There was a reason the hydra was slower to get in the water than Tanshin. While they weren't incapable of swimming it took a lot more effort and communication for them to actually be able to manage a decent stroke, three heads all trying to do a different thing kind of turned into splashing, treading water, or sometimes sinking instead of a fancy swimming event. Of course this wasn't a problem at all if they were being told what to do but in this sort of situation they'd probably only be splashing about. "Well okay, just don't make us do anything too fancy unless you want to see how quickly a hydra sinks like a stone, heh." The three jumped in and made quite a splash, walking out a little until the water was up to their chest. So what if their clothing got a little wet, it was designed to take all kinds of punishment since their mom made it for them. Sad thing to admit but she... er, at least one of her? was a really talented seamstress. Probably because it was so hard to find a wide shirt with the ability to handle three necks.

when they jumped in with a huge splash, Tanshin couldn't get under the water fast enough. Thus it made hir face drenched once again.
"Any bigger of a splash and I would have ended up in the trees."
Shi laughed as shi purposely drew near them and shook out hir fur.
"Heh don't worry, I'm not a professional swimmer either, and I doubt this place would be big enough for two bodies to race.. but.."
As if spraying them with water from hir fur wasn't enough, the hybrid backed up and splashed them with water. Shi giggled and tried to dive under the water before they could react, trying to swim to the opposite side of the water hole.
Yeah, being part bear had its advantages sometimes. Shi could stay under the water for five to ten minutes at a time and catch fish with both hir hands and jaws with little to no effort at all. It was nice sometimes but it could also be a nuisance when shi sits in class and randomly has a dire craving for certain types of fish.

"Hey what can we say, we know how to make an impact, heheh."

"Rod, totally screwed up the chance at a good joke. So many choices and you picked that one. Heh, well at least we don't have to do anything too fancy here." And Tanshin was definitely a better swimmer. Luke wasn't quite sure how, or why, but shi was good and was having fun. That's all that mattered to them after what she had looked like a little while ago. Changing from the complete wreck to someone enjoying life, that was the kind of thing he was interested in. Well if Tanshin was going to swim away and laugh about splashing them, thinking shi'd get away with it, shi was mistaken. Luke led them through the water, trying to make them swim like an alligator or something using their thick tail to gain speed. "Heheh, we're coming after you."

The hybrid kept laughing, moving around above the water until they started swimming like an alligator in the water. Watching them swim was more like watching a baby anaconda make a break for it. Oh this was going to be fun.
It didn't dawn on hir until after shi sunk into the water towards the bottom, shi was wearing a leather vest. Leather rarely did well in water... Crap... well, hopefully this particular leather would hold out until shi would be able to get back into hir room.

Tanshin stayed along the bottom for several long minutes, trying to think of everything that has happened so far. Got to fence for a little bit, told someone hir secret and now shi was here playing in a favorite spot with them and doing an odd flirtation ordeal with them. Hmm.. yep, definately an off day that almost seemed to be more and more like a dream. What if shi were to wake up and find out this never really happened? What if shi never really met this hydra and there never really had been a hydra since their parents were here.
That couldn't be right. This all felt too real to be a dream, their hand had felt real enough when they had caught hir from falling. If this was a dream, shi didn't want to wake up.
The creature looked up as shi watched the shadow pass over hir, quickly becoming distracted as a fish passed by. It was amazing how quickly things could seem so calm and relaxing..
Suddenly shi bolted hirself away from the bottom of the water, something brushed against hir back and it scared hir. All the while, hir coming up the creature failed to pay attention to where the hydra had gone.

Ah but what Tanshin was failing to keep track of was that there were indeed three heads. So one could duck under the water on his long neck, keep an eye on where shi was, then pop up for air and trade off with the next one. So they were watching, waiting, and when shi finally came up they had managed to swim into a position behind hir. Treading water as quietly as they could the hydra heard Tan's head break the surface of the water. Now they "struck" and their tail snaked out around hir waist playfully. "Heheh, we might not be the fanciest swimmers but we're definitely clever when we all work together. And now we've got you, hehe."

How Rod managed to get them to go along with this was anyone's guess, maybe they somehow had the same kind of goal on their mind, show off a little and "catch" the hybrid.

As all three seemed to have waited patiently for hir, the creature was shaking hir head free of water and trying to look around when shi had felt their tail before shi had a chance to react. The feeling of a tail around hir waist was an odd one. This was the first time shi ever had anyone do that to hir without getting a freaked out reaction from hir.
As the tail wrapped around hir, Tanshin turned around with a big smile on hir face as shi looked at them.
"So you have. What are you going to do with me?"
The hybrid asked, still smiling as shi was trying to swim backwards and away from them. Shi didn't mind the vague attention, but physical contact and attention was a different story.
Tan shin just hoped that they wouldn't try anything bad with hir. Just because shi was being playful didn't mean shi wanted something from it. And besides that, if any of them tried something funny, shi would splash them to get their mind clear... or something like that.

"Oh don't ask Rod, he wants to smother you with kisses and such, but I'm pretty sure you saw that answer coming from him anyway, heh. Of course there's the other joke option of "Roc for dinner" but we're not that kind of hydra either. Heh, so I guess the only reasonable answers left would be to either dunk you in the water or to swim you to shore and sit with our feet in the shallows and skip stones or something. Which would you prefer?"

"Heh, you'll excuse Luke, he's never exactly been good at the whole "predator and prey" thing even in terms of play or joking around. Of course with friends we're probably moreover following a "catch and release" system instead but he did have a few good ideas. And while I probably wouldn't mind watching Rod kiss you or anything he'd probably go nuts with it and earn a beating, hehe."

Tanshin tried to splash water at them as shi smirked. While it was an intriguing idea, the creature would much rather avoid that for right now.
"Well the choice is totally up to you guys, afterall you caught me when I least expected it."
Shi smirked, trying to keep hirself from blushing through hir fur.
"Hate to say it, preferably no kissing right now... Please?"
Shi gave big pupilless puppy eyes in a playful way to plead.
Hopefully it would work, otherwise shi'd have to slap someone.
But shi wouldn't hit him too hard if it came down to that.

"Aww, I'll just have to wait then, until you tell me it's okay to do some kissing." Rod smiled, using their tail to somewhat dunk Tanshin before swimming to the shore and trying to sit at the water's edge with their tail still around hir waist. In a way it was his own little self control test, wouldn't let the tail drift up for hir chest, or down for hir, well... yeah. And they all wanted to keep hir close honestly.

"Heheh, just remember hitting anything below the neck we all feel it, the neck or higher and only that head has to suffer. But for now, let's see..." Mavvy smiled as he had them pick up a nice smooth stone, flicking their wrist and skipping it across the water. One... two... three... four... "Five, not too good but not too bad. Think you can beat it?"

As if he was a little upset or just because it was a perfect oppurtunity, Tanshin had been dunked under without warning. When shi came back up, shi deliberately sprayed them with water as shi shook hir fur out a little.
When they reached the shore and sat down, Tanshin half expected to be released from their tail but instead ended up finding hirself sitting on Rod's side while taking care of not sitting too close though their tail seemed like it wanted hir to be right next to them. If that is what they wanted, shi could just oblige them a little by, well... sitting a mere few inches from them.
"Hmm... I could try. Hehe, I haven't skipped rocks since before I lost my wings."
Shi spoke, searching for a smooth rock to toss. Upon finding one, shi flexed hir back muscles intentionally and aimed to skip the rock out further than Luke.
One.. two.. three... four... Not as many skips but it did go out further than his.
"Haha looks like I'm more rusty than I thought. I used to be able to skip rocks with at least seven skips."
Tanshin blushed slightly as shi smiled and leaned back on hir hands as shi flicked hir tail about, flicking excess water here and there unintentionally.

Rod was tempted to do something else, but the others kept him from screwing up and putting their hand on Tan's knee. No, they weren't going to let him press his luck just yet. They were already kind of pushing it by letting their tail stay around hir waist. "Well only one way to get back into practice right? Best two out of three?" Maverick wasn't letting Rod do anything too drastic but he couldn't help but steal a few glances at Tan himself. Chest, and... one or two brief glances a little lower. He was a little intrigued, and eventually if Rod had his way the other two would have to take at least a partial interest. "About your wings... any time you want to talk about it we're all ears, but we definitely don't want to press you about it." Actually the central hydra head had heard a few rumors about things that happened when dragon blood was involved. Perhaps hydra blood could have a reaction like that, or perhaps not... probably not, but heck any long shot could be better than never trying at all. In his opinion while shi was attractive, a nice set of wings would make hir even more so. Not that shi needed them to be attractive.

Just as Tanshin was getting ready to skip another rock, he had commented about hir wings. Shi supposed they were all fairly interested in the whole ordeal. And since they were a little more acquainted with each other now shi didn't feel as alarmed about telling them.
"It's not that interesting of a story, but if you guys want to know..."
Shi started sitting back once again as shi looked up at the sky.
"I can remember bits and pieces, but there are some pieces that are still a little fuzzy.. My clan's village lies along a coast and sometimes we had storms that were pretty bad, one particular day we had a hurricane heading toward us. Me and my cousins were the first to know about the hurricane so we had tried to hurry back and warn the rest to evacuate else where until the storm would subside. I was probably about fourteen or fifteen at the time when this happened, but when we were able to get the village empty and clear of the hurricane, I had gone back to make sure we didn't leave someone behind. As luck would have it, I found a small child cowering in a closet and tried to leave before the storm grew worse."
Tanshin layed on hir back with hir hands behind hir head.
"Next thing I knew, me and the child had been swept away into the hurricane. When I came to, I was in the hospital. They had told me the child was fine with only minor scrapes, but they said I would not be able to fly again, even if they were to perform a surgery as best they could. They had also told me that if I were to leave my wings without surgery they would become a threat on my life... So I had made the decision to have my wings removed... It took a year and a half to heal from the surgery and since then I've been doing Fencing."
Shi sat up and looked at them. Thinking for a moment.
" I still have the scars, want to see them?"

They were listening carefully, each one picturing it all in their head and following as best they could. And then the sudden offer, well how could they refuse? "Sure, sounds interesting. If you don't mind showing them off." Wow if that had come from Rod's mouth instead of Luke's it would have sounded perverted. In fact he probably would have said yes just to be able to try and sneak a peek at hir chest instead. The left head just realized that their tail was still kind of loosely around hir waist, sliding it almost completely off but still to hir side so shi was technically free of it but they were still in contact a little bit. No need to pressure hir or anything right?

Shi wasn't exactly too eager to show off hir scars but then again it would save hir the trouble of having to show them later.
"Well.. I wouldn't say show off, but.."
The hybrid started to unbutton hir vest when they loosened their tail from around hir waist, leaving beside hir on the ground. Smirking as shi turned away from them for a moment, shi used a hand to keep hirself covered as one of hir arms came out of the arm opening.
As hir arm left, the leather vest dropped to the opposite side and down, revealing hir nasty scars from back then. It was healed and clean, but no fur grew over the areas and it was still red and fresh looking.
"It doesn't look very good, but they are healed... despite it hurting once in a while."
The hybrid spoke while keeping hir eyes forward. If they wanted to touch the scarring, it was fine, but they would also come to find out that those scars were also still very tender to the softest of touches.

"Any scar is impressive to us really. We can't seem to get them no matter how many times we get hit scratched banged up or bruised. Wow, I guess I can see why they said it could be a threat to your health eventually, but someone should have been able to set them properly. Well I shouldn't say that, it's rude of me and I wasn't there to see the exact extent of the injuries so my opinion is completely useless on that." Mavvy very carefully traced the outline with a claw, smiling. This was definitely better than what Rod would want to do right about now and he was rather curious. It was also pretty amazing to consider how shi kept someone from being harmed and this was all that happened from the terrible storm. "Hmm, sorry if it's an odd or rude question but did they just remove the wings or did they also remove the muscles that would control them? And do you by any chance have back pain once in a while?"