Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy, Joseph Beekman [the beginning after the end novel read .TXT] 📗

iron lantern thatwas heating the inside of the balloon. Dimming itsflame, the balloon slowly dropped, lowering thembeneath the threat of the clouds that held the witch’ssleeping spell.

“Whoa! That was too close!” he said, watchingas some of the blackened clouds passed over the top ofthe balloon.

Tabitha slapped her forehead. “Ah, shoot! Ishould have tried masking us with my spell! Youknow—mirror ourselves with our surroundings like Idid at the spider web!”

Aleeria shook her head. “No worries, dear!Besides—the witch’s soul might have been able todetect us for sure if you had used your magic. If shehad felt the presence of someone using sorcery, then wewould have been in some real danger!”

“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t then!” Tabithasaid.

She looked down over the edge of the raft andsaw the tiny landscape growing larger as the balloonraft drifted lower. Then it occurred to her as she lookedback up into the balloon, that the sorceress had beenusing a bit of magic to help with its flight.

“But what about your own magic that you’vebeen using to help the balloon move along?” she said toAleeria. “Maybe the witch-lady knows of our presencebecause of that!”

“I can’t be certain, my dear,” Aleeria said.“Maybe so, but we mustn’t worry about that now!” Shelooked around at the others with concern in her eyes.

“Listen—you guys have got to land this raftsoon! You have to make certain that the meteorite getsinside the body of that witch pumpkin!”

“What do you mean—you guys?” Will holleredloudly as the winds began to pick up. “What about youlanding with us?”

Aleeria shook her head. “I have an idea that willhopefully help with the plans!” she shouted as theballoon whipped the raft violently about. “Just hangtight! And get this raft down safely!”

She looked into Tabitha’s eyes. “I’ll see yousoon, dear. And don’t worry, I’m a spirit—of course,I’ll return! You just stay safe, and remember to neverabandon hope!”

Tabitha nodded, tears welling up in her eyes.

Just as Will was about to say something else, thesorceress flew from the raft, glittering away into the fardistance of the darkening skies.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning zipped over theballoon, tearing a hole in its top. Tinspar was knockedto the floor of the raft as it started plunging fast to thefloor of a forest. Anvil whistled a high-pitched wail,his iron body sliding towards the back of the raft. Therobot quickly shot one of its metal limbs out andgrasped one of the balloon’s spider lines.

“Hold tight!” Will shouted from where he washanging, gripping a wooden plank of the raft. “We’regoing down fast!”

Everyone held on as the balloon was collapsing,dropping the raft like a brick towards a canopy of trees.

It crashed with a pounding thud, then slid down awall of limbs that grew hundreds of feet high from theground; the limbs were draped in rain-drenched leaves.

Several more bolts of lightning streaked highoverhead, igniting the sky in a red wash of color.Tabitha, who was clutching a board plank, noticed thatthe lightning had the same appearance as that of thewitches vine tentacles!

“That witch did see us!” she screamed out, hervoice vibrating as the raft continued to slide down theslick canopy of tree limbs. “She’s whipping thatlightning of hers all across the sky!”

The raft finally came to a sudden stop, smashinginto a river of mud. The impact popped everybody offthe raft like they were bottle caps; they landed with asolid splat into the muddy surface of the river.

Anvil—fortunate to have averted a mud bathwhen he had hovered off the raft before it had crashed—whirled above everyone, bleeping loudly andflashing his eye-lights.

Tinspar was up to his waist in mud, lookingdisheveled. He watched as the rest of the party slowlysloshed their way over to one side of the river’sembankments.

“Hey!” he shouted, flailing his arms about. “Isanyone gonna help me outta this crazy mess?”

Hearing his plea for help, Anvil swooped overTinspar and pulled him up and out of the mud. Therobot then carried him over to the side of the riverwhere the others were.

The robot bleeped loudly as it landed Tinsparnext to Will.

Will took one look at Tinspar and broke outlaughing. “Anvil sure can catch some dirty fish fromthe rivers of this realm!”

The three teens turned to look at Tinspar andstarted giggling. “I think he needs a good washing!”Jonathon quipped.

“Ha—ha!” Tinspar remarked grimly as he beganplucking bits of mud from his metallic leg. “Go ahead,laugh at my expense!”

“Oh, now its not so bad!” Will said, looking ateveryone else covered in mud. “We’re all a messyfright, Tinspar!” He startled as a boom of thundershook the air. “And dang lucky to be in one piece! ButI dare say, we get going! If that witch knows about us,then its only a matter of time before we actually becomea permanent part of this muddy river!”

“Hold on there, you old blacksmith!” Tinsparsaid excitedly. “I say we really cover ourselves withthis mud—from head to toe!”

They all paused and looked at him like he’d gonemad.

“Think about it, guys!” he huffed, waving hisarms around their surroundings. “We’ll have a greaterchance of sneaking through the iron land if we looksomewhat like the land itself!”

“A perfect cover, I’d say!” Jonathon said as heclawed his hands into the mud, smearing more of it overhis body and headgear.

“Tinspar, you really can think a bit sharper afteryou’ve gone and conked your head in the mud!” Willsaid jokingly.

Tinspar smirked, laughing off Will’s snideremark. “And you really are quite the funny fellow, youold fool!”

~ CHAPTER XII~ A GRAVELAND of FATE

The rain was pummeling down over the ashenlandscape as the party crept silently into the Land ofIron and Anvil. They looked like big mud-slugs thathad surfaced from the ground, camouflaged as theywere from the muddy river; even Anvil’s iron-platedbody had been covered over with mud.

As they moved through the land, they were inshock by what they saw: robot-droids laid strewn abouteverywhere like tin cans littering a gigantic junk yard.The village homes, along with a few of the iron workhouses,