The giant serpent's head hit the grass with a thud as bright, blue blood gushed from its severed neck onto Zola's golden boots.

Duzi wiped his hands onto his green pants, staining them blue as his team ascended the hill on either side of him.

"Is that to your satisfaction mistress?" asked Duzi, as the head rolled to a stop.

"Well maybe there is hope for your family yet," responded Zola. "congratulations you are now men and women of Wakanda."

Cheers and ululation burst from the crowd at the sight of the first teams return. They certainly looked different from when they had left. Duzi was shirtless. One of the smaller boys was being carried by his brother and the last member of the team had one eye swollen completely shut.

The battle had been fierce, but that was to be expected when hunting a red tailed basilisk. The giant snake's head alone was the size of a basketball and the length of its body must have been at least 30 meters. Regardless, with a little teamwork and four vibranium spears, they had brought the beast down.

"Next up, we have Kayo from the boarder tribe, Lala from the river tribe, J'mundo from the Jabari and..." Zola squinted at the last name before rubbing her eyes and squinting again. "I think its Sarah? From the merchant tribe."

If her skin was not enough, her name had given her away. Sarah was a fair skinned Wakandan that had been raised in the United Kingdom. Her light eyes and straight hair betrayed the non-Wakandan side of her ancestry. The crowd parted before her as they all stole suspicious glances from the corner of their eyes.

"So what do you want?" asked Zola.

"I'll have a spear," said J'mundo. Zola pulled a small vibranium cylinder from the cache and handed it to J'mundo. He twisted it in his hand and it extended a meter and a half in front of him into a razor sharp spear.

"I'll take a board mistress," said Lala. Zola pulled a rectangular board from the cache, and threw it in Lala's direction. Instead of hitting the grass the hover board activated, floating inches off the ground at Lala's feet.

"May I have a board as well mistress, please and thank you," said Kayo, and mistress Zola obliged.

"And you?" asked Zola as she raised her eyebrows at Sarah.

"Um, I think a board as well mistress," said Sarah in the faintest tone.

When the entire team had the their equipment Zola pressed one of her kimoyo beads and another hovercraft sailed over the rolling hills on the horizon, towards their location.

"I just hope we're not hunting anything slimy or wet," said Lala.

"Or poisonous," added Kayo.

The hover craft came to a stop behind them. The doors peeled open to reveal the creature the team would be hunting. In the middle of a vibranium cage sat a small, white rodent no bigger than a fist.

"Bast dammit, are you kidding me?" said Lala.

"Ah shit," echoed Kayo.

"What's the problem?" asked Sarah. "Its just a little mouse."

"Not just any mouse," said Zola. "This is a genetically modified chimera rodent, designed by Queen Ramonda herself. Don't let its appearance fool you. It is vicious, quicker than you would expect and its evolutionary abilities are unparalleled."

"Evolutionary abilities?"

Murmurs rolled over the crowd again as the Wakandans rolled their eyes at Sarah's questions.

"Silence!" snapped Zola as she turned her attention towards the crowd. "You were not born with this knowledge either. You learned it over time, same as everyone else."

Sarah lowered her head as Zola approached her.

"The beast can change its appearance if it ingests the DNA of another creature. For example..."

Zola stepped into the hover craft, opened the cage and lifted the rodent into her hand. Immediately the small white creature sunk its teeth into Zola's finger and lapped up a few drops of her blood. Zola dropped the creature onto the grass in front of her as all the children leaned forward to catch a glimpse of its evolution.

Suddenly the rodent began to grow until it was the size of Zola's arm and nearly as tall as her knees. Its front claws spread into longer fingers and its hind legs stretched until they were the same length and shape of the legs of a small human child. The rodent pushed itself up onto its hind legs, standing upright like a small boy with his stomach pushed out. Its head snapped to the left and the right, sniffing the air as it did. Then, suddenly it began to run towards the forest. The crowd watched the creature sprinting across the field, too large to be a rodent and running too fast to be a small child. J'mundo said what everyone else was thinking.

"You have unleashed an ungodly abomination mistress."

"Human DNA!?" snapped Kaya. "That thing is smart now. Do you know how much harder it will be to kill?"

"Then you'd better hurry up before it consumes any more DNA, shouldn't you?" responded Zola.

Kaya had not fully expressed his level of indignation, but he stopped himself when he realized Zola was right. Time was of the essence. Every second that passed was an opportunity for further evolution. If they were ever going to kill the chimera it would need to be quickly. They hopped onto their boards and sailed across the grass sea, into the mute forest.

An hour later Kaya, Sarah, J'mundo and Lala emerged from the forest, beaten and bloody. All four were walking. Their hover boards were nowhere in sight. Clasped firmly in J'mundo's hand was a rat like tail, and dragging on the ground behind him was a strange creature.

The chimera's body was still covered in fur, but over select portions of its hair, a hard exoskeleton had grown. It had two broken insect like wings on its back and its head had been removed. J'mundo lay the body of the beast at Zola feet before falling to his knees.

"Is this kill satisfactory mistress?" asked J'mundo.

"It is," responded Zola, a cheeky smile creeping into the side of her cheek. "congratulations, you are now men and woman of Wakanda."

Cheers and ululation erupted from the young crowd once again, as the team collapsed onto a grassy hill.

"Okay enough of that, silence!" snapped Zola. "We've got a lot of people to get through today, so we need to speed this up. Next up we have Aneka from the mining tribe."

A small bald girl bounced up like a spring and raced to Zola's side. She bowed her head as she gave Zola a Wakandan salute.

"Now that's the kind of enthusiasm I want to see," said Zola. "Idie from the river tribe."

A girl wrapped in green fabrics with long dreadlocks and piercing hazel eyes took her place beside Aneka.

"Asira from the Jabari tribe and Princess Shuri from the golden tribe."

A hushed silence fell over the crowd as they all turned to see her. She had been sitting in the middle of the crowd, her head covered in a purple wrap. She pulled her hood down to reveal her crown of braids and the other children finally saw her face.

"Oh my god, its the princess," said Asira as she made her way to Zola.

"This shouldn't be a surprise people, she's at that age after all. And princess..."

"Yes mistress," said Shuri.

"Don't expect any special treatment. Work with your team to complete your hunt like everyone else. You hear me?"

"Understood Zola. Besides, do you really think I'm going to need help? I could probably complete this test by myself."

"Don't get too cocky little one. You can't bring all your little gadgets into this hunt. You can only pick one from the cache."

"Seeing as I designed most of the devices in the cache, I think I'll be fine."

"But princess you still don't know what you will be hunting," said Zola as the next hover craft approached them.

"Just tell me, what could possibly be a challenge?" asked Shuri

"Oh I don't know, maybe an Asgardian Great Owl."

Shuri's face sank as the words hit her ears. Aneka turned to face Shuri, as she furrowed her brow.

"You just had to ask didn't you princess?"