You climb

"Alright, alright, I'll climb it. Just... huff... please get off of me!"

Jessie gave you a large, self satisfied smile, and pat on the cheek before she rose up on her own two feet.

You approached the tree with a bit of trepidation. You were the lean {if class_sec == true}muscular{endif} type, weighting 180 and some odd pounds. But on this planet that ballooned to around 220. And now you had to climb some 120 feet in a hot and humid jungle... this wasn't going to be pretty.

With a grunt, you jumped and grabbed onto the tree. At least there were plenty of vines for you to use as a rope and holds. So with great effort and only the occasional cursing, you began to slowly rise up the tree.

"Nice ass!" You heard Jess call out from below you.

When you looked down saw the two girls. Jess was looking right at you while Emilie looked at her, her cheeked flushed red and a mortified expression on her face. That seemed to amuse Jessie as she began openly laughing at the blonde's reaction. She leaned in to tell the younger girl something which earned her a rebuke, but at this point you were too high up to hear what any of them said.

Your journey took you at least 15 painstaking minutes to complete, but finally you reached the top. The view from there was amazing, but more importantly, the canopy was large and sturdy enough that you could actually rest on it. As you did your best to recover your breath, you scanned your surroundings. The sun hung low in the sky, but still higher than you expected. On a planet tidally locked like this, it was always the same time of day at the same spot and life could only hope to survive where the sun was constantly setting or rising. The fact that it stood so high meant you had landed relatively close to the perpetually baked sun facing side. It also explained the oppressing heat you found yourselves in.

The jungle seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. However, you also spotted a large line where the canopy was missing. Even though you couldn't see the ground there, it seemed likely that a river was responsible. It was quite far away however, laying around 3 miles to the south or north depending on whether you were on the sun-rising side or sun-setting side of the planet.

You took a few more moment to recover your breath and then carefully made your way down. A fall from this height in this gravity was sure to prove fatal.

When you finally reached your companions back on the ground, you were in a poor state. You stood bended over, your hands on your knees, as you tried your best not to die on the spot.

"There... huff... is a... huff... river or something... huff... oh God... huff... like 3 miles that way..."

Emilie came behind you and placed her hand on you back.

"It's alright. Deep breathes, take deep breaths..."

You gave her a nod as thanks, not thrusting yourself to speak.

"It's too far away to go right now, we should head back to the shuttle." You continued once you had recovered a bit.

"Really? Hold on let me see." Answered Jessie before, to your astonishment, she began climbing the tree herself.

What had been a pain for you, she seemed to accomplish effortlessly, climbing up at incredible speed. In under 4 minutes she was already at the top.

"Oh yeah, your right" she screamed from there. And as soon as that she was making her way back down.

When she touched ground, it was clear that she was in a much better condition than you, though her breathing did betray that the feat had taken a good effort on her part.

"Showoff..." You rasped, earning a smug smile on her part. "How did you do that?"

"I loved climbing ever since I learned how to walk. When I got older, I began wall and eventually rock climbing. Even took part in some competitions." She shrugged.

"THEN WHY DID YOU MAKE ME CLIMB IT!?"

"What can I say..." she answered while walking past you. "Sometimes a girl just wants a show..." {if let_jess_fly == true}She punctuated with a slap on your butt which earned a gasp from the blonde besides you.{endif}

"Where are you going?"

"I spotted something over there. Come check it out with me."