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

The party now found themselves standing in amild downpour of rain, overlooking the vast, darkforest of the giant leaves. The air was very cold, andthe wind-blown ash from the southern volcano cloudshad reached far into the reaches of the wilds; it coveredmuch of the wilderness and its giant leaves, alarmingthem all of how close the clouds were—and howquickly they must hasten their journey.

“Well, here we are!” Will said, his aged eyespeering out over the dark wilderness that stretched outfar below them. “We made it!” He turned towards thesorceress and gracefully bowed. “Thanks to you,mistress, Aleeria!”

Aleeria smiled and returned the bow. “It is nowyour turn to suggest upon which direction we are totake,” she said, waving her ghostly arms over the edgeof the canyon and towards the vast wilderness. “I amnot quite certain of this area before us; but I am quitecertain, as we all must be, of the dangers that thoseclouds, so close behind us now, present to us…”

She swirled about to face the blackened mass thatloomed in the backdrop of the walled canyon tops.“And I am fairly certain of the true haste we now haveto make as well!”

Will looked from her to the dark, clouded massbehind him, and nodded. “Yes, yes! You are verycorrect and right! If those volcano clouds were to nowfall upon us where we stand—” He shook his head,scratching his forehead. “Well, the sleeping spell in thegases of them would surely doom us all!”

“Then what is it to be?” Aleeria said with graveconcern. “For you, it should not be so worrisome—foryou are all dead as it is, remember?” They all turned inunison and looked at her dumbfounded.

“So far, throughout this journey,” the sorceresscontinued, “I have been thinking about how you remainworried over being seduced by a spell of this witch, orharmed to the point of death by some crazy creature;when all along, you are all dead to begin with! Noharm should really come to those that are dead…”

She swooshed her ghostly form through thepouring rain, over the edge of the canyon, then back toface Will.

“I am the one who should worry so!” she gentlyexclaimed.“For I am alive now; freed from a body Ionce had. I can be seduced by such spells. Whereas,you are all in those bodies, or tombs, so to speak; andtherefore appear as ones who are dead!”

Will moved up to her, glaring, and spoke firmly:“Now—Aleeria,” he grumbled. “We are in no positionto argue who is dead in this realm, and who is not—period. If what you believe is to be so, then good! ButI, for one, will stick to my own beliefs until provedotherwise—beyond a dead man’s doubt of what youspeak to be the truth, or truly am I free!”

Aleeria whirled back, stung by his words; shewas speechless.

“I don’t mean to sound mean or harsh, mistressAleeria,” Will continued; “but we do have to get a moveon! And, yes—I will remain ever worried, for I feelalive just as you feel you are. So with that we are on aneven ground. And you did promise to help us removethis evil threat; a threat that had caused misfortune toyou—if you still see it that way, that is?”

The sorceress glanced over to Tabitha who hadbeen listening with great care. Tabitha stared at themboth, her eyes wide with wonder.

Aleeria returned her attention back to Will.“Okay, of course I shall help,” she said solemnly. “If itmeans that this child,” pointing over to Tabitha, “andother children like her, will be able to exist as I oncedid: to learn and grow—and that after such a time ofgrowth and knowledge, to be free to wander and probe;and be one within the realm.”

Everyone, including Tinspar, who had not moveda muscle since the conversation began, remained inutter silence; they waited for Will to respond.

Will huffed, his eyes fixed upon Tabitha. Hecould see through the rain, her eyes had glow to them,as if she knew what he was to say from his heart.

“Yes,” he whispered, looking back to Aleeria.“Thank you, mistress. And please forgive me if I can’tfully accept what you believe to be is truth, and what Ibelieve does not flow with you…but we at least agreethat this witch must be rooted out from this realm!”

She smiled, her red hair sizzling in the rainy air,and the blue glow of her ghostly form glowing brightly.

“It is I who should be forgiven. I was onlythinking of me, and that is the wrong way to live.” Shesmiled and moved over to Tabitha’s side. “We have toalways be here, whether alive or dead, in order to helpone another.”

“Agreed!” Will said, smiling. He tightened upthe hood around his head, and looked back over thecanyon edge into the fading light of the sky.

“Okay, since we are now overlooking the darkwilds and the forest of giant leaves, I believe we shouldbe to the canyon narrows through there in, oh…twodays time!”

“If our luck hasn’t run its own course,” Tinsparsaid, moving Anvil off of the raft and onto the ground.The robot’s armor was lined with dark streaks, showingthe energy surge that had leapt out of his metallic-ironbody. “This little robot-droid has had quite the journey,so far!”

Will threw his hands to his head in a befuddledreaction. “Oh my! I need to hurry and get my littlecreation up and about! And plenty, soon!”

He hurried over to Anvil and began tinkeringabout with the robot’s armor and wires.

Tabitha and Aleeria looked away from old Willand the robot, and glanced at each other; they justshook their heads. They both knew that the robot hadto be in working order, and fast, if their plan was tohave any success at all.

Meanwhile, Stella had stumbled from her warm,blanketed coverings on the wagon cart, and was nowmunching on some of the dried fish; or what was left ofthe fish. She had overcome her fright, and despite thedreary rain and cold, the elder cat looked happy thatthey were finally off the river.

~ CHAPTER XIV

~ LEAVES of ASH and REUNION

After wandering along the rim of