Rachael Morris

written aged 13
Balwearie High School, Kirkcaldy, Fife

The Trial

I stepped a cautious millimetre forward towards our petrifying tribal chief.

'Be careful out there, Oomi, try not to let the tribe down,' he told me, trying to be kind but still scaring me to death. 'Oh, and Oomi,' he added, 'don't fail!'

Dreading what he would terrify me with next, I nervously looked down at my feet. I knew I wasn't looking directly at him but I could feel his dark and intimidating eyes staring down at me, finding every fault possible. At that exact moment, I felt every inch of self confidence dribble out of me and lie in a pool of failure and misery at my feet.

A loud voice awakened me. 'Say your goodbyes,' boomed Rattling Snake. I ran over to my mother and embraced her in a tight hug. Her warm skin felt like heaven against mine. I inhaled her beautiful scent and hoped I would remember it forever. I said a quick but meaningful goodbye to my father before he told me, 'Oomi, you have only one chance to succeed, to prove to the tribe you're a man. Use it wisely and remember everything you've been taught.' A small droplet squeezed out from my tear duct, despite my best attempt to stop it. He then applied the cold, thick, gooey tribal paint to my face. However, it didn't last long as the moisture on my face, a gross mixture of sweat and tears, soon washed away the shapes on my face along with the strength and bravery they were supposed to symbolise.

The whole tribe walked in silence, with the chief leading and us following behind, until eventually we reached the edge of the rainforest. I had been there many times before, but I had always been with my dad so it had never seemed so vast and scary before.

My mother came over and stood beside the chief. She turned her face to me and said, 'I hope this helps, Oomi,' before putting her lucky necklace on me, a rare shark's tooth tied onto a strip of leather.

'Thanks, Mum,' I replied, feeling slightly less scared as I knew how much it meant to her.

'Time!' roared the chief, before nodding at me, I supposed he meant well. Each member of the tribe then walked past and in turn wished me good luck and hoped I would return safely.

I stood in that same spot for some time, waiting while the tribe walked away into the distance, treasuring what little time I had left with any civilisation until they had got so far away that I could no longer see them. I looked around and found myself not quite knowing what to do. I tried to think back to what my father had taught me, and in that second, everything I had ever learnt about surviving in the wild, building shelter, making a fire and even cooking, blanked out my head; it was completely gone and there was no one here to help me.

My stomach grumbled loudly, knowing I hadn't eaten for a while. I struggled to think of where I could find any food. Then I remembered that I had passed the sea last night, there ought to be some fish I could eat there. Eventually, after hours of searching, I reached the sea and as I had suspected, there were plenty of fish reasonably close to shore. I took off my animal skins and lay them on a large rock at the side before stepping carefully, to make sure the current wasn't too strong, into the beautiful blue sea.

Despite my increasing hunger, for a while I just swam around looking at everything as there were so many different marine animals I had never seen. Before too long, I started to recognise some edible fish and attempted to use my new spear. Several tries later and I had still caught nothing so I went deeper into the sea.

Looking down I noticed a large amount of sand moving about on the sea bed. I wondered what it could be. The sand started to settle back down when I identified the creature, a Manta Ray, usually harmless. Therefore I carried on with my fishing. Suddenly I felt a sharp, excruciating pain in my left leg. It felt like someone had stabbed me. I looked around, unsure of what had caused my agony when I realised what had happened. I had confused the Banded Stingaree with a Manta Ray. This was a common error my father had warned me about. They were a common but highly dangerous stingray and this one had stung me with its tail. I turned round and desperately splashed back to shore.

I knew that you had to remove what was left of the tail. Accordingly I pulled out any bits I could see before straining to remember what else you should do. My mother had always said to pour hot water over it to take away the poison. However I had no hot water. The pain was becoming unbearable. I sat down on the rock where I had left my clothes and clutched my throbbing leg. The area where I had been stung was bright red with a deep cut surrounded by a sore bruise. I could tell that the poison had entered my leg and was now working its way round my body. My breathing became slow and heavy, as I became weak and limp.

I lay on the rock, my body slowly beginning to close down and I could tell what was happening. I was dying, after only one night alone, never mind a whole month. I would never be able to prove to the tribe I was a man. I would never see my parents again. What would everyone think of me?

I was aching all over, my entire body like one giant bruise. I screwed up my eyes in pain, hoping that the torture wouldn't last much longer. My head throbbed, not quite able to take in what was happening. My body had one last massive twinge of pain before it decided it couldn't take any more. I felt every part of me shut down individually. Starting with my feet and coming all the way up my body to my neck and my head. My eyes started to close, my body flopped over to one side, and I surrendered to the darkness.