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Stretching lightly as she waited for the timer to start on the first stage Mandy couldn’t resist letting a wide grin stretch over her face, this just looked so fun! Running, jumping, climbing and no fire or certain death – this was her type of obstacle course.

A loud beeping rang out then pulling Mandy from her excitement as she immediately focused, waiting for the last beep. As it faded into nothing she took off at a dead sprint, bare feet pounding against the earth that lead up to her first obstacle. Glancing quickly between the sextuple steps she felt justified in a certain amount of smugness as she jumped nimbly from the top of one to the other, really to someone who group up in tree tops this sort of thing was only too easy.

Looking at the next obstacle though Mandy felt her cockiness leave her, jumping she could do but clinging to something whilst it spun around at a dizzying pace wasn’t something she’d ever really attempted. Gingerly taking her time to make sure she was secure on the log, even as in her mind she could hear the ever present ticking of the clock, she pressed off, barley resisting the temptation to scream as the log rolled down the slope at blinding speed. Feeling her shoulders nearly yank out at the force of the knock back she quickly let go, landing harshly on the platform before scrambling up to take off again.

Speed, speed, speed. The chant pounded in her head as the trampoline for the Jumping Skitter drew closer. This was one of the challenges that worried her the most, the walls just looked so smooth and far away. She was used to being able to dig into whatever she was climbing with claws or boots, but with the plastic both of those would just be a hinderance. Shoving her worries away for later she surged forward, pushing off the trampoline with a powerful flex of her legs. For a second she felt like she was flying, a delighted laugh bubbling just under the surface, before she shoved her arms and legs out, finger and toes scraping along the walls surface. There was an awful moment where she slid, afraid she'd fall into the water ending her run, but with some frantic shifting she stopped her downward movement. Sweat trickling down her face she carefully shifted forward and up along the walls, legs and arms screaming in protest at the stretching. Finally with a grunt she dropped to the platform below, taking a moment to catch her breath.

Groaning as her tired muscles screamed at her Mandy pushed on to the Bridge of Blades, knowing she has no time to waste. Really what was with this obstacle course and things that spun? Still, no pointy bridge was going to stop her, the trick wasn't that hard, all she had to do was run across it as fast as possible before the log could get spinning properly and not stack it completely when she got back on solid ground. Both of which she pulled off without a hitch, well, er, mostly. She may have stumbled a bit on the other side.

Then she found herself approaching the other dreaded obstacle, the Warped Wall. In theory it sounded simple, just like climbing any other wall. But it was 9 feet and she was 5"2. And it was completely smooth. You do the math. Knowing that she realistically only has one attempt at this with the timer still ticking down, and probably getting awfully close to zero at this point, she made sure she had the longest run up possible. Putting on all the last bursts of speed she could find Mandy stretched her arm up as she pushed against the wall, fingers scrambling for the rim. Feeling the edge of the wall just brush against the pads of her finger tips she sunk in sharp claws, whole body straining as it was supported by just them for a brief moment before she managed to swing herself up and over.

And then the worst thing happened, still at the bottom of the Tarzan Rope without it even unhooked yet the beeping of the ten second count down started. Mandy felt justified in her swearing as she surged forward, grabbing as far up the rope as possible before swinging across and starting climbing. Come on, come on, come on. Just one more meter, just one mo-

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

"JACK!"

Thumping her fist against the wall in defeat Mandy dejectedly climbed up the remaining way so she could exit the course and retry.

So close, so close.