towers

734 the two towers
the journey, when my own ran out. But now it comes in
useful after all.’ He held up a small pipe with a wide flattened
bowl, and handed it to Gimli. ‘Does that settle the score
between us?’ he said.
‘Settle it!’ cried Gimli. ‘Most noble hobbit, it leaves me
deep in your debt.’
‘Well, I am going back into the open air, to see what the
wind and sky are doing!’ said Legolas.
‘We will come with you,’ said Aragorn.
They went out and seated themselves upon the piled stones
before the gateway. They could see far down into the valley
now; the mists were lifting and floating away upon the breeze.
‘Now let us take our ease here for a little!’ said Aragorn.
‘We will sit on the edge of ruin and talk, as Gandalf says,
while he is busy elsewhere. I feel a weariness such as I have
seldom felt before.’ He wrapped his grey cloak about him,
hiding his mail-shirt, and stretched out his long legs. Then
he lay back and sent from his lips a thin stream of smoke.
‘Look!’ said Pippin. ‘Strider the Ranger has come back!’
‘He has never been away,’ said Aragorn. ‘I am Strider and
Dúnadan too, and I belong both to Gondor and the North.’
They smoked in silence for a while, and the sun shone on
them; slanting into the valley from among white clouds high
in the West. Legolas lay still, looking up at the sun and sky
with steady eyes, and singing softly to himself. At last he sat
up. ‘Come now!’ he said. ‘Time wears on, and the mists are
blowing away, or would if you strange folk did not wreathe
yourselves in smoke. What of the tale?’
‘Well, my tale begins with waking up in the dark and finding
myself all strung-up in an orc-camp,’ said Pippin. ‘Let
me see, what is today?’
‘The fifth of March in the Shire-reckoning,’ said Aragorn.
Pippin made some calculations on his fingers. ‘Only nine
days ago!’ he said.* ‘It seems a year since we were caught.
* Every month in the Shire-calendar had 30 days.