Realms of Eden: a Warrior Rises

Foreword

Thanks to those of you who were kind enough to read and comment on my first submission of Realms of Eden Book 1 – Sydney comes of Age (it's in the Sci-Fi section). This is a rewrite of that book but from the story teller's perspective rather than first person.

My characters told me that they didn't think they got enough time in my first book having to rely on Sydney's view to get them noticed – so this is for them.

I have introduced a new character, expanded out some of them and given some more thought to how some things were happening.

Of course it now finishes before the first draft did – and the second book is almost finished to catch up the rest.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it and I promise book 2 will be up soon.

All feedback welcome.

Special thanks to CajunBill, dloold87 and zerses_01 who made me think Realms was worth all my effort.

Cheers

ACT 1 – Turning a sapling into a tree.

Chapter 1 – The end of childhood

An aqua light glowed in his mind and a soft whisper drifted across his thoughts.

"Stanton, honey, it is time for me to leave you for a while. I will return before..." the voice didn't finish its thoughts, both of them knew what she meant.

"He is born then?" he asked back.

"Yes and he will need me."

The glow dimmed then was gone. The man rolled over to his side, a smile played on his full lips and his dark-blue eyes closed as he resumed his interrupted sleep.

* * * * * * * *

As a young boy growing up Sydney Douglas had always found his parents difficult.

It was not the generation gap issue, rather, from a very young age his mother would constantly rant and rave about the world and how it was going to hell in a hand basket. A hand basket her son would be carrying.

The woman had been quite a beautiful lady when she had given birth to the boy, the result of a brief liaison with a handsome stranger whilst on holidays in the friendly island nation of Vanuatu. Now she was tired from the need to look after an unwanted child. Her father would have made life hell for her if she had aborted the pregnancy.

The messages of how the world was full of sin and ugliness from the indoctrination of the priests of a religious cult that she had joined, just after the boy had been born, turned her earlier simple and positive view of the world into one that saw it as uncaring and decadent. Her attractive face and body were neglected and began to reflect the view she held of the world. She continued to blame the bubbly, black haired, dark-blue eyed boy that her father doted on.

Meeting and marrying a man from the 'church' she had believed to have been her salvation, she focussed her vitriolic attacks on the world through the child, blaming him for the initial rejection of her by the man. She had debased and degraded herself in satisfying the man's sexual needs until finally he had asked her to marry him.

Peter Douglas was a big man, standing at almost two metres tall, weighing over 130 kilograms, the man was quick to temper and would use his fists readily. He had risen to the position of foreman in the aerospace plant, producing hover components, more by bullying and the use of those fists rather than any real capability of management.

As Peter Douglas listened to his wife's tirades about the world, the women in the neighbourhood, who she always assured him, were after his cock and were all nothing but sluts, he would nod and glance over her at his paper. He encouraged her to rant and deride the local female population, her constant fluttering arms and movement around the house caused her heavy breasts to move deliciously.

As he fucked her in their bed later in the night he would play on her fears, lying to her about how the woman down the street had flashed him on his way to work. Her furious movements of her body and desire to make him forget about anything that they had done allowed him to perversely use her body in any way he wished and finally have his seed exploding into her slutty throat.

Her obedience to his desires was the only thing that he tolerated about her. In his eyes the sallow fleshed complexion, thin body, her constant need for cigarettes and alcohol disgusted him but as long as she allowed him to fuck her arse, sucked his cock and occasionally felt his seed expend into her womb he would stay to keep an eye on the brat his masters wanted observed.

The mission had been easily enough undertaken when the woman was a soft and beautiful woman, just losing the additional weight she had gained during pregnancy, her full breasts lush with milk that she would allow him to taste. He now had regrets but he dared not defy his instructions.

Those instructions were changing now as the child began to grow and Peter Douglas decided that if it was necessary to be with the woman for any length of time that he would breed the bitch. Perhaps if she had a belly full of arms and legs she might just put some weight back on and his cock could once again be warmly encased in her full breasts. His sex with her changed to forcefully fucking her tight pussy, his rampant cock burying into her tight dry vagina at the most unexpected times, she accepted the treatment of her body from him as necessary to ensure his continued love.

She reflected her anger onto the boy, subjecting him to constant tirades about sin and depravity. Subtly she began to deflect some of the blows that she received from her husband towards the boy, directing his attention to the boy's evilness, real or imagined, revelling in the marks on the boy's face or buttocks from the man's large hands. Her son's retreat from her towards solitude and his look changing from love to fear, hardened her heart and she found that in some ways she actually enjoyed seeing his tears and bruised face. It certainly gave her satisfaction that her own marked buttocks and hips were not the only ones in her house.

The marks on her body began to diminish markedly as the boy grew, the punishments handed out by her husband to the skinny, freckle faced lad became more frequent. When he would order the boy out of his sight after delivery of stinging slaps of his hands or occasionally the belt of his pants, she would quickly shed her clothing and await the rampant thrusts of his cock into any orifice he requested.

Sydney did not see the wickedness of his mother as she catered to the desires of the man who had punished him. Many times he did not even know what the punishment was for and he would retreat to the sanctuary of the sports field with his small circle of friends or to the quiet escapism of the nearby local library.

The sports fields were Sydney's greatest refuge, for despite the lack of growth and size in his body, he was blessed with superb hand-eye coordination and excelled in sporting competitions, particularly soccer and cricket where he was a leader and much admired by his peers.

Academically the child was gifted, he and a small group of elite minds, excelled at school in friendly competitions of brainpower.

These outlets were all he had to emotionally support him, his hopes resting on either a sporting or academic scholarship to help him escape from the family home that was beginning to become a nightmare.

His father's physical punishment became more frequent as the years went on, his bullying nature totally exposing the boorish man who drank and ate to excess. His mother's love totally withdrawn with the death of her father not long after the boy's sixth birthday and she discovered she was pregnant.

Sydney's parents never watched him play sport or came to any of the presentations that saw him receive accolades from teachers and coaches for outstanding achievement in every field. In fact Peter Douglas took great delight in crushing the boys' pride in bringing home a scholastic prize at the age of seven by sneeringly remarking that second was really first loser.

From then on Sydney carefully hid away any rewards he received for sporting or academic prowess and refrained from referring to his performances in anything but the most trivial of manner.

The punishments and tirades from his parents dramatically decreased, he actually dropped off his father's radar, with the birth of his two brothers shortly after his sixth and seventh years of life.

His mother took an instant shine to her new offspring constantly telling her husband how wonderful they were and a joy to her heart. She was also very aware that her husband's demand for his seed to be captured in her mouth as she pleasured him with her milk full breasts made his normally rough handling of her body a change that her soft body required for her to meet the demands of the two small babies.

She further ingratiated herself into her husband's gentler treating of her by the use of the phrase, "Unlike that first brat!" that caused him to smile softly at her, his instructions had emphasised that the woman must destroy the mother child relationship.

For Sydney dodging his father's fists and his mother's constant abuse was easy when their arms were full of their so-called bundles of joy.

Not long after his twelfth birthday David Gilroy found the boy hiding at the back of his property one afternoon, after a particularly nasty encounter with his father that left him with a bloodied nose and a swollen eye.

The young lad was talking to the ducks that swam in a pool that formed at the bottom of his paddock. The small creek that flowed through the estate deepened and widened considerably at this point before continuing its way noisily over rocks and tree roots down to the river.

He had appeared to be very familiar with the ducks that sat around him listening to his bemoaning of the unfairness of his treatment. Sydney often visited the ducks and sometimes they even took titbits of bread or other scraps that he brought down for them.

David Gilroy was surprised as the lad cowered at his approach wondering if it was the father coming to give him some more of his "learning" as he had overhead the boorish big man scream at the boy, followed by a slap and a cry. After squatting down beside the boy he said, "Hi, I'm your new neighbour. Dave Gilroy."

He put his hand out, the young lad grasped it saying, "Sydney Douglas, though my friends call me Syd."

"It's alright Syd, come up to the house, if you want, and Kelsey can give you something for that eye."

Sydney followed him up to the house properly introduced himself to David's wife while she dabbed his nose with tissues and placed an ice pack on his face.

The Gilroys lived diagonally to the south of the Douglas place and from that day on the young lad would always make a point of saying hello to them whenever he spied them in their yard or if he saw them on some of his constant outings.

The Gilroys were easy going and a very nice couple. David was an engineer, his interest mainly in mining and he had moved to the property on the eastern district of Brisbane to spend some time with his new bride that he had finally manage to extract from the clutches of a fiercely competitive colleague in the firm that they had both worked for in New South Wales. David was 38 and his wife 37.

Kelsey had been a prize to be won from his rival, when she had accepted his offer of marriage he had joyfully taken her away to the northern state and away from any further temptations. She came from a wealthy, very wealthy, family and her marriage to the lowly engineer had not completely been welcomed with joy by her family.

David's opinion of himself was high, he believed that his easy smile, reasonably handsome face and stockily built body had given him the edge over the skinny, big eared and freckled faced man he had beaten out for the hand of the gorgeous brown haired and brown eyed Kelsey. Her full figure and warm willing body was his and he believed that she was content to be his faithful companion.

Mrs Gilroy, "Please, call me Kelsey," she told those that she met, had fallen for the small skinny, child that had come to her with a bloodied nose and swollen eye. Ensuring that she always had biscuits or cakes just baked or ready in a tin she kept close by the table, she was delighted when the young lad came and shyly knocked on the door a couple of days after her husband had found him talking to the ducks. Welcoming him into her home with open arms, ensuring that he pressed against her warm breasts and made him sit and have "bikkies," as she called them and tea with her.

She chatted to him in a constant stream asking about school, friends and sport.

Noting the surprised look he gave her when she told him that she had watched him make a century for the school last summer, she had asked him if he was going to be opening again this year. Sydney changed the subject and was embarrassed when she asked the question again. The lad looked at her closely realising that she was genuinely interested in his answer and shyly nodded yes.

Kelsey was saddened when he said he had to go. She let him run from the house and was very worried when he didn't return for several weeks.

From a long time habit Sydney would change the subject if any of his friends mentioned some achievement in earshot of his parents, he figured that adults didn't really want to hear about those sorts of things and it had confused him when Mrs Gilroy had shown an interest. When finally he found enough courage up to go back and see them he explained to them both that his parents didn't really care about his sport and didn't talk about it with them.

Mr Gilroy coughed and ruffled his hair, his wife handed the boy a plate of bikkies and said she had to get something from the back room. Kelsey Gilroy wept in her room, how such a small, beautiful boy could be so abused and neglected she thought to herself. She composed herself, applied a little make-up to cover her slightly red face and returned to listen to her husband talking to the small boy about the ducks.

Sydney ate Kelsey's bikkies as her husband asked if Sydney came and talked to the ducks often. The laughter and statement that the ducks were his friends and his naming them off for him and descriptions about their habits and nesting places made her heart ache as she realised how lonely the little boy was.

David sat staring at the boy for such a long time that Kelsey thought her husband was going to make the boy feel as if he had said something wrong, so she gave a little cough and when he looked at her shook her head quickly. David stood up and said, "Seeing as how all these ducks live at my place I'd better get down there and start learning all about them!"

Kelsey Gilroy asked Sydney if he wanted to stay for a bit longer but he told her he had to go to soccer practice shortly so he'd better get home and changed before he went.

Over the next few months Sydney showed David Gilroy all the ducks and their nesting places. He got very good at naming them when the boy pointed them out on the pond.

David and Kelsey were very good to Sydney and they enjoyed his company on the rare occasions that he came over. Sydney's mother, introducing herself as Sophia, tried to interfere with the boy's visits but Kelsey laughingly told her that the boy could come over and visit whenever he wanted, besides she told the obnoxious woman she also had some chores that she needed doing occasionally.

Sophia had responded, "Well as long as the little devil isn't making a nuisance of himself!" Before turning about and hurrying back to the house to attend to Sydney's brothers.

The next few years saw more and more beltings and beatings handed out to Sydney, as it seemed his parents went out their way to find any excuse to deliver punishments. Peter Douglas had received further instructions that wanted the child cowered, afraid and the beatings should ensure that the boy never reached full maturity. It was something that his masters did not want to occur. Why they didn't tell him to simply kill the child he was not at liberty to ask.

The Gilroys and the ducks were his only refuge though he steered well clear of the Gilroys whenever his face was damaged or the bruises were too obvious around his legs or arms. There would be periods when sometimes he did not go to school or to any of his normal sporting activities while his body recovered.

Kelsey Gilroy always got so worried when the little man did not come to her back door for bikkies and tea, she suspected that the monsters in the house to the north were beating him but she could not prove it. Sometimes she would see him sneaking off furtively to school via the back tracks around the estate in the very early hours of the mornings before anyone else was awake. Watching his small frame run down the tracks with a school bag that she was sure only carried his book discs as his skinny frame certainly showed no signs of getting the nourishment it needed.

Whenever she asked Sydney how come he had been out of touch for a while he would tell her that he had been sick or very busy with school-work. At times she thought that the lad would die of embarrassment at having to tell them a lie, but as the months passed he began to vary his stories judging when he could use different stories such as hinting that had been away or injured playing sport and having to have a few weeks recovery.

Kelsey Gilroy never believed a word but she let the lies go as she would smile and pass him some more biscuits. Her heart always broke as she watched him eat them hurriedly, furtively sneaking one of two into the pockets of his threadbare pants. Eventually she would simply give him a small paper bag of biscuits before he left, telling him that he could keep them for later when he needed a midnight snack. Her hand would always brush his hair out of his eyes and her smile and open eyes would try to tell him that she was there to help him.

Her love for the boy and her motherly instincts were not as innocent towards him as she told herself they were. As they boy went through a small growth spurt, which she believed was triggered by the extra food she gave him, his body and face triggered deep emotions within in her and in passionate afternoons of daydream she would pleasure her body with thoughts of his properly developed body giving her hours of intense pleasure.

Something about his demeanour, the way he simply believed in living, the brave way he battled whatever atrocities were being perpetrated upon him made her love for the little boy grow. She had bouts of depression when he did not come to her home for weeks as he recovered from the beatings, followed by nights of lusty passion with her husband when his handsome face would sit opposite hers as he ate her biscuits and haltingly gave her some story to cover his absence. Her husband's face was always replaced, in her mind, by the boy as she imagined him to be as a man.

A couple of years after they had become Sydney's neighbours David picked him up as he wandered slowly home from school, pulling up beside the boy in his work hover and beeped the horn to get his attention. As Sydney leaned in through the passenger window and asked him how he was going he offered him a lift home. Sydney told him he wasn't in that big of a hurry to get there if it was all right by him. David thought he knew the reason for the lad's reluctance to go home but then he laughed saying, "Well I think Kelsey might have some bikkies at home for a growing lad if you don't mind hanging out with a pregnant lady!"

When David told Kelsey her how he had jumped in the hover pressing for all the news about this latest development, she had softly cried into his shoulder. David laughed as he told her how he had a million questions like when the baby was due and what was it going to be.