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

beginning to furiously howlits way down into the narrows. After some distance,Will paused again; his brow was creased in thought ashe recalled the sorceress’s beliefs of being freed fromone’s body: That if the body died, then the spirit—orthe magic, as in the case of the robot—would be freeand alive.

He wondered thenwas Anvil now alive andfree, too? After pondering it for a moment, he justshook his head, dismissing the thought.

Finally he had disappeared into the deadwoods,leaving behind the sound of another muffled whistle—though he could not have heard it anyways over thegreat howling of the icy winds.

~ The Gravelands of Fate~ PROLOGUEIn a faraway realm…

In the shadows of a forgotten land…

Four years have passed since the evil witch-ladywas laid to rest for the second time in the hauntedcanyon narrows of the wilds—her soul sealed inside thelittle orphaned robot, Anvil, under a grave of stones.

Having been defeated and buried the first timeafter she had held the Land of Shadows and its orphansspellbound, the witch had returned from her grave manyyears later, only to begin a new reign of terror.

It was in this second reign of her terror, that thewitch had summoned two stone trader ghosts to possessthe bodies of the two helpless adventurers, Jonathonand Haley. She had used the ghosts as her puppets tohelp her unleash yet another vicious sleep spell uponthe realm, instructing the ghosts to have the possessedyoungsters place a pumpkin—a sleep-tainted pumpkin—into the volcanic iron mountains in the Land of Ironand Anvil. When the mountains had erupted, the darksleep spell had spewed forth over the land and into therealm.

But she was soon confronted. And with thecollected efforts of the old blacksmith, Will, his robotcreation, Anvil, the young girl, Tabitha, daughter ofKelsey and Sonny, the bug-like human, Tinspar, and thespirit sorceress, Aleeria, the witch’s soul had beendefeated, once again—her soul put to rest, once more.She had been weakened by the combined strength ofthe party; vacuumed into Anvil’s iron body by atornado-like spell from the sorcery of Aleeria, and themagic of the stone trader ghosts.

There in the confinement of the iron robot, thewitch’s soul had been considered powerless and dead.For when one’s soul was contained in a body, a body ofany form—as Aleeria had preached—it was consideredlifeless, or, as one dead.

But as fate would have it, the story of the witchlady having been buried once again—silenced inside ofa robot, in her original stone-piled grave—soon passedfrom land to land throughout the realm.

The story eventually made its way far into thedarkest and most ancient parts of the northern realm—where some strange and brooding “others” had found itto be one of great and “special” interest…

~ CHAPTER I~ OTHER SHADES of DARKNESS

An icy wind whipped through the long andnarrow canyon, howling its way across a dry riverbedlayered with stones. A faint hint of sunlight filtereddown through a billowing dark blanket of clouds; itslight gently frosted the frozen depths of the canyonwhere nothing stirred, save for the sound of the wind.High above, scattered along the towering walls, grimpockets of caves peered outwards like mysterious,watchful eyes.

Moving stealthily through the depths of thecanyon, hovering a few feet above the stone-riddledsurface of the riverbed, a lone robot-droid appeared.It’s five red eye-lights pierced through the wind-sweptice, searching with some suspicious sense of purpose.

As the robot glided over the ancient riverbed’sscarred surface, close to a deep crevice that sliced downthe center of the canyon, it began to emit an odd, andvery low, humming noise followed by a series ofgrating bleeps. Underneath its iron body, a dull, greenglow pulsated from a metallic black box.

After making a few passes up and down thecanyon narrows, going back and forth over the riverbed, the robot finally stopped. It’s eye-lights quicklyfocused on a specific area of dark stones that poked outfrom the ice-packed surface. The robot quickly spedover to these stones, hovering mere inches above them.

Suddenly the black box began to increase inlight, and the robot’s spooky humming noise grewmuch more intense.

Drifting out of the darkness, two shadowy figuressilently approached. Their horrid faces were hauntedwith blood-red shadows, and they had blackened eyesthat seemed to ooze like oil down their faces. Longstrands of wicked black hair cascaded down their tallbodies like vicious snakes. They moved towards therobot with heavy steps, their arms stretched out beforethem.

Stopping a few feet from the robot, they let loosea high-pitched cry that was carried off by the winds intothe highest levels of the canyons. Then one of themmotioned a new figure forward from the dark shadowsof the canyon walls. It was an old man. He washunched over, and wore a heavy cloak that looked as ifit had been skinned off some deadly beast from thewilds.His head and face were covered mostly withshredded pieces of ragged cloth to help against thechilled air.

Cowering against the wind, the old man stumbledover the ice and the tops of the stones. Craning hishead upwards, he peered through a flurry of snow, pastthe two dark figures; his gaze fell upon the odd-shapedrobot. Mumbling a few curses to himself, he hobbledup to the robot and knelt beside it.

While the robot remained hovering just above thelight from the black box, the old man opened a sidepanel on its metal body. Pushing two buttons andflicking on a tiny switch, he quickly moved back behindthe witch-like figures.

Suddenly the robot began to vibrate, and anawful noise started to grind forth from its iron-platedbody.The black box then turned immensely bright asthe dark stones started to shift, and then rise underneathits body.

The hideous figures stared in silence, while theold man could only watch in fear. The icy surfaceunderneath the robot started to crack and split apart,causing the stones to roll away from where the light ofthe black box was centered.

Soon, a black hole in the ground appeared. Andburied within the hole was a round, iron-plated, andrusted metallic object. The light from the black boxshifted closer, revealing the object to be the iron bodyof a little robot. Its two robotic eyes were hollow andlifeless.

The old man gasped in awe when the buriedrobot began to rise out of the hole, lifted upwards bythe magnetic pull of