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This story takes place early in timeline A1, the modern-like setting that one of Tyledis's lives takes place in. So far, things aren't too complicated, but later stories might take place around major turning points, and will be noted as such when they occur. Timeline A1 is the most 'vanilla' of the three base ones I've written so far, so don't expect flying cars or tentacles in this setting.

This story does precede or follow a split, and is more or less the first in the A1 line.

Tyledis sat in the camp shower with tears streaming down his face, hidden by the water spraying over his body. At a mere ten years of age, the little mouse had just lost his trunks in the lake. As if it happened every day, a counselor snatched the poor boy a towel and shooed him back to his locker to get dressed. Tyledis was downright traumatized at the thought that someone might have seen his nethers, like anyone would be. He sobbed into is hairless paws as he imagined what they might be thinking about him now. What they'd think of his...

No, they didn't see it, he'd tell himself. He was raised to be intelligent, and maintained good confidence in himself. His father had always told him how strong he'd grow up to be. His body was masculine in form, with shoulders broadening as he grew older. His mother made sure to tell him he was different from his friends, and that he must keep that secret. Now that he was so close to losing that secret to his camp and friends, he could only bear to ask himself why he made things so hard for himself. The secret was easy enough to keep. He'd never have a reason to be naked around friends. His doctors were always aware before they met him, and never divulge patient secrets anyway. Ht just couldn't shake off that lingering horror that his life might have completely changed in that moment. Couldn't just wash it away either, what with there being very little hot water in a camp shower system.

Tyledis dressed himself and headed back to the lakeside to face the problem, and was met by his friend Booker on his way to a bench. If even that naïve Raccoon would still see him the same things wouldn't have to be all bad. There was no cause for worry, however, as Booker only handed him his trunks and said cheerfully:

"That happened to me once, got my trunks caught on a branch. 'course, it hurt pretty bad when that branch poked my butt." Booker looked at his friend for a moment before noticing something was wrong. "hey," he said under his breath "there's no way anyone saw your wiener, it's not called lake dusk for nothing." he explained.

"you're right, nobody could have seen my, um... my wiener. Hmm." muttered Tyledis as they walked. Booker didn't know or suspect, but that was only one of many campers at the lake both male and female. The duo sat on a bench and chatted for a bit more before the counselors rounded up all the cubs and lead them back to the cabins. Tyledis could only do so much to maintain his wits.

Back at their cabin, counselor Gerald Hutch, a cheery husky who often joked about how he wished it were colder out, rallied his troops to give the evening announcement. The young campers sat around the main room eagerly awaiting the day's scores. There was a prize for whichever cabin could show the best attitude and teamwork in the activities for the week. With tonight being the last night before the final relay race, everyone held their breaths as counselor Hatch looked down the list for his own group.

"Oh here it is, I swear they always write this list in the wrong order." he joked. "tonight we're the second score down. That's strange, we usually don't show up on the first page." he had only nearly finished that line as the boys cheered and clapped. Their team, the Bitter-teeth, had been clawing it's way back from last place after having a miserable few days at the start. Even Tyledis cheered some, especially proud that he himself had won the archery challenge that day.

"Okay, so we have a little bit of time before bed. Has anyone here ever played a game called telephone?" he asked. The cubs raised their hands and chattered some before being waved quiet. "okay, I'll start this round then. We'll see if we make good wires or not." he said, turning to a panther at his left. He whispered something unintelligible and motioned him to pass it on.

The panther, neither friend or foe to Tyledis passed the message to a hawk, who then passed it on to a fennec fox. That fox was Raishe, another friend of the worried mouse, though not as close a friend as Booker. Raishe passed the message to Steven, a wolf none too friendly with Tyledis but maintained teamwork out of necessity. Steven passed the message along to Booker with a smile on his face. Booker made a confused look and whispered back, prompting a groan from the others at the breach of rules. Booker shrugged meekly and passed the message on to Tyledis.

"Steven just said something real weird." he whispered. If not for his fur, Tyledis would have gone both pale and red at the same time. Fur or no, his blood chilled and his neck and spine stiffened up. Thinking fast, the scared mouse whispered "eleven moles eating hats around two." to the rabbit next to him. The message passed back to counselor Hutch, who screwed up his face and said:

"That's nowhere near what I said. Booker, Steven, you shouldn't agree to play if you're just going to ruin it. This is about teamwork, not cheap laughs." The chastised cubs knew better than to argue with him, for when the jokes and laughs are done, Gerald Hutch was not a fun person to have upset. Tyledis stood up and excused himself to the restroom, tripping over the rabbit next to him on his way out. Without so much as an apology he scrambled into the hall on whichever paws could find traction. Booker made to go after him, but Counselor hutch stopped him. "even if he's your friend, he can probably take care of that himself." he chided before shooing the other cubs to bed.

He spent some time loitering in the main room, waiting for Tyledis to come out of hiding. After over an hour, he knocked on the door and called out. There was a clunk and some distinct scratching before the door opened and Tyledis walked out.

"Sorry, I guess I fell asleep on the toilet." he said.

"Or under it." said Hutch in complete deadpan.

"yeah" Tyledis replied, rubbing the top of his head, where his messy blue hair rested. "I'm going to get to an actual bed, g'night Mister Hutch!"

"Halt. About Face. Listen." Commanded Gerald Hutch, his military training rearing it's head. When Tyledis had turned to face him he continued: "Don't you dare pretend that nothing is wrong right now. I've seen soldiers die because 'nothing was wrong'. I've seen stared death in it's stupid face myself, and the difference was that I knew... I looked death in the eye and I told that monster, I know something is wrong, and I'll not die for that. For all the wrong things there ever were, you only fail, you only lose the fight when you tell yourself nothing is wrong. What. Is. Wrong."

Tyledis swallowed a squeak and just said "I am sir. I'm plain wrong."

"If that were true you'd be my enemy. You're in _my_army, and anything but wrong." he said, going on to ask "What happened at the lake? You're more upset than you really should be about losing your shorts. Or are you?"

"I'd say I was just the right amount of worried sir" replied the mouse. Tears sat under his eyes and dared not fall. His willpower fought with him still, and he couldn't raise his eyes to the old Sergeant's.

"Tyledis, I've seen the worst wrongs there can be in this world, and I've never been able to forget them. I've killed people, who had families. They only fought to protect their families, or because they were forced to fight. You could never be more wrong than me." he explained.

Tyledis looked up and said to the veteran: "even if I'm not wrong sir, I'd still have no idea what I was." he shuffled a footpaw about and continued with "I'm a boy, right?"

Counselor Hutch put a hand on Tyledis's shoulder and motioned towards the couch In front of the fireplace. As they sat, the clocked chittered a tune marking the hour.

"Tyledis, that's a very, very difficult question to answer. The reality is that you'll have to answer it yourself, and keep answering it. Everyone goes through times of identity crisis at some point in their lives. I'm guessing that you're more confused than most, to the point where even your flesh and blood don't know what to make of themselves."

"I guess so, but I'm more worried what people will think. I've kept it secret so long." Sighed the young mouse.

Counselor Hutch ruffled Tyledis' hair and sighed. "Be glad you're still young. You have time to figure things out now. At my age, nobody is willing to see me change anymore. Just keep telling people who you are and you'll be fine"

"But I haven't changed." Tyledis replied, having an epiphany. "I not any different than I was before Steven found out." he replied cheerily, looking up at the soldier at his side. Counselor Hutch smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Sounds like you have an idea of what's important. I won't bring it up with anyone; this is between you and anyone you choose to involve. Now, lights out was a while ago, get off to bed before I get in trouble." the husky said, his mood brightening noticeably. Tyledis obeyed and marched off to the room his bed was in.

---

The final day of the summer camp was always some sort of relay race. Every team was to pick members for each leg of the race. The events were always somewhat related to the games earlier in the week, allowing for teams to know who was ideal for each task. The first leg of the race this year was a contest to toss a tennis ball as far as they could to have an ally catch it, then run past him as far as they could and still be able to catch it themselves. The idea was that pairs should know each others limits and work together to reach the other side of the field. For team Bitter-teeth it was Seth, a skunk, and a rabbit working together. Their plan was to offset Seth's less acute reflexes with the rabbit's speed and better catching abilities. The strategy worked, and despite beaning his ally with the ball once, Seth caught the last pass well before anyone else and made off up the path with the ball, after having it marked by a counselor at the other end.

Seth made good enough time and dropped the ball in a bucket next to a waiting Tyledis at an archery station.

"Just like yesterday then, but you only need one bulls-eye's worth of points." Seth said, egging Tyledis on.

"Easier said then done" he replied, nocking an arrow as more racers arrived to pass on the relay.

His first arrow sailed off course, embedding itself between some planks above the target. A couple more arrows fired from the other runners struck at 3 and 5 points. As the final runner arrived, tyledis fired his second shot, landing in the 5 point region. Tyledis sighed and resigned himself not to rush the event. As he was lining up his third shot, one other racer managed a bulls-eye and was given a length of rope to carry to the next area. "Lucky shot" muttered the mouse, loosing another arrow that struck at 8 point region. Seth congratulated him as he went to get the rope from the overseer, who was watching shots land through some expensive binoculars.

After a short run back to a different part of the main field, he handed off the rope to Booker and a female fox to prepare for the three-pawed run. The counselor at this event tied them together and explained the rules; if they fell, they would have to start over at the last cone they passed. The three-legged duo set off across the field at a steady pace, calculating each step and communicating. The group that was ahead of them stumbled and untied their paws for a mad dash back to the last checkpoint. As they were retying their legs, Bitter-teeth's racers plodded past them. With a first place finish, the duo untied their paws and sent Dartwin off to the next area with a flag in hand.

There stood Raishe, two other males, and two females ready to preform a scavenger hunt in the paintball arena. They would have to find five items, and each was only allowed to carry only one at a time. Raishe and one female, a squirrel, ran off in one direction while the others ran off elsewhere. With two other groups starting soon after, it was easily the most hectic part of the race. As Booker and his companion searched around a bunker for anything on the list they were given, another camper ran in and began rummaging around in a locker. They made a quick exit with something in hand, prompting the pair to find their first item, a pair of goggles with their team name on it. The squirrel strapped them to her head and left the bunker for another area. Booker searched some more before heading off on his own.

As he left, he heard a teammate shout and noticed a red flag fly just above a wall a ways from him. Booker made his way to that area as best he could and collected a specific water bottle from a shelf. The Panther ran off towards the exit with his item, a bowling pin. Booker followed him and saw most of his teammates waiting there, save for the hawk. Two teams had gone running off before the hawk returned with a pin badge.

"Sorry guys, I dropped it and had to go back" he sighed,showing his item to counselor Hutch. They reassured each other that there was no problem and began the final sprint back to the field, where Steven and Tyledis waited to start the final event.

The whole team was now assembled at the field once more, and Tyledis and Steven began their final task: deliver the items collected to counselors who wanted them. Steven took the heavier bag and directed Tyledis to the other side of the field. Each counselor wanted a specific thing related to what they were in charge of during the week. It was simple enough to deliver to the ones who had already received theirs, given that the answer was in plain view. As he was handing whichever items he already knew about, Tyledis passed the pin badge to the scorekeeper and began to think about who would want the goggles. There were several people in charge of the lake outing. He saw a lifeguard across the field and checked his bag for anything else. After giving away the tennis ball and rope, he rushed across the field with the goggles in hand.

"Tyledis, the coach!" shouted steven from a distance away. The tired mouse turned around and saw someone approaching the scorekeeper with a familiar pin badge. Thinking quickly, tyledis threw the goggles as hard as he could at Steven. Swiftly caught, the goggles made it to their owner and the duo ran back to their team as hard as they could. Counselor Hutch blew his whistle and the Bitter-teeth collapsed together in the grass. In seconds, the other four teams had gathered and the scorekeeper began counting up the final totals.

"Do you think the relay was enough for us to win?" gasped Booker, trying to catch his breath.

"For sure, there's no way we lost" Replied Seth.

"Totally, It's great you don't throw like a girl Ty" added Steven, patting the mouse on his back. "Can't be sure with you though, can we?"

"That's mean Steven, is there something you'd like to bring up?" Tyledis said through gritted teeth. Steven looked taken aback at the question. The wolf thought for a moment, and brushed it off, saying:

"Nah, It's not worth getting upset over."

"Attaboy soldier, that's the smartest thing you've said all week" praised counselor Hutch.