In his dazed state, Elliot heard a wind blowing past him, making the grass rustle in what sounded like laughter, and the branches around him began to creak in a rhythm that almost sounded like words.
“You left your duty and your post,
Seeking fun and play.
Your duty shall become another’s,
But for it, you shall pay.”
The strange words filled Elliot’s ears, and he felt the world swirling around him, his body being pulled in all kinds of directions seemingly at random. It was intensely uncomfortable, which was one of the reasons why the camp preferred to do its work while the campers slept. Soon, the feelings went away and the darkness faded from Elliot’s eyes, and he found himself laying on his back in the grass near the pool.
“Elliot! What’s the big idea?” he heard a voice calling to him, and he sat up and squinted off into the distance and saw Rick walking over. “What are you doing over there?”
Elliot rubbed the back of his head, where the branch had struck him, but found that there was no sign of injury at all, not even a little bruise. “The hell…?” he mumbled, sensing something off about his voice. He looked over at Rick and said, “Uh, I don’t know… I was just walking by and I guess I-“
“Don’t give me that!” Rick said, getting closer and seeming a lot bigger than Elliot remembered. The hunky raccoon stood over him with his arms crossed. “You’re supposed to be in the pool, not sitting around in the shade! Come on, let’s go kiddo!”
He put out a paw and pulled Elliot to his feet, and Elliot was shocked to find that he only came up Rick’s shoulders. He felt a breeze over his fur and looked down, seeing his usual tabby cat body that he’d grown used to by now, but… scrawnier. And instead of the counselor uniform he’d been wearing all day, he was wearing an ordinary pair of swim trunks.
Curiously, Elliot slowly walked over toward the swimming pool, where critters of all different ages were swimming around and splashing. He looked into the water and caught sight of his reflection and his eyes went wide. He couldn’t be older than fourteen years old, with his well-groomed hair trimmed down to a plain and dorky boys’ cut, his earrings missing, and the fur around his neck looking thinner and less impressive.
You wanted to play, now go and play, a voice in the back of his head whispered and suddenly Elliot felt not two, but three different minds fighting for dominance, almost knocking him out for a second time due to the intensity of the conflicting memories that were assaulting his consciousness. He could remember coming to the camp the night before with… somebody? And he could remember waking up that morning and sneaking off to peek at the other counselors instead of doing his job… His job? He didn’t have a job! He’d gotten dropped off that morning by his parents, who wanted him out of the house for the weekend. It was so lame going to a camp like a little kid, but at least the counselors were good-looking…
Feeling his memories start to settle down, and he looked over at Jared and Rick, who were sitting by the edge of the pool and chatting amongst themselves as they kept an eye on the swimmers. Elliot thought they were both so cute, and he wished he could… do what, exactly? A late-bloomer like him didn’t really know much about sex, so even the idea of kissing a hot guy got him blushing. He kept on staring until a splash of water smacked into him, and he turned to see a couple other boys his age laughing and pointing at him. “Elliot’s a sitting duck when he’s ogling the counselors!” he heard one of them say, making him blush even redder.
“Oh, so that’s how you wanna play, huh!? You’re gonna get it!” Elliot shouted, his voice cracking. He dove into the pool and started to chase after the other boys, only occasionally looking back at the counselors as he played.
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Looking over his clipboard, Soren saw a few names being moved around, the ink on the paper flowing across the page and reforming in different places. The name ‘Elliot Softpaw’ moved down from the list of counselors down to the oldest group of campers, where it would hopefully stay until the end of the weekend.
“Your call, I guess. I’d have put in him the junior group so I could just put him down for a nap if he annoyed me,” Soren muttered, and the wind blew past him teasingly, as if to say ‘we’ll see’. "Well, as long as he's out of my fur, I'll trust you know what you're doing."
Soren’s eyes were focused, however, on another name, moving up the page before settling on the top of the page alongside the other counselors. “Huh. Interesting… Let’s hope that one will do better,” he murmured before turning back to his work.
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On the nature trail, Zack was starting to sense that the campers needed a break (not that he did, of course), so he broke out the water bottles and snacks and started to pass them out. “Take five, campers! Be ready to move after that!” he called, getting a affirmative response from the kiddos as they enjoyed their snack.
He turned to the back of the group and called over, “How’s the back of the line, Thomas? Didn’t lose anyone, I hope?”
The tall, leanly built wolf looked over at Zack with a slightly disoriented look on his face. He wasn’t quite as tall and muscular as Zack or Cameron, to be sure, but he definitely struck an impressive figure, and all the kids looked up to him for his friendly smile and easygoing attitude. Zack thought he was a bit of an overgrown boy scout, to be honest, and had smirked watching Thomas endlessly fiddle with his uniform and comb his hair over and over again that morning, wanting to look perfect on his first day on the job. A total dork, but definitely a nice guy.
“Huh? …Oh, sure. Of course I didn’t lose anyone,” the wolf said, laughing at Zack’s joke. “And you know it’s Tom, dude. Only my mom calls me ‘Thomas’, and only when she’s mad!”