Sword of Fire

By John R. Beck

Twelve year old Jerad goes on a quest to see the flaming sword guarding the Garden of Eden. But the giant Nephilim also want the sword and will ride their mighty dinosaurs over anything in their way to get it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481746359

John R. Beck

John R. Beck lives with his beloved wife and children in the United States.

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© 2013 by John R. Beck. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/26/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4637-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4636-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4635-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013907433

Illustrator: Santiago Martinez

Cover Art Colorist: Richard Smith

www.talesofeden.com

P.O. Box 656

Mattawan, MI 49071

Adam’s heir searches for the Sword of Fire that guards the Garden of Eden while the Nephilim want to conquer the world.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

CONTENTS

Author’s Apology

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

1.   A Sleepless Dawn

2.   Unexpected Absence

3.   A Slippery Slope

4.   Methu’s Mission

5.   Home School

6.   Adam’s Road

7.   Of Bullies & Battles

8.   Of Faith And Fear

9.   Of Courage And Cowardice

10.   On The Fence

11.   The House Of Eve

12.   In The Fight

13.   Of Pilgrimage And Trial

14.   Of Clay And Coal

15.   Steps Of Sorrow

16.   Of Stick And Stone

17.   A Floating Forest

18.   The Battle For Adam’s Wall

19.   At Trial’s End

20.   Seth’s Last Stand

21.   The Flaming Sword

Epilogue

AUTHOR’S APOLOGY

Test everything. Hold on to the good.

—1 Thessalonians 5:21

I’ve always wondered how the real Adam of the Holy Bible shared his testimony with his children. This tale describes how I imagined a fictional Adam might have done so.

I make no claim to inspiration on the topic. From chapter one to chapter twenty-one my book is completely fictional. It was just me, a pencil, and a patient editor.

The prologue and epilogue are verses quoted from the Holy Bible. You can trust those selections to be completely true, but look them up for yourself and read them in context.

If you’re looking for real facts about Adam and Eve, read the Holy Bible for yourself and nothing else. If you are looking for educational strategies to help you defend a literal understanding of Genesis visit www.answersingenesis.org.

Please do not read my book looking for secret insight into the supernatural world. You won’t find sorcery but you will find a sword. If you want to ride a dinosaur and see the world through 12 year old eyes again, then read this book and see where it takes you!

John R. Beck

April, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No book springs out of a writer’s mind unassisted. I would especially like to thank my wife, Laura, who first encouraged me to put pen to paper. Another thank you goes out to my son, Josh, for patiently listening to me read it while I changed plot on the spot.

Besides my family there a few other people who were a blessing to me. Val Mickley deserves special recognition for helpful suggestions she made after reviewing my book. Any last minute grammatical errors are now mine alone. Thank you Ms. Tiffany Blum for reviewing my book to help me make sure it is age appropriate. I also appreciate two students in Mrs. Debbie Blum’s 4th grade class at Heritage Christian Academy for reading my book and giving me their honest opinion about it. Thank you, Santiago Martinez, your illustrations are incredible! Thank you, Richard Smith, for doing such an amazing job adding color to the cover art.

The bottom line belongs to the Lord. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Sovereign. His saving grace makes my life and this book possible. John 3:16 says it all.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I thank Him for the great work He is doing in this age and the age to come. Praise the Lord!

PROLOGUE

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

—Genesis 3:21-24

INTRODUCTION

472 A.C. (After Creation)

In the first age of man two great kingdoms reign over the Known Lands of earth. The Sethites, named after the noble Seth and his descendents, govern the western Land of Neer with a just hand. The Cainites, named after the tyrant Cain and his descendents, rule over the eastern Land of Nod with an iron fist.

To the north, on the edge of the Garden of Eden, is Adam’s Land: home of Adam and Eve. To the south, a mysterious race of giants, called the Nephilim, grow strong enough to venture forth causing all kinds of trouble. Wild dinosaurs roam through all the lands. Danger lurks everywhere.

This is a coming of age tale of Jerad the Sethite and Methu the Cainite. They are two twelve-year-old firstborn heirs of the sixth generation from Adam. Here now is a Tale of Eden called the Sword of Fire.

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1

A SLEEPLESS DAWN

Never feed a dinosaur something that smells like you. They get the wrong idea. Ten thousand two legged dark red dinosaurs clawed the ground inside the northern caverns of the volcano ne’Venge and they were hungry. Their riders prepared for war by donning scary looking orange and black armor. Dyed green from birth, the nine foot tall giants stunk like volcanic ash.

Crexor, general of the Nephilim, grabbed the reins of his mighty carnotaur. It reared up and roared. At his command the vast horde rode with him into the night. He promised his supernaturally sinister giants they would conquer the Known Lands, but Crexor also had a secret plan. He planned to live forever and needed the flaming sword from the Garden of Eden to do it.

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Jerad could not sleep. He tossed and turned in the predawn hours of his twelfth birthday. Today Grandpapa Adam would take him on pilgrimage to see the Sword of Fire guarding the Garden of Eden. Jerad had waited years for this day and now dawn still seemed so far off. He stared at the red brick bedroom wall and then at the wood beams in the ceiling. He rolled left. He rolled right. Finally he sat up and kicked off his covers.

Jerad was a stocky, strong kid with short blond hair. After slipping on his favorite brown pants and blue shirt, he walked to his third story window. From there he could see the fortress courtyard. In the light of the full moon he could see mist rising from the ground watering the whole valley. All sorts of wild dinosaurs (saurs for short) roamed everywhere on the frontier of Seth’s Land of Neer. But it was quiet at the moment. Too quiet.

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Miserable. Methu felt miserable. He could barely move without searing pain. Methu stared at the dying embers of last night’s fire. His left arm still felt hot from the branding ceremony. Each firstborn male heir of Cain got Cain’s mark burned into their left forearm on the eve of their twelfth birthday. It looked like a big X.

Methu wasn’t looking forward to dawn. That meant the trial. A trial always came the day after the branding. What a birthday present. He looked at his arm again and gingerly touched the singed flesh. Ouch.

Methu’s greasy haired father, Mehuja, called it a mark of honor. Not that he saw his father much. Beyond his father’s fierceness with a branding iron, Methu didn’t know him at all. At the moment, his father’s hunting caravan camped high up in the mountains in the land of Nod. Food was hard to find. Nothing liked it up here in Cain’s Land of Nod but the rocks.

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Jerad grabbed his slingshot and ammo. No one walked unarmed in this wilderness even when at home. He decided to head for the four story fortress tower in the center of the courtyard where his dad usually prayed. Dad prayed three times a day: at dawn, noon, and dusk. Jerad understood his dad spoke to God, but he wondered if God ever spoke back. Grandpapa Adam and Grandmama Eve walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden, but that was centuries ago and not everyone believed their tales of Eden. As for Jerad, he wasn’t sure what to make of it all.

While crossing the center of the fortress courtyard Jerad heard the dreaded sound of wings flapping. Rhamphorhynchus! Four hungry saurs with razor sharp teeth flew straight for him. He fired his slingshot and hit one right in the head. He clipped the second saur in the wing. The third one swooped down trying to bite him. Jerad rolled on the ground and took it out with another hit. He went for another stone to kill the fourth one and came up empty! He was out of ammo.

The last hungry saur dove at him. This was going to hurt. Then he heard a swooshing sound and watched an arrow