K, so I dedicate this fan fic to Random Insanity (A.K.A. Alligator). She's been a camper of mine for the last 4 years. Yes, I am Camp Staff, and she will be one-day too. 4 YEARS YAY!
So, I don't own DK, obviously. I wish I did, but I don't. I do, however, own their names. I like their names. Not the names that they have in the series, but the ones I've given them. Here's a list:
Alfeegi: Feenux - Archery Director
Tetheus: Steel - Unit staff/Archery Assistant
Lira(sp?): Birdy - Head Nurse
Ruwalk: Tips - Staff Supervisor (S.S.)
Kai-Stern: Kite - Medical Technician (Med Tech(M.T.))
Cernozura: Clorox(sp?)- Unit Staff
Cesia : Chrystal - Unit Staff
Rune: Rune... i thought it was kinda funny. - Pool Staff
Thatz: Thief - Rock Climbing Director
Raseleane: Bucket - Camp Director (head honcho)
Rath: Dots - Kitchen Head
Kitchel or Bierrez : Things ("Fings") - n/a
Not that much of this is going to make any sense to you right now. Up at camp(s) people all have "Camp Names." How many Sarah's are there in your school? See. So, there's only one Fox, only one Cherry, and so on. Staff only, though.
Enjoy!
On The Loose
1
Duck!
Have you ever seen the sunset turn the sky completely red?
Have you slept beneath the moon and start, a pine bow o're your head?...
Tetheus couldn't understand it. Here he was, a man that looked like he had never come out of the back office, teaching his Unit how to shoot archery. How strange. Such a small, pale man, thin as the arrows he was using, and hair very much like the pool water, he was so out of place on this huge archery range.
"Now, the handle of the bow has a big part, and a little part. You hold it like an ice-cream cone, ok? The big part points at the sky, and the little part points to the ground. Now it goes in the hand with the arm guard. The string should be hitting the arm guard. No no! You, red hat… yes yes, Brianna, you hold it by the handle, not the string. Alright. Now, you need to keep the arrows pointed down range at all times. If you point it at us, that's bad! I'm not too fond of getting shot at."
Oh, yes, very strange indeed. He really knew what he was talking about. Like he had been shooting all his life instead of sitting behind a desk. And the English accent only helped for some reason. It wasn't thick, but it was noticeable. Looking at all the other staff at the summer camp, they were all tan, with strange councilor tan-lines of hats, glasses, and socks. But this camp councilor, however, had nothing of the sort.
"Two whistles, address your targets. No, not the camp address, it means face them. To the side. I know it's not really facing them, that's why it's called 'address' the target. Um… you can call it Bob if you want too, I guess, that's not quite what I meant in addressing it. It doesn't really have a name."
Well, didn't matter. The guy knew what he was doing, that's all that counted, well, at this camp, anyway. Tetheus helped get the girls in line, and helped keep an eye out for the assistant range master. Poor gal ate something horrible at lunch and was violently rejecting it behind a bush before the health center picked her up. She should be back by now…
"You're doing a great job! Elbow a little higher, that's right. Oh, blue shirt, the index fletching points at you, not your neighbor. You can shoot now Brianna."
The girl, arrow drawn and bow ready, turned from the target, and pointed the arrow strait at "Pale-Man."
"This is the way you do it?" She asked.
The reaction was instantaneous. "Pale-Man" ducked, pulling Tetheus, who was standing near by, down with him. Then he reached up, grabbed the tip of the arrow in one hand, the girl's string arm in the other, and whipping Brianna around to face the target. And the arrow was off the string and in the target even before the girl finished her sentence. Everything happened faster than the blink of an eye.
Everyone stared at the director and the girl. It was insane! Something so fast, and the twenty-odd girls and adults had all seen it. Brianna looked at the staff-member, then at the target, and at her bow. She then proceeded to start bawling and apologizing. "Pale-Man" was trying to calm her down, and tell her off at the same time.
It was rather amusing.
"That was pretty fancy." Tetheus commented to the man after the kid had calmed down and was playing with a stick. "Never seen anyone move that fast before. It's like this wasn't the first time it's happened."
"That's because it has happened before. Startles you the first time you get shot at, but, well, it gets old after a while. You must be her unit leader?"
"Tetheus, Pasdlay Med-tech."
"Alfeegi, archery director."
They shook hands with a curt nod each.
"So, you on your two?"
"Perhaps, why?"
"Your unit left without you."
"I offered to stay behind and help clean up. Then I will be on my two."
"So, what do the girls call you?"
"Steel."
"Mind explaining?"
"I have a vast array of swords and other such weaponry."
"Oh."
"And yours is…?"
"Oh! Feenux. My first year here, the other staff thought that the 'Fee' in my real world name was funny. It's like phoenix, but, not."
"Ah…"
"So, you came up on the bus yesterday?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"The bunk above mine in the boy's cabin has been empty until now. It's a Girl Scout camp; it's kind of easy to tell new staff."
Tetheus nodded, stringing a bow without really thinking about it.
"I have another group coming. You should head on up, upper camp is kind of far from here, and your two should have started."
"Oh! Right!" Tetheus turned as another group tramped up the trail to archery. He had been planning on going up to the staff house on his two hour invisible ninja break. However, the prospect of another guy up at camp that will actually talk to the intimidatingly tall Tetheus was too good to pass up. So he stayed under the tarp, away from the campers, and watched Alfeegi "Feenux" give another safety talk.
VXR
Lunch was a standard cold sandwich affair again. Something that was labeled as turkey, but whatever it really was would never be known. There was lard, though they called it mayonnaise, and some tasteless watery thing called mustard, though no one was willing to try it. If Wammania was the armpit of camp, then standard cold was the armpit dandruff.
But if you request good food, like soup or pita pizza, then lunch rocked! Tetheus and Alfeegi were sitting in the archery shed, listening to the girls outside clamor and fight over seconds, their councilors trying to calm them down and explain that the staff had to eat before the girls got seconds. It was in one ear and out the other.
"I love being a P.D." Alfeegi muttered, leaning against the wall.
"A what?"
"P.D. Program Director. You see your kids on day one, then the last day. You might see them in the morning, or at night, and, if you're really unlucky, they'll come to your program. But, otherwise, you don't see them."
"Oh, it's not that bad… come on, you love the kids, or you wouldn't be doing this."
"Some days it's that bad, but, no, you're right. I do love my kids, they are pretty cool. It's not as bad as I make out. Depends on how asinine you want to be about everything."
There was a silent moment where Alfeegi unscrewed the lid of his red Nalgene.
"You're one of the asinine ones, aren't you?"
"You bet your ass!"
A heart-beat passed, then both erupted into laughter. It was strange, how something so stupid that it would only earn an eye-roll (if that) in the real world was hilarious at camp. The world just turned that way.
Trying to drink his water and laugh at the same time, it was hardly a surprise when Alfeegi (Feenux) started to choke and cough. No, what was surprising was how long and deep the coughing was. After a moment, it was clearly no longer a "chocking-on-water" kind of cough, but rather a "real-problem-hacking" kind.
Alfeegi had one hand on his chest and the other over his mouth, doubled up on his knees over the forgotten water bottle, which was spilling onto the wooden floor. Tetheus knelt beside him, trying to find a way that he could help the poor P.D.
The girls outside had gone quiet in confusion, and ALL of their staff had run from the benches outside to the shed, worry written on their faces. Turning back to Alfeegi, Tetheus found his new friend gasping when he could, looking extremely pale. There was a trickle of red from between his fingers.
"Steel." Tetheus turned his head to a blond lady, who had called him. "I need you to calm down my kids and distract them. Find something shiny."
"But Fee-"
"Will be fine. Please…"
"Alright."
Heading outside, Tetheus quickly introduced himself to the other unit, and started up a random debate over the colors pink and purple. Neither of which he was very fond of. Once that finally got rolling without hair-pulling or biting, he turned back to the shed and cocked an ear for what was going on.
"Feenux, you need to calm down."
"That's not going to work Kite, Tips, get on the radio with Health Center. He needs help now."
That didn't sound good. But, then again, neither did the wet wheezing that came from inside either. At least he wasn't coughing up a lung anymore.
"Health Center acknowledge Health Center."
"This is Birdy, go ahead."
"Go to three please…" there were a couple of switch clicks. "You there?"
"Yes."
"This is Tips down at archery. Feenux needs help."
"Is it his breathing?"
"Yes."
"I'll be right there. Back to three." More clicks.
"Back on one."
A man in a bucket hat and short white hair stepped out of the shed and called Tetheus over.
"Hi. You must be Steel. Name's Kite, and thanks for looking over our girls. We really need you to look out for a big blue van, and call us when you see it, no matter how far away it is."
"What's wrong with-"
"Then you need to lead our girls away from the benches. They CAN NOT see what is going on. They'll panic."
"What is going on?"
Kai-stern (Kite) glanced at the girls, at the shed, then frowned.
"I can't be the one to explain it to you. But as soon as the van comes, go with them and you can find out there, okay?"
Kite ran back into the shed without waiting for a response as coughing filled the air again.
"Hey girls! Let's come over here and play a game! How many of you have played 'Big Mouth'?"
Tetheus just became a BIG shiny distraction. After explaining the rules a few times, and having to break up a fight over who was going to go first, the girls were running up the nearest hill, screaming their heads off, seeing who could run the furthest without having to stop to catch their breath. Of course, there was cheating, and fighting, and little first through third graders hanging off Tetheus, bugging him to run too.
Glancing at the road, finding no van, Tetheus took a large lung-full of air, and took off running with all the girls cheering him on, his deep baritone of a voice drowning out them all. He easily passed the furthest girl, who promptly burst into tears at losing as he went by. Which got all the Brownies into tears. Trying to stop the bawling, Tetheus was glad to shout over them all:
"VAN!!"
Another man, his long brown/red hair that had been pulled through the back hole of his base-ball cap flying out behind him. Checking that the van really was coming, he ducked back into the shed. Well, it was obvious how he got his name. The tips of his hair had been such a vibrant red after the dark brown that it was a no-brainer.
Wait, girls, distraction…
"Hey! Let's all play down-by-the-banks, okay?!"
The girls, still sobbing and sniffing, started playing the hand game as Tips and Kite helped Feenux out of the shed. The poor guy looked so pale, and his legs had the show of giving out on him if the other two men let him go. Running up, Tetheus tapped Kite.
"I'll take him, you guys have girls to watch over." With a nod, Alfeegi was shifted to Tetheus' shoulder, and led carefully to the waiting Doctor.
"Feenux, I told you before that you have to take it easy." Said man glared at his lecturer, obviously prepared to give one in return. However, he merely groaned and leaned up against the van. He was gingerly helped into the van, and laid in the shot-gun, on his side.
"Name's Birdy, but I guess you knew that. Here." He handed a very blood-stained towel over. Think looked like it had been washed over one hundred times to get the stains out and it didn't work.
"Um…"
"Hold it under his head so he doesn't get all over the place."
"It's not that bad!" A voice called from inside.
"Get in, it's not far, but it's far enough."
The ride was pretty quiet. Alfeegi seemed to have some control, but it was slipping as the car continued on down the dirt road. The little brown building came into view, bringing the promise of ice and air-conditioning. Health Center. Home of Smush and Birdy, and all the sickly people of camp. A wonderful place where you get drugged up on Benadryl and Gatorade. There are strange dolls that were creepy to start with, then made into pirates. There were Teletuby sheets with Suzy's Zoo quilts, a bathroom with a door that no-one knew how to close, and a Backyardagin doll that sang when you squeezed it.
Home.
The car backed into the spot in front of the Health Center, and Smush scrambled out of the laundry room to open the door and help their patient out of the door and into the room. Tetheus started after him, only to find Birdy in his way.
"Your unit's probably looking for you. Thanks for your help, I'd offer you a ride to your girls but I'm needed here." And he walked inside. Shrugging, Tetheus turned, and went to find his unit.
VXR
That night, after getting a through scolding about being on time by his S.S. Leaf, he opened the door to Maple Tree Inn. It's not really a motel, rather, a cabin by the H.C. that all the men of camp (excluding Birdy) lived in. The little yellow ceiling lights were on, as was the Air Conditioning. Someone was home. The bottom bunk of the double bunk-bed against the far wall found the Archery Director moodily reading a book.
"Evening." He muttered, turning a page.
"I see you're going to live another day." There was a glare over the top of the book.
"Steel, please, don't even joke about that."
"Sorry, didn't mean to push any buttons. What happened anyway?"
"Evening all!" Tetheus turned, and nodded to Tips and Kite, both slinging their back-packs onto the chairs desks and bunks. Tetheus tossed his own back-pack up onto his own bunk above Feenux, and clambered up after.
"They taking you down the mountain?"
"They want to. I refuse to let them, however."
"It's better if you do you know."
"Why? What is it?" Tetheus had been waiting to find out all day what was going on. Now was his chance…
…
That is, if anyone talked...
…
"Hey, it's your thing Fee', you make the call."
Alfeegi rolled his eyes.
"We're all adults here. There's no reason to keep it hush-hush except from the girls. Not that they would understand it anyway. I have a sever form of Lupus. It's an autoimmune disease."
He had never heard do such a thing before. Sounded like a Pokémon really…
"So, you're a leper?" Kite buried his face in his hand, Tips groaned, and Feenux smiled.
"Not quite, but there are days that it feels like it."
"Well, I'm off to bed!" Kite called, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. Tips followed suit. Feenux looked ready to drop also, so whatever questions Tetheus had would have to wait.
…Do you sit and talk with friends, though a word is never said?
Then you're just like me and you've been ON THE LOOSE.