At being tackled from behind, Janus had a few thoughts running through his mind.
The first was that he was going to die, a very clear thought that stabbed into his heart and lungs like an icicle and froze every muscle in his body.
The next was a set of plans for escaping, which included punching the person in the face and running away as fast as he could-- something that he wasn't exactly sure he could do, but at that moment, he was more than willing to try.
And the third was that Disi was going to be so mad that he had gotten knocked off of Janus's shoulder.
The first two were all well and fine, but the third kind of made Janus pause for a few seconds to think what the fuck, brain, at himself. In that hesitation he realized that... he wasn't being stabbed. Nobody was putting a bag over his head to kidnap him. And he certainly wasn't being eaten alive.
He turned around quicker than he thought was possible, looking around for where Disi had landed (the dragon had stumbled onto a patch of moss and was currently trying to regain his dignity), and he spotted a very familiar face.
Well, two faces.
"Remus! Remy!" Janus cried, eyes wide as he took the two in. Both had mud smudged on their faces, and Remy had a fern leaf tangled in his hair. He cleared his throat, blushing a little as he remembered that princes were not supposed to sound relieved. Princes should sound-- oh, what the fuck.
He tackled Remus back, wrapping his arms around the other's shoulders and pulling him into a tight hug, and the two rolled onto a soft patch of grass. Relief swept over him and Janus realized that he was somehow laughing and crying at the same time, but who cared?
"I thought you were a serial killer, you half-wit," he complained, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. Remy watched the two with an amused smile, walking over to scoop Disi into his arms.
Remus shrugged, sitting right up and grinning back at Janus. "I thought ya died, so let's call it even," he returned, jumping to his feet and nearly falling back over again. "I just have one request for you, your glorious majesty-- never. Do. That. Again."
"I don't plan to," Janus retorted, crossing his arms. He was soon smacked across the face by a cannonballing dragon, though, as Remy tossed Disi back to the prince. He yelped and caught an armful of the tiny creature, stumbling back to the ground with a small thud.
Remy laughed. "He's a teensy bit like a cat, ain't he?" he asked jokingly, strolling over to where the two were and extending a hand to help Janus up. Grumbling, Janus begrudgingly accepted the help off the ground.
Janus dusted off his pants, rolling his eyes a little. "Maybe-- oof!" He jumped in surprise as Disi launched himself onto his back, latching himself onto Janus's shoulders and snuggling firmly into the prince's neck. Janus patted the dragon's fuzzy head and laughed as Disi nuzzled into the crook of his neck.
"Sorry, Janus," Remus teased, jumping to his feet and kicking embarrassedly at a tree root. He was taller than Janus was, like all the others. It made Janus feel a little small, but he would never admit it if his life depended on it. "We were just worried. The rest of the group's back at the cart, waiting for us to get back." He nodded in the direction the two had come.
Janus peered into the line of trees, squinting into the shadowed canopy of leaves and branches. Dim, pale green light filtered through the leaves, dappled with a faint buttery gold of sunshine, and small things rustled about in the undergrowth. Disi chirped a little and tilted his head at the forest. "Vamanos," he urged Janus, nudging him with his snout.
"I think Disi wants us to go," Janus said to the others, sending Disi a look. The dragon nodded, pleased, and Janus grinned down at him.
Remy whistled, lowering his dark sunglasses to give Disi a scrutinizing look. His eyes were honey-gold and dark-rimmed, glinting like sunlight through a bottle of dark whiskey. "You can understand him?" he asked, looking back up at Janus.
The prince shook his head, a bit crestfallen. "I've tried, but I don't know much of it-- just a few simple words here and there, you know." He shrugged. "Well, where's the cart?"
Remy pointed to the line of trees, adjusting his glasses to cover his dark eyes again. "Somewhere in that direction." He looked back at Remus, who was carving something into a big tree. "Hey hey hey, what are you doing?"
Remus glanced over, blinking innocently. "Carving a note into the tree," he answered easily, then turned back to his carving.
Putting his hands on his hips and pushing his glasses further up his nose, Remy sighed in exasperation. He looked up at Janus, raising his eyebrows, and motioned to the milkman. "You handle him, I can't anymore."
Janus looked over at Remus, tilting his head curiously. "What are you carving into the tree?" he asked, leaning down to look over Remus's shoulder.
Remus shrugged. "Just a note for generations above!" he declared, grinning over at Janus. The prince giggled and watched as Remus repeatedly stabbed the knife deep into the bark of the tree, thunk-thunk-thunk until there were multiple jagged lines in the tree's trunk.
Janus blinked at the strange action. "Come on, we have to go," he tried, grabbing Remus's hands and pulling him away from the tree trunk. Disi purred in agreement, flapping his wings up and back.
They traversed back into the woods, leaving behind no evidence of their presence except for their footprints (and the weird carvings that Remus put into the tree.
Janus traced his fingers on the intricate woodwork of the bark that covered a large redwork tree, letting his head drop back so he could see just how high the red-brown bark spiraled into the pale blue sky above. It seemed as tall as a mountain, but really, Janus figured, it was only around as tall as the tower he had been stuck in. Probably.
Remy, it seemed, loved nature. He kept pointing different plants out and marveling at how different nature worked in "their" world. Janus wasn't sure if he had been telling the truth-- if he really was from a different world. By the looks of him, though...
Janus looked Remy up and down again. He wore a black, leather-like jacket and dark glasses over his amber-gold eyes. The jacket material matched the black wrist cuff he wore on his right wrist, metal spikes shining a light grey in the dappled sunshine. He also had on dark grey boots with white laces and pale tan soles, cocoa-brown denim pants with rips and tears near the knees, and a white shirt striped with black.
He sure wasn't dressed like anyone Janus knew.
Remy caught Janus staring and sent him a curious, but amused, smirk. "You all right there, Janus?" he purred, lowering his sunglasses again to shoot the prince a smug grin.
Janus blinked a few times, opening and closing his mouth before finally settling on what he said. "Yes, I'm alright. Just wondering if you were telling the truth, you know, about being from a different..." he faded off, motioning to Remy vaguely with one hand. Disi snorted out a laugh and nosed Janus's chin, making a shiver go down his spine at the cold touch.
"Do you not believe me?" Remy teased, tearing his gaze away from Janus and bending down to investigate a red sage flower. "I swear, ya'll have so many different kinds of flowers, it's fuckin insane."
Remus arched an eyebrow at Remy, looping back around to whisper in Janus's ear. "Do you understand what he's saying? At all?" He wrinkled his nose at Remy, who was now staring in half-awe at a perfectly regular druid willow tree.
"Not in the slightest," Janus mumbled back, rolling his eyes. Remy looked up, an offended expression on his face, and Janus quickly changed the subject with a small giggle. "Let's just go back to the camp. I'm still tired."
Tilting his head, Remus looked up at the sun through the treetops, shading his eyes with his hand. "It's barely midday, princie! How are you tired?" He turned to Janus, who was blushing a little at being called out. Remus sighed. "How much sleep did you get?"
Janus paused, looking away with a dark red color gracing his cheeks. "...maybe a few... hours..." he mumbled, shuffling in place. Disi rolled his eyes and thwacked his tail on Janus's shoulder.
"Esta cansado, Janus? Ay." He chirped another laugh, flashing his long canines, and Janus had the urge to smack him up the head. He restrained himself, though, and Disi sent him an amused grin.
"Oh, shut up."
"Very mature," Remy joked from where he sat, poking at a red camilla flower. "You know, we have these in my world, too." He looked up at Janus, grinning happily. "In all sorts of different colors. They mean love in the flower language."
Janus blinked at Remy, more than a little surprised. "You know the flower language?" he asked, suddenly interested.
Remy shrugged, an embarrassed flush creeping up his neck. "A bit," he admitted. "Enough. My mom was a florist, and she taught me most of what she knew."
"Flowers have a language?" Remus cut in, his mouth dropping open. "Really? How does that work if they don't have mouths?" He suddenly bent down to inspect a moonvalley flower, squinting at the milky-pale petals and ivory-white thorns. "Wait, do flowers have mouths?"
He paused, his eyes growing even wider. "Could I make a flower with a mouth? Maybe I could teach a flycatcher's bonnet to speak! Wouldn't that be so, so, so cool?!"
Janus had to stifle an affectionate laugh, covering his mouth with one hand. "No, flowers just... mean different things if you give them to people. Like..." he leaned down to pluck a purple snuff blossom from the olive-colored snuff moss blanketing the soft ground. "These. Snuff blossoms usually mean 'I do adore', but different colors can have different meanings. So, purple snuff blossoms can mean 'eternal grace' or 'you are forever beautiful'." He set the soft-petaled blossom back down on the ground, smiling a little at the gentle way the petals branched off from the moss.
He looked up and saw that both Remy and Remus were staring at him with wide eyes. He blushed again, raising his hands in the air and taking a step back, nearly tripping over a nearby root. "O-of course, that's just what I--"
"No, no!" Remus blinked at Janus, his look of shock turning to a wide, lopsided grin. "That actually-- that's--" he stopped, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I mean..."
Remy snorted a laugh, half-disguising it as a cough. Disi sent him a look that said I know, right? and flapped his wings back, baring his fangs in a fond grin. Janus rolled his eyes, still blushing a little, and pushed Disi off of his shoulders.
The dragon squawked and fell head over wings, landing with an oof on the mossy ground. He shook himself all over and looked up at Janus, wrinkling his snout in offense. "Janus!" he whined, clawing at the ground with a scowl.
"Sorry, Disi," Janus teased, scooping the tiny dragon back up. Disi hastily settled around his shoulders again, purring contentedly.
"Let's just go." Remy sent them a look, a smirk hidden somewhere in his dark eyes. "I know the way back."
Remus frowned, tilting his head to the side as they started walking again. "How? I thought you said you had a horrible sense of direction?" He ducked under a curtain of heavy vines, pale yellow leaves drooping on the thick, dark vines.
Remy hesitated. "I have a good memory," he replied simply, looking around. "For instance, I know that there's a cave right..." he pointed to an outcropping of rock, and sure enough when Remus and Janus looked, there was a yawning cave mouth.
Janus ran his fingers along the gritty, sharp stalactites and shuddered. It looked like a mouth, complete with sharp, scary fangs. "Continuing on," he mumbled, tearing his gaze away from the wide cave entrance.
"Alright, alright," Remy laughed. He looped around the prince in a wide arc, sticking his tongue out at him. "Shortie."
Before Janus could even open his mouth to protest, Remy darted away, forcing Janus and Remus to put on a burst of speed to follow him.
They dodged under bushels of leaves and jumped around prickly bushes, stepping over tree roots and large rocks. The forest started to speed by quicker and quicker, and Janus wondered just how fast Remy could run.
Remy looked back at Janus, who was hot on his tail, and sped up. He jumped on top of a boulder and spun around a large oak tree, somehow knowing where the obstacles were even before he seemed to register them. To Janus, Remy seemed like a seal in water instead of a human boy in a forest, slipping between rock outcroppings and ducking underneath low-hanigng vines without missing a beat.
Remus was going fast, too, his arm outstretched in front of him like he was trying to catch Remy. He tripped and stumbled over things more often than either Janus or Remus, but he seemed persistent, his feet hitting the mossy forest floor in a never-ending rhythm.
The forest continued to fly past in a whirl of greens and browns, Janus losing track of where he was running for the second time. He laughed a little, the feeling of running so familiar yet new that it created an intoxicating mixture of excitement and fear. Janus was swept up into the feeling, letting himself run on autopilot and just focusing on avoiding the obsticales.
Finally, after around ten minutes of just running, Remy slowed to a halt. He bent forward, breathless but somehow laughing. His glasses were lopsided on his face and his jacket was off one shoulder, his cheeks flushed and his eyes wide open in exhileration.
Janus slumped against a tree trunk, not even caring when Remus sat right next to him. He just let his head flop onto Remus's shoulder, letting out a long, exhausted breath and pressing a hand to his forehead. Disi scampered off of Janus's shoulder and shook out his wings, his tail whipping through the air. His eyes were wide and excited as he pranced back and forth.
"That was fun," Remy finally panted, grinning in a mischevious sort of way at Janus and Remus. Disi turned to Remy and gave him a fanged grin in agreement.
Remus laughed. "That was exhausting, more like." His voice was rough and breathless after running for long, his eyes still closed. Janus silently agreed, not knowing if his voice was stable enough for him to speak.
Rolling his eyes, Remy straightened up, dusting off his pants with a quick motion of his wrists. "Our camp is only a few more minutes away, if we run again. Think you're up for round two so fast?" He sent Janus a challenging look, cocking his head to the side and fixing his sunglasses.
Disi's eyes narrowed, a grin spreading across his snout. He dug his claws into the mossy ground and smacked his tail against the forest floor, leaping back up onto Janus's shoulders.
Janus couldn't help it when a grin of his own tugged at his lips, nudging Disi's snout with his chin and sending Remy an equal stare. Another burst of energy suddenly running through him, he jumped to his feet and pulled Remus up along with him.
"Let's go."