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

borders of the iron woodlands,Anvil was zooming through the darkness like a rocket.Trailing behind him were the two witches, stillconnected to the dead spider that Anvil had in his metalclutches. The witches were bouncing and bumpingover the ice like a large snowball speeding through aminefield.

Anvil soon came to a halt, beaming his eye-lightsup into one of the steel-like, towering trees. Spotting avery large branch jutting out from the tree, he quicklyzoomed straight towards it.

Circling the branch multiple times, Anvil weavedthe spider line securely around it. Holding onto thedead spider, Anvil then cut the web line from its body,leaving only the witches in their webbed cocoon tohang down low from the branch.

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Several hours after Will and the three teens hadarrived into the woodlands, they had finally come uponAnvil.

Tabitha was the first who saw the robot. Shecould see Anvil’s eye-lights beaming towards her asthey were arriving. As she trudged forward, she lookedaround wondering where the witches were; and whetherthe undead would pop out from the darkness at anymoment.

While Tabitha was momentarily lost in thought, ahand fell lightly upon her shoulder. She jumped like afrightened cat and screamed out. Spinning about shesaw that it was only Will.

“Hold steady there, young lady!” Will harped.“It’s just me!”

She shook her head, patting her heart. “Dang,Will!” she panted. “You scared me halfway to the spiritworld!”

“I’m sorry, dear! Didn’t mean to frighten ya!”He hurried over to Anvil.

“Anvil, you brave little soul!” He patted therobot, looking him over for any signs of damage.

Will then looked around the woodlands, strainingto see through all the darkness. “Now, where’d youdrop off those witches?”

Jonathon held up the iron lantern; it gave off arusted pale glow to their surroundings. “I don’t seeanything!”

Anvil bleeped loudly, rotating his electric eyesupwards. Everyone gasped when they looked up in thedirection of Anvil’s eye-lights. Directly above them,the witches were hanging from the branch; the websack looked like a giant butterfly cocoon.

“Okay, now everyone back away carefully!” Willsaid cautiously. “Who knows if they are summoning upsome crazy sort of magic for us!”

As they were all stepping back, moving a safedistance from the witches, Anvil emitted a loud whistle.Everyone turned and noticed Aleeria and Tinsparapproaching.

Tabitha felt her heart soar, and quickly ran overto them.

“You made it!” She wrapped her arms aroundTinspar. Then tilting her head back, she looked up athim. “Hey, what’s that on your back?” she said, pattingthe burlap sack on his back, and the strange object itcontained.

His eyes twinkled as he offered her a wide grin.“That, my young one, may be just the thing we need toerase that witch-lady for good!” He laid the meteoriteout onto the ice for her to see.

“Wow!” Tabitha exclaimed, gazing in wonder atthe glowing red rock. “What a lovely gem!”

The others were spellbound with delight as theylooked it over with fascination. Aleeria explained toeveryone how Tinspar had come across the meteoritewhile they were fleeing the Land of Darkness. She alsohinted at how the meteorite would serve greatly in theirfavor.

“Aleeria and Tinspar,” Will said, motioning theirattention towards the overhanging tree branch. “Take alook at what that little robot has decorated that treewith!”

They both looked up and saw the web-cocoonhanging from the branch; the witches were squirmingabout inside of it.

“What a robot!” the sorceress said. “However, Isense the undead are now approaching—we must bemoving!”

Tinspar quivered at the thought of more of theundead swarming all over them. “Yes, let’s go!” Hetook another look at the witches hanging above.“Besides, we won’t want to disturb them while theygreet their new company!” he snickered.

“Let’s not forget that spider’s body,” Aleeria said.“I have a grand idea that’ll get us to the Land of Ironand Anvil much faster!”

Will saw that the dead spider was still withinAnvil’s clutches. “Don’t you worry, my dear spirit—Anvil has that taken care of!”

No one said another word about what thesorceress had in mind; instead, they trusted that itwould have to be for the best.

As they were moving through the woodlands,they could hear the faint howling cries of the witchesevery so often echoing in the distance. The witches hadawakened.

Now and then the party would catch glimpses ofthe undead shuffling about within the dark shadows ofthe ice-frosted trees—they were moving towards theirnew-found prey!

Tabitha felt a wild chill run up her spine as shethought about how fate had revealed itself to thoseawful witches.

Drawing ever closer to the glacier, the partypaused in their steps as they were suddenly struck withthe disturbing screams of the witches shrilling throughthe woodlands. The witches were being devoured bythe undead!

A dead silence then followed as the party movedon.

~ CHAPTER XI!~ The WEATHERED BALLOON

Once they had reached the base of the glacierwhere they had fallen from only days before, the wearyparty listened to Aleeria describe what she had in mindto get them all back to the Land of Iron and Anvil. Thecentipede’s body had dissolved, leaving only its outerskin behind; Aleeria figured that the lightweight skinwould be just what they needed to speed them back tothe south. And with the webbing that remained insidethe body of the spider, she hoped for her plan to worklike magic!

The sorceress circled overhead, floating throughthe fogged air and the hazy moonlight that had faintlyrevealed itself into the depths of the woodlands. Shewas instructing the others on where to secure the longstrands of spider threads to the feathery-like legs of thecentipede’s skin.

With her own sorcery, the centipede’s skin soonrose from the ground, becoming a makeshift balloon ofsorts. The other ends of the spider’s web-threads hadbeen tied to the edges of the wooden raft. The partywould use the raft as their “lifeboat” and the skin of thecentipede as their “sails,” carrying them up and out ofthe depths of the undead sanctuary.

“I think that’s just the berries!” Tabitha shouted,watching with amazement as the centipede’s skintransformed into a big balloon.

“Light the iron lantern, Tinspar!” Will shouted.The heat from the lantern, along with a bit of Aleeria’smagic, would boost the balloon off the ground and upinto the sky.

“Okay, everybody—all aboard!” Tinspar wavedthe others over from where