Another exhausting day had passed for Rolf. The emperor simply couldn't believe how… pain inducing the past five days had been! All of those miserable hours spent at the schoolhouse, giving lecture upon lecture to every student having to repeatedly stress the rules to those who didn't obey. And, above all, Double D's obnoxious remarks! It was utterly nightmarish!
Rolf let out a sigh while sitting at his office desk. He looked down at the desk and noticed that there was no paperwork to fill out, or much of anything to do for that matter.
"Oh, it seems that Rolf has a free weekend," the boy remarked to himself, wondering what he would do instead. He gazed around his bleak, stone office room and daydreamed about what it would be like outside of the castle. A long-awaited breath of fresh air, discovering new locations, reminiscing about familiar ones, and having nothing to do but relax!
But of course, Rolf needed somebody to bring along with him.
Jimmy! A thought burst into his head. I could have him come with me and we could take a vacation together!
"BOY-JIMMY!" the king crowed. Jimmy sluggishly walked down the halls, his fists clenched tightly.
"I swear, if I have to waste my time with ONE more task, I am going to…"
"Jimmy!" Rolf interrupted the boy's murmuring. "Rolf would like to invite you on a vacation with him!"
The pale kid brightened up, slightly. "I'll take it up, where are we going?"
"We are just taking a stroll outside of the Cul-De-Sac. I'll get the collar, and then we'll go."
"Ugh," the child groaned.
"Now, now, Jimmy. You know that I only use the collar to protect you," Rolf said, searching out the collar among his various possessions.
"More like to enslave me…" Jimmy muttered.
"What's that?" Rolf said. "Speak up, Jimmy-boy!"
"Nothing!"
"Then come over here." Rolf opened up a loosened safe door, acquired a dark-violet shaded collar, and affixed it to Jimmy's neck.
"And away we go, to lands unsettled!" announced Rolf, sprinting outside of the castle, dragging the reluctant Jimmy the whole way down. All of the children were outside, conducting their usual business. Jonny, staring at a wall in the castle, heard Rolf call his name, and raced up to him.
"Jonny-boy, Rolf entrusts you with the responsibility of guarding the castle. Can you fulfill his request while he is away?" inquired Rolf politely.
"Sure thing!" Jonny replied, giving Rolf a thumbs up.
"Thank you," said Rolf. Then, he and Jimmy made their way out beyond the Cul-De-Sac.
Hiding behind the palace were Ed, Double D, and Eddy, who had been eavesdropping.
"He's gone, guys! Now we have the chance to steal the book!" Ed whispered.
"You're kidding me, right? I don't even have a plan set up yet! How can we escape from here without a plan?" barked Eddy in response.
"What we can do, though, is listen in on Rolf, and potentially gather new information about him!" suggested Double D.
"That doesn't sound half-bad. Let's go do that!" Eddy said, following the path that Rolf had taken. Double D and Ed hurried behind him.
Rolf and Jimmy sauntered out into the forest, specifically known as the Phantom Woods. Dark wood trees covered every inch of the daunting wood, which was mossy and sappy to the brim. The forest canopy diminished all but the faintest traces of light. Every now and again, one might see the occasional shriveled weed or blade of jungle grass sprouting out from the slime and muck of the forest floor. The whole place smelled of saltwater and sulfur. In the past, some brave soul had cleared a winding path through the darkness and murk - although now, the cypresses hunched over it like old crones, burying it in shade.
"Ah, how Rolf can just smell the terrain!" said the tan boy.
"It's putrid here," Jimmy remarked, wafting his hand under his nose.
The two continued on. The three Eds stole softly behind them.
"He is right, it does smell fucking awful!" whispered Double D.
"SWEAR TAX!" Ed hissed, pulling out an emerald from Double D's pocket. The boy in the hat groaned.
"Um… guys? I'm not sure it's safe to hang around here…" Eddy said. His whole body was shaking. "I heard Nazz telling Kevin yesterday about how one should never go into these woods at night! And it's getting pretty late..."
"Well, Eddy, we don't really know whether or not her advice is true, do we?" Double D retorted.
"No…" the pink boy murmured.
The quintet carried on with their stroll in the woods, until evening faded to dusk. Suddenly, Rolf stopped in his tracks. It was a trailer; a dingy old thing - the blue paint was chipping off in places, and there was dirt and mold between the slats of the roof.
"Hey, Rolf recognizes this contraption! It is the Kanker trailer! Oh, may those infernal wrecks of human beings be SHANGLE-BLANGLED all the way to the NETHER REGION AND BACK, NEVER TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!" Rolf shouted, stomping up to the window and pounding his fist against it. To his bewilderment, though, Rolf could not see any of the Kanker sisters inside.
The son of a shepherd hatched an idea.
"Boy-Jimmy, Rolf would like to enter the Kanker trailer in order to acquire more supplies. As such, he requests that you stay right here, so as to be safe from any danger," Rolf told his servant, before straying into the mobile home. Jimmy nodded, and then turned around to see the Eds right behind him.
"Agh!" Jimmy screamed. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Oh, please, Jimmy, don't tell Rolf that we've been stalking him!" begged Double D, holding his hands together.
"I won't," replied Jimmy. "However, there is something that I'd like to talk to you about," he continued, removing the collar from his neck and tossing it onto the ground.
"What is it?" Eddy asked.
"Ya see this?" Jimmy pulled out a key from his pocket.
"Yes, said Double D.
"This is Rolf's safe key. However, it also can be used to open the cells. I'm giving it to you, so I won't have so much work to do." He placed the key in Double D's left hand.
"Wow… Jimmy, you don't suppose Rolf would find out that you lent his keys to us?" the crimson shirted kid asked.
"Hah!" Jimmy laughed. "Rolf doesn't pay any attention to his belongings. Once he finds out about it, it'll be FAR too late!" The pale child broke into hysterics.
"Oh, I getcha!" said Double D. All of a sudden, the children heard a soft creaking noise from the trailer's door.
"That'll be Rolf. Go on, shoo!" Jimmy dismissed them, and the Eds scampered off.
"Rolf is back! And he has brought some good stuff!" The azure-haired boy showed off a silver sword, and a gray bucket of fish.
"Uh. Pretty cool, Rolf," remarked Jimmy.
"Let's do some more venturing!" shouted Rolf, so overjoyed with his findings that he didn't seem to notice his servant's lack of a collar. Jimmy and the Eds followed.
As soon as night fell, Rolf chose to stop by a river. The water ran deep, and was scarlet with algae. There were stones all around the border, and the shadows of unknown objects pooled and overlapped at the river's base.
"What do ya think those could be?" questioned Eddy.
"Let's go check it out!" responded Double D.
All three Eds peered their heads out at the estuary, and collectively gasped at what they saw.
"Are those… skulls?!" Ed cried.
"Ohhh, I think I'm gonna be sick," Eddy moaned, and brought his hands to his stomach.
"What happened here?" pondered Double D. He pointed his finger into the river below them. "Those two, over there, they kind of look like Kevin, don't you think…?"
"I dunno," Eddy said, squeezing his eyes shut. "Let's just get out of here!"
But they couldn't leave just yet. They heard Rolf's voice echo off in the distance, and all three Eds hid behind a particularly thick-trunked tree to listen.
"Ah, the Crimson River. Such a momentous landmark of Peach Creek. Just think about it, Jimmy. We have done so much gratuitous work over the months! Look and see how much it has paid off! Memorize it, boy-Jimmy! Memorize this!" Rolf spoke, gazing off into the shimmering brook, lost in his own fantasy.
"Finally," Jimmy snarked.
"Work? What work? What payoff? What are they talking about?" Eddy stammered, fiddling with his fingers and twitching.
Rolf and Jimmy took their time to relax themselves at the Crimson River, until Rolf decided that it was time for them to leave.
"I think we have had enough vacation time for now, haven't we? It's about time we got back to the castle." Jimmy nodded solemnly, and the two wandered off, back onto the wooded path. and the Eds stole softly behind them as they went.
"Well, it's night now. We should get out of here, fast! Who knows what'll happen?" Eddy whined, pulling at his hair.
"Eddy, I told you that there's nothing to worry about! You're overreacting! Just calm down!"
However, just as soon as the trio made it back into the Phantom Woods, Ed was struck by a thorny, juniper-colored vine. A few feet ahead, Rolf met with the same predicament, causing him to shout.
"GHOSTS!" the boy howled. "They have come for vengeance!" Rolf started whimpering, as tears began to fall from his eyes.
Ed brushed at the vines, which fell away from him like cut rope.
"Err, let's just get out of here!" said Ed. The other two boys nodded, and they dashed off down the path as quickly as they could, back to the Cul-De-Sac.
At every turn, the thorny plants seemed to whip and slash at Rolf, who was now sprinting and galloping for his life. A humongous dead wood branch plummeted from a tree and dropped down onto Rolf's leg, leaving him with a limp. Rolf let out a sharp cry of pain, and Jimmy moved to support him. After what seemed like an eternity of tangled legs and vine-caught feet stumbling over one another, the two escaped.
When Rolf finally made it back, an unexpected crowd of people gathered around the castle entrance caught his eye. Behind the crowd was Jonny, who had been tied up with golden rope chains and had a butter-colored ball gag stuffed up his mouth. These three girls, with their brightly colored, unkempt hair, lanky bodies, and unsettling stares, made the tan man shiver with fear.
"Hey girls, the geezer's back!" reported Mackenzie Eniko Kanker, who usually went by the nickname May. She was carrying a bow and a good amount of arrows, both of which belonged to Rolf.
"Oh, now we gotta move fast!" shouted Leann Matilda Kanker, also known as Lee. In her hands was a sack of potatoes, which, once again, was Rolf's.
"Kankers! Cease your shenanigans! ...And give me back my stockpiles!" Rolf made to storm up to the offending thieves, but his limp caused him to instead stumble to the ground.
"Cease? Why would we? We've been doing this for months without fail, why stop now?" a voice snapped, then giggled. Rolf looked upwards and found that right above him was Marianne Leopold Kanker, less formally called Marie.
"Anyways, me and my lackeys will be off. Come on, girls!" the woman commanded, and the Kanker sisters were gone as quickly as they had arrived.
Rolf sighed, and hobbled his way to his kitchen. He opened up his freezer, picked up a package of the frozen meat of Kevin's parents, and tossed it on the counter. The boy then preheated his oven to 450 degrees.
45 minutes passed, and after those 45 minutes, Rolf had the meat on a plate on his office desk. He picked up his silver fork, removed a sliver of flesh from his baked delicacy with it, and placed it into his mouth. The emperor smirked a bit and chuckled. "My work here has certainly paid off."