The wind swirled furiously, shrieking in the darkness, amid the roar of thunder. The waves rose and fell, and fought and wrestled viciously, tossing the grey elven ship hither and thither. The ship, looking so helpless and forlorn, creaked under the heavy blows of the angry sea, its masts swaying and bending in the raging wind. Rain fell in thick, heavy sheets, lashing the deck and flooding the cabin of the ship. On the helm was Legolas, fighting futilely to control the ship. Gimli was tied with a hithlain rope to a mast, lest he slid and fell into the black, foaming water. The dwarf was busy securing everything on deck, bundling them up, tying them down. He slipped and fell and was tossed into the railing so many times, grumbling and complaining.
"And I have to travel with a Wood-elf!" he said aloud. "One who has never seen the sea ere he nearly turned 3000 years old. What folly! Folly!"
"So would you like to take the helm then, Gimli!" shouted Legolas above the roaring gale. "You would steer it better, perhaps. Take it to a safe haven."
"Now you are certainly losing your mind, Legolas," said Gimli. He slid on the deck and hit the railing with a great thud for the umpteenth time. "I belong in the bowels of the earth. Mind you, it is firm there and it never sways and wriggles like this."
"Then go back to your cavern then. Your protestations will do us no good here!"
"Neither will your skill at the helm!"
What Legolas said in return was drowned in a huge roar of the waves. A dark curtain of black water rose above the ship and seemed to hang there for eternity, then suddenly it crashed fiercely on the deck. The ship tilted and was engulfed in water. But so light was the wood that it was made of, and so perfect was its symmetry and balance that the ship quickly bounced back to the surface of the restless sea like a cork in a tub of water.
"Gimli!" shouted Legolas, forsaking the helm and looking frantically for his friend. "Gimli!"
He found the hithlain rope still attached to the mast, but at its end Gimli was no more. "Gimli!" cried Legolas.
Then his keen eyes saw the gleam of Gimli's hauberk in the water. Legolas snatched his bow and quiver from the cabin wall and coiled a rope around his slender waist. Then he jumped swiftly into the roiling water.
He swam with difficulty towards Gimli. The waves kept pushing his light elven body away from the dwarf, who was sinking into the deep. Legolas kicked his long legs and was spurted along towards the dwarf. He gripped Gimli's hand and pulled him up to the surface. Legolas could see his grey ship getting ever smaller in the distance and he wondered whether he had taken enough rope. He slung a length of rope under Gimli's arms and knotted it to the rope around his waist. Then he tied an end of the hithlain rope to an arrow and shot.
The arrow pierced the walls of the rain, heedless of the violent wind, straight at the grey ship. The rope followed it and soon it grew taut and tugged at Legolas's body. With one hand holding Gimli, Legolas inched his way along the rope to his ship. The waves tossed him about, but the rope held fast. Finally Legolas reached his ship, hurled against its side by the merciless sea. He climbed up slowly, winding the rope in an ever thicker coil around his wrist, dragging Gimli in the other hand. The rope, though secure, was wet and slippery, and Legolas fell repeatedly into the sea. But his hand gripped the railing at last and with a final great heave he pulled himself up and tumbled with Gimli on to the deck.
The fall shook Gimli to consciousness. He blinked in the rain and saw Legolas bending over him in the light of lightning. "What happened?" he croaked.
"Gimli!" cried Legolas happily. "You are unhurt! Oh, for a while there I thought all hopes have vanished!"
The dwarf sat up and looked at the rope that bound him to Legolas, and the other length that coiled around the Elf's wrist and was attached to an arrow in the cabin wall. He knew then what had happened. He looked briefly at the Elf's happy face.
"Well," he said uneasily. "What are you doing here, anyway? Get you to the helm! Mind you, the storm is not over yet!"
"Yes, Master Dwarf," laughed Legolas. "Neither are we."