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

therobot, Anvil! The robot bleeped and whistled excitedlyas it noticed Tabitha floating by.

It is Anvil! Tabitha realized excitedly. Thank thespirits!

Anvil extended his metal limbs outwards andgrasped onto Haley’s ankles. With one of his metalliclimbs, Anvil quickly severed the web line that connected Haley to the dead spider.

Tabitha and Jonathon watched as the little robothovered off to one side of the river with Haley in tow,and then up into a giant, hollow root that served as asheltered canopy of sorts.

“Wait! Come back for us!” Tabitha holleredtowards Anvil as she and Jonathon continued to driftfurther down the river.

“I can’t believe what just happened!” Jonathonsaid, shaking his head.

Just as soon as Jonathon had spoken, a very talland odd-looking figure dropped from the dark rootsabove, plopping into the river like an arrow.

“Well, son—believe it!” the towering figure saidwith a gravelly, whistling, voice. Its large, round eyesglowed in a strange green color as it stood directlybetween the two teens.

“Tinspar!” Tabitha shouted in amazement.

“Hey there, stranger!” Tinspar said, graspingJonathon and Tabitha’s arms with his long-fingeredhands.

Holding himself steady to stay upright in themoving current of the river, Tinspar quickly hauled thetwo teens across the river to the embankment. With hislong, tree-like legs, he then carried them over a mesh ofrotted branches, bringing them into the canopy of thehollow root.

Inside the hollow root, Haley and Anvil greetedthem—along with one very old man, and a shimmeringblue ghost with fiery red hair.

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“I am astounded by this miracle, indeed!” Willhad said, upon seeing the three teens. He had chuckledat the sight of the them still wearing their breathingheadgear, and covered all over with the slimy gunk ofthe river.

Tinspar—the legendary “swamp bug” of campfire story lore—had even joked that he didn’t feel allthat strange, seeing as how there were others aroundhim, like the three teens, with their own odd-shapedappearances—due to their funny-shaped headgear theywore.

Once they had all been settled inside the hollowrooted canopy, the teens had been allowed to removetheir headgear. The sorceress believed they’d be safefor the time being without having to wear it.

Everyone had then become reacquainted witheach other, or—in the case of Jonathon and Haley—newly acquainted.

Tabitha had watched with real joy as the twoboys were finally introduced to the sorceress, Aleeria,along with the famous, and resurrected, robot, Anvil. Itwas a real treat for the boys to finally meet them; forthey had been under the possession of the witch’s spellon their previous adventure to have done so.

Overall, everyone was simply mystified with howthey had all been reunited. They had found each otherfar down in a hidden abyss of some dark river, far awayfrom home, and in the vastness of the wilds—findingeach other would have been like finding a needle in ahaystack!

But as fate seemed to have it, their paths hadcrossed, and at the most thankful, and miraculous,moment, too! The teens were grateful for having beenrescued. Haley, even more so, for not having wound-upas dinner for one of those terrible spiders!

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Later that night, as the rain poured down, Tinsparreturned from the river’s rooted underpass where he’dbeen retrieving his iron-bladed pole, as well as the deadspider—Aleeria felt that its body might come in handyat some point in their journey.

With everyone having settled around a small fireinside the hollow root, they discussed all that had takenplace…and the urgent matters that they were now facedwith.

Will explained about the witch’s soul, and how ithad been stolen by two evil witches from Anvil’sunearthed, iron body in the canyon narrows. He alsotold them of how Aleeria had saved him, and how shehad followed the two witches far into the dark north ofthe wilds.

Aleeria spoke about what she had seen: how thetwo witches planned to control the witch-lady’s soulusing an old piece of a crystal shard that the witch-ladyherself had once used to control the orphans from theLand of Shadows. She described how these samewitches had stirred their own dark magic into an ironcauldron, as well as the witch-lady’s soul and thecrystal shard piece.

And then both Will and Aleeria explained howthey had been on their way to the Land of Iron andAnvil to warn the villagers of the impending new threatthat awaited them, when they had passed through theold swamplands where Tinspar lived.

Tinspar had been more than honored in helpingout his dear friends, quickly gathering some oldbreathing equipment—much like that which the teenshad been wearing—from his vast collection of antiquejunk. Will had suggested upon bringing this type ofgear, suspecting the witch-lady might be up to her oldbag of dirty tricks again.

Finally, Tinspar stated how he had spied theblackened clouds of ash looming in the southern distantskies as they had continued on their journey to the Landof Iron and Anvil. They all knew that these clouds werefrom the volcanic mountains—they had the familiarappearance of the dark spell clouds from four yearsearlier. Realizing that the witch’s spell had beenreleased, they decided to turn back and head for thenorthern wilds, where they had eventually reunited withthe three teens in the dark river.

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A few hours later, the rain had lightened to a softdrizzle outside the shelter of the hollow root. Tabithaand Jonathon were finally explaining to the others howthey had watched the Land of Iron and Anvil fall toruins.

They told them of how the witch-lady—who nowresembled some sort of colossal pumpkin-like monster—destroyed everything and anyone within sight usingterrible tentacles of lightning.

“And you say all the robot-droids were erased oftheir power?” Will asked gloomily.

“Yes, they have lost their magic,” Tabitha saidsorrowfully. “And we are not sure what has become ofour folks; they were trapped in the mines, but they maystill be alive inside the emergency safe rooms!”

Will shuddered, thinking of Sonny and Kelsey—trapped once again in their own homeland, and by thesame wicked witch from their childhood!

“They’re alive,” Haley said softly. “I have tobelieve they are…”

Will nodded, looking over at Haley; he could seethe young teen was still shaken up from his wholespider entanglement.

“Well, there is not much time at all then!” Aleeriavoiced, her ghostly, bluish form flittering near the fire.“We have to journey to the