Put back together

45. Hello there~

Warnings: Violence, vomit, nudity, grossness, sexual innuendos, slight body horror (?), tentacles, disgusting behaviour.
Let me know if I forgot something!

The tentacle curled around the footbridge and for a moment Logan feared that that - whatever that was - was going to destroy the bridge.

Then the body broke through the surface of the muddy swamp water.

An arm - a surprisingly human arm - grabbed at the bridge and it pulled itself up.

The tentacle was pulled back to the body and disappeared in a surprisingly human torso.

The man - or at least it looked like a man - stood up and turned to face them.

He grinned showing off his too-sharp teeth and his light green eyes seemed to glow in a deranged sorta way that made Logan want to get as far away from the man as possible.
He had a feeling that the man was all too comfortable with violence.

And nudity judging by his lack of clothes.

The man stood tall, legs a shoulder width apart and hands on his hips, facing them and he was completely naked.

Logan tried to keep his focus on the man's face or at least his muscular chest but his eyes kept slipping down against his will.

He noticed a leech sucking at the man's shoulder (and inner thigh) but the man himself ignored the creatures completely.

"Hello there!~" the man grinned cocking his head to the side. Mud water sprayed from his hair at the quick motion. "Not often I get... company around here!~"

He winked and made a circle motion with his hips.

Logan heard Patton gag behind him. He couldn't blame him.

"Who are you?" Roman asked warily.

The man giggled.

"Oooh~ So demanding!~"

"What's your name?" Roman tried again.

"Whatever you want it to be, big boy~"

Roman physically recoiled at that.

"Jokes aside!" the stranger laughed like a mad man. "My name is Remus."

He gave a bow pressing one hand to his chest, still grinning at them.

"Remus of Terona, second to the throne, if you're into that formal stuff."

Logan felt light-headed.

Of course.
Of fucking course they couldn't just escape from the teronan army and royal family after what they had pulled back at the castle! No, instead they just had to run into one of Virgil's older brothers.

"And who are you?" Remus asked with a wink.

Logan was beginning to wonder if that sharp grin was permanently etched into Remus' face or if he did it on purpose just to be disturbing.

"Just some travelers passing through," Roman responded curtly.

Remus scowled and jawned theatrically.

"Yeah, sure. You know my older brother has this curse thing that makes him a permanent liar," Remus told them cleaning out his ear with one finger, suddenly just looking bored. "And even though I know that Jan-Jan always lies," Remus inspected his finger before turning to look at them again," he's a lot more convincing than you."

A grin broke out on Remus' face again as Logan noticed Roman tense.

"Soo, could it be that you are the people Perse wrote about?" Remus pulled a mace out of seemingly nowhere. Logan vaguely wondered who 'Perse' was. "The ones that stabbed Virgin?"

Patton flinched at the accusation and Remus lunged with a feral cry.

Roman pushed Logan and Patton back and pulled his sword.
Logan noticed his slightly wince and realised with a start that Roman's injured arm was his sword arm.

Remus laughed like a maniac as he swung his mace. It crashed into one of the nearest supporting pillar and the wood burst.

Roman cut the rope tying his to Patton to get more room of movement and tried to find an opening.
He couldn't block right now.
To his surprise Remus left lots of openings.

Whenever the heavy mace crashed into wood and he had to pull it back up he left his entire body open.

Logan couldn't understand why Roman didn't just take the damn strike.

Next to him Patton pulled an arrow from his quiver.
The baker's hand's were shacking.

"Can you do this?" Logan asked.

Patton pressed his lips together and shrugged and fired.

The arrow was stopped midair by a green slimy tentacle coming from Remus' back.

"What the fuck are you?" Roman blurted out.

"I don't know!" Remus laughed. "Something not human."

He shrugged pulling his shoulders up to his ears.

"How can you not know what you are?!" Patton shouted and even Logan recognised the fear in his voice.

Remus let the head of his mace drop to the ground not minding that the wood almost broke through.

"Well, you see, I was human. Once. But that was boooring. So," he shrugged again," I decided not to be boring anymore. Who knows what worked!"

Logan stared at the man flabbergasted.
In theory there were plenty of ways to become 'something else'.
Rituals, poisons, spells, potions or curses.
But most people avoided those due to the risks they brought with them and this guy... had actively sought them out?
Whatever doubts Logan had had about the man being completely insane vanished.

Remus holstered his maze back up and swung at Roman again who jumped backwards landing at the edge of the footwalk.

Remus giggled.

"Looks like someone's gonna take a bath!~" he took a swing, aiming for Roman only to
collapse like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The mace crashed onto the bridge again.

For a few tense seconds none of them dared to move.

Then Roman hesitantly got closer, crouched down and poked Remus' shoulder (the one without a leech) keeping his sword ready to strike.

Logan gasped when green glowing lines appeared on Remus' naked body.

The madman was one of them.

His gaze wandered over to Roman, frozen in something that was neither surprise nor really shock, staring down at the red glowing swirl on his own hand.

"What the heck?" Patton whispered next to him almost inaudible.

"Roman?" Logan asked barely louder.

The prince looked up as if shaken out of a trance, green eyes wide.

He tried to say something but seemed to choke on the words.

"What-?" was the only thing the prince managed to say before he bent over and threw up into the swamp.

I made this as gross as I could and I still fell as if I didn't do Remus justice.
Oh well, at least he's here now.

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!