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

to the depths, below the ground level of themountain’s mines. He started tugging at the cable, andsuddenly they were spiraling downwards.

Far above them they heard the horrible crash andcrumbling of the passageway that they had just left onlyseconds before.

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Arriving at the bottom of the mine shaft, Tabitha,Jonathon, and Haley tumbled out of the elevator boxand into a chilled and darkened cavern passageway.Using their helmets spotlights to light their way, theymoved fast down the old mining passage, careful not tobump or dislodge any of the ancient, wooden supportsthat held much of the passage in place.

Jonathon, who was keeping the lead, stoppedonce to retrieve a couple of iron lanterns that lay uponthe soiled ground.

“We may need these once we reach the outside,”he said, breathing heavily.

“Good thinking, Jonathon!” Tabitha said,stopping to take one of the lanterns from his hands.She then paused for a moment, shaking her head.

“What’s wrong, Tabitha?” Jonathon asked.

“I can’t stop thinking what must have happenedup there…” She tilted her head towards the ceiling. “Itsounded like some big old monster just came crashingright on top of the mountain!”

Jonathon frowned. “Don’t think about it—wehave to stay focused! I’m sure we’ll find out soonenough.”

Haley finally caught up to them, panting hard.“What—what do you think happened to all the otherworkers in the mines?” he asked fitfully. “I mean, doyou think any of them made it to those safety rooms intime?”

“We have to know they did, Haley!” Tabithaexclaimed, remembering the rooms that had been builtfor the safety of the workers, should an emergency everarise. “My mom and dad were in there, too…”

She thought about her folks, Kelsey and Sonny,and how they were probably just finishing up theirwork shift and returning to the surface. It was roughlythe same time that the passageways had given way andcrumbled, sealing the mines shut. She could only hopethey had all made it safely into those rooms.

“I’m sorry, but I had to ask,” Haley respondedlightly. “My uncle was in there, too, ya know?”

“Come on you two,” Jonathon said eagerly.“Save your energy, and your breath…we’re gonna needit!”

Tabitha nodded, clapping Haley on the back. “Iknow, Haley…I’m worried, too.” Haley gave her alittle smile, which she returned. “Now let’s move!”

They continued running down the passageway asmore rumblings echoed violently around them.

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When the three teens finally emerged into thenight, they found themselves stepping into an old lavaflow that was littered with lava rock. The sky abovethem was filled with giant clouds that swirled in dark,horrid shapes. Lightning forked throughout the cloudslike a bunch of wicked, white-hot roots exposed to thesky. Towering behind the teens were the volcanicmountains and the mines they had just escaped.

Turning around to view the mountains, the threeteens were struck with a sight that shook them to thevery core of their souls: perched high atop the biggestof the three volcanoes was a bloated monster of sorts—its form was that of a pumpkin the size of a mountain!Its body pulsated in dark-red waves of color, and it hadvine tentacles that were electrified in the form oflightning.

But what really shocked them the most was thatthis monstrous pumpkin had a face that was all toofamiliar: it was the face of the evil witch-lady!

They stared in horror as the witch monster lashedlightning all across the lower parts of the land with herelectrified vine tentacles. The teens caught glimpses ofthe surrounding village every time the witch’s lightningtentacles whipped forth, creating bright flashes of light.The slashing vines struck into iron huts, scalding theirsurfaces, and struck wooden houses, leveling them tothe ground.

The tentacle vines also zapped into the hundredsof robot-droids that were hovering everywhere in theair and over the ground in a mad panic—their ironbodies were lifted about into the dark night like paperdolls, which then fell to the land in lifeless little heapsof smoldering metal.

As the massive attack from the witch continued,Tabitha and the others could only watch in helplesshorror—their eyes fixed upon the scene like deadstones.

Suddenly a surge of lightning struck a large pieceof lava rock where they stood, shaking and shattering itto pieces. All three of them were knocked off their feet,landing hard upon the icy, lava rock surface.

Shaking off the impact, Tabitha yelled for theothers to snap out of it and get moving. Haley andJonathon looked about in a stunned daze; then seeingthe determination in Tabitha’s eyes, they quickly got totheir feet, running as fast and as far as they could fromthe electrically-charged, thundering chaos.

Just as they neared a steep slope of a frozen lavaflow, they heard a massive strike crack the groundbehind them. The lightning shock knocked them offtheir feet, once again, and they felt the sizzle ofelectricity wave through the air and through theirbodies.

Tabitha looked back just in time to see anotherlightning tentacle strike again. This time the whip-liketentacle remained in place where it had struck, its electricity was wavering wildly about. She glanced up andsaw the witch’s pumpkin form moving: it was crawlinglike some gigantic and spooky spider over the tops ofthe mountains—and it was using its vine tentacles aslegs like the one placed before them!

The lightning “legs” forked out of the witchpumpkin, stabbing with violent surges of electricity intothe sides of the volcanoes; some even reached into theland far below the mountains. As the witch proddedalong, she seemed to be slowly inhaling the volcanicash that lined the crater openings of the mountains.

Tabitha looked over to Jonathon and Haley: theywere staring up at the same awful nightmare, too. Shedarted her gaze back to the volcano’s top and saw thatthe witch had stopped—she appeared to be staring rightat them! The witch’s eyes were dripping with moltenlava that she must have ingested into her pumpkinform; Tabitha could see the blackened orbs of her evilgaze deep within them.

The witch stared at them for what seemed like aneternity, before she finally let loose a hideous plume ofblack smoke into the night air. Tabitha startled withfear, realizing that it was most likely the old sleepingspell that the witch was casting into the winds.

Oh no! Tabitha thought with alarm. We don’thave any of the breathing headgear used