14 How did he get here?

"Heh?" Clark muttered quietly, swiftly pulling the metal card out of Aaron's hand and looked at it as intensely as he could, before staring up at Jakob and Ernard, "Holy mother of life! You- You're actually Jakob and Ernard from Fiery Glacier?!" He yelled out loudly, his deep voice seemingly carrying for quite a distance, and the two animated skeletons turned one both nodded their heads.

"Aye, that's us. Didn't know we were such a big deal though." Jakob pointed out, and Jenna immediately stepped up in front of them just as excitedly as Aaron and Clark, "Of course you're a big deal! All your hidden accomplishments were laid open once you went missing!"

It seemed like Jakob and Ernard were both rather surprised at hearing this and looked at each other before turning back toward Jenna, "Hidden accomplishments?" Ernard asked with a bit of confusion, and Aaron immediately proceeded to speak about three of those in heavy detail.

There was this one time when Fiery Glacier fought the Dragon of Darkness Garadon together with its spawn of evil, freeing the ruined kingdom of Avarice from being dragged into hell.

Another time, they trapped an ancient fire elemental inside of an active volcano, before using ice magic to completely freeze that volcano over.

Then they once exposed a fraud king before he could take control of a kingdom, and saved the real one in the process.

Although... "That last one sounds weirdly less cool than those first two..." Foster muttered to himself quietly, although apparently not quiet enough not to be overheard by Aaron, who immediately glared at Foster, "The fraud king was one of the 72 Dukes of the underworld, and the real king was trapped in that Duke's dungeon."

"Nevermind then..." The young man replied immediately and slowly stared at Jakob and Ernard suspiciously. How did they become this weak then..?

"Ah, right, that did all happen..." Ernard muttered quietly, "Although the only reason we managed to expose and beat the fraud king was Aria, our priestess. Her holy magic was second to none, huh?"

"Aye, an' without Yennifer and her supreme magic, we never could've beaten that elemental." Jakob added before both heads looked down onto the ground, "And Georg was the reason we were able to beat Garadon..."

"Ah, right! Those three, what happened to them?!" Jenna asked immediately, "Are they around here somewhere too?" She asked with a broad grin, and it seemed like both Aaron and Clark were also quite curious, although this time, it was Foster that glared at the others.

"They're... You know..." Foster tried to explain, and immediately the three stared at him in utter confusion, "What do you mean? But they can't be, they're some of the strongest people that this country has ever seen..." Aaron protested, but what Foster said was quickly supported by Jakob and Ernard themselves.

"The boy's tellin' the truth. Yennifer and Aria grew impatient, and one day faced that damned Lich on their own... and Georg passed just yesterday, truthfully..." Jakob explained with a bitter tone to his voice, before Aaron, Clark, and Jenna immediately stared at Foster, trying to ask him to explain.

After all, Foster had mentioned something about a 'Lich' before. But instead of saying anything right now, he thought it would be a better idea to get through something else first.

"I'll explain! Once we're at the place you wanted to bring me to, alright? Please, I really need to get somewhere where I can eat something besides candy and granola bars..." Foster told them, "And I doubt we want that giant undead to catch up to us, right?" He pointed out. These three weren't much of a match against the thing of flesh and bones either. And while Foster managed to get it preoccupied with something else for a while, it nearly cost him his life in the process.

With a deep grumble and penetrating glare, Aaron grabbed Foster's arm and started pulling him along, "You know what, fine. But then, let's get going as soon as possible." He said in a commanding tone, and Jenna, Clark, as well as the two-headed skeleton, swiftly followed behind.

Foster got Aaron to let go of him at some point because it was really uncomfortable running like this. And that's basically what they were doing. Running. They weren't walking anymore like they were before. Still, all three of these people simply wanted to get to their destination to find out what exactly happened here in this space that used to be encapsulated in a one-way barrier.

It took them a few hours, during which Foster had to take a couple of breaks to get his stamina back. His own stamina seemed to be incomparably low next to these other three. And apparently Undead had 'infinite' stamina. Or rather, none of their actions consumed any of it. Foster wasn't exactly sure how this kind of stuff actually worked, though.

It just took them a few hours to reach the place the barrier used to stand. They ran along the path that the thing of flesh and bones created by trampling down any plants and even ripping down some trees along the way. So, the spot where the rest of Georg's bones were laying wasn't too far away from here.

Foster immediately felt a clumb form in his chest as breathing and swallowing became harder, and he simply felt slightly nauseated. After all, as far as Foster understood, he was the reason why Georg ended up dying like that.

The young man kept following those three, until they slowly made their way to the edge of the forest, letting Foster for the first time see the space outside of it. It seemed like this side of the forest was lower than the part outside of it, since there was a large plateau in front of them. Although the first thing that Foster saw was just that steep cliff-wall.

"Just a bit further this way." Clark explained as he started to walk along that cliff-wall. Foster could hear the faint sound of voices in the distance, though. But from what he could tell, none of these three expected to hear anyone there either.

Once they turned the corner, there was a sloped path that led up the cliff-wall to its top, and currently descending it was a group of rather hectic men and women. The moment this group spotted the party of three approaching them, they apparently grew rather relieved.

"Finally, you three! What did you find in there?" One of them asked immediately. He was wearing a dark blue suit and seemed to be in his fifties. This man had a rather big beer-belly, and there were more bald-spots on the top of his head than there was hair. He was obviously the most out of shape out of everyone here.

"Just some necromancer kid and an undead we have to question. This undead is-"

"Holy Mother of- Is that you, Joseph?" Jakob asked immediately, interrupting what Aaron was trying to explain. The out-of-shape, nervous man stared past the three adventurers and looked at the two-headed skeleton and the young man standing next to it.

"How do you know my name?" Joseph asked with a deep frown, but Foster, slightly startled, immediately shook his head and pointed at Jakob and Ernard, "Ask them, not me!"

With a puzzled expression, Joseph turned his head to look at the two-headed skeleton again and slightly squinted his eyes, "An undead that retained its intelligence..? Who were you when you were still alive?" The man asked suspiciously, and with a loud laugh, Jakob and Ernard looked at each other before turning back toward Joseph.

"Haha, look at ya, Joe!" Jakob exclaimed, and Ernard quickly continued, "Back then, you were just a lil' twerp, but now you're a big shot, eh?" Ernard asked, and then slowly turned his sight toward the man's hand before hitting his own shoulder to point Jakob toward it, who then looked at Joseph surprised. Or at least Foster thought he was surprised? As mentioned, they didn't have anything that could let anyone figure out what kind of expression they were making at the moment.

"Joe, ye're married! Who'd ya manage to pull in? That cutie you were crushin' on back then? What was her name again...?" Jakob asked and tried to snap his fingers in thought, although that attempt immediately failed since he didn't have the skin that was needed to snap. It still seemed to help, since Ernard apparently remembered.

"Ah, Isabella, was it? I knew it, of course, you two were gonna end up together!" Ernard exclaimed, and while everyone else was utterly confused at what exactly was going on, Joseph himself figured it out. It seemed like the memories of these two slowly resurfaced after hearing them speak.

"No way, that... that can't be, but..." Joseph muttered quietly, his eyes going wide as he approached the two-headed undead, "Jakob, Ernard! It's you, isn't it..?"

With a loud laugh, Jakob nodded his head while Ernard smugly held his hand up to his head, "Yours truly, Joe." Jakob pointed out, and the very next moment, Joseph's sight turned toward Foster.

"And you're the necromancer that resurrected them?" He asked excitedly and tried to grab Foster by his shoulders, but before he could do that, Jakob and Ernard stepped in between them to stop Joseph.

"The situation's a bit more complicated. We'll explain, first, let us out of this damned forest." Ernard suggested, and without hesitation, Joseph nodded his head and turned around, "Of course! You all make way! Two legends have returned!" He yelled out, and in a smug manner, Jakob and Ernard followed behind Joseph with Foster walking next to them, while Aaron, Clark, and Jenna walked in the back of the group.

Foster was quite nervous, considering that everyone was staring at him right now. Foster was also pretty sure that no matter what happened, he should be able to use the fact that he was with two literal legends to get him out of some uncomfortable situations.

At the top of the cliff, Foster spotted what he figured to be a small fort, constructed to keep an eye on this forest. They approached it and stepped inside and were led through some hallways until they ended up in a large room with a meeting table in the center.

It was barely decorated, and from what Foster could tell, nobody really took care of this place either. Sure, from the outside, it looked like there were constantly people here. Still, from the moment that they actually stepped inside, it was pretty clear that the opposite was the case. It was probably just for show to scare people off that were thinking about getting close to the forest.

"Please, sit." Joseph said with a light smile as he used the handkerchief in his suit's chest-pocket to soak up some of the sweat that was collecting on his forehead while being the first to follow up on his own suggestion.

Jakob and Ernard did the same immediately after, even if they had a bit of trouble properly organizing themselves to properly do so without nearly getting injured somehow.

Foster took a seat right next to those two, while Aaron, Clark, and Jenna sat down on the other side of the table with Joseph. It all started to really feel like a proper questioning like at the police now.

"Then, let's start." Aaron said immediately without waiting for Joseph to say anything first, "Kid, who the hell are you?"

Nervous, although he knew this question would come first, Foster tried to come up with an explanation that wouldn't obviously make these people think he's crazy. However, Ernard quickly took over for him.

"I think I can tell you. A few years ago, I think it's around five by now, we came across this boy in the forest. He had a quite sheltered upbringing and ended up being pushed into the forest so that his parents could 'get rid' of him. So, we picked him up and had him live with us until now." Ernard explained, and Foster slowly turned his head toward the undead in confusion.

He was rather glad that he didn't have to come up with an explanation himself now.