Chapter Six: Rise and (Mostly) Shine

Kass and Amali stepped out onto the balcony of the cabin of which they were the counselors. They took deep breaths of the fresh morning air, and took a moment to listen to the birdsong and the quiet lapping of the lake waters against the shore.

"What a beautiful morning it's going to be," Kass said.

Behind them, in the campers' sections, there came the soft breathing of campers still fast asleep.

"I think it's time to wake our little ones up," Amali said.

"I think it is, too." Kass lifted his accordion. "This calls for a nice, gentle ballad to wake everyone up…"

"RISE AND SHINE, LITTLE GUYS!"

The bellow from the center of the camp grounds startled birds out of every tree for at least ten miles around, and probably woke more than a few people up in distant towns and villages.

"Then again, maybe not," Kass sighed.

Daruk's bellow had startled Link straight out of a sound sleep, and soon after, out of his bunk.

"Ouch…" Link picked himself up off the floor, opened his window, and leaned his head out, blinking a bit against the early morning sun. "C'mon, Daruk, it's too early in the morning!"

"What do you mean, little guy? It's time to get up, isn't it?" Daruk boomed from the grassy common area in the middle of the cabins.

"Yeah, but the idea is to wake people up, not to startle them within an inch of their lives," Zelda called from her own window.

There were irritated shouts coming from the other cabins.

"Will you keep it down already?" That sounded like Revali.

"Yeah, it's not even six-thirty!" Purah.

"We're under attack! Yiga, assemble!" Master Kohga.

Daruk grinned with satisfaction at a well-done wake-up call, and rolled back to his cabin.

Zelda emerged from her cabin, hands on her hips. She was already dressed for the day in a bright blue camp T-shirt, khaki shorts, and hiking boots.

"I suppose we'd better start getting our cabin up," Zelda said. "You go start waking the boys up and I'll see to the girls."

Link climbed down into the boys' cabin and clapped his hands. "Morning, everyone, up and at 'em!"

Not that a wake-up call was even necessary, since most of the ten campers in the cabin were awake and stirring in their hammocks and camp beds.

One boy, a bespectacled boy from Hateno Village named Teebo, was actually cowering under his bed.

"Okay there, Teebo?" Link asked.

"Yeah…I think," Teebo said nervously.

"Wow," Pelison said. "I'd heard that Daruk could cause earthquakes and stuff, but I thought that was all just talk and stuff."

Link continued down the cabin, urging everyone along. "Your other shoe's over there, Garini. Colin, Keye, were you two having a pillow fight? It looks like a Cucco exploded over here."

In the girls' cabin next door, Zelda was getting the ten girl campers up and ready for the day.

"I can't find my binoculars!" Molli said, frantically tearing her cot apart and throwing stuff from her trunk on the floor. "How can I go nature-watching without my binoculars?"

"They're on that tree branch, silly," Finley said. "Remember, you were trying to look at the stars before bed last night?"

"Do we have to make our beds?" Kalani asked.

"Don't worry about making your beds for now," Zelda said. "We can do that after breakfast."

Eventually, Link and Zelda got their campers assembled down on the ground level of the cabin. Together, they started walking in a loose group toward the dining pavilion.

As they passed Urbosa's cabin, Urbosa came out, with all of her campers in tow.

"What a night!" Urbosa rolled her eyes. "Someone in the boys' section short-sheeted all of the beds." She gave Azu a meaningful look. Azu merely whistled and tried to look innocent.

The cookpots in the pavilion were churning out eggs prepared a hundred ways, bacon, porridge, toast, broiled fish, simmered fruit, and every other kind of breakfast food the campers and counselors could want. For the Gorons, Daruk had brought in a generous supply of agates, rock roasts and an assortment of ore. And there were big pitchers of orange juice and kettles of cocoa for the campers, and coffee and tea for the counselors.

At the directors' table, Impa and Rhoam each seemed to be on their second cup of coffee.

Each cabin had its own round table. The campers moved through the line, filling their plates, and sat down at their assigned tables.

Mipha and Sidon were already in the hall with their cabin. All of their campers were eagerly tucking into their breakfast, except for Komali. He was staring down at his plate of food, and it looked as if he hadn't eaten a single bite.

"Don't be scared," Sidon was saying to him. "It's going to be a great day - you'll see."

"Are we going horseback riding today, Link?" Finley asked in between bites of egg and fish.

"Not yet. Rhoam and Impa want everyone to settle in for a bit before we take the horses out. But if you want, you can drop by the stables and say hi to the horses," Link said.

On the other side of the table, Zelda was telling Molli and Garini about the nature walk she was planning. "…and we're going to go up that trail in the hills, and there are some really cool old ruins up there…"

Daruk lumbered in, with his cabin in tow, and with Koko and Cottla perched high up on his shoulders. Revali and his cabin soon followed.

"Revali's campers don't look too happy," Zelda remarked.

"Well, if you had Revali for a counselor, you wouldn't be happy either," Link said.

Purah's cabin was the last to arrive, almost as everyone else was done. "Save me some of that bacon and sausage!" she yelled. "And there'd better be some coffee left or I'm going to be very cross!"

Thus began the first full day at camp.

xLoZx

Reviews welcome!