Frodo's fingers clung icily to Gandalf's cloak. The wizard's hat acted as a windbreak, standing straight up siphoning the speckled wind to either side of Frodo's face. A thought struck the Hobbit, "Where are Merry and Pippin?"
Gandalf paused for a moment, his boots sinking deeper into the snow, "What?!"
"Pippin. Merry and Pippin, where are they?"
"Ah crap," Gandalf shrugged off Frodo who landed face down into a drift, "Boromir, where are the other two anklebiters?"
Boromir looked up and stared begrudgingly into Gandalf's eyes, "I am not sure. I was not placed in charge of watching the two hobbit's activities. The last I saw of them they were still bickering over who should be allowed to carry the beloved food and who should not. Perhaps Aragorn knows where they are hiding?"
Aragorn shook his head: a resounding no.
Gimli, who was currently on the bottom part of Sam's totem pole spoke up, "I have no idea where they are, but I'm right here."
"Thank you Sam, but that does not answer our question."
"Hey Hobbit," Gimli yelled between mouthfuls of snow, "Your turn to carry me."
Legolas' head appeared suddenly from around the corner. He caught his breath and prepared to slide back down the slope on his stomach for the fifth time when Gandalf caught his arm. The wizard had a huge clump of snowflakes in his eyebrows but he didn't seem to care, "Legolas, what's happened to Merry and Pippin?"
"Well, uh, um, the last I saw of them. They had, um, you know, they were trying to climb the mountain. So they, uh, well um, like they tried to do something different and they were. . ."
At that moment a pair of small hands burst through the snow between Gandalf and Legolas' legs. This was followed by a shaggy head of hair and the recognizable face of Merry, "I told you Pippin, we need more air holes."
There was some scratching and various curse words before Merry's face slipped back below the white stuff and replaced by Pippin who was breathing heavily. After taking a few quick gulps of air, he vanished again into the snow tunnel. The two started scratching furiously at the snow beneath the rest of the fellowship's feet, but all that could be heard was a small voice saying, "See I told you so."
"Yeah yeah, just keep rubbing it in Merry. Next time we practically tunnel off the cliff I'll make sure to let you fall."
Gandalf clapped his hands together, which was
rather odd to see as he was still holding tightly onto his staff, "Well,
they're fine. Let's keep moving." Then he hefted Frodo up onto his shoulders
and trudged on.