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

themselves pastAnvil’s whirling metal limbs; they landed within inchesof the three teens.

Without a second thought, Tinspar leapt high intothe air, coming down upon the undead with long, speeddriven slashes of his two blades.

Will shook his head. “So much for fleeing theseaccursed things!” he swore under his breath.

He started swinging with his branch-cane, andstriking more of the undead that loomed in from allaround.

Jonathon and Haley were scrambling, searchingfor anything with which to use to defend themselves.As if reading their thoughts, two steel-like branchesdropped at their feet. They gasped, looking up into thetrees: Aleeria was floating above them! She blew thema kiss, then flew off to help Tabitha who was hidinginside of a tree.

“Haley! Grab the other branch!” Jonathonshouted, already flailing one of the branches towardsthe advancing undead figures.

Haley snatched the other branch just as a rottedhand latched onto his shoulder from behind. He criedout, and quickly spun about. When he did, the branchhe held onto jabbed into the neck of the gruesomeattacker.

Jonathon, who was just throwing one of theundead off of himself, and into the whirling metal limbsof Anvil, turned to respond to Haley. He let loose agreat cheer when he saw that Haley was doing well onhis own, and was now batting a few of the undead offof Will’s back.

Anvil was busy mowing down several more ofthe foul souls that continued streaming in from alldirections. The robot’s metallic limbs sliced throughtheir bodies with ease.

Meanwhile, Aleeria had found Tabitha tuckedwithin the hollow of a tree trunk, fending off two of theundead; the young girl was using strips of the icy treebark as frozen spikes.

Using her own magic, the sorceress cast forth afew icy tree spikes into the heads of Tabitha’s attackers,stopping them cold.

Tinspar continued his own rampage, moving likea tornado with incredible speed. The iron-bladed polewas a spinning blur, taking down countless of theundead.

Finally seeing that there were no more undeadnearby, and breathing heavily from exhaustion, Tinsparpaused and looked over to the others. They were justfinishing off a few stragglers.

“I think we have the upper hand!” he voicedthrough the cold air.

Suddenly he felt something sharp and painfulshoot through his right leg. He spun about and saw oneof the undead clamping its jaws onto his ankle with itsbloody fangs.

Clenching his own teeth, Tinspar gripped theiron-bladed pole and drove it straight down; it piercedthrough the head of the attacker, crushing its energy.Dropping the pole, he looked down to his damaged legand saw that the lower half of it had been torn away.

He fell backwards onto the ice.

Everyone hustled to Tinspar’s aid. Will droppeddown beside him, quickly studying the damaged leg.

“Okay, you old bug—don’t you worry!” Willhuffed, shaking his head in distress.“You’ll be up andbouncing all over this realm in no time!”

He could see that Tinspar’s eyes had cloudedover from being in a state of shock. With great haste,he tore off a piece of burlap and wrapped the injuredend of the leg.

Tinspar lifted his head and starred down at whatremained of his right leg; the other half had been bittenoff below the knee.

“You crazy old fool,” he chuckled. “Me—worry?Never! Not with friends like you around!”

Will snorted. “That’s the spirit!”

While Aleeria was busy looking for any other ofthe undead that could be lurking nearby in the dark,Tabitha and the boys stayed with Tinspar. They weretrying to keep him calm, assuring him all would bewell.

“Tinspar, I have an idea!” Will said, looking overto Anvil. The robot was slightly sputtering, and itselectric joints were grinding from all the action.

Will then looked at the others. “Haley, I needyou to hold this burlap tightly around Tinspar’s leg.”

Haley grasped the burlap binding, while Willmoved over to Anvil and examined the robot’s metallimbs. He held one of them out at length, looking itover. He mumbled to himself, scratching his chin inthought. Then, removing the other half of Tinspar’s legfrom the mouth of the undead figure, Will held it nextto the robotic, metal limb of Anvil.

A big smile spread across his face—they lined upperfectly in length!

“Yep, just as I thought!” Will said, holdingAnvil’s metal limb up close to his eyes. “This littlerobot’s metal limb should be the perfect fit!”

He tossed Tinspar’s dead limb off to the side.“Jonathon, I need you to help me attach this metalliclimb to Tinspar’s damaged leg!”

Jonathon’s heart skipped a few beats, fearing thathe’d actually heard Will correctly. “You’re really mad,you know that?”

“Hurry over, my lad!” Will shouted. “We have tobe quick!”

Everyone was staring at Will like he really hadlost every marble left in his brain. Even Anvil let out amoaning whistle, spinning his eyes at Will in wonder.

Will looked up and noticed all their surprisedglares.

“Oh, now it’s not as bad is it seems!” he saidsternly. “In fact, if we don’t do this, then ol’ Tinspar isin danger of losing his life! All I have to do is removethis metallic limb from Anvil, and then attach it toTinspar’s damaged leg.”

He looked back to Jonathon. “I’m gonna needthat welding torch that you’ve got stashed there in yourknapsack, lad.”

Everyone pondered Will’s outlandish idea insilence except Jonathon, who was eagerly fumblingthrough his belongings for the welding torch.

~ CHAPTER X~The LAND of DARKNESS

After Tinspar’s leg “operation” had been swiftlycompleted, the party had continued forth through therest of the iron woodlands, relieved they had notencountered another one of the hideous undead.

Aleeria had called Will a true hero and theoperation a courageous success. She had mentioned tothe old blacksmith what a fine, new addition it was tohis iron craftsmanship skills, as well as to the science—the metallic magic—that had been unearthed andrediscovered so many moons ago!

Tinspar had been both mystified and amazed bythe magic of the operation. Will had actually welded arobotic limb to the rest of his right leg, fusing itselectrical nerves to his own leg’s nerve endings! Hehad even joked that he could now bounce about with anelectric shine in his step.

Although the robot’s metallic limb was