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

the waters. They had almost been pulled underthe blackened waters by the dreadful oily creatures!They had braved cold whipping winds that practicallyshredded the skin from their bones, and finally, theyhad come to the mammoth canyon walls of the ancientstone trader ghosts. There they had quietly steppedalong the stones of the now dry riverbed—the water ofthe river having had mysteriously vanished at theopening to the canyon walls, and continuing all the wayto the dreadful deadwoods.

When they had come upon the burial site of thewitch, it was located halfway into the canyons of theriverbed. It was a site that could not have been missedby the travelers; for it was a great pile of stones toppledhigh upon each other. They figured the river hadsuspiciously vanished due to the witch’s spirit hauntingthe area.

Haley recalled the eerie howls that had brokenthem all into a fast run from the burial spot. The howlshad seemed to come for miles around and echoedthroughout the canyons for what felt like forever; thehowling was enough to make the trio flee from thewitch’s grave, and run the rest of the way into the darkof the deadwoods.

“Well, let’s just hurry up and get through thisawful place, guys!” Haley huffed, shaking therecollections from his mind.

Jonathon and Tabitha both stopped and shot himan evil glare.

“What?” Haley whispered timidly, shrugging hisshoulders.

After some time and travel, the three came uponwhat appeared to be rather large, dark objects upliftedbehind a scrambled layer of moldy and blackened rootbranches. The light from the iron lantern continuedflickering, glints of its light falling upon the strangemounds off to the side of the giant root-path. The threestood frozen, eyes wide, peering in shock and surpriseat what surely appeared to be the rumored pumpkinpatch!

Jonathon, the bearer of the iron lantern, movedquickly towards the spooky-looking pumpkins, beingcareful not to slip. Tabitha scurried after him, leavingHaley still standing there in a state of disbelief, hismouth agape and his eyes ready to burst with thediscovery.

“Come on, Haley!” Tabitha hissed loudly overher shoulder to him. Haley shook off his daze, andquickly followed them into the tangled roots and thepumpkins.



Tabitha struggled nearby trying to free Haleyfrom his root entanglement, while Jonathon passed theflickering lantern over a few of the pumpkins, studyingthem with great curiosity as he moved carefully amonga layer of vines and strangled root branches.

Haley had been exploring the pumpkin patch alittle too far from the lantern’s light when he hadsuddenly fallen, and had become caught in betweensome tightly-wound roots.

“Hurry it up, you two!” Jonathon softly hollered.“We have to uproot one of these smaller pumpkins andget out of here!”

“I’m trying to get his foot free…” Tabithagroaned as she pulled on a gnarled piece of root aroundHaley’s foot. “It’s wedged in between this ugly rootand another just like it!” Haley sat in fright, staring atwhere his foot was caught, while she heaved and liftedupwards on the rooted mess.

“Please hurry, Tabitha,” Haley whined. “I don’twant any of them root rat things eating me alive outhere!” His eyes darted about, straining to see into thestifled darkness.

“Shush up, Haley; you’re not going to be eatin’alive,” Tabitha snorted. “Jonathon—get over here andhelp me, will you?”

Jonathon scampered carefully over to them andset the lantern aside. “Here, let me try.”

He grabbed hold of the top root and strained withall his might. Finally—snap!—the roots broke apart,bouncing him back into a pumpkin.

Tabitha quickly turned around to help Jonathon.“Are you okay?” she asked, snickering slightly.

Jonathon lifted himself upright. “Yeah, I’m fine,”he said, swiping debris off from his backside. “Dangroot,” he cursed under his breath.

Haley scrambled up on his feet and quicklychecked himself over; he then hurried over to theothers. “Can we get a pumpkin now and get outtahere?” he asked anxiously.

“Sure, I think I found a pretty neat one overhere,” Jonathon said as he picked up the lantern andmoved back to a small cluster of pumpkins. “Let’s go.And remember—stay close to me!”

With a few small iron, gardening-like tools theyhad stashed with them for the journey, they starteddigging into, and around, the moldy and musty earthnear a medium-sized pumpkin. In a matter of minutes,they had uprooted the pumpkin—yet its roots hadremained attached.

“Well, good! Now we have something that willmake us famous back home!” Jonathon said withdelight, bringing the lantern closer to the pumpkin sothey could see it better in the light. Tabitha and Haleyboth stared at the pumpkin and grinned.

“Let’s just cut these roots from it and get back tothe main root,” Jonathon said. “Haley, grab that axeyou brought from the iron house and have stashed inyour pack. That should do the trick!”

Haley rummaged through his pack and pulled outa small iron axe. Tabitha laid the pumpkin to the side,letting its roots lay upon a large branch as a sort ofmakeshift cutting board.

“Wow! Those roots look about as tough as theother roots here in the deadwoods!” Tabitha exclaimed.“Sure hope the axe was sharpened before we left…”

Jonathon snatched the axe from Haley andswiftly swung it down onto the roots. Almost instantly,the ground rumbled underneath them. Their bodiesshook for a moment, and they froze still with fear.

“What the heck was that?” Haley said fitfully.“Earthquake?”

Jonathon and Tabitha looked at each other inbewilderment.

“Just hurry it up, Jonathon!” Tabitha whisperedfrightfully, her voice quavering. “I don’t like what thatwas, either. A few more swings at it—we’ll get it andgo!”

Jonathon nodded his head and turned back to thepumpkin’s roots. He swung the axe down a few moretimes, until finally the roots were completely severedfrom the pumpkin.

And then the ground seemed to explode with aviolent rumble. It shook so violently that all three wereknocked down with a hard wallop.

“What is happening?” Tabitha screamed out.

Jonathon crawled over to her, grasping her handtightly as the ground continued to quake and shake.

Then, all at once, the quaking stopped. Silencegripped the darkness like a snake constricting its prey.The three young travelers lay there, shocked andmotionless.

A few moments later, the darkness around themsuddenly began to brighten. Crackling and poppingnoises started stirring about the silent air. Tabitha wasthe first to bolt up out of her fearful, paralyzed state;and