Nerwen the Green and the Search for the Entwives #wattys2019

Chapter VII: In the Company of Mithrandir

Chapter VII: In the Company of Mithrandir

In the evening of the second day they were playing bookworms, Mithrandir stretched his aching shoulders and back, and said:

"My eyes are so tired I see double... I need a nice smoke of my pipe."

Nerwen stared at him, confused. She saw him rummaging in his belt-pouch and pulling out of it an odd item, long and curved, with a kind of small cup at one end; then, he produced a smaller pouch, from which he got out a pinch of what looked like some kind of desiccated and shredded herb. Its aromatic smell surprised her:

"What is it?", she asked therefore, intrigued, referring to both things.

"This is a pipe", Mithrandir explained, "Look, this is called stem, and this, burner. And this is pipe-weed, a plant that grows only this side of Belegaer. I learned about it through the Hobbits, skilled growers and consumers of this herb."

Nerwen's interest as an herbalist awoke immediately:

"And what's its purpose?"

Mithrandir, busy stuffing the pipe burner, paused a minute before answering.

"What's its purpose?" he repeated, pensively, "Hum... to smoke, of course."

Nerwen had no idea what he was talking about:

"...to smoke?"

"Yeah, you know...", the Wizard squirmed, looking for words appropriate enough to explain a notion to a person who didn't even know the premises, "I might as well show how this works to you", he supposed. He took a thin wooden stick, lit it on the flame of the nearest candle, then he approached the flaming end to the pipe burner and began to draw air from the stem; soon enough, the pipe-weed became ember, and Mithrandir began emitting smoke from his mouth. His look of manifest satisfaction made Nerwen realise he found this activity very agreeable.

"Come, try it", he said, handing her the pipe, "Draw the smoke into your mouth."

Intrigued, the Maia did what she had seen him doing and drew air from the stem. The smoke filled her mouth, and instinctively she blew it back out through her nostrils. Mithrandir felt upset:

"Good gracious, I needed months to figure out how to get the smoke through my nostrils without any risk of choking!"

"It just made sense to me", Nerwen said, rather surprised by his reaction; she sniffed the aroma, "It smells good!" she said.

"That's fine," he mumbled, still a little sour about the easy way his old friend had done something he struggled for a long time to learn, "It's Old Toby, one of the best varieties of pipe-weed."

Then he realised the complete pointlessness of his irritation and went back to his usual good cheer.

"But this, you're not able to do," he chuckled, drawing in more smoke; he curled his mouth in a funny face that made Nerwen smile, but then her smile turned to an expression of utter marvel when the smoke took the form of a flying seagull, which flew away fluctuating before dissolving in the air.

"How did you do it?" she asked.

"You need much practice," Mithrandir answered, his wounded pride finally satisfied by Nerwen's evident admiration, "If you like, I'll teach you..."

OOO

Several days passed; Nerwen learned the Common Speech from Mithrandir by extracting the knowledge from his mind, and continued to study, in the books provided by Círdan and with him, too, the customs and traditions of Middle-earth. She also engaged in the activity called pipe smoking so frequently to the point Mithrandir made a pipe for her, very similar to his own, with a long curved stem, and gave her part of his personal reserve of Old Toby; the Aini learned also how to create with the pipe smoke some simple forms, like flowers, trees, animals, but she never matched his old friend's skill – not in the limited time they stayed at Círdan's home.