care about that, if we’re all just prey?” Tally retorted, hoping to stall for time.

“We are tasked with protecting this side of the castle from any intruders hoping to approach via the lake,” hissed the head on the left. “The queen will be most pleased to hear we have thwarted you.”

“Well then, knowing that, what if we said no, we aren’t heading for the castle?” Tally asked. “Would you let us go then?”

The hydra’s left head smiled- she seemed to find this funny. The head in the middle glared at her scoldingly, while the right head bared her sharp fangs in warning at Tally.

“It will make no difference during your lifetime,” said the middle head. “You amuse us, knight… we shall eat you first, to spare you the pain of seeing the fate of your peers.”

“Don’t you dare hurt Tally!” Ance, who had been silently treading water next to the raft, suddenly threw her upper body onto it to reach for the handle of her axe. The hydra was too quick for her, however: A massive arm rose out of the water, easily as thick as the necks of the snakes, and grabbed the pile of weapons in a single fistful. Ance, Mi, and Prennel watched in horror as the hydra threw the two axes and both of Mi’s swords far out of reach. They each made loud splashes, then sunk out of sight. Despite the fact that they were each swimming fully nude, only now that they had their weapons taken away did they feel naked.

Tally had been two surprised by the emergence of the hydra’s arm to use his mind control power, so he was determined to catch it on the way back. Right as the enormous hand was over his head again, Tally reached up and wrapped his hand around one of the webbed fingers. He felt the familiar tingling, electric-shock feeling of Brim’s magic being administered. The hydra hissed in surprise, and yanked her hand away. Ance and Mi Iau both saw what Tally had done and nodded at him encouragingly. Zori and Prennel didn’t seem to catch on.

“Why are you not trying to get away, we wonder?” The middle head pondered, shaking the hand around as if trying to get rid of pins and needles. “There are five of you, and only one of us. If you all swim in different directions, one or two of you might escape.”

No one said anything.

“There is a reason you are all sticking together,” The left head said, “now what could that be?”

“Are you four all protecting this knight?” The right head asked.

“Why would they be protecting the knight?” The middle head looked to her neighbor.

“No particular reason… the thought of it just came over me…” the right head replied distantly, before shaking from side to side as if trying to clear brain-fog. Tally’s heart skipped a beat. The conditioning was already beginning to assert itself.

The middle head continued to watch the right head with mild concern, while the one on the hydra’s left leaned down to be at almost eye-level with Tally and his team. “Whatever the reason for your loyalty, you would each have a better chance of survival if you abandoned your comrades to their fate,” she said coaxingly.

“Why would you want us to try to escape, if you don’t think you could catch all of us?” Zori asked the hydra.

“It’s more fun to make the kill on prey who thinks they might have a chance,” the left head replied with a sadistic grin. The left head looked over at her fellows, only to find that the dazed expression the right head had taken on seemed to be spreading to the one in the middle.

“There’s something special about you, knight,” the middle head decided. “Just now, when you grabbed our arm, something happened. It felt… strange.”

“Strange how?” Tally asked.

“It felt good,” said the right head.

“Tell us, what were you trying to do?” The left head whispered dangerously. Tally tried to think of something, but came up blank. Mi stepped in to cover for him: “The human possesses a magical enchantment,” she bluffed hastily. “He can spread cheer and good feelings to the people around him. We’re taking him to the castle, so the queen can hoard him and his enchantment for herself.”

“That last part isn’t true,” the left head said immediately. “No authorized person ever approaches the castle grounds via this lake. This is the route for those who aim to enter unnoticed. Which calls into question everything else you just said.”

“I think we should believe them,” hissed the head on the right. The head on the left leaned forward around the middle's neck to look at her. “Why? There is nothing convincing about their story.” Both heads on the sides looked to the one in the middle to break the tie. The middle head did not comment on the disagreement, instead asking, “We might consider letting you go, if you let us experience this ‘enchantment’ of yours before the queen does.”

“What?” The left head scoffed dismissively. “Agreed,” the right head nodded. “Let us experience more of this feeling.”

“Of course, if it means you’ll let us go,” said Tally, fighting back a smirk. He held up his hands invitingly. The hydra’s arm rose out of the water once again to touch his. Though the skin was slick and scaley, and there was webbing between the fingers, Tally couldn’t help but notice how humanly proportioned the arm was, if massively oversized. He clamped both his hands around the hydra’s wrist.

“This is pointless,” the head on the left insisted. The head in the middle seemed to be enjoying it, however, and the head on the right- the one closest to the arm Tally was holding- was rolling her eyes back into her skull, forked tongue flopping out.

“We’re not in the clear yet,” Brim’s voice echoed in Tally’s mind. “Taking on three minds at once… I dunno, I’m spreading my magic pretty thin here. It might not be enough to completely brainwash them. We’ll see.”