Smell (Part 3 of 5)
The City of Minas Tirith is permeated with death.
Wandering through the lower levels, Pippin surveys the aftermath of battle. Pyres burn on the Pelennor Fields, thick smoke wafting up, carrying the aroma of roasting flesh. Inside the walls, the air is little better; dust tickles his nose as he passes piles of rubble, and the acrid remnants of fires choke him.
He dreads returning to the Houses of Healing, where the hallways reek of blood, urine, and vomit, of corpses beginning to rot; but Merry is alive and waiting. For this, Pippin smiles, even amid the stench of death.