Chapter 84 - 84. Miracle Of Nature
Onyx took some unsteady steps backward as he looked down. "They are gone...I don't see them on the cliff...they must have fallen and are gone now. I already lost two campers and real camp hasn't even started yet." He fell to his butt while Garnet stepped forwards to check herself.
Meanwhile, Asher and Jackson were having their own conversation while they went down the cliff.
" So since I can't find a way down right now I should just move sideways then try to go down again?" Asher had let Jackson in on his brilliant idea to just sidestep all the tough climbing and just keep moving around to find the easier grips.
"From the ground, we might look weird. Ha, we would look like crabs going side to side with out hands up like claws." Asher was hilding on and using this joke to make the endeavor sound much easier.
"I think it is a great idea. Let's move towards your side. Mine is definitely too hard to climb down." Asher looked at the struggling Jackson wh couldn't find a new foot grip.
The two started to move side to side looking for the right spot and only making slow downward progress. Soon they had moved so far top the side that they could not be seen from the place they had started.
"This isn't possible. How can they be gone. Even if they fell we would be able to see their bodies from here." Garbet had thought that Onyx was exaggerating but the two campers were really gone.
"You lost Asher and Jackson!?" Laura was barely containing herself now that she saw the faces of the two counselors. "We haven't been here, more than a day and I am already the only one left. This must be why the camp is known by the nickname camp cruel…"
Laura stepped away from the counselors who were now glaring at her hearing the hated nickname of the camp. "I will just go down really fast and see where they are. I bet they are just in a nook in the cliff." Laura was off in that second moving as fast as her legs took her down the way they came.
"But there are no nooks in the cliff...He really can't fly?" Onyx was starting to believe that the power Asher had was indeed flight and his paperwork was just incorrect.
"No, it is most certainly not flying. Even if it was how could he carry Jackson? That kid must have been born giant to be his size at his age." garnet had received the files on what students would be attending multiple times. She always saw it as one of her duties as the head counselor to memorize the powers of every camper, let alone the ones that were selected to come early for the extra training opportunities.
Asher and Jackson had been using their strategy to get down one quarter of the cliff by this time.
"Look over there, that tree is growing right out of the side of the cliff. I bet it is a good spot to catch our breath." Jackson had seen the sturdy tree growing right out of a crack in the cliff and marveled at the strength of nature.
"Great idea, if we can stop there and stretch out arms we can make it down the rest of the way much faster.' Asher was just looking to have a somewhat stable place to stop. The burning in his arms was almost as bad as when he did his morning work outs with Cara and Art.
The two kept their sideways movement going and reached the tree easily. Asher scooted over as Jackson came to sit next to him. The tree was large enough for both of them to sit comfortably and easily hold their own balance.
"Nature is really amazing. It can even grow in such a tough place. Look how strong this tree is! It looks like it could stay here forever."
The second Jackson spoke these words asher had a chill run up his spine. "I think you just jinxed the future of this tree."
Jackson gave Asher a strange look as Asher was gripping the tree with much more force than necessary. "I think you are overreacting. The roots have to be really solid to grow a tree this bi-"
The crack and shifting of the tree made Jackson turn as pale as a ghost. His large arms immediately wrapped around the tree for dear life. "I'm sorry nature, I will never use you as a resting bench again. Just don't break again!"
His plea was ignored though as the tree started to shift downward again. The two boys were latched on like koalas. They looked like they would never let go of the large tree growing out of the side of the cliff ever again.
Onyx and Garnet were about to leave the top of the cliff when they heard the crack of the tree. "What was that…?" Garnet was the first to ask the question. She knew it was not a normal sound to hear on a cliff.
"There are no trees up here. Nothing should...My cliff tree!" Onyx realized where the two boys must have gone to climb. He had planted the tree long ago in a large crack in the cliffside due to his own curiosity. He had hope that it might grow but also knew that it might now. Over the years he had seen it become something he had once thought impossible.
Garnet had never seen her brother move so fast outside of a martial arts tournament. In the blink of an eye, he was already climbing on the face of the cliff. Hei speed while climbing was unmatched between all of the family.
"No no no no no no, please don't be my cliff tree. I promise I will never try to get revenge again if my cliff tree is safe." His cries for mercy went unheard as he came close enough to the side of the cliff that the two boys had gone. When he was his precious cliff tree moving downward he himself felt that he was falling.