It wasn’t what I had intended for the day, but then my life could have been generally characterised as unintended, so really this was a day like any other.

“What do you reckon?” Liam enquired casually, not even looking at me - as if he was actually rather indifferent to whatever my response would be.

“I reckon” I said, pausing for dramatic effect, even knowing that at moments like this the idea was not to be contemplating the dramatic effect of a pause. “I reckon we go for it.”

That was all either of us needed. It was more than we needed. Sometimes just a glance in each others direction at the right moment with the sun just beginning to offer any warmth and the tent long since packed away was all we needed. Somehow these competitions were essential to us both. Over the years we’d got to know each others strengths and weaknesses better than, perhaps, even our own, and we were by no means identical, either in physical talents or the cerebral. Yet we were surprisingly well-matched in competition. Really, Liam had the natural ability, the intuition, the reason and the fearlessness to succeed in any challenge, but i had more to prove. I needed to win more than he did. He just liked to.