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

right side of the canyon wall. Sonnystartled from his dream-like trance. He looked from therobot to the direction its eye-rays were focused.

There upon the canyon wall’s smooth surface,sliding almost invisibly over it, Sonny could make outthe appearance of the oil slicks—their greenish eyesglinting through tiny slits in their skin.

Ranger’s ears shot upright and he swiftly movedtowards Sonny and the robot.

“Will!” Sonny whispered loudly. “I—I see awhole bunch of those oil creatures! We gotta movefast!”

Will, who had fallen into a sleep trance whilestanding guard, quickly gathered his wits and movedquickly towards the robot in hopes of turning its alarmsensor off. But it was too late: the robot had sent out aloud and echoing distress whistle. While the whistlehadn’t stalled the oil slicks steady progress, it mostassuredly had awoken the haunting and hideousapparitions from the canyon pockets.

“Move to the center of the raft!” Will hollered.

Sonny quickly moved with Ranger in tow. Theoil slicks had now reached the water and had slippedunder. Above, the ghastly ghosts moved in great,tormenting swirls, aiming their dust-shrouded forms inthe raft’s direction.

Will hurried over to the robot and had it extendone of its metallic limbs over the water. He thenpressed a button that enabled the robot to rise slightly ina hovering spin, while its eye-lights would burnbrightly upwards towards the ghosts.

Within moments, stones were raining all aboutthem, crashing into the river and causing rapid geysersto gush forth. Frightened, Sonny and his dog scrambledaround the raft as the robot began lifting itself into theair; its body was spinning fast. It soon created a vortexlike tornado with its metallic arms that flung the spiritsand the stones all about the canyon walls.

Will clutched the raft’s pole and gave it all hismight; he pushed into the river bottom hoping to gainspeed. “Sonny! Use that wooden carry-stick of yoursand push the button at the base of the droid!”

Sonny quickly grabbed the stick and duckedunder the robot. He saw a big blue button on theunderside of the robot and pointed the stick upwards atit. Just then the oil slicks had surrounded the raft.

“Do it now!” Will hollered.

Jabbing the stick upwards into the button, anelectric charge suddenly shook the raft as a great volt ofenergy shot from the robot’s extended metal limb intothe river. All at once the raft jolted forward with a greatpush, and the river ignited around them in a fiery,white-hot light.

Sonny dropped the stick and rolled away fromthe robot; he could see the oil slicks glowing in abright, static-charged light. And then just like a lightswitch, everything turned dark and silent.

The robot dropped with a bang onto the raft; itsmetal body spurting and fuming steam. Both its redeyes flickered rapidly and its metal arms lay limp andlifeless upon the raft—save for the one that was nowsubmerged in the foamy, broiling water.

The stone trader ghosts, on edge with fear themselves, floated high above near their cave dwellings.

Will shot over to the boy and lifted him up. “Areyou okay?” he cried out with alarm, looking him over.“You didn’t get burned or hurt, did you?”

Sonny shook his head and looked over at Ranger;he was huddled under the folded tarp, his eyes peepingout at them.

“Whew!” Sonny exclaimed. “I thought Rangergot spooked and made a leap for it!” The dog let out awhimper and crawled forward to them.

Sonny leaned down and gave him a big hug. “It’sokay, boy,” he said, looking up to see the ghostsdeparting into the dark caves—their vapor trails leavingblurry streaks against the moon-dusted, night sky.

Turning his attention to the robot, Will lifted itsblackened, metal limb out of the river with the raft’spole and set it aside.

“This little droid’s been through quite a lot, I’llsay!” He grabbed the tarp and laying it over the robot,moved to the back of the raft. “Now— let’s reallymove it! The trader ghosts have huddled away in theircaves, and we don’t want to rouse or startle them anyfurther!”

Sonny nodded his head in agreement and turnedto face the river. “And the river seems to be granting usa speedier flow!” he said excitedly, cinching the blanketaround him tighter as a colder wind picked up.

With the raft’s pole, Will pushed down into theriver with great might, moving them further away. Hequickly glanced back to see wisps of smoke dying outupon the river where the oil slicks had dissolved.

Turning back to face the river’s flow, heshuddered momentarily as the darkness of the canyonwalls continued to swallow their passage.

“Indeed, my good fellow! The river is moving abit faster,” Will confirmed. “We must continue to stayon alert! This river will soon be impassable, and thenwe must take ourselves along a dark path through thegnarled roots of the deadwoods—if we’re to gainaccess to the Land of Shadows, that is.”

Sonny wanted to respond to this last statement,but decided it was best to let matters, along with Will’sknowledge of the regions, work their magic.

~ Chapter VI~ The Root of Passage

Several hours after their ghostly escapade, theyhad come to a standstill at the base of a great wall ofheavily gnarled and twisted, leafless trees. All thelimbs and branches of the trees were intertwinedtogether; at the base of the trees, massive roots layexposed above the ground, as if the earth had eruptedits fury towards this tangled mess of deadwood.

Stepping off the raft, Will walked along a giantroot towards the wall of trees. He immediately tooknotice that the only place to walk was on the roots, fornot an inch of soil could be seen. Sonny and Rangerstayed back on the raft waiting for Will’s okay; alsobecause they were a bit fearful of the dark and lifelesstrees before them.

Will carefully scanned the area with his eyes.Spotting an opening off to the right of his position thatappeared big enough for them to walk through, heturned back to the raft.

“Okay—I see where we can make our waythrough!” he yelled to Sonny. “Let’s fix up that droid;and then after we rest here for a spell, we can depart forthe passage.”

Sonny