Paladin mounted his horse; speeding off towards the pond. He had already alerted some of the surrounding neighbors, just in case they had seen Pippin, and had asked some of them to help him search for the lost boy. Pippin will be fine, he's a smart lad Paladin tried to reassure himself as time wore on and he had still seen nothing of the boy.
"Oi, Paladin, I think I've found something!" It was his neighbor Rangel Green calling to him, "There are some footprints here, come see if they might be Peregrin's"
Paladin cantered to the spot, jumped off his horse, and bent down to look at the small impressions barely visible under the blanket of fresh snow.
"Pippin" He whispered, his breath coming out in a puff, his heart racing these look like they were made hours ago! How could Pippin possibly be alive after being outside for this long? Paladin shook his head No, don't tell yourself that, Pippin will be fine. Just fine!
"There not his?" Rangel looked at Paladin,
"No, they are definitely his!" Paladin answered back, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Well, lets get a move on then, these footprints look like they have been here for hours!"
Paladin jumped onto his horse and followed Rangel down the hill, following the tiny footprint's trail.
"They stop here!" Paladin looked up, and stopped his horse just short of falling into the pond.
"Pippin?" Paladin called looking around him nervously "Pippin!" He shouted looking out across the pond, there was a huge crack down the center of it "NO!" He screamed to the silence "Rangel, he can't have fallen into that gap, he can't have!"
"Paladin, look at the facts, the footprints end here and.."
"NO! Pippin is going to be ok!" Paladin was now shouting at his friend tears streaming down his face
"Ok, Paladin, calm down, you are doing your son no good by shouting like that!" Rangel looked at his friend, eyes full of sympathy but at the same time trying to get his friend to look at the scene logically, "But the footprints, they end at the ice and the ice..."
"There!" Paladin had just spotted a tiny limp form a few meters down, lying on the bank. Paladin ran towards it, knelt down and began to brush the snow away from the limp "Pippin..."