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

the stonecanyon, the party had come across a stone pathway thatled them down into the dark forest below. The raincontinued to fall, and the air remained very cold—theyhad to keep wrapped up with their cloaks and blankets.

The pathway had been lined centuries earlierwith ancient pieces of iron and steel. The pieces werelike a puzzle from an age long before there were everdivided lands in the realm to speak of; an age whenscience had turned metal into a once magical andflourishing existence. But that age had been lost to thegreat mysteries of time; and it was not until severalyears earlier that some “metallic magic” was rediscovered in the Land of Iron and Anvil.

Will had taken a great interest in the rusted, steelartifacts as they had passed them on their way down—he had looked upon them in awe and wonder.

Now as they traveled through the dark and moistforest of the giant leaves, Will fumbled with one of thepieces of metal he had taken from the stone pathway,wondering to himself about that ancient age of iron andsteel—an age before the birth of the many lands in therealm itself!

What must have happened to all those that oncebuilt and worked among all that metal? he pondered, ashe had always done so countless times over his longyears.

“Hey—Will?” a soft voice spoke, waking Willout of his wonderment. He blinked away his thoughts,and looked over to see Aleeria floating alongside him.She smiled; her hair glimmering a deep red against theglow of the iron lantern light that Tinspar carried withhim a few feet ahead.

“You seemed so lost in thought,” she said gently.“Just wanted to make sure you were doing okay…”

Will rubbed his eyes, straining to see into thepitch dark of the blackened forest; only Anvil’s roboticeye’s penetrated their light into the darkness ahead ofthem. An iron lantern posted on the wagon cart thatAnvil was towing cast a shrouded rusty-glow aroundthem all. Tabitha and Stella sat aboard the wagon cartas it creaked along the damp, and heavily layered, giantleaves of the forest floor.

“Yes—yes,” Will replied after a few moments. “Iwas just lost in thought; tends to happen when one likemyself gets far into their years of growth.”

He looked up at the giant leaves that droopeddown from the gloomy canopy of the enormous trees.The leaves seemed perfectly still, almost lifeless. Hewondered how those leaves, in their sunless world,could exist and grow as they had.

“Well, okay then,” Aleeria said, looking up intothe dark leaf canopy. “I should scout up ahead to seehow we are progressing.”

Will shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s quite a bitdarker up ahead. Maybe you should just stay with uswhere there is some light. I feel we shouldn’t be muchlonger to the narrows now.”

“Noooo, my good sir,” Aleeria smirked. “Imeant—up—above our heads!” She pointed a ghostlyhand up high. “Make sure those volcanic gas cloudsaren’t already descending upon us with the witchingsleep spell.”

Will shuddered at the thought, fearing they mightnot reach the witch in time. We could all be put into asleep that would last forever!

In a heartbeat, the sorceress shot up into thedarkness—her bluish glow fading to just a pin-sizedlight. She was far above them now, possibly throughthe giant leaves themselves. Tabitha watched her ascendfar above; she jumped from the moving cart and wentover to Will’s side.

“What’s she up too, Will?” Tabitha said with awhisper.

Will lowered his gaze to Tabitha, and for amoment, he thought he was staring into the face of hermother, Kelsey. “Oh my!” he whispered loudly. “Yousure know how to give an old man flashbacks. Youreally are a spittin’ image of your mom when she wasbut a child!”

Tabitha giggled; then tilted her head and donneda questionable frown. “What do you mean—spittin’image?”

“I mean, you look just like her in this light, andin this type of place!” Will waved his arms about thearea. He noticed then that Anvil and Tinspar were nowa bit further ahead of them, and nudging Tabitha, theystarted to walk again.

“Reminded me of the time when I had discoveredher in the deadwoods,” Will continued. “She had beenhiding out in a tree, and was holding a jar—”

“With the firefly!” Tabitha interrupted, excitedly.“I remember her story!”

“Yes! That is the one!” Will piped in. “That littlefirefly in the jar came in nicely handy, too!”

“They are neat!” she said, scoping the darknessaround her. “They helped me, too, when I was travelin’through here many days ago. It was after I escaped theeyes of that evil witch from getting to me, too! Maybewe will find the same ones to help us out of here? Youknow—into the narrows…”

“Maybe so, my dear,” he huffed. “But until then,hold onto to your faith and strength.”

Suddenly a few leaves fell to the ground in frontof the party. A few landed with a loud, wet splat ontothe wagon cart. Tinspar jumped into the air from fright.He whirled about, his quickly drawn iron-bladed poleready in front of him; a fierce green glow echoed fromhis bug-like eyes.

“What in the ghastly realm is going on?” Tinsparshouted out.

Anvil had stopped, and the cart halted still. Willand Tabitha both scurried up to them, bewildered lookson their faces.

“The dang leaves just fell from the darknessabove!” Tinspar said, poking the flaps of them as theylay over the cart. “Scared me halfway to the stars!”

Tabitha ran around to the front of the cart.“Hurry—lift the leaves up!” she hollered. “Stella isunder them!”

“Oh, sweet spirits!” Will cried, pulling off one ofthe leaves. “The poor thing!”

Tinspar pulled another one off, and in seconds,Stella shot out like a rocket. Her fur was soaked with awet slime, and her eyes were as wide as ever. She ranup Will’s body and clung onto his shoulder, her tailtucked under her body.

Tabitha ran over to them, breathing a big sigh ofrelief. “Oh goodness! She is alive!”

Will patted Stella’s back. “There, there, Ol’girl…you’re gonna be alright.” He moved to the cart.“Tinspar, my good lad—please throw a blanket over herbody.”

Just as Tinspar placed a blanket over Stella, ashuffling