Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy by Joseph Beekman (good beach reads .txt) 📗

he snorted. “That should not be alaughing matter, my two brave guests! We are about tofinish off a wicked witch of a lady, and the journeyalone may be a few days of travel, maybe more, to getthere! And that, my good lads, is not to say we won’tbe bothered by any unforeseen madness or monstersalong the way, either! So what I am bringing with usshould be enough food and tools to get us through all ofthis!”

He stood up, groaning a bit and holding his backas if in some pain. Tabitha and Tinspar both remainedsilent and just nodded their heads in agreement.

“Are you going to be okay for this journey,Will?” Tinspar asked somewhat reluctantly. Will shothim another sour look. “I mean, you haven’t been outin the wilds for many years if my memory serves mefine, and, well…no offense, but you don’t seem to begetting any younger.”

Will shook his head and went to gather his cloakand fishing rods.

“Now, now—you old bug of a soul, you,” hegrowled, turning around to face Tinspar. “No offensetaken! I may have grown quite old in age since my lasttravels, but I have a bit of spirit left in these old bonesfor a few more fights!”

“Okay then!” Tinspar snapped back, a bit stunghimself from Will’s “bug” comment. “Let’s just getsome sleep then and move out in the early dawn ofdaylight.”

Tabitha leapt up and grabbed her knapsack anddraped her cloak about her.

“No, no; we slept already…waiting for you,” shesaid, looking at Tinspar. “Besides, Will said as soon asyou got here we’d make like a—a—um—”

“A bat out of a bell tower!” Will chimed in,completing her sentence. “Yes, we need to get moving;there’s no time to waste! The Land of Iron and Anvilmay already be in danger, and the sooner we move, thebetter our chances to save them—and quite possibly theentire realm from certain doom!”

Tinspar grabbed the other two knapsacks layingnearby, then moved towards the root tunnel.

“Then I’m ready!” he said light-heartedly. “A bitsleepy, but you are right! We have already spent anumber of days as it is without moving against this madwitch; and I, for one, owe her many years payback forthis dreaded bug-like spell she stamped upon me!”

Will nodded. “Yes my bu—brave-hearted soul,now your talkin’!” He looked over to an iron cratewhere the big cat was sleeping. “Tabitha, my dear…wake that cat up if you would, please.”

Tabitha moved towards the cat, but paused inmid-stride. “You want to say good-bye to her?” sheasked softly over her shoulder.

“No, my dear,” he said. “Ol’ Stella’s coming withus! She has been with me for many years now, since wehad reunited years ago. And though she is a bit old, shestill has a couple of cat scraps left in her, too!”

Tabitha woke Stella with a few whispers into herear, and the cat startled. Shaking sleep from her eyes,Stella bounded off the crate and moved over to Will.

“Wow! I think she knows she’s coming along!”Tabitha said, clapping her hands.

Tinspar shouted from the root tunnel where he’dalready begun to descend: “Are you guys coming alongor sleeping! Let’s hurry it up before some crazy stormfalls upon us, and we’re really holed up in this stump!”

~ CHAPTER IX

~ The VALLEY of GLOOM

Traveling along a dark and shadowed stone paththat wove through a grim and cold valley of desolatehills, the five travelers made their way on foot at a quietand dreary pace. A wagon cart was being pulled alongby the hovering robot, Anvil; the cart creaked andgrinded as its iron wheels rolled over the stone path. Inthe lead of the traveling party were Will and Tinspar,while Tabitha and the cat, Stella, rode atop the wagoncart.

Tabitha was huddled within some blankets at theback end of the cart, staring at the path as it rolled byunder her dangling feet. Stella lay curled up under afew other blankets, sleeping and oblivious to the ricketyride.

They had passed beyond the stone trees whereWill’s dwelling was, and into the valley of gloom. Thevalley of gloom was what Will had described as: ‘theonly route to travel if to find the lonely apparition—orstrange spirit. She may be the sure-fire answer tostopping the threat of the witch, forever!’

Passing through the valley, Tabitha could onlywait and wonder when this lonely, strange spirit wouldappear to them.

She recalled what Will had said of this spirit:That this spirit was that of a long-dead sorceress thathad lived at one time in the Land of Iron and Anvil,procuring spells and ointments for the villagers; thatthis sorceress was also a rival to that of the witch-lady,for it was when the “metallic magic” of robots cameinto the life of the Iron and Anvil Land, that thesorceress quickly became shunned by the witch-lady foraccepting it as a new way of sorcery.

Not long after that the witch-lady had left theLand of Iron and Anvil, having felt forced to do sosince she would not accept the villagers beliefs of theirnewly discovered magic. And when she left, she hadalso left behind a poisoned ointment that was used in aspecial healing brew by the sorceress. The sorceress,having tested it out on her own self, first, had diedviolently; her spirit was said to have fled in a fit ofmadness far into the valley of gloom.

‘Now,’ as Will had stated, ‘would be the ripe timeto find this lonely sorceress’s spirit and see if she willhelp us to destroy the witch—once and for all!’

As Tabitha sat pondering this, she looked up andinto the great distance behind them. Her jaw droppedas she could see billowing black clouds that rolledabout among the backdrop of a blood-red sky. Oh no!she thought alarmingly.

“Hey, Will—Tinspar!” she hollered back over hershoulder. “Uh, you should see this!”

They both stopped and turned around; Anvilhalted and rotated around to zoom his electric-red eyesback to Tabitha. Looking to Tabitha first, and then upinto the distance where she was gazing, Will andTinspar saw the black, mushroom-like clouds swirlinglike mammoth beasts haunting the sky for prey.

“Oh, mercy me!” Will exclaimed with a suddenjolt of fear. “The spell