The Anvil Read Online Free PDF Page B

mother came in with some food in her arms .
    Tom went over and took most of the things before his mom realized it was him . He set down the food and his Mother ran over to him and hugged him so hard he nearly choked . His Mother let go and yelled “ Where have you been ? Why haven ' t heard anything from you for nearly a month ?” Tom smiled “ I have been busy training and on missions with Alex , that ' s why you haven ' t heard from me for a while . I promise I will try to use the post more often .” Tom said .
    Tom spend the rest of the day with friends and family until dinner . At dinner Tom and Zack told Tom ' s family about what had happened in the last month . Tom didn ' t tell them the size of the bandit camp , for his Mother ' s sake . Then after dinner Tom and Zack went into the backyard for a training session . The rules were they could use anything they could , but they were not allowed to kill , make a lasting injury or knock each other out .
    They were using wooden weapons . They took their positions on opposite sides of the yard . Tom got out his wooden axe and Zack grabbed his wooden hand - and - a - half sword , its blade was long and was able to be used with one or two hands . Tom had his wooden round shield , because he also used the shield as a weapon and Zack had a large wooden kite shield .
    Caleb said “ Begin .” and Zack started to run at Tom , but Tom willed the water from the stream to crash down of Zack and swirled him around in it . Zack took a few seconds to break Tom ' s hold on the water , but Tom already made a wall of rock around him .
    Zack used the water to break the wall and Tom struck at Zack suddenly . Zack put his shield up just in time to block the blow , but Tom was very strong from the months of training so the blow still jarred Zack ' s arm .
    They exchanged some blows then broke apart . Tom , who had started learning plant magic , made the grass grow around Zack ' s feet , but Zack had fought Tom before and knew the trick he quickly cut the grass with his sword . He looked up as Tom rammed he with his shield sending him flying into the stream .
    For a split second neither did anything then they fought over control of the water . Finally Tom got control and made a globe of water with Zack in the center . Zack broke the sphere and sent all the water flying towards Tom , but Tom dodged the attack and ran towards Zack . Zack put up his shield towards Tom and leaned into it as Tom hit , Zack fell over and Tom put his axe up against his neck showing where he could have killed him .
    Tom reached down and helped Zack up saying “ Wow , you are getting a lot better . You just need to pay attention to your enemy at all times and not look away like you did when I got you with the grass .” They looked over and saw Tom ' s family watching . They looked amazed at the skill they both possessed .
    The two boys spend an hour exercising then went to sleep . The next day they woke up and went into the kitchen . Caleb was sitting at the table eating , and Tom asked him “ Want to come hunting with me and Zack ?” as Tom and Zack sat down with their food . Caleb shook his head and said “ I don ' t have a bow and I have to help at the forge , sorry .” Tom thought for a moment then said “ Zack used to help a blacksmith so he and I could help in the forge and we have a extra bow or crossbow .”
    “ OK . Where will we go and what will we hunt ?” Caleb asked . “ I think that we will go into the mountains and hunt boar or wolves .” Tom answered , the two boys had been planning the hunt for a few weeks .
    Caleb ' s eyebrows shot up and he said “ I was thinking deer or something like that . But I guess that those are OK .” They finished their breakfasts and went to the forge . The work went quickly because there was four people working on it . They finished about noon and they went into the back for Caleb to choose a crossbow or bow . He chose the bow and the boys left . They went