Camp Shoshore's Mermaid Quest (mm/f, mm/f, m/m)

Contest starts 21st June
Contest ends 19th July
Deleted User 2217

Camp Shoshore's Mermaid Quest (mm/f, mm/f, m/m)

Post by Deleted User 2217 »

Camp Shoshore was known for its Inter-Troop Closing Games. This year, the Ultimate Game (for scouts 16-17 years old) was called “The Mermaid Quest”. The Mermaid Quest was a form of payback on some of the girl staffers masked as a gauntlet of Scout skills. During the week, troops that wished to participate were to construct a five-person raft. This would be used to sail across the Shoshore Lake to the little island used for Nature and Fishing Merit Badges. The competing teams, made up of at most four people, would be given coordinates to where their mermaid was. Each mermaid will be wearing colors matching the troops colors. The mermaid must be returned to the Judges’ stand, however they will try to escape back to the island. First troop returning gets the most points, extra points awarded on raft construction and mermaid security. Water Guns and pool noodles are allowed.

As rumor of the Quest traveled around camp, it was followed by speculation of who would be the mermaids. By lunch on Friday, the boys of Troop 22 had figured out who would be the mermaids:
Morgan-- their friendly freckled watersports counselor
Ally-- the tanned, athletic, brunette survivalist
Steph-- the bespectacled, black-haried Nature counselor
Katya-- the pretty Polish blonde from the mess hall
Holly-- the excited new-scout counselor with the pixie cut.

Throughout the week, Troop 22 planned. Mike, the oldest, came up with the idea that they should just make a catamaran out of pool noodles. Dan and Ken were varsity swimmers and would provide the motor. Nick and Mike would steer with paddles. Nick knew his way around a compass, having aced his orienteering merit badge early on. It was Thursday evening when Nick realized they’d need rope.

The day of the Games was upon them. The Troop 22 boys lined up on the shore, their competitors (37, 99, 103, and 236) were spaced evenly around the lake. The island was in the middle, about two football fields away. It wasn’t huge, but it was covered in thick woods. Somewhere in there, five female staffers were waiting to encounter their captors. The judges were at the boathouse, where watersports was held.

Troop 22 took to the lake like they’d been training for this (which they had). Mike’s pool noodles held together and kept him and Nick afloat and dry. Dan was holding on to the back and kicking, while Ken was in a makeshift harness in front, pulling the raft. Their plan was working!

They were not, however, the first ones to reach the island. Troop 103 had constructed a superior raft. It was already beached with one scout guarding it. He eyed Troop 22 as they landed; Mike and Nick plunging into the woods with rope and compass while Dan and Ken rested on the raft, armed with pool noodles.

The woods were thick and branches tugged and scratched at the boys as they charged carefully through, trying to find their mermaid. They nearly crashed into a clearly lost Troop 99. A brief skirmish ensued, which attracted the attention of Steph, who’s pale face peered down from a nearby tree. Her wetsuit-clad legs were green and red-- Troop 99’s colors. They hollered when they saw her and charged towards the tree. She gave a small yelp of fear and tried to scramble away.

Mike and Nick plunged on, when they came upon a small crop of rocks forming a somewhat circular wall. The two boys crept around until they came to an opening where they found a startled Katya.
The pretty mess-hall girl was wearing a sports bra and matching wetsuit legs in the blue and white of Troop 22. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and it draped casually over her right shoulder. The sight of such an attractive girl wearing revealing clothing was as startling to the boys as their appearance was to her.
She bolted for it.
In the split second she made for the exit that the boys were flanking, Mike tossed one end of a rope to Nick, who caught it. The rope pulled across the exit just before Katya crossed, and it caught around her middle.
The boys wasted no time wrapping the rope around the Polish girl’s midriff and arms. She started laughing, “No! Vait! Please! Eet’s supposed to be musch harder!”
Mike laughed at that, as he tied off the rope. Nick bent down to pick up his dropped compass, when crashing through the woods behind them came Morgan.
Troop 22 had made fast friends with Morgan at the beginning of the week and volunteered to help out around the dock if she needed it. Troop 22 was a chill troop and Morgan was a chill counselor.
Now, Morgan was in quite a panicked state. Her hands were tied behind her at the wrists, and rope circled her torso and arms above and below her chest. She, like Katya, was in a sports bra and wetsuit legs except hers were blue and red.
“Nick! Mike!” she panted, “You gotta help me!”
“From who, darling?” replied Nick, never missing a chance to flirt.
As if on cue, the three Troop 103 boys charged into view, rope and neckerchiefs in hand. They descended on Morgan who yelped in surprise as a wiry 103’er slipped a lasso over her head and cinched it around her middle.
“HELP MMMPH!” cried Morgan as another boy gagged her with his blue-and-red-Troop-103 neckerchief and she was dragged back into the woods.
Nick, Mike, and Katya looked at each other.
“I have an idea,” said Mike.
“We can’t sacrifice our score to help Morgan,” said Nick.
“And I don’t vant to be tied up musch longer,” added Katya.
“Ok, that’s enough out of you,” said Mike and cleave gagged her with a short piece of rope. Katya attempted to fend him off, but it was hard with her arms tied to her sides.
“You take Katya back to the raft, you have the coordinates. I’ll follow 103 because they’re close to our raft anyway. Whoever gets back first, get Dan and Ken and steal Morgan from them!”
“Brilliant, Mike,” said Nick and grabbed Katya by the loose ropes and pulled her as he made his way back to Troop 22’s raft. The Polish girl seemed to remember that she was trying not to be captured, but found it hard to escape from Nick’s grasp and her muffled pleas for help seemed to fall on an uncaring woods.
Mike, meanwhile, followed Troop 103 as they crashed through the woods with their redhead captive. Mike was not a swimmer like Dan or Ken. He didn’t bike or play tennis like Nick. Mike was a dancer. Even if Troop 103 wasn’t making enough noise to wake all of Camp Shoshore, they never would have heard Mike’s carefully placed footsteps behind them.
Eventually he was close enough that he could see that Morgan was being carried over the third 103 scout’s shoulder. He was big, probably played football or something. She saw Mike sneaking through the woods behind them and began squirming, “MMmmph! Mmph! Hmmph mmph!” at which the big kid readjusted his grip and said, “Hey, listen Morgan, I don’t want to drop you or anything,” and she went still but kept occasionally grunting into her gag.
Mike knew that even with Dan and Ken, they wouldn’t be able to take Morgan from this guy if he had his three friends. But he couldn’t think of anything else.
Then, they emerged onto the shore. 103’s raft was ready to leave, but the guard was staring in 22’s direction.
Nick was lashing a wriggling Katya’s legs to the outrigger while Dan and Ken stood halfway between the rafts-- a pool noodle in each hand.
As soon as they saw Mike emerge behind 103, Ken and Dan charged. The 103 guard fired his water gun. The big guy was briefly distracted but deposited Morgan onto his raft before picking up a noodle of his own to attack Ken and Dan.
Mike took his chance to free Morgan. He had barely reached her before the wiry 103 scout threw a length of rope around him. Mike struggled against his foe but just couldn’t find the leverage with his arms tied. Ken and Dan were being beaten back by the big guy and the guard.
“GO!” yelled Mike. Troop 22 needed to leave first or they’d lose for sure. “Go or we lose! Get go--mmph!” he was gagged with another 103 neckerchief. Did they all bring one? He thought. He was tied back-to-back with Morgan in 103’s makeshift canoe.
Dan and Ken understood the predicament and retreated back to Katya and Nick who had actually gotten the raft into the water and was already paddling back. Ken took up the rear motor this time, while Dan struggled to put on the harness before giving up and paddled with Nick.
“Mmph hmhmmph Mmph,” mumbled Morgan to Mike.
“Emmph ohmmph” Mike replied, giving her a comforting pat on the leg, as that was the only place he could reach.
He didn’t know how far they were from the judges when he felt the canoe rock. Morgan, knowing how dangerous a rocking canoe could be, began to struggle in earnest against her bonds. Another rock, then another, and the big guy fell out. The boat continued rocking until all of 103 had splashed into the lake. It was impossible to see what was really happening from where Morgan and Mike were bound, but Mike was sure he knew where his troopmates were at this exact moment.
There was plenty of yelling and splashing behind them as the canoe continued moving toward the shore. Eventually, they felt the canoe rock one more time and Ken’s smiling face appeared over the side of the boat. A muffled cheer erupted from the bound and gagged inhabitants. He quickly untied Mike and ungagged Morgan.
“Wait, aren’t you going to untie me too?” she asked, incredulous.
“Nope!” Ken replied happily, “You’re gonna try to run away. We can’t get the points if you run away,” and continued paddling toward shore.
A more excited cheer soon met the Troop 22 boys and their captives as they approached the shore. 22’s younger scouts were the majority of the section, but they were joined by a good number of the older male staffers. They were happy that their revenge had been fulfilled, as they pointed and laughed at Katya and Morgan.
As the two rafts landed, the judges came to meet them. They laughed when they realized that the real Troop 103 was still a couple dozen feet behind their raft. A few extra points were awarded for the way Katya was lashed to the raft, as well as her gag. Otherwise Troop 22 was awarded full points plus half of whatever 103’s points since they had both their raft and mermaid pirated.
99 was the next troop, having made a shoddily-put-together sail-raft. Steph was currently tied to the mast with a mass of ropes.
103 was next, emerging from the water like drowned ghosts. The big guy thought the whole thing was funny. But the other three stared daggers at Morgan, Mike, and Nick.
236 showed up next, rocking unsteadily in a large, wooden bowl. Ally was tied in a ball, with a neckerchief in her mouth, looking positively green.
37 was last, in a functional but uninteresting raft. Holly, wrapped in duct tape, seemed to be enjoying herself as she rolled around and giggled into her gag. It turns out she was as feisty as she was cute, because the boys of 37 were sporting some scratches and bruises.

As the Troop 22 boys stood on the winner’s podium to much applause, they were awarded with cake and a kiss on the cheek from Katya and Morgan. Ask any scout at summer camp: the girls are sweet, but victory is sweeter.
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BindPam
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Post by BindPam »

Pretty clever story! Not what I expected from a summer camp story (which helps make it a good one).

Some more spacing for paragraphs later in the story would help though. And that's the only critique I have.

Wonder what other activities that camp has?
WyattW5
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Post by WyattW5 »

Really cool story. lol never would have thought about tying up mermaids in scout camp lol.
Deleted User 2217

Post by Deleted User 2217 »

BindPam wrote: 4 years ago Pretty clever story! Not what I expected from a summer camp story (which helps make it a good one).

Some more spacing for paragraphs later in the story would help though. And that's the only critique I have.

Wonder what other activities that camp has?
Thanks! And you're absolutely right about the spacing.
I didn't initially think about writing more with these characters but I definitely could
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