By dawn the ship had reached the other side of the river, but Dori, Nori and Ori had not manage to get any information out of the hooded men. They had decided to leave them tied up and gagged in Ori’s hiding place, in the hopes that no one would find them before the ferry started back for Grey Havens. The brothers celebrated their victory with some bread and cheese that they had brought from the inn in Grey Havens, while walking through the village. Ori stopped dead when they walked by the stables. ”We should get some ponies!”
”No, we don’t need them,” Dori said. ”There’s no more than a days walk between the villages south of the mountains, we’ll be fine on foot.”
”But if we ride we can take the northern road and be in the Shire in two days! We have enough provisions for that, don’t we? We won’t need the inns!” Ori said eagerly. His older brother looked at him for a long time. ”I don’t know, Ori...” Dori said slowly. ”Camping in those lands can easily get very unpleasant, you heard Gandalf.”
”Well take turns keeping watch. And we can all fight, and get away fast with the ponies. I’m sick of walking, Dori.”
”We do have a lot of walking ahead of us, brother. It’s a long way to Erebor. I’m with Ori on this one.” This time it was Nori who spoke, and once again his brothers turned their heads in surprise. ”You’re never with anyone on anything!” said Dori and started twirling his beard. ”As you will, brothers. By my beard if anything happens!”
”It’s a good looking beard,” Ori said, laughing. And so, Dori, Nori and Ori bought themselves three little brown ponies and started the last of the first part of their journey, their way to Hobbit land.
