Chapter 110 - 110. Treetops

"How did he get all the way to the water hurdles I made?" Dia was rushing after Asher who had crawled all the way in to the next obstacle.

Dia had redirected some of the water from the river and made it flow in to a flat she had made. The flowing water made the hurdles tougher to dunk under or over since it made the footing a challenge. Asher had somehow crawled all the way in to the water and was currently crawling in the water underneath the fourth out of seven hurdles.

"Asher! You are in the next obstacle, stand up!" Jackson tried to call out to him to let him know he was out of the maze. However. Asher was in the water and could not hear what was going on around him. He was just cursing the stupid maze.

"Pretty sure he can't hear you." Laura was taunting Jackson again. He was bummed out that she had switched back to messing with him.

"How has this kid gotten through life so far? He doesn't even realize that the maze didn't have water in it when he started?" Dia was just stunned at the lack of details Asher had noticed. He was the kind of kid that just went along with whatever completely distracted.

"Ugh, fine. I am done with this." Asher stood up while rubbing his eyes ex[ecting the mesh net to be breaking from the ground. However, when he got his eyes cleared he found that he was standing in the middle of a flat rea with a lot of water flowing around. There were two log hurdles in front of him. "Where am I?" His lost expression covered his face.

Jackson was pursuing Asher and trying to jump every hurdle at double the speed. He was fast but the poor footing brought back the experience of the river crossing and he was soon on his back soaking wet."

"Hey man, are you OK?" Asher stood over Jackson visibly soaking wet but worried. He had seen Jackson suddenly jumping over the hurdles towards him and then witnessed the sudden slip and fall.

"Umm, weren't you still crawling?" Jackson was a little lost as well but he stood up accepting the fact that he and water were not meant to be.

"I got annoyed and stood up to quit but then realized that I am nowhere near the crawling maze. I think we are in the next obstacle." Asher pretty much stated the obvious since Jackson already knew this. But Asher had been blinded by the dirt in his eyes. He was still slightly teary eyed but the water had helped clean most of it out.

"Seeing that we are now on the fourth obstacle we should probably just quit now. Then we can get some points...wait, I'm not getting any points." Jackson had been so caught up in all of this because of Asher and Laura that he had forgotten he still didn't need to care about points. He was crushed.

"This is still good training. You can get the inside scoop on the obstacle course then amaze everyone when they try it and fail. You would look like the cool kid in school who can do anything." Asher was speaking like it was him who was going to be the cool kid, but Jackson didn't dwell on the tone. He instead heard the words and felt that he was becoming more motivated.

"Fine, let's dop these water obstacles then see what the next two have to offer us." Jackos got his hold on the next hurdle and used it to op over. He landed with a large splash and again found that he was on his back. "What is it with me and water?'

"I am going to get ahead of you." Asher copied Jackson's jump over and rand to the second. He looked to be sliding a little in the water but somehow ended up just a little closer to the next hurdle and easily hopped over it. Jackson couldn't help but feel this was intentional.

"Well it looks like he realized where he was, but why is he running through the next obstacle so fast?" Dia was again lost to what was happening.

"Ooooo They are racing, I want to go ahead." Laura sprinted ahead and easily caught up to Asher and Jackson. "Come on let's go to the next one. It is really simple but I want to neat you both." With that, Laura was sprinting well ahead of the boys.

"Why is it that every time she says it will be fun or easy she is actually setting us up for something really annoying." Jackson couldn't help but think out loud.

"I have a good feeling about this one. Let's just stick it out." Asher rand froward through some trees finding that there was a massive set of steps that lead to the treetops above.

"You had a good feeling huh? We are going way up there, still have a good feeling?' Jackson could only imagine the cliff incident happening all over again if they went up high.

"At least we will have a good view. I am heading up the stairs." Asher started running up the spiral stairs leading to the treetops.

His legs were soon burning since the stairs seemed to never end. When he thought himself close to the top there would be a sloping bridge connecting to the next tree and he would need to climb steps upwards again. This was a brutal set of stair running."

The two boys were out of breath fighting through the stairs as the next obstacle. 'Why can't it be a cool treehouse and that's the end.' Asher was wishing he had an easy climb t a massive treehouse full of snacks, but instead he just saw five more bridges with six more sets of stairs leading to the treetops. He renewed his energy as he heard Jackson catching up to him. He refused to bail on this obstacle if Jackson was still participating. Jackson was doing this all without reward so Asher needed to make sure he stuck it out with his friend.