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

sky, they saw theoutline of a cat’s head peering down upon them. For abrief moment they both remained spellbound, believingit to be another ghost. Then Tinspar struck up one ofthe iron lanterns, and they saw that it was only Stella!She was staring back at them.

“Pray tell, Stella!” Tinspar exclaimed. “Howlong have you been up there?”

Stella let out a meow and leapt down onto Will’slap. Then Tabitha appeared, looking down at themfrom the edge. Her face was smeared with ash, and shehad a dry smile creasing her face.

“Come on!” Tabitha yelled down to them. “Thewitch is gone! And I can see Aleeria floating around bythe burial spot!”

Will shook his head, grinning from ear to ear.“Oh my! Here I thought we’d been put to sleep and leftfor dead!”

“No!” Tabitha hollered. “You were out of it for abit, but the spell is gone!”

“Well, I’ll be…” Tinspar whispered. “We reallywere all put under the spell! Though, it was justbriefly.” He tugged on Will’s arm. “Come on, you oldblacksmith—let’s get gone!”



By the time the clouds had finally lifted from thebottom of the canyon narrows, back up to the sky, theentire river bottom was thick with fallen ash. Will,Tinspar, and Tabitha had marched through the ash overto the burial spot. There, Aleeria had informed them ofwhat all had taken place out of their sight.

They had listened to Aleeria explain of how thewitch was now sealed forever in the body of the robotand then buried, back in the hole under many stones.The ghosts had placed the heaviest stones over the spot,and then had dusted the stones with an ancient dustspell for good measure. They had then returned to theircaves within the canyon walls.

Anvil was now the keeper of the witch’s deadsoul.

“The witch, who had been alive only because herspirit had floated freely from outside of her formerbody—just like I am, now—is now as one dead,”Aleeria had said to them. “She’s been sealed backwithin a body. In this case, the iron body of the robot,Anvil.”

Will had just shaken his head, still unsure aboutwhat the sorceress truly believed; but he had beenwilling to accept it—if it meant the realm and itschildren were now to live freely themselves.

After having paid their respects to Anvil, whowould now remain underground with the witch’s soulintact in his iron body, Tinspar and Tabitha had startedback to the dark forest, moving along the ash-covered,riverbed. Will, however, had remained; he lingeredwith Aleeria by his side just a bit longer. His face hadbeen streaked with tears with the loss of Anvil, hismagical, robot creation.

After a spell, Aleeria had said her goodbyes toWill and then sped off in a ghostly vapor trail into thecaves of the canyon narrows. She had decided to liveamong the stone trader ghosts and learn their ancientways of sorcery.

Will had then placed a small token of respect forAnvil upon one of the burial stones. It was that of alittle iron hammer.

“Goodbye old friend,” he had whispered. “You’llbe greatly missed…but you’ll forever be remembered.”

Then tightening up his cloak, Will had moved outtowards the dark forest. A frigid wind had picked up,coursing its way through the narrows, and bringing aflurry of snow and ash with it…and a new beginning.

~ CHAPTER XVI

~ REFORGED

When the group had reunited back at the wagoncart in the dark forest of giant leaves, they had foundJonathon and Haley awakened and stumbling about.The boys were at a loss as to where they were, or evenhow they had got there. However, upon seeing Tabitha,and meeting the others, they were overwhelmed withgreat joy. Tinspar had given them plenty of the wisp-flybat, berry juice that he had brewed up over a smallcampfire in the forest. This had been gratefully accepted by the starving and weakened boys.

While they had relaxed around the campfire,Jonathon and Haley had been told of how they had beenpossessed of the stone trader ghosts own spirits throughthe evil power of the resurrected witch; and that thepumpkin that they had removed from the deadwoodshad been delivered into the volcanic mountains by theirown spellbound selves.

They were also told of how the seeds from thepumpkin had been dumped into the volcanoes in theLand of Iron and Anvil; and that with the blackened gasclouds from the volcanic eruptions, the witch’s evilsleep spell was then to be delivered across all the lands,as a means for her to rule the realm.

But with the courage and bravery of Tabitha, andthe aid of Will, Tinspar, and the sorceress, Aleeria, andof course, the magic of the little orphaned robot, Anvil,the threat of the witch had been stopped cold.

Now it was time to journey back to their homeand reunite with those that had survived the eruptions,and had awakened from the deep slumber of the witch’sterrible spell.

The party had lost two of its members: Aleeriaand Anvil. But they had regained two at the same time:Jonathon and Haley. Together, with Stella the cat, theyhad journeyed back home across the wilds of the lands.The fallout from the volcano clouds was everywhere,covering the landscape of trees, rocks, and rivers withits dark and gloomy ash.

Along the way, they had acquired a makeshiftraft, trading in Will’s wagon cart to a veteran of the oldnorthern land wars. Tinspar had been relieved to havethe cart lifted off of their hands, for he had been the onepulling it through most of the rough terrain.

One night, as they moved quietly along the greatriver of the realm, they had come across an area of deadtrees filled with fireflies. The trees lined either side ofthe river, and the fireflies were clinging to them; itseemed to the party as if they were passing through amagically-lit wonderland.

Tabitha had been overwhelmed with glee, andwanting to capture a firefly herself, as her mother hadonce done so, she had Will move the raft alongside theriver banks. Tabitha was able to sit high upon Tinspar’sshoulders, and with his help, she had been able tocapture a firefly in one of the iron lanterns. Will hadbeen teary-eyed, recalling the time in the deadwoodswhen he had found Tabitha’s mother, Kelsey,