Enkerai heard the encouraging cries of Kekere and his parents as he charged forward with all his might. He breathed evenly as he got into a regular trot, easily passing all the other young men and then proceeded leapt over the series of large hewn logs before him. He grinned when he saw the next part of the gauntlet: a tree-climbing exercise. He chose the knobbliest tree; an ugly, ancient thing that had split in two early in life and re-entwined its two halves together. He leapt up into its gnarled embrace and instantly felt at home, he stared at each knot, each twist and understood it, lithely ascending to the top as if the tree itself had granted him passage.

Pausing at the tree's peak, Enkerai glimpsed a zip line in the distance. It appeared they were expected to traverse the tree tops to get to it and move onto the next stage. This would have been easy enough for most of the boys here, but the issue was the staff they were all holding in their hands, that would be a hindrance to most – but not to Enkerai, staff or no staff, the treetops were his territory.

Just to be sure of his position, Enkerai turned around and scanned over the competition. The majority were struggling, but a few of the older contestants were hot on his heels in their respective trees.

“This is going to be a piece of cake!” Enkerai thought to himself.

Enkerai danced across the treetops, flipping and somersaulting through the leaves, swinging and tip-toeing where necessary. It was most likely about half a mile’s worth of trees, but as the sea of greenery swept past, it felt like a matter of seconds. Enkerai was enjoying himself so much he used the momentum from the final tree to propel himself straight onto the zip line. He flipped the staff over the top of the wire with his right hand and clasped the other side with his left and began to slide down the wire.

It was about two-thirds of the way down the zip line, and thirty seconds too late that Enkerai realised his big mistake – the zipline ended in the centre of the Village Lake and once he reached the end of the line he would have to swim the rest of the way. The problem here, however, was that Enkerai couldn’t swim.