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

the first to see that the root branches around thepumpkin patch were catching fire!

“Jonathon!—Haley! Snap out of it!” she shouted.“The woods are on fire!”

Immediately, the others sprang to their feet andbegan scrambling about. Jonathon saw that their ironlantern had been smashed in the quake, and realized itwas what had started the root branches ablaze.

“Hurry and grab your packs!” Jonathon hollered,grabbing the pumpkin before the fire could engulf it.“Head for the main root!”

They scurried as fast as possible, doing their bestin their state of panic to avoid any unseen pitfalls ordreaded root-branch snags. The heat was picking upfast, and the flames were beginning to lick at their heelsas they fled the chaotic assembly of roots and branches.They made their way towards the main root, and theway back out.

~ CHAPTER II

~ AWAKENED

The three young travelers emerged from thedeadwoods, huffing and panting from their panicstricken run through the tangled maze of the rooteddarkness. They found themselves at the edge of theentrance to the deadwoods, which was also the wayback into the narrows of the spirited stone tradercanyons…and, of course, the river’s stone-piled tombof the witch.

To their disbelief and astonishment, they saw thata massive crevice had opened up in the center of the dryriverbed; it extended a long way into the narrows of thecanyons.

“Hells bells,” Tabitha whispered, her eyes widewith alarm. “This must have happened during thatearthquake.”

“It had to have,” Jonathon also whispered. “Thisis so strange…it wasn’t here before.”

“Hey guys, I don’t know what the heck this is allabout,” Haley blurted out, “but I gotta rest.” He ambledover to the riverbed’s edge, now carrying the pumpkinwith him. “My bones are killing me!”

The canyons were eerily silent and shadowy, anda fine layer of fog sifted throughout the dry riverbed.Tabitha and Jonathon turned around and stared backinto the deadwoods; they saw an orange glow flickeringfrom the fire that continued to burn deep within thewoods.

Haley, still breathing heavily from running, hadslumped himself down at the base of the main rootpassage. He was gazing hypnotically at the pumpkin hehad placed on a large river stone.

“Hey guys, I don’t think we should be campingout here tonight,” Haley said anxiously. “I mean withthe fire at our backs, and them stone trader ghosts inthese canyon walls—it just don’t feel right.”

Tabitha and Jonathon turned around and walkeddown to the root base; they both stared at the pumpkin.

“Well, Haley, what do you want to do then?”Tabitha asked. “It’s either here,” she said, waving herarms about the area, “or we hurry and make our waythrough these canyons as quickly as possible to wherewe left the raft banked.”

Jonathon nodded his head in agreement as hescoped the high walls of the canyons. “Tabitha’s right,let’s get going—we don’t know how far that fire willend up reaching, or if it will disturb any spirits in theseparts!”

Haley shot them a startled look, and within thesame moment he suddenly noticed a flurry of movement behind them at the edges of the deadwoods.

“Damn! Let’s go!” he yelled out, jumping to hisfeet.

The others quickly turned around and saw whatappeared to be hundreds of root rats making their wayout of the mangled roots and branches.

“Go!” Tabitha shouted, leaping from the mainroot onto the riverbed.

Jonathon quickly snatched the pumpkin off of theriver stone and followed her.

The root rats moved fast; their snake-like bodiesand whip-like tails made their appearance morefrightening than ever to the fleeing trio.

As the three skipped frantically from stone tostone, making sure to avoid the dangerous and deepcrevice that now punctured deep into the surface of theriverbed, Tabitha stopped momentarily; she turnedaround to see about the rats.

“Look!” she hollered. The others froze in theirhurried steps and quickly turned around. “Them ratsare making their way up the walls of the canyon!”

They stared in amazement as hundreds of rootrats scurried upwards on the high canyon walls withgreat speed and seemingly fluid movement.

“Good riddance!” Haley shouted, panting hard.“I can’t…keep on…running like this!”

“Well, just the same, Haley—we have to keepmoving,” Jonathon stated firmly. “It’s getting muchspookier by the minute around here, and I really can’ttell if it’s day or night anymore; the light we have downhere could be from the setting sun, or it could be fromthe glow of a full moon.” He shook his head. “Let’skeep on moving, guys!”

They caught their breath and continued on, whilethe last of the root rats slipped into the dark fog of thedust-filled cave pockets high up within the canyonwalls.



After a few hours of trudging though the riverbed, the three weary youngsters came to a standstill.Before them lay the witch’s burial site. It looked asthough it had been ransacked by some crazy creature ora great giant! The high pile of river stones that hadmarked where the witch had been buried (when thestone trader ghosts had taken her down from the skyyears ago) were now scattered far and wide; a dark holein the ground now lay exposed to the foggy air.

Tabitha, Jonathon, and Haley crept closelytowards the hole, their eyes were wide with wonder.The air around them had dropped very low in temperature, and all three were clenching their cloakstightly about their bodies; only their eyes were exposedto the air.

“What happened here?” Haley said, his voicemuffled a bit by the cloth wrapped around his face.“Did the ground-quake do this, too?”

Shaking his head, Jonathon peered down into thedarkness of the hole, cautiously keeping his feet plantedso as not to slip. “I don’t know…probably,” he said, hisvoice muffled as well.

Suddenly a shrieking howl pierced the stillnessof the air, knocking Jonathon and Haley to the groundand sending them both into a great state of fear.Tabitha, however, had been knocked to the edge of thecrevice nearby, and in a blink of an eye, she tumbledover into its darkness.

Haley and Jonathon both lay still, their heartspounding with fright.

From out of the burial hole a mist-shroudedfigure rose. Its form was disfigured, but to Jonathonand Haley there was no mistaking that it was that of thewitch-lady herself! She moved towards them, herblackened eyes piercing into their