Chapter 126 - 126. Pressure
"You aren't stuck are you?!" Art yelled up to Asher after hearing him shout in annoyance.
"No, The stupid egg was really up here!" His yell made his two friends' faces show confusion until Asher held up the golden egg.
"No way! We found it already!"
Art was practically jumping. Jane was very surprised and wanted to climb up and check out how it was hidden. She didn't waste even a single moment as she wrapped herself around the pole.
She matched Asher's climbing technique and inched up the pole with her arms locked. She had seen how he moved and was able to make her speed faster. Before long she was pulling herself up to sit next to him. "Ha! Made it, now where did you get that thing?"
She was a little out of breath but Asher couldn't help but be impressed by the skills she had to climb up on the first try. "That was fast. It was in this part here." He pointed out the carved out section of the sign on his opposite side.
Jane leaned over him, "Ugh, it's so far away. I wish we had more room to move." Asher couldn't help but remain perfectly still as she leaned over him. His face turning a bright crimson as she pressed against him. "Who in the world came up here and spent the time to carve this. It's perfect to fit the egg."
She was stumped, to her, it was a radical action just to hide an egg. "Actually, Garnet and her siblings use this as a game to help their training to spot details. So it is not just for campers, I wouldn't underestimate sibling rivalry." Jane didn't expect it to be more than just a game for the campers to play. She saw the value in using it for training but knowing that the counselors were using it for the same training made it feel more worthwhile.
"Art, catch!" Asher dropped the golden egg to Art who managed to catch it without issue. He wanted to get down, but in the position, he sat there was no room to move before Jane. Instead, he just stayed still and focused on his breathing. He needed to keep his heart calm.
"Did you learn a meditation technique too? You are breathing really carefully." Jane noticed the change in Asher since she was still pressed up against him.
"No, well, I kinda. I'm just trying to stay calm."
"Why wouldn't you be calm?" Jane looked at him full of curiosity. She was genuinely lost as to why Asher would be having trouble keeping calm.
"It's just, this position… it's a little tough to be in…" He trailed off with his words trying not to make eye contact while his face was turning more and more red.
"What's wrong with this position?" Jane leaned in to him more. Asher saw that she had caught on to why he was uncomfortable. "You aren't afraid of heights right?"
'She totally knows that she is making this hard for me!' Asher saw the mischievous look she had taken on as she spoke. Her false words about the height to try and throw him off were not fair at all.
"Hey, are you guys stuck? Or will you two come down so we can get another activity started?" Art had started to believe that the two had gotten stuck or one of them was afraid to try and come down.
Jane grinned a little more, Asher started to feel it was even more unfair that he could now see her face. Even though it was a little blurry it was a huge advantage for her to have. Jane had much more confidence, but she also had practiced the entire weekend with her facial expressions to get back to being used to p[eople being able to see them.
"We are coming down I was just checking something out. I will tell you in a minute!" Jane slowly moved off of Asher and let herself down to the pole. She used a generic technique that firemen use to slide down a pole. It was quick and efficient and worked.
Asher followed her lead after letting himself cool off for a moment. He was already starting to plan his revenge. He had not been able to see Jane's face for the majority of their friendship. But now he would be able to see it and take advantage of her emotions.
"So how could we not see that thing up there?" Art was curious since he wasn't able to see anything from the ground.
"So they carved out like a half egg shape. Then they fitted it perfectly inside so you have to climb to the top." Jane gave the description sounding very impressed with the way it had been done.
"If I hadn't put my hand down and felt it I might not have noticed at all. It was that perfectly set." Asher still thought it was an excessive amount of effort to hide it, but remembering about how crazy the camp was as a whole, it made some sense.
"So now we show it off and get to the sparing fields to cause some trouble?" Art was rearing to go, his renewed drive was pushing him to burn some energy.
"Show off, then hit the sparing field. Then just rack up the points. If we spread out far away from each other we won't scare anyone off. The people who don't think they can beat one of us might go to another. At the end of the day, we might all beat the same people since they will try their luck one by one." Asher's plan sounded foolproof. If they managed this they wouldn't need to worry about points at all, even though Asher had stocked himself up.
"Then Art and I beat you and get a ton of points. I of course will beat Art too and be crowned battle master of the sparring fields." Jane was dead set on beating Asher, he had a few days to improve at camp and she had the feeling that he had grown more than she or Art combined.