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

“Sorry,” she said timidly. “I was asleep. I’mgetting used to the sounds and feel of this cart puttingme into a slumber. Wow—the dream I just had…”She rubbed her eyes and strained to see ahead.

“Well you just hang tight,” Will said. “We aregoing to break for the night up here at this ol’ bridge. Iguess since you slept so well, you can take the watchtonight while we catch some shut-eye.”

“Okay, I can do that! I’ve done that before whenJonathon and Haley needed to rest, too!”

Tabitha turned around and woke Stella up fromher sleep. The cat stirred and stretched, letting out a bigyawn-meow.

“That’s a good girl, Stella; you and I are going tokeep watch tonight.”

~ CHAPTER X

~ The LONELY APPARITION

After they had stopped and settled down by theedge of the stone bridge, Will started up a small fire andcooked up a small pot of fish stew for them all to eat;he used the dried fish and some beat roots, along withsome of the ice crystals for the water. They sat aroundthe fire and ate in silence, including Stella who happilymunched on a whole big piece of dried fish.

“Wow, for an older cat, she sure can eat a wholelot!” Tabitha said, watching Stella eat.

Will chuckled. “Yes indeed! She might not begetting any younger, but she has a couple lives in heryet!”

Tabitha giggled; and then she turned her gazeupon the bridge and wondered how far it extendedacross the narrow canyon. The darkness swallowedmost of the bridge, and an eerie fog was drifting upfrom below; it made the crumbling stone pillars thatstood at its entrance look like big, scary creatures justwaiting to pounce.

Will finished his stew and then grabbed an oldblanket from the wagon; he laid it out on the groundand lay back. Tinspar had already done the same andhad quickly fallen asleep. Stella moved over to Willand lay by his side, purring softly.

Tabitha looked up from her bowl of stew andsmiled at them. “Stella sure does love you, Will,” shesaid. “You’ve had that cat for a long time, huh?”

Will grinned and rubbed Stella’s back. “Yes Ihave. Ol’ Stella’s been with me for some time now,” hesaid. “Since the days of living in the Land of Shadowswhen she was hanging around with me and Anvil.”

“Wow—you and Stella must both have ninelives,” Tabitha joked. “That’s a long time!”

“Young lady, I think she and I are both on the lastlegs of our ninth life!” Will grunted, and looked over atTabitha with one eye open. “It has been a long timeindeed…”

The robot bleeped; its red-eyes zoomed out tofocus on Will and the cat. Tabitha darted her eyes overto Anvil.

“I think Anvil is just the berries!” she said.

Chuckling, Will looked at Anvil. “He is one neatrobot, indeed! And a hero at that, too!”

Tabitha smiled. “Yep, I have heard the storiesmany times back home from my folks,” she said, hereyes misting over with the thought of her mom anddad—Kelsey and Sonny.

Will turned back to Tabitha, looking at her nowwith both eyes open. He could see from the firelightthe tears welling up in her eyes.

“Listen, honey,” he said warmly. “Your folks aregonna be fine—I promise. You just need to hold true toyour heart and know we are doing only what is rightand to the best of our ability.”

She turned her gaze to him and nodded her head.“I know…I just hope we can stop this evil witch.”

“We shall, dear; we shall.” Will shut his eyes andpulled another blanket over himself. He shuffled thecat away towards Tabitha.

“Just keep your eyes open for a few hours to keepguard,” he mumbled. “Anvil and Stella will keep youcompany while Tinspar and I sleep a wee bit.”

“I was just thinking,” Tabitha began to ask; “whathappened to the droids, then? You know—the robotsback home? I mean, do you think they all were meltedby the volcanoes and the lava?”

Will huffed and sighed. “Most likely they were,honey. And that would leave our little friend here,”nodding towards Anvil, “now an orphaned robot.”

Tabitha sighed, hoping in her heart and mind thateven the robots would one day find some peace in therealm, too.

“Okay, well, you sleep tight, and I’ll be sure notto let any blanket bugs bite!” she said with a smirk.

“I’ll hold you to that, dear,” he chuckled.

Pulling her blanket up and over herself, Tabithakept just enough space open in it to peer out. The catcrawled under part of the blanket and laid down by herside.

“Well,” Tabitha sighed, “looks like it’s just meand you and Anvil, ol’ girl. Let’s hope it doesn’t get tospooky out here tonight…”



Later that night, the wind picked up bringingwith it more fog and chill. Tabitha lifted herself off theground and rubbed at her legs; they had become stifffrom sitting for too long in one spot. She paused, andbatted her eyes about the area; her heart beat a bit fasteras a twinge of fear set in—something didn’t feel right toher.

She saw that the fire had died down to a smoldering glow, and both Tinspar and Will were still fastasleep; Will was slightly snoring and mumbling in hissleep. The only light now was the low glow of thedying fire and the soft glow of Anvil’s eye-lights.

Looking over to the bridge entrance, Tabithanoticed something dark moving along the stone rail.Her heart froze. Rubbing at her eyes, she focused againtowards the movement.

What is that? Tabitha fearfully thought to herself,as she watched the object weave in and out of the fog; itseemed as if it was balancing itself upon the rail.

Maybe it’s Stella? She looked down to her feetfor Stella, but saw that the cat was missing.

She quickly scanned the area around the restingarea for the cat, but didn’t see her. Her eyes returned tothe stone railing and the strange object.

Stella; it has to be that crazy cat! I hope…

Moving forward towards the entrance, Tabithatiptoed quietly; her heart was beating fast. She peeredthrough the space in the hood of her blanket,