A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

between the branches as he fell to the floor gasping for air as Lillie jumped down the last few feet and landed standing over Harvey like a lion ready to pounce on its meal.

'WHAT...did...you..say??' staring down at Harvey all helpless on the floor Lillie felt the urge to drag him to his feet and show him who was boss but she stopped short of doing that as Harvey apologised for what he had said and seemed totally scared by her.

By this time Daniel had dropped down beside his sister and told her to leave him alone then realising they probably weren't safe anymore whispered to them both,

'Look guys we really need to get away from here now seeing as those things might come back soon and I don't know if that thing I do will happen again so I think we need to keep moving'

The trio all realised that the safest thing to do was to keep moving along the path until they got out of the forest and hopefully onto safety,

'Guys let's grab a bit of food then we can make out way to wherever this town is, ok?'

'Sounds like a good idea Dan, I'll see if that food Lillie got is ok to eat'. With that Harvey re climbed up the tree to where they had been sitting and gathered up the food before carefully climbing down again so he didn't drop any,

'I guess its food, this one looks like an odd looking apple with spikes stuck on it' Harvey held out an object that looked like it was fruit and showed it to the others,

'Who's going to try it then?' He gestured for one of the others to take a bite,

'Not me that's for sure!!' Lillie turned away in disgust at the sight of the odd looking fruit,

'I think you should try it Harv' Daniel pushed the fruit back towards his friend, 'seeing as you were the one moaning that you were hungry'.

Harvey eyed up the strange fruit, wondering how he was supposed to get past the spikes on it,

'I guess I need to pick them off, here goes' so Harvey tried to snap the spikes off but they wouldn't budge, they were seemingly solid,

'Ok then, plan B' and with that Harvey launched the fruit at the tree but it stuck in the trunk with a THUD.

'Ahhhh, is someone trying to tell me something?' Harvey moaned as his stomach let out a huge rumbling noise suggesting it was desperate for food now.

Just as Harvey began to think that he was never going to get any food then he turned to where he had thrown the fruit to see that it was slowly losing its spikes one by one, then a CRACK as it began to split in two revealing whatever it was that was inside.

'Look…' Lillie pointed to the inside of the fruit, ' It's…..ok to eat?' she added as Harvey had already shot over to the tree and had pulled the fruit open to reveal what looked like an apple shape inside the outer shell but there was no skin around it, it looked juicy and ripe so Harvey being Harvey didn't care about the danger of eating something that might be bad for him.

He took a big bite out of it and his shoulders instantly dropped in relief when he realised it was the most amazing thing he had ever eaten,

'Mmm, wmmmfff' trying to speak but his mouth was full of this strange but delicious fruit,

'Eh??, What are you talking about Harv?' Daniel tried to make sense of what he was mumbling but gave up when he saw that his friend had grabbed another couple of these fruits and was launching them at the trees again.

'For you….' He managed to splutter out as Daniel and Lillie took it in turns to remove the fruit from its outer layer, slowly peeling back the outer layer, Daniel was slightly unsure about it so he held it in his hand and put out his tongue to prod at the strange fruits centre,

Then he licked the fruit which was dripping with the juices surrounding it,

'Tastes like…..bananas' Daniel's eyes lit up as he then took a nibble of the fruit which made his eyes widen as he smiled and said,

'And…..toffee!!!!'

Lillie stared at her fruit as she thought about taking a bite but said to the boy's,

'Are you sure these are ok??, I mean...well….we aren't at home now, I'm just a bit worried we might get poisoned or something'

Harvey wasn't listening to anything she was saying as he was busy stuffing his face with more of the strange fruit,

'The taste is different every time!!!' He shouted as he took another deep bite from the fruit, 'Strawberries!!!!....oh my gosh!! This just got even better, now I can taste chocolate. Mmm, I think I’m in love!!' Harvey exclaimed as he sank to his knees holding about a dozen of the fruits in his hands,

'My new best friend's…' He smiled as he held them close to his chest and holding them as if they were a baby,

'I'm not letting you go ever!!'.

'Get a grip Harvey!!' shouted Lillie, 'They can't be that goo…..'

She stopped mid-sentence as she took a small nibble of the fruit and immediately took another as a taste filled her mouth that was familiar to her from home,

'Oh wow that's amazing!!, That's blackcurrant jam and caramel!!' she spluttered as she kept eating the fruit like someone was going to steal it,

'This can't be real, surely not!!, this is heaven!!' She said smiling as she helped herself to one of the fruits Harvey had dropped on the floor.

'Oi that's mine!!' Harvey shouted to Lillie who was teasing him by holding it up high enough so he couldn't reach it,

'Not anymore!!, Finders keepers. Hahaha' she laughed as she held it close to her body so Harvey couldn't steal it back,

'What is this place?' Daniel asked as he stared at the fruit in his hand which just looked like a plain round piece of fruit with no colour to it but a taste that was individual to everyone who tried one.

Lillie took one last bite of the fruit before snapping back to reality and remembering where they were supposed to be going,

'Look, you two we really need to keep moving I think, it's all good and well stuffing ourselves stupid with this food but we need to get to the town before it gets colder here, something doesn't feel right again'

Harvey smugly smiled at Daniel as they totally ignored what Lillie was saying and they talked about how amazing the fruit tasted, hoping that they could find some more as they wanted to search the area in case they needed to stock up before they carried on,

'Come on Dan let's go have a look for some more, I've got a right hunger on!!' Harvey scrambled round the area to see if they could find any more to take with them,

'Daniel held up what looked like a small fabric sheet and shouted to Harvey,

'We can use this to carry them mate, saves you eating all of them while we go'

'Like I would do that, what do you take me for!!' Harvey smiled as he licked his lips, tasting the last remnants of ‘coconut and raspberry’ from the fruit.

So the boy's scoped up the fruit from around the floor and placed them in the sheet and wrapped it up, attaching it to a stick, placing it over Harvey's shoulder to carry,

'Oooff….It's a bit heavy Dan!, can't you carry it?' he whined as the weight of the stick and fruit dug into his shoulder causing him to topple to the side slightly.

'No way, at least if you're carrying it you can't be tempted to eat any of them as we walk', Daniel laughed as Harvey struggled to regain his balance 'Plus I'M in charge here so you do as I say'.

'Who died and made you king!!' Lillie laughed as she shot her brother a scorching look, 'I'm the oldest so I'M the one in charge thank you very much!'.

Daniel pushed past his sister muttering to himself as he went, just quiet enough for her to hear but not loud enough for her to hear what he was saying,

'Sorry?? , I can't quite hear you Daniel, do you have something to say?' Lillie cupped her hand around her ear as she waited for some kind of smart reply from her brother,

'Whatever sis….we will see soon enough, Come on let's go, Need to find this town and I must find Bucksy', Daniel couldn't be bothered to come back with a smart reply as he just wanted to get going as he felt totally creeped out by the forest.

As the beautiful moonlight shone through the forest like a torch, the trio kept to the path that they were given, still searching for the town they had to get to, This gave Daniel a chance to think about what was going on, his mind was wandering all over the place and he seemed to be struggling to take it all in as the trio walked further along the moonlit path, stopping whenever they heard the snapping of twigs or the grunting of some kind of animal,

'Wh..What was that?' Harvey suddenly jumped onto Daniel as a loud crashing noise could be heard to the side of them,

'I don't know Harv...why don't you go and have a look' Daniel scornfully replied as Harvey was becoming more and more agitated by every kind of sound resonating through the forest

'M..Me..out there?, stuff that, I'm not going anywhere else apart from this way with you guys!!, Today is not a good day to get eaten Dan' Harvey trembled as he kept jumping even more with every step.

Lillie on the other hand was focussed on the path ahead as the beautiful moonlight lit up the path like spotlight guiding them to safety,

'Come on guys keep up' she spoke back to the boys who were lagging behind slightly 'It can't be that much further to this town, surely'

'Blame Maximus back here sis, he's the one who's scared by his own shadow at the minute' Daniel was getting tired of Harvey's scared antics as he was getting tired again from all the walking,

'Shut up Dan, Look it's not my fault I don't like being scared by ten foot monsters with pets who have sharp teeth ready to eat me, I'm sorry if I'm a little jumpy but I don't like all this and I just want to go home'

'And you think I don't!!' Daniel turned round answering his friend angrily, stopping dead in his tracks in front of Harvey who dropped the fruit he was carrying to the floor ' All I want to do is go home but we are stuck here for now until I can figure out how to get back My dog is missing and I want to see mum but we can't right now, I don't need you whimpering and whining at every chance you get, so for once please just SHUT UP!!'.

Daniel's anger had caused his sister to stop and turn round as she had never heard him talk to Harvey, or anyone else for that matter, like that.

'Woah where did that come from Daniel?' she said, surprised by the tone in which it was said but could see he was getting slightly upset

'I've never heard you talk like that before, even to me and I'm you're sister and we are supposed to not like each other that much'.

Harvey didn't know whether to laugh cry or just turn and run as he was frozen to the spot trying to take in the explosive response his ‘best friend’ had given him,

'Alright Daniel there's no need to talk to me like that ok!!, I'm sorry but I'm just as desperate to get home too, mum will freak when I see her I just know it' Harvey's voice trembling slightly as he tried to act cool about him having his head bitten off but his voice wobbled