Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy by Joseph Beekman (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

also a burial site for thecountless robots that had been destroyed from the witchand her storm-spell.

The Land of Iron and Anvil was now beginningto flourish in harmony with the rest of the realm; the“metallic magic” that was mined from the land’sdormant volcanoes had all but buried most of the oldbeliefs of sorcery. Many of the lands within the realm,having heard of this newfound magic, were excited bywhat it could mean for their own lands, and had sentout requests for the fabled robot-droids from the ironcraftsmen. They, too, wanted the robots to use in manyof the duties and functions throughout their own lands.

The now legendary robot-droid, Anvil—namedso by the former orphaned children, Sonny andKelsey—had been retired after serving the happilymarried couple for many years and was taken back tolive with its original, and now very old creator, Will; hegratefully accepted Anvil back into his humble abode.

In the years following the “death” of the witch,tranquility and peace had swept across the realm. Butwithin those years, the lands throughout the realm hadalso become somewhat blinded by this newfound beliefin the magic from the Land of Iron and Anvil—their oldbeliefs of sorcery had soon fallen to a jaded darkness.

And the story of the orphans, the witch, and theLand of Shadows…they soon became more of a taletold in passing.

However, forgetting the past and turning a blindeye to the beliefs that once were can often times proveto be a grave mistake…

~CHAPTER I

~ DISCOVERY

The wind whipped through the narrow anddarkened passage pathway, bringing a great chill to thethree young, weary travelers who cowered against itsfrigid gust. Wrapping heavy cloaks tightly around theirshivering bodies, they continued to trudge throughthick hanging branches that were leafless and withered.The path they stumbled along was that of an ancient,uplifted root that wound through a vastly dark and deadforest. The forest was made up of thousands of rootsand branches that jutted about, intertwining with eachother in a chaotic jumble of sorts.

The lead traveler, a boy, about nine years of age,with a lanky build and fierce, dark eyes, carried an oldiron lantern—its light flickered madly with the wind.

Following closely behind him was a girl withbronze colored hair that cascaded down past hershoulders; her big blue eyes were watering from thecold, and she held firmly to a piece of the boy’s cloak,determined to stay close.

The third traveler, a heavy-set boy with curlybrown hair, hobbled along behind her, grimacing andmumbling curses under his cold breath.

“Tabitha, can you see anything yet?” the boywheezed, as he tried to peer over her shoulders; hisshort body strained upwards to see beyond her and theother boy, and into the darkness.

The girl shook her head and darted a glance backat the boy. “Haley—Shush!” she whispered loudly tohim. “You know we have to stay quiet. Remember,them root rats might still brave this cold, too!”

She returned her focus forward, darting her eyesabout, seeking any movement that may lurk in thepitch-black deadwoods.

“Will you two both zip it?” Jonathon, the leadtraveler, hissed back to them.

Haley frowned and huffed, his mind recallingwhat the elders back home had said of these parts of therealm:

‘The deadwoods are mysterious, dark andunforgiving! Ol’ Will may have braved them quiteheartily in his day, but he did mention of things likeroot rats roaming about in them ugly roots—sluggish,little green-eyed vermin, larger than some of the robotswe’ve built here! You all be warned—stay outta thoseparts of the realm! Don’t go wandering off; you’rebetter safe here at home…’

The memory vanished, leaving Haley wishing hehad heeded those words and just stayed put, safely athome. Now here they were, traveling through a forbidden den of deadwoods in a part of the realmdeserved for ghosts and other foul creatures.

What were they thinking? Haley thought tohimself. Their crazy imaginations, along with one farout rumor, had driven them to embark on a quest forsome magical sort of pumpkin patch that supposedlydwelled here in this creepy and awful place.

Said to have been a spotted here by some travelerwandering across the realm, a pumpkin patch existingonce again in the realm had sparked great interest andunrest back home in the Land of Iron and Anvil. It hadbeen quickly assumed that this so-called pumpkin patchmay have been from some lost remains of the darksleeping spell used by the old witch-lady herself; theone who had once haunted the Land of Shadows. And,it was also assumed that the patch itself must havegrown from the seeds dropped by Tabitha’s mother,Kelsey, years ago.

Kelsey had been fleeing from an orphanage thatwas spellbound by the witch’s dark magic, when shehappened into the deadwoods. Blinded in the darknessof the leafless woods, a flurry of fireflies magicallyannounced themselves to Kelsey with their sparkly-lit,tiny selves. Without a second thought, she dumped aglass jar of the pumpkin seeds she had fled with andquickly captured a few fireflies with it—she then usedthe jar as a makeshift lamp of sorts.

Whether or not the pumpkin patch was just somefable or rumor, the three travelers had to find out!Staying home—for who knew how long, maybe the restof their lives—was just not in their calling. Theyhungered for adventure! And the rumor, passed downfrom some of the elders in the Land of Iron and Anvil,eventually had become somewhat of a legend, ignitingenough fire in the three young souls to set out in searchof the pumpkin patch…and of course the grave of thewitch herself.

Haley shook his head in bewilderment. In theireagerness for adventure, he hoped dearly they had notoverstepped their foolishness and, thus, stepped intosome dark and evil place from which there was noreturn. Their folks back home would be most displeased should something happen to them. They hadtold their folks they were merely going camping for afew days out in the wilds of the land. Yet, as it turnedout, those few days had now become a week, andalready they would be in a great heap of trouble!

The three had embarked through many twistedand forlorn areas since their departure from the Land ofIron and Anvil. They had crossed paths with a few ofthe slithering oil slicks in the great river, where theyhad used an old makeshift raft to guide themselvesthrough