Abigail's bird dilemma

in this vignette, abigail is competing in a traditional womens' endurance climb

a long ascent up through the canopy and vine forest requiring strength, stamina, flexibility, and agility

it's a little like free climbing on rock faces, except that the competitors must find hand and footholds among the hanging vines and branches

as you can see the outfit worn by the girls is sparse to say the least... a tiny loincloth and top

now, abigail is very good at this, she has been training for many years with the tribal ascent experts - but she has gone and got herself in rather a tizzy here

she thought she might be able to gain a little ground by taking a less used route, and is now all stuck in a very awkward position - she just about has hold of those two vines and is barely on her tow footholds, just her tippy toes in fact, and all the other branches are much too thin and twiggy to get a hold of

they are not to thin, however, for the many small exotic birds that live in this part of the forest... they have no idea what abigail is, and have no fear of her... in fact, as she has also picked up a few beetles and caterpillars on the way (which are ticklish enough) the birds are relieving her of these tasty morsels with their rather ticklish little beaks

also, as she has been climbing barefoot she has gathers quite a bit of debris on her soles - squished insects, seeds and the like - so the two smaller birds are happily pecking all this off the bottoms of her feet, which, as you can imagine is dreadfully ticklish

and as if that weren't enough, the tail feathers of one of the birds are tickling her in her underarm making it very hard to keep a hold of that vine

she won't be able to hold on much longer, she is much too ticklish - but fear not, there is a soft mossy landing not far below... although i think it might be right on top of a nest of "scarabae kinsmoangea" those beetles which like to feed on skin cells in such a madly ticklish way

poor abigail...

and her fellow contestants are not helping, they are enjoying watching her being tickled too much... some of them are already gathering near the nest ready to see her fall in and enjoy some more tickling