B2MEM 8:  “Not the man who used to make such particularly excellent fireworks!”  TH, ch.1, p. 15 Nook edition

A Night’s Display

          On the night of the Farozi’s birthday, once the feasting was over, all braved the insects that awoke with the evening and went out into the gardens, for the Dwarf Gimli indicated he had a special display he would present for the Farozi and his guests.  “One of our distant kindred studied at the feet of Gandalf for years, and he gave me a number of fireworks he thought I might present for the amusement of Aragorn here and his people.  But somehow I never got around to setting them off there in Minas Tirith.  When we chose to come here for your birthday celebration I decided to bring them with me.  We are most fortunate—two appear to have been created by Gandalf himself, and I look forward to seeing what they portray.  I remember seeing a display he presented years ago when he visited the Blue Mountains just after the Dragon died and Erebor was returned to us.  He was quite the artist with fires and smokes!”

          He had spent much of the afternoon down by the river setting up tubes of various sorts, and he’d paid an urchin to watch over their safety during the feast.  Now he left the palace compound and went down to the banks of the Risen; and while the Farozi’s guests watched from the walls and the populace of the city from their own homes and rooftops, he set off the fireworks in sequence.  There were cries first of fear and then of delight as the sky bloomed with circles and spirals and vortexes and fountains of colored light.  But there was a bit of a wait before he set off the first of the final two.  There was a tremendous boom of sound followed by what appeared to be a shining white crane lifting high into the sky, then spreading out its wings in a dazzling display; it dissolved into stars that circled and whirled wider and wider across the sky, with at last a golden hawk rising straight upward with a great cry of joy!

          Then he set off the final firework, and above their heads they saw a great ship form.

          “Amon’s bark!” declared the Haradrim.

          “Vigilot!” whispered the Gondorians.  “The ship of Eärendil!”

          He who was depicted as piloting the craft wore a shining jewel upon his brow, as both Amon and Eärendil were customarily shown, and about the ship wheeled a gull of silver and white, whose breast shone as spectacularly as the gem worn by the pilot.  In the wake of the gull blue flowers formed and fell over the watching populace, and the scent was that of the blue lotus blossoms so beloved by the people of Harad.

          The ship rose into the air and seemed to circle the city, and all watched with awe and delight.  Then from it rushed outwards flights of white doves of fire, calling in delight before all broke into a final storm of silver and golden sparks following the last of the blue flowers toward the bounds of the city.  Only a circle of seven stars was left that gently faded into the darkness of the Haradri night sky.