Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight. ↗
Especially if it's a wild animal, I find the readers are intrigued. And if your reader's intrigued right away, you've won half the battle of telling a story." ↗
The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection. ↗