"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."