Chapter Four: Check-In Craziness

"This way! This way!" Yunobo was wildly waving a camp flag to vector the streams of cars around to the parking area. But the traffic was already backing up, and the deafening honks of horns filled the air. "Boy, I should have asked Daruk to handle traffic," he said.

"Hey, Yunobo!" Cecili flew in and came in for a landing. "How's the traffic?" she asked.

Yunobo sighed and gestured to the honking cars.

Cecili tsked. "This isn't even the worst of it yet. There's a huge backup on the Kakariko-Hateno road."

"Why don't more of these people take the shrines or the tower?"

"You know how it is. Some people think it's safer to take the long way, especially when you're traveling with kids."

A Zora assistant counselor went sprinting past. "Hey, Sidon, we've got a problem!" he shouted into the check-in tent. "Plumbing's out in your cabin! I think we've got some baby Lizalfos chewing on the pipes!"

"Never fear, Sidon is here!" Sidon struck a suitably heroic pose and headed off to the cabin in question.

Kids were getting out of cars and the camp buses, lugging tons of duffel bags and backpacks in every color of the rainbow.

It was a hubbub inside the check-in tent, as the campers and parents lined up to sign in and get their cabin assignments, and counselors handed out name tags and "welcome to camp" treat bags.

At the back of the tent, Link, Zelda, Urbosa, and Revali were seated at a long table, checking off each camper's name on clipboards and handing out name badges and paperwork.

"Hi, what's your name?" Link asked.

"Finley," the Zora girl chirped.

"Okay, Finley, let's see whose cabin you're in…okay, you're in with Zelda and me, on the east side of the camp. Your little brother's in Urbosa's cabin."

"And we're going to be having a big welcome-to-camp sing-along around the campfire tonight," Zelda was saying to Koko and Cottla, who had both been assigned to Daruk's cabin.

Revali tsked, before turning his attention back to Numar, who was holding a large amount of fishing gear. "You, young sir, are in my cabin. Please proceed there forthwith."

"Oh, lighten up, Revali, it's not like this is the army," Urbosa chided him.

"You mean we're not actually going to stick swords in people?" Kalani asked.

"Good heavens, no, Kalani," Urbosa laughed.

"Aw, rats," Kalani pouted.

Sidon staggered in, clutching a bleeding hand. "Okay, the Lizalfos are all gone. But I got chomped pretty good."

"Oh, poor baby brother." Mipha came over with her medical bag. She inspected the bite. "Looks bad. I'll have to amputate."

"WHAT?" Sidon looked ready to faint.

"Oh, I'm teasing. A little iodine and a bandage and it'll be good as new."

Everyone else in the tent was laughing, and even Revali made a grimace that might have been interpreted as a smile.

The two Zoras headed off to the medical office.

Zelda checked in two more kids from Lurelin Village - one for Kass and Amali's cabin, the other for Daruk's cabin. And the next one up was Pelison.

"Pelison!" she grinned. "We're glad you could make it!"

"Greyson said I should come, goro," Pelison said shyly.

"Don't worry. It's going to be a lot of fun, I promise," Zelda said. "Let's see, you are in…oh, very good, you're going to be in Link's and my cabin as well."

As Zelda finished checking Pelison in, she saw an unhappy-looking Rito boy sitting on a trunk, staring at the floor as his mother spoke to him in a coaxing tone. The boy's trunk said Komali.

Zelda checked the list of names. Komali was going to be in Sidon and Mipha's cabin. She made a mental note to tell Sidon keep a close eye on him, as soon as Sidon got back from getting bandaged up.

An officious-looking father from Hateno was running down a long list of demands as his two children hovered nearby. If anything, the kids looked really embarrassed by their father's pushiness.

"Rest assured, sir, your children will be well-looked after," Urbosa said before sending the family on their way. She rolled her eyes. "You see this every year. The kids are a joy. It's the parents who are a nightmare." She looked up at the next family coming in, and grinned. "Oh, and speaking of nightmares…"

"And good day yourself, o tempest of the Gerudo," Sooga greeted her back as he escorted Olga and Taiga in.

"Hey, Olga! Don't think we haven't forgotten that incident at the scavenger hunt last year!" a boy jeered. "We're going to mop the floor with you this year!"

Olga whirled around. "Oh, yeah? You couldn't find an old license plate and a bar of soap if they bit you in the…"

"All right, that's enough, there will be no trash-talking on the first day of camp, or any other day!" Urbosa interjected. "Let's see. Olga, you're in Link and Zelda's cabin. Taiga, you're in with Kass and Amali."

It was mid-afternoon by the time the last camper was checked in and the parents were sent on their way. Needless to say, there were a few tears at the parting.

"Aw, don't cry, little guys." Daruk whipped out a handkerchief that was at least the size of a tablecloth and dropped it over the heads of some kids who were starting to get a little sniffly. The kids were so surprised that they stopped crying.

The counselors steered their respective campers off to their cabins to start getting settled in, and to start doing some getting-to-know you stuff.

As the afternoon wore on, the sun began to sink lower in the sky. The aromas of food cooking emanated from the dining pavilion, and smoke arose from the main campfire area.

Camp was now in session.

xLoZx

Reviews welcome!