“You missed one over there, go an’ get it!” Rocko bellowed out, pointing to a snow-covered stone in the distance.

Phil threw his hands up. “That ones yours!”

“Nuh-uh, I done loaded all these ones up that were over there,” Rocko explained back, pointing in a direction.

Phil’s brain cells lit up as he looked from where the two stone piles had once been. A single large stone that was still over to his side rested off away in the distance.

“Oh… fine!” Phil’s stick body shuffled over to the last rock. He bent over, and with every muscle fiber he had, hoisted the rock up to his chest. He brought it back over and dumped it into the large wagon.

“That’s all of ‘em. Let’s go,” he added, out of breath.

Rocko and Phil approached the front of the horse drawn wagon. They climbed up to the bench stationed just behind the horse, and Rocko grabbed the reigns.

It was a clear day at Nocturne Castle. With Marin and Gus off on their quest for stronger allies, Loid was in charge of the day to day operations. That included overseeing the courtyard project Marin requested be rebuilt to the right of the castle.

Without much else they were capable of doing, Loid assigned the two of them to help Fern Coronga get the job done.

Rocko snapped the reigns, and the horse moved forward, carrying the load of stones to the other side of Nocturne. Phil lowered his head, and his messy, sandy bangs hung in front of his forehead. It had been a hard day, but their work hours were nearing completion.

Rocko was a significantly larger man than Phil, and even his muscles hurt. It might have been due to him purposely hauling more than his friend for this project. Rocko had been looking out for him this whole time, and Phil was completely unaware.

“At least we got the last of these stones,” Rocko grumbled, trying to remind Phil and himself that the hardest part had been done.

Phil looked back up. “Almost quittin’ time?”

“Almost. Jus’ a little longer.”

The horse pulled the cart around the front of the massive castle to the far left, a trek that even took the horse several minutes to do. Down at the other side, Fern was seen operating a stone cutter. He had been cutting up Rocko and Phil’s hauls into manageable bricks. To the left of Fern was a neatly laid cube pile of them.

When the wagon reached its destination, Rocko and Phil hopped off. Fern turned around to meet them, and he wasn’t entirely happy.

“About time you both came back around. Did you finally get all of them?” He demanded.

“Aye, sir. This is the last haul,” Rocko responded.

“Good. Well, start grabbing these bricks, and lay them in the order I had over there,” Fern instructed while wiping sweat from his brow. He pointed to his freshly cut bricks, and then to the center of the courtyard where he had begun laying them.

Rocko gave a deep sigh. “Let’s go, Phil.”

Rocko was able to hold four bricks, two in each of his massive, meaty hands, while Phil could only achieve half the amount. His bony twig arms were thinly wrapped it flexed muscle strands as he clutched a brick in each.

They both huffed as they walked the bricks over, while Fern’s cutting could be heard resuming from behind them. When they got to their destination, they dropped the bricks down. Rocko began laying them into place as Phil turned around to get more.

The long stone bricks were as cold as they were heavy. Not rough in any sense – due to Fern’s decent talent with a stone cutter, but that hardly made the job easier. He grabbed one and laid it parallel to the one besides it. Afterwards, he shoved the brick against the rest as hard as he could.

He grabbed the next one, and started to repeat the process. On his knees, he shifted position to lay yet another as Phil dropped two more besides him.

They were both exhausted.

When Phil walked away again, Rocko grabbed another. For a moment, he stopped. He felt the stone brick in his hand. He looked down at it. A type of slate – very robust. Fine-grained, foliated, and metamorphic. Originally formed from a shale-type of sedimentary.

He squeezed the brick as he pondered its properties.

He could end it all, right now.

He clutched the stone harder, and started feeling a vibration. He began to hear the bricks around him cry out.

“Hey! If you’re not working, than neither am I!” Phil exclaimed when he walked back over with two more bricks and caught Rocko daydreaming.

Rocko shook his head and blinked, all the feelings leaving him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, as he took the brick in hand, and laid it down.

The sharp noise of metal to stone came alive again after Fern grabbed a new stone from the cart. The sound was loud and unpleasant to the ears, especially Rocko’s.

It was not long before Rocko stood back up to grab new bricks, beating Phil’s rate of bringing them to his laying. He passed Phil as he saw his clouded breath rise from his mouth like puffs from a train’s smokestack. Jogging might’ve been a less demanding activity for the bony lad.

Brick after brick was installed into the ground. Eventually, they had cleared Fern’s sizable pile. Fern looked over to the empty spot, and gave Rocko an approving nod. After Rocko stood there for a moment, Fern rolled his sleeve up to spot his watch.

“Thirty minutes until work’s done,” he mentioned while flipping an in-progress rock to its side. “Go ahead and unload the rest of the uncut stones onto the ground, then take Bossy back to the stables. Return to me once you’ve done that.”

Bossy neighed at hearing his name.

“No problem.”

Phil climbed into the back of the cart, and began handing off the large stones to Rocko, who threw each one onto the ground besides him. When that task was completed, they both climbed into the front bench, and directed the horse back around.

Bossy moved at a happier pace with a completely empty cart. Phil let out a yawn. The sun was beginning to set.

As they began to cross the front of the castle, Phil piped up. “I think… I think Fern outta have the horse’s name. Because he’s bossier than Bossy is,” he stated as a matter of fact.

Rocko laughed. “Don’t let Fern hear ya saying that.”

“What do you reckon dinner is tonight?” Phil asked, trying to focus on the relaxing time ahead.

“I dunno. What do you want?”

“Beef. Wait wait, pork! Maybe beef fried in pork fat. Maybe-”

“As if meat didn’t give off enough of its own fat to be fried in! You keep trying to eat like that, you won’t be around in a few more decades,” Rocko exclaimed.

It would come across to anyone as surprising to find out that Phil was the heavier eater out of the two of them, especially given their body size. Phil’s stature refused to gain any more mass than it already had, despite his inhaling of Nocturne’s gourmet cuisine.

To Phil, all the work he endured was made easier, knowing he had a meal coming that was miles better than whatever he had in previous times.

When heading to the left-face of Nocturne Castle, at the beginning of the wall, there is a tower with a large opening. Inside, horses fenced in chowed on straw, while a few workers brushed them. This was the stables.

Rocko guided Bossy to this location, and as much as the horse disliked going in the direction it was made to go, he did not put up a fight in returning to the warm interior of the castle.

Some stablehands greeted Bossy back into the opening after his long day of hauling rocks. Rocko and Phil hopped off the cart as they took over. They began to untether the work horse from its wagon as both of them walked back outside and across the castle once again.

Back on the other side, Fern finished cutting the last stone into a brick that he would for the day. He moved the brick over to a new pile he started, then turned to face them.

“Let’s get all this debris shoveled up, and we’re done for the day,” he told them. Fern walked over to the corner to a few tools that were leaning up against the castle. He grabbed a shovel, with Rocko and Phil following suit.

Soon all three were shoveling the remains of Fern’s neatly cut bricks. The stone cutter spat pebbles of broken-off slate from the job, and after a day’s worth of doing so, it had accumulated quite a bit. It was the last task they had to do.

“Alright boys, it’s looking real good around here. Have yourselves a nice evening,” Fern announced.

Relieved, and with a sigh, they both returned their shovels, and walked away from the worksite. Another day completed.

A standard work day at Nocturne Castle ended at 5 o’ clock, with dinner starting at 6, and running until 8. It gave most workers an hour to recover some before eating. Rocko and Phil entered the castle from the right side where the courtyard was being remade. Back inside, the warmth from the local fireplaces met them with comfort.

Rocko unzipped his jacket and hung it from his shoulder while Phil wasn’t feeling warm enough yet to do the same. They were making their way back to their bedroom to unwind for a while. As they navigated the turns of the lengthy hallways, Rocko could still remember how empty and in disrepair it all used to look.

King Marin returning from his nearly eternal slumber had revived not only himself, but also his castle dwelling, which now housed the population of a large village. Due to this fact, the castle felt very homey in almost every section. Almost every section, minus a few wings in the back, and also the lower basements and catacombs.

Phil and Rocko were some of the very few people who knew about the hidden vault in the deep basements below. Rocko knew the entire castle had been restored on the wealth that Marin had worked so hard to obtain from centuries ago.

How he earned that gold though, he wondered if anyone knew.

Phil jumped onto a plush couch when they entered their bedroom at the far end of the hallway. He kicked his feet up, and rested his hands behind his head.

Rocko took a comfortable chair in the opposite corner. He leaned his head back.

They rested for spell in silence. After about ten minutes, Phil was done with their siesta.

“Alright, let’s go,” Phil said.

Rocko leaned his head back up, seeing that Phil had crept up right in front of him.

“What?”

“Let’s go see what Loid’s doing. Maybe he’s playing cards again.”

Rocko was still worn from the day’s work, and couldn’t imagine how Phil was ready to go again so quickly. In fact, he might’ve fallen asleep in the chair if Phil hadn’t disturbed him.

“I don’t like playin’ cards. I’m no good at it anyways,” Rocko stated.

“C’mon. You don’t even have to play. You can just sit and watch. Its fun just to be there sometimes,” Phil tried persuading.

Rocko shook his head, but got up anyways.

They walked out of the bedroom. Phil finally had his coat off, and showed off his stained white T-shirt. Rocko had on a knitted sweater that an elderly woman made for him. It took much more yarn for her to make than she had imagined.

A few of the denizens in the castle greeted the two as they walked by. Rocko made a few nods at the maids. They took a few flights of stairs and passed the offices that Helva and Harrel worked in, that were now closed for the evening.

As they got closer to the room at the end of the hallway, laughter could be heard.

Loid was indeed playing cards.

Rocko and Phil entered a sizable space at the end of the hallway of offices. In this back room, a large round wooden table stood in the center. Above it was a brightly lit chandelier with many flames dancing across its rim. Around the table sat Loid and several other Nocturne higher-ups.

The table was littered with cards, chips, and papers.

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Everyone looked up when they both entered the room. Loid turned around to see them.

“Ah boys, there you are. Come, come sit.” Loid waved his hand at them, gesturing to a few empty seats close by to him.

Phil happily ran ahead to his seat with Rocko trailing behind.

“How’s that courtyard looking?” He added.

“Still workin’ on it,” Rocko stated as the chair beneath him creaked from his massive body weight.

“Deal me in! Deal me in!” Phil chanted.

“I had no idea Fern could make bricks so well. He really knows how to work a stonecutter,” Helva stated while reading her cards.

“I guess he picked that up from working on the roads going to Nocturne. Damn hard worker, Fern is. He’s dedicated,” Loid responded.

“Don’t remind me,” Rocko said.

Everyone chuckled. Phil was given chips and a few cards.

“You in, Rock?” Loid asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Alright,” Rocko responded. He was also given the same.

A few hands were played. Phil played aggressively, placing high bets while rubbing his hands together vigorously. Rocko tried to conserve his chips the best he could, and folded every hand he was given unless it was top cards.

Loid was to Rocko’s left, with Phil on his right. Going around the table, Helva sat with a cigarette between her fingers, hair frizzled and glasses hanging at the end of her nose. Max Coronga, the captain of Nocturne’s guards, stroked his short stone-gray beard while deciding to place a bigger bet.

Besides him was Ned Calamo, a jittery fellow who recently joined the kingdom as an interior designer. The middle-aged man was balding, perhaps due to the frequent scratching of his head at every thought.

Lastly was Jasmine Rochon, a short woman of generous proportions who oversaw the maids and cleaning of the castle. She was still on shift but took a short break to play cards when she saw the office had closed.

“Okay, I’m doing it. I’m all in,” Max declared while shoving his chips into the center.

“I fold,” Helva said.

Loid scoffed. “You sure you want to do that, Max? Last time you went all in, we had to install a new chandelier.”

Everyone laughed.

“I’m serious this time. I can’t be beat!” He argued.

“Suit yourself,” Loid said back, while equally pushing his chips to the center to meet Max’s.

Phil would have loved to have some of his own chips in the pot to get in on the action, but he had lost almost all of it already. He sat in place silently, pouting over his measly short stack of what he had left.

Max threw his cards down, a smirk on the old man that couldn’t be wiped off from the announcement of a new war.

“Read em’ and weep,” Max stated.

Loid threw his down with a grin.

Max leaned forward to see what Loid had been holding.

“NOOOOOOOO!!” Max roared as he stood up, arms flailing above him. Rage filled the man, a type of anger that would fuel his survival in any up-coming battle. His face went beet red as he realized he once again had been thwarted by the former innkeeper.

“Max watch out for the chandelier!!” Helva yelled, cowering from him.

Max looked up, noticing that his arms had missed the dangling ornament by mere centimeters. He then looked back down to the man across the table from him.

“This is the last time I play poker with you, Loid! You devious plant!” He pointed at Loid, who had been leaning back with a goofy smile on his face. Max grumbled as he stormed away, out of the room.

They all stayed silent for a moment, listening to the dwindling sound of Max swearing as he walked down the hallway.

“Alright, I think I’ve had enough,” Helva said, fixing the glasses on her face. She scooted her chair away from the table, having her fill of terror for the day.

“C’mon, Helva,” Loid tried.

She shook her head no.

“Hey, if Max doesn’t get that anger under control, I won’t want to play with him too much longer as well!” Jasmine stated, her upper chest barely above the table.

“Alright, alright. Calm down, I’ll talk to him,” Loid told everyone, waving his hand in a downward motion.

The game continued with Max and Helva gone. Within two more hands, Phil was out of chips. He asked to borrow some of Rocko’s, but he declined him. He sat there and continued to spectate the game.

Soon, Loid had levied the chips of Ned and Jasmine as well, who got up from the table and headed down to dinner at their loss. It had become just Loid and Rocko who played a few hands together. Not wanting to play much longer, Rocko went all in on a hand that lost him the rest of his chips.

“Oh you almost had ‘em,” Phil declared, shaking his fists at his friend’s loss.

“I suppose we’re done, then,” Loid announced, finally standing up from the table. “You guys want to head to dinner with me?” He asked them.

All three of them left the room, and walked down the hallway. Loid asked how they were both doing and if the castle life had been treating them well. Phil stated how wonderful it was, all due to the fact that he was about to eat delicious meat. Rocko talked with Loid in greater detail about it.

In the dining room, food had already been leaving the kitchen to feed the citizens for the last hour. People came and went, getting their fill of food. Maids took platters as they emptied, and replaced them with new ones piled high with cuisine. The tables were always loaded, steam trailing off of them from the heat of the cooked grub.

Loid took a seat at the end of the center table as he always did, and made talk with Marge the Librarian, who was finishing up her meal. Phil and Rocko sat at a different table, and began to chow down.

“Oh man, steak!” Phil declared, stacking a fork high in the medium well meat. Compared to the stale bread and dried, salted jerky he used to eat, he still hadn’t become used to the castle food.

Rocko pecked at his plate, not eating much. He seemingly had a lot on his mind.

After dinner, the two of them headed back to their bedroom. Phil’s gut stuck out a few more inches than usual, something that had concerned Rocko a bit, but in the morning, it always shrunk back down.

“That was exactly what I wanted for dinner,” Phil said, satisfied. He sat back down on his sofa.

“It was delicious, wasn’t it?” Rocko asked.

“Scrumptuous,” Phil tried saying. Rocko didn’t even know if that was a real word.

“What are you gonna do now?” He asked.

Phil reached into a drawer. “I’m still tryna’ figure out how to open this,” he stated, holding a wooden puzzle box in his hands.

He slid a piece back and forth. “This part moves but then it still doesn’t budge. I think I gotta wiggle somethin’ else,” he added, his fingers pushing on the corners.

“Alright well you figure that out, I’m gonna take a dump,” Rocko responded while grabbing a newspaper from the counter. He left the room and closed the door behind him. He walked down the hallway, and a person saw him with the newspaper in hand.

“Rocko!” The man said, pointing at the paper between his arm and his side. “You read that?”

“Um… yeah?” He responded.

“I didn’t know you could read!” The man stated.

“Oh…” Rocko chuckled. “I’m trying my best!”

“Good on ya, buddy. It’s nice to see you trying to learn new things.” The man then walked on.

When he was out of sight, Rocko’s goofy smile instantly disappeared. He took a left into the bathroom.

He entered a stall, closed the door, and sat down. He unfolded the newspaper.

In between the pages was a blank letter paper and fancy pen. He dabbed the end of the pen on his tongue, and began to write on the paper, using the newspaper and his knee to support the writing.

He wrote line after line, spending some time in the stall. Every moment or so, someone entered the bathroom. He quit writing, and waited for the person to complete their business. When they left, he continued to write.

He filled the letter with line after line of poorly written text. He got to the bottom when suddenly he heard a noise.

An explosion!

Rocko’s head jolted up. What the heck was that? It sounded close by. Rocko quickly signed the letter, stuffed it into his pocket, and pulled his draws up. He threw the bathroom stall open, and left the room.

Everything seemed ordinary. He ran down the hall to his room to check on Phil to see if he had also heard the noise.

When Rocko threw the door open, his jaw dropped.

There stood Phil, cowering, biting his nails and shaking. Besides him was a massive hole in the wall exposing the outside. Snow blew by in the cold, dark air. Debris littered the floor, bricks from the wall lay everywhere. Smoke rose from the edges of what was left.

“WHAT THE-!” Rocko yelled out as he slammed the door behind him.

“It was an accident! I didn’t mean to do it Rocko! Please! I couldn’t get the box open! I don’t want to die!” Phil stammered on, giving every excuse he could, pleading to his friend.

“Phil!!” He cried out, placing his hands on his bald head, hundreds of thoughts racing a second.

“What’s gonna happen to me?! Rocko! Please fix it! Can you fix it?!” Phil continued on.

Rocko paced back and forth, eyes boggling. Someone was bound to show up any second demanding what had happened. What was he going to do?

After a short moment that felt like an eternity, Rocko picked his head up and looked at Phil, who was nearly crying.

“Okay, okay, it’s alright,” Rocko tried calming him, while squeezing his own hands into fists over and over, preparing himself. “I can fix it.”

Rocko crouched down to the floor. He studied all the bricks on the ground. He focused as hard as he could. The stone bricks began to cry out to him once again.

“Phil, turn around and look away,” Rocko instructed in a serious tone.

Phil turned to face the corner and covered his eyes.

Meanwhile, Loid was running down the hallway. He had heard the explosion.

“Is everyone alright?!” He called out, passing bedrooms. A few denizens poked their heads out in fear, others had stayed in their rooms to protect themselves.

“What was that?” He called out again.

The man who had complimented Rocko earlier met Loid in the hallway. “I heard it come from Phil and Rocko’s room, down at the end, there,” he said.

Loid ran faster. He got to the last door, and threw it open.

“Guys?! Are you okay?!” He yelled as he barged in.

Rocko was sitting on the couch besides Phil, calming him down.

The room was immaculate. No hole, no debris on the floor. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

Loid studied the room for a moment. “Did you guys hear a noise? Like an explosion?” He demanded.

“Yeah!” Rocko said back. “It scared Phil really bad, made him cry! I’m trying to cheer him up!”

“Where did it come from?!”

“I heard it outside!” Rocko exclaimed.

Loid’s eyes scanned their room one last time. Where ever the explosion came from, it hadn’t effected their room at all. He gazed at them, then nodded.

“You two stay here for now. I’m going to head outside and investigate.” With that, Loid slammed their door shut, and his footsteps could be heard running away.

Rocko continued to pat Phil’s shoulder.

“D-did you fix it… Rocko?” He asked in a stuttered voice, holding back tears.

“Yes, it’s okay now. But you can’t ever tell anyone, and you can’t ever do that again. You understand?”

“Yes.”

Rocko hugged him.

Loid spent the next hour or so trying to find any evidence of the loud blast he had heard. Outside, the castle was perfect, despite some guards also reporting the noise. Inside, he talked with several of the residents who shared Phil and Rocko’s hallway, hearing their stories of the noise.

It was certain to him that the explosion had been heard, heard by many, but there was zero indication that it had happened. His mind raced with what it could have been. An earthquake? Something breaking underground? Something snapping within the walls? There were a million far-fetched ideas, but none that quite lined up with the intensity of the noise.

Eventually, Loid opened their door again, with a defeated expression on his face.

“We were unable to figure out where the explosion came from. It’s… bewildering,” Loid explained to them.

“Are we able to come out now?” Rocko asked.

“Yes… Um… be careful. And if you see anything weird, let me know immediately.”

“Okay.”

With that, the two were allowed back out. It was getting late though, and Phil was becoming sleepy. Rocko ended up tucking him in bed, and making sure he was feeling better.

After that was done, Rocko left the room, and walked down the hallway. He traveled to the other side of the castle, near the stables and export zones for Nocturne. Over in that area resided the post office the kingdom ran.

Late at night, he knew it would be closed. The lights were all off, and not a soul was to be found. After he made sure no one was around, he dropped his enveloped-sealed letter into the mail slot.

He whistled and walked off.