These characters are not my own. They belong to JRR Tolkien.
The loose dirt rolled out from under Pippin's feet. His weight fell backward, then forward down the valley face. In the split second before the accident the elf knew he could not stop the hobbit's fall. In the last quarter of that final second, Legolas elected to fall with him.
Legolas dug his heels in to the dirt, deftly sliding, keeping his natural balance. But the speed of Pippin's fall was faster and wildly uncontrollable. He began to roll downward like a small ball to the brambly thickets that were rapidly approaching. Legolas could hold on to his backpack no longer. He watched the screaming halfling hit the canyon's surface, twisting and turning in to odd shapes. The fall seemed to take an eternity before Pippin broke through the coiled, dead branches at the bottom. They were brittle and snapped easily but had sharp, pointy tips to scrape the skin. The racing speed tempered and Pippin ceased on his side. He kept his eyes closed, afraid to move.
Bracing for the crash, Legolas held his straight position and compacted his arms to guard his chest and face. Just as Pippin discovered, Legolas flew past the woody blockade with ease, save only for a tear in his garb and scratches on his hands and ears. He concentrated more force in his heels to stop his high-speed momentum but the inertia was greater, his head spun round and his feet now pointed in the opposite direction. Quiet he lay for only a moment. As his hands moved off his face, he breathed in a sigh of relief and mentally examined each part of his body until assured all was intact. Like abruptly waking from a nightmare, Legolas sprang to his feet and with a focused glance he surveyed the area till he was positive no eminent danger hovered near them.
The poor hobbit was only a few feet from him and Legolas hurried to his side. Pippin's left leg wound up in an awkward position—Legolas feared it broken. He called the hobbit's name gently, then louder and louder, but to no avail. "I have not the skill for mending, the duty is best left to Aragorn." Legolas shook Pippin's body, careful not to aggravate further injury. Pippin responded to the jolt and widely opened his eyes to the elf. He groaned loudly as he tried to recover the memory of his fall.
"Are there any breaks in your bones?"
Pippin then realized the figure above him was Legolas. "No. I feel only a soreness throughout."
"Carefully, stand to your feet." Legolas said trying to support him. Unsure of his footing, Pippin hobbled up and tested his weight on either foot. The left ankle throbbed with a pinching pain but it was not unbearable or un-walkable. Around his ankle a swelling began to form. Though Legolas remedied few ailments in his years as a warrior, he recognized the seriousness of Pippin's injury if it was not properly cared for and rested.
"I can walk. However, to climb back up to road I cannot do alone. I am afraid to, truthfully. One ride down that mountain is more than my liking."
"The face of valley is a landslide of loose gravel and soft dirt, unfit to traverse for a well-footed hobbit or elf alike." Legolas eyed the trail marks they left on the valley side and then turned to face Pippin again. "You will sit on the stump there, it is not judicious too keep full weight on a sore ankle. When we are not walking, you must sit and take ease." He assisted Pippin to the tree stump.
"Legolas, do you know where we are? I am a fool for those berries! Curse my craving for them!"
The elf parted as he ranted. Though Legolas heard him, he had no answer yet. At the foot of the base, he looked up past the thickets and saw there was a canopy of winter branches that covered him from view up top. Legolas' sharpness could see the entire Company peering down searching for their fallen friends, but the dead thick foliage spoiled their view. Only Legolas had them in sight and his ears sensed the details of their conversation.
At the height of great trees above the Company of Seven stared long in to the valley depth. Gimli was the first to see the commotion and hollered the others to take urgent notice. At the end of the drawf's cries their eyes scattered around attempting to gather the events taking place. They saw Pippin take his final slip in to descent and then watched Legolas disappear with him. Frodo ran to the edge first and witnessed his dear friend tumble like a head of lettuce. Speechless and helpless he stood while the falling cries rang in his ears.
"It does not look it, but the thickets below are weak and easy to break, compared to the eaves that are still strong on these trees." Aragorn tried to comfort them all. "Our friends will suffer only lucky bruises and scratches from the wood."
"They have fallen so far and I cannot see them!" Merry exclaimed. "Pippin is the smallest of us all and he is sure to have broken his bones if not, far worse! And how will meet them?"
Hefty in his voice, Aragorn called out down below, "Legolas! Legolas! Give us a sign that you and Pippin are well to walk."
From his pack Legolas pulled a map he retrieved from Rivendell. He tore a piece and skewered one of his arrows through it. Drawn tautly, he readied a mark high up on the edge from where they fell and let his arrow fly, striking the tree trunk within inches of Boromir.
"Ah, deadly accurate is his eyesight." Aragorn said with a half smile.
"Indeed!" Boromir freed the arrow and took the map piece into his hands. "Eregion? He must want us to meet him there. What place is this?"
"In our speech it is named Hollin." Replied Gandalf.
"How long must we travel less dear Pippin and Legolas?" Frodo cried.
"In nearly a fortnight we shall arrive in Hollin, Frodo." Aragorn said. "Save any injuries, Legolas and Pippin will arrive days later. We have only to wait for them there. No more must we linger, time is our enemy this day."
Over the edge Merry searched again for his friend but he saw no living creature. He was afraid for Pippin and began to miss him dearly. Down at his feet was Pippin's snack pouch, bursting so with winterberries it could not close. "All of it was in vain, he did not get his sweet prize."
Gandalf went to Merry and in a kindly voice said, "Relieve your woes. Legolas is with him."
But he could not. Only if he were side by side with Pippin would he be free of his worries. Together, he believed hobbits have mighty strength and will, though it is unlikely other hobbits share in this like. They are more ought not to think of possible adversity, it is plainly not in the hobbit character. Merry rejoined the group and walked on. He thought more of the differences between he and the hobbits left in the Shire. Frodo, Sam, Pippin and himself were no longer country, simple-minded, hobbit-folk. Their minds were opening and their spirits released to the outside world. As he stayed on this rational track, the fear he had for Pippin quietly subsided. "Gandalf is right. I've no need to worry so." He said to himself.
Pippin was looking pitiful when Legolas returned to him. The elf instructed to set off and continue in the direction of their travel. "The greatest of my abilities is not physical strength and so I cannot carry you at length but I will hold your pack. That should relieve you of some burden."
Pippin outpoured his frustration and self-pity on to Legolas, "I have slowed the quest further and hurt myself in the meantime. My dear Frodo is disappointed and Gandalf… Gandalf must be furious! I tell you, he will cast me into a smaller body so that I may be kept in his pocket and out of the way. And I will welcome it! I know you must feel the same."
But his self-torment would be better to fall on deaf ears; Legolas wanted none of it. "You are exasperating! Do not make this more irritating and strenuous than it has become. Remember, Fellowship partner, our purpose is long from over, there are many more adversities waylaid ahead of us." Legolas did not say it aloud, but strong was the sensation future dangers that would befall the Company would be the doing of Pippin's disregard.
Legolas helped Pippin down. "Light in this valley will be scarce and night will fall rapidly. Hollin is several days south. Our reunion is there."