A Power Beyond Man by Ryan Matthew Harker (free reads txt) 📕

two young fugitives made a hasty departure from Hell, leaving the disgruntled township behind like a bad habit. From the top of a hill Emerald Irises gave the horrible place a last look and was surprised to see it was entirely engulfed in flames.
Though muffled by layers of clothe, Gentle Brown’s word came clearly, “Now the place really is Hell.”
Emerald Irises looked at him carefully. “You did that, you set the place on fire?”
Gazing yonder as the inferno slowly built to raging, Gentle Brown’s voice hardly quavered, “I dropped a Hot Rock in a pile if hay on our way by.”
“Wow,” Emerald Irises whispered respectfully. “I didn’t even notice. Way to go!”
Gentle Brown’s feet shuffled briefly at the compliment and he said “We’d better get going.”
“Yep, we’d better,” Emerald Irises agreed.
The two urchins sped off the hilltop, into the sparse forest vegetation and were quickly concealed beneath a canopy of fir boughs that dampened the quality of light but not the buoyancy of their free spirits. Oh to be free, such a precious commodity! Even at such a tender age Emerald Irises fully understood the concept, what it meant, and what it should mean to everyone else as well.
Freedom- the ability to act freely; a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restrictions. In Emerald Irises young mind this meant do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt those around you. Common sense was all that was needed to conclude if someone was hurting you you’re not feeling very free, so don’t hurt others and if Emerald Irises was full of anything it was Common sense. This, commonest of the Seven Senses, was why it was so surprising the mob of people had actually had the upper hand in the situation- for a moment.
Before their Goddess had fallen ill Emerald Irises remembered learning about the Seven Senses- Sight, Smell, Hearing, Taste, Touch, Intuition, and Common. Common was favored for its wonderful simplicity. All it took to use this sense was observation and awareness of your surroundings, simple. Combined with deduction Common is a very powerful tool indeed and normally Common would have been more than enough to steer Emerald Irises well away from a place as bad smelling as Hell. Normally a fierce beast roaring in the hollow caverns above the beltline wouldn’t be calling the shots, although it had been more and more often lately.
Hunger being just another fact of life these days, Emerald Irises stepped up the pace a little, eager to be somewhere safe enough to fall into sleeps welcome forgetfulness. Feeling a similar determination motivate his soul Gentle Brown kept time for a moment before moving faster still.

*******

Blonde, thin as a whip, and golden tanned under the millions of particulates hitching a ride on his body, a young boy crouched warily over a small runoff stream. Washing off the accumulated filth of God knows how many days Emerald Irises could tell he was wary from little things. The knife embedded in the dirt within easy reach, slight side to side twitch of the head, nervous shifting of weight from one leg to the other, all of this told Emerald Irises this boy was ready for fight or flight.
A loudly forced yawn and big stretch startled the boy, who grabbed the knife and spun quick like lightning to shoot those stretched arms right out of the sky.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” Emerald Irises choked, slipped, rolled down the small decline.
Kerploosh!
Gentle Brown took defensive positioning but to no avail. A spray of water cascaded ashore. The water settled and gentle browns settled on the water in astonishment. “You’re a girl!” His eyebrows climbed his forehead.
“And you’re a boy,” the pretty little girl retorted with a crossing of her arms.
The two drenched children stared each other down like a couple pitbull pups with a length of stout rope locked between their jowls. Laughter erupted simultaneously, collided, and came back to knock the two of them over. Emerald Irises sputtered in the shallow water and came upright gasping and choking and laughing all at the same time.
Sides clenched in a solo bear hug Gentle Brown rolled on the ground and just managed between stitches, “St-stop i-it! I can’t bre-eath!”
A mirrored predicament shivered and quivered in the stream. “Me-e-ei-ther!"
Finally managing to reel in their hilarity the two looked at each other appraisingly. There was something to be said about finding a friend in the madness of today’s world, or to be rescued by one.
“What’s your name?” Gentle Brown asked quietly.
“Jessica,” Emerald Irises confided even quieter. “What’s yours?"
“Alan,” Gentle Brown’s voice was proud and solemn. “Alan Aimstryder."
“Songbringer’s my title,” Jessica revealed. “I have no idea what it means.” In the Bright Land the second name was suppose to be a title signifying a person’s true purpose in life as divined by the divine goddess at their birth. She used to descry the life paths personally for every baby boy and girl. At least this was the way of things before she had gotten sick.
“I don’t even like singing that much.”
Alan squinted at her. “I like singing,” he said as he studied her freckled cheeks. “But darned if I know what I’m s’pose to be striding towards.” Then he rolled down the decline to splash in the steam next to Jessica which caused the two’s laughter to ignite all over again.
After they had had their fun, the pair washed up and hung their clean rags to dry. Working together fluidly, like they had known each other their whole lives and could anticipate each other’s actions, they laughed and joked as old friends would.
Once that chore was complete Alan plopped his weary body in the soft streamside soil. “I’m sooo hungry,” Jessica told him as she plopped just as wearily next to him.
“Do you have any weapons?”
Her pale cheeks grew red and she eyed the boy nervously. “No,” she whispered.
Pulling the knife from his belt Alan fingered the blade thoughtfully and then handed hilt first towards the embarrassed girl. “Here,” he told her awkwardly. “You can take this.”
“What will you use?”
“Oh, it’s okay,” he reassured. “I’ve got my sling.”
“Sling?” Jessica was a little confused.
“Yeah, I used it to rescue you yesterday.” He may have well told her ‘duh’.
“Oh,” was all Jessica could think to say as she accepted the big knife. Where was her Common sense there?
“Did you think I threw it?” Alan asked incredulously and giggled.
“Nooo!” Jessica insisted.
Alan’s giggles turned to chuckles as he stood up and removed what Jessica had mistaken for a belt. Three feet long the homemade weapon was fashioned from a bit of leather tied on two sides by braided leather boot laces and was almost too large for the skinny lad.
“Nice,” Jessica complimented as he showed off the simple weapon.
“So you ready then?” he asked her.
“For what?"
“To go-o hunting.” He had just told her ‘duh’ again. “I’m hungry too. Let’s go!” Alan reached his hand down.
Without hesitation Jessica grabbed the proffered appendage and allowed her scrawny new companion to haul her to her feet.
“Let’s follow the stream and see if we find anything,” Alan suggested.
“Which way?” Jessica asked as she studied first the upstream direction and then the down.
Alan did the same and without hesitation went with his intuition. This half wild child had lived on his own long enough his instincts had become honed to a sharpness that would have made him a very rich and popular man. In another world perhaps but not this one; no, in this one he was just a poor and hungry boy and his hunger told him they should follow the stream’s journey across the richly carpeted forest floor.
“Downstream,” he said.
Together the two were intrepid explorers. They left no stone unturned in their quest to find food, literally. Eating what they could find when they could find it, even though what they could find was usually earthworms and such, they kept watch for game sign. In places they spotted small tracks, just not any of the small animals who made them. It seemed word was out somehow and all the forest knew these perspicacious youngsters were on the prowl.
Intuition is a strong sense. If trusted wholeheartedly it can grow in reliability to become as second nature. Alan’s was thus and after some time, as was inevitable, the dashing pair searched their way right into a major animal highway.
“All right Alan!” Jessica’s hand connecting with his shoulder blade was somewhat muffled by his thin shirt.
“Thanks.” Alan smiled and knelt down to examine the game trail closer. All the regular characters were present; deer, rabbit, chipmunk, squirrel… Alan abruptly shifted his inspection from the ground to the trees. Jessica instantly followed suit.
“What is it?” For some reason she felt decidedly uneasy.
“Mountain lion,” he said while scrutinizing every limb of every tree in the immediate area.
Strawberry blonde hair reflected sunlight ricocheted on the knife blade as it gleamed from Jessica’s waist to her fist in less than a second. She too began surveying the newly ominous arboreal arms reaching out over her head.
After several long minutes of holding their breath and searching the upper reaches Alan relaxed and again bowed his head over the animal tracks. Jessica gave the trees one final, systematic looking over and then wandered to stand next to him.
“What’cha think?”
“We’re in luck,” Alan said and stood up. “The rabbits are plentiful and here recently."
“Yay!” Jessica giggled while jumping up and down and clapping.
“Quiet!” Alan admonished. He held both his hands in a placating gesture. “You’ll scare all the animals away!”
Jessica clamped her hands over her mouth and controlled her spastic movement. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I forgot.”
Smiling at his friend he told her, “It’s okay.” Alan waved her in