Not a Pipe by Lferion

Not a Pipe

Narin looked at Anglithiel's most recent piece, head tilted to one side, hands on her hips, trying to make heads or tails of the thing. The overall shape was that of a very large barrel, the size the Men called a pipe, or butt, large enough for a Dwarf to fit in, though not comfortably. It was hollow, or at any rate, open in the middle, and the sides were a kind of open-work as well, made up of tubes of every size, kind and shape, material and purpose, including pipes for smoking, pipes for plumbing, playing, distilling... The pieces were all pipes. It was even making a piping sound, like a little bird, but the wind was very light at present. Narin wondered if in a stronger wind it would sound like bagpipes, or an organ. A small sign hung from one of the smoking pipe-stems: "This is not a Pipe" it read, in the same precise Ost-in-Edhil style Tengwar, Angerthas Daeron and Angerthas Moria used on the caution-signs for the store-rooms and work-rooms for volatile or potentially dangerous materials. Not a pipe, but many pipes. A pipe of pipes. Narin was delighted. Her One had outdone herself again.