-Note- Today is my birthday, so here is a birthday post for you all. I hope you enjoy it!

-Disclaimer- Please see chapter 1.

An "Incident"

Days went by, and weeks. Winter had come in full force, piling mountains of snow in the alleyways and turning the city parks into playgrounds for sledding children, bundled tightly against the cold. He saw them everywhere, skating on the ponds or in the alleys before the salt trucks came.

Sunday. He walked Alyaran in the early afternoon, before the sun set. He had had a sandwich for lunch, thrown on his heavy winter coat, and they had left. The sidewalks were clear of snow, and he and Alyaran made it to the beach fairly quickly. The water had frozen over almost as far as he could see, excepting a few ice-blue pools where gulls waded.

The beach itself was covered in an odd sort of sand-snow mix. He let Alyaran off his leash, tossed him a few snowballs as they walked along the water's edge. Ice coated the rock outcrop where he had dropped the hermit crab a few months earlier. Children played on the ice near it.

It was snowing. Not much, but enough to add a magical, wintry air to the place. The tree-lined street behind him appeared vague and white.

"Gordon?"

He looked up from Alyaran, who was dancing excitedly about his ankles. A woman in a dark red coat was approaching, with black hat and gloves.

"Hello?" he called.

As she approached, he realized that it was Ruthie…Ruth. He had visited Mrs. Rosenthal regularly, even knowing she was being taken care of. He and Ruth had never spoken much, and she was often gone in the evenings.

"Ruth!" he said. "How are you?"

"Oh, fine," she said, walking with him. "And yourself?"

"Alright. How's your grandmother?"

Ruth smiled. "As usual."

"Wonderful."

They walked side by side. Awkward silence.

"Do you like music?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh," he said, "Very much."

"Would you like to go to the symphony some time? I can get you tickets quite easily."

Glorfindel, though he did not slow, was somewhat taken aback. He must have looked so, because she laughed. She is certainly no Helen, he thought.

"No, no," she said quickly. "Not like that. I'm in the symphony…cello. My grandmother seemed to think you'd like it."

He let out a breath. Why was he relieved? When had he become so isolated?

He did not bother to answer his questions. He knew why.

"Yes," he said. "I would like to go to the symphony. I haven't been in a very long time."

She smiled. "I rather thought so. Everyone needs music."

He nodded.

"What's his name?" she asked after a while.

"Who's?"

"Your dog's."

"Oh, Alyaran."

"He's very sweet."

"He is."

They reached the end of the beach. There was a pier, but there wasfragile-looking ice under it, ankle deep. He did not fancy crossing it. They turned around.

Through the snow, he could see the dark shapes of the children.

"They shouldn't be out there," said Ruth. "I grew up here, and I know about ice."

Glorfindel quirked an eyebrow. "Is this from experience?"

She nodded, rolling her eyes. "I was seven, and I wanted to go skating."

"Ah."

They finished the length of the beach in silence. It wasn't dark yet, and Glorfindel guessed the time to be around four o'clock.

Glorfindel watched the boys contemplatively.

"Gordon?"

"Hmm?"

"Come visit Nana this week. She hasn't been feeling one hundred percent for the past few days, and I know how you cheer her up."

"Oh," he said. "Of course I will. Anything I can do…?"

She shook her head. "No. We're fine. She's just getting old, is all."

He knew what was going to happen an instant before it really did; he heard it in the quiet protest of the ice. He froze, watching the boys on the ice. There were two. They could hear it now, the buckling. One boy threw himself across the ice on his belly, slid into the snow bank on the beach. The other struggled to reach for some toy as the ice around him split from the main pack. Water welled up around the cracks, and he was bobbing alone on a shrinking island.

Ruth gasped and bent to take off her shoes.

"No," he said, taking off his own and throwing his cloak and sweater onto the snow. "Stay here." He pulled off his hat and gloves.

She was a smart girl. She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. He heard her voice as he turned away,

"The city beach, yes. Seventh Avenue. A little boy has fallen through the ice, my friend has gone to get him-"

Someone else had arrived, frantic- the boy's mother, prehaps?

And then, with a small cry, the child's head disappeared into the water. Glorfindel, knowing that he himself could not fall through, closed the gap between them.

The water wasn't very deep here, but it was cold. He plunged his arm in to the shoulder, searching for the boy. His fingers snagged on a coat. Laying on his belly, he grabbed hold with both his hands, pulled.

The boy surfaced after no more than a minute of submersion, and Glorfindel brought him up, onto the ice. It immediately started to crack under the weight. The child was gasping and whimpering. He slid the boy away from the gaping hole, swung him across the ice like a bowling ball, into the snow.

By now, he was up to his waste in water. The child had weighed him down too much, and he had broken through. But the boy was out of the water now, and Ruth was taking off his sodden clothes and wrapping him in hers and Glorfindel's cloaks.

With sigh, he heaved himself out of the water, and, shivering, walked slowly onto the beach.

The boy's nose was bleeding and he was shaking violently, but he was conscious.Glorfindel heard sirens. He was suddenly very tired. He looked for Alyaran, saw him sniffing anxiously at the boy.

"Here!" he called to him. Alyaran came, and Glorfindel put his leash back on. "Ready to go home?" He received no answer.

Unnoticed by Ruth, the boy, or the medics, he slipped away andescaped back to his apartment.

(l)

"What was that?" Ruth asked. She had come to his door not an hour later to check on him. And also, Glorfindel mused, to iterrogate him.

"What?" He dreaded the question.

"You didn't fall through until you were holding him."

"Oh." He thought, chewing the inside of his lip. "I grew up where it was very cold. There's a trick to walking on ice, and we were all quite good at it."

She eyed him skeptically. He did not invite her inside. "I don't believe you. And what's with your ears?"

"Hmm?" He resisted the urge to make sure his hair was covering them.

"You took off your cap. And they weren't normal."

He laughed. "Relics of wild college days."

"You're young. Your college days were probably more recent than mine."

He shrugged. "You never know."

"Yeah," she said. "And you ought to be a block of ice by now. Your pants are soaked."

He shrugged again. "Another little trick. Never admit to yourself you are cold. Mind of matter, that sort of thing."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that she wasn't convinced.

"You're a very strange man, Gordon Findel. You're more than meets the eye."

He chuckled. "Perhaps you are right."

(l)

Thanks for reading! Review Responses:

Kazbels: Thanks! And thank you for reviewing my holiday ficlet- it being my first foray out of Tolkien-land, I was rather anxious. Happy holidays!

Starlit Jewel: Thanks! Of course I'll continue! ;)

Perelleth: A lurker come out of hiding? Terrific! Thanks for reviewing…this chapter was a little less 'normal'. I'm nervous about how it will fly with readers, so I hope you like it!

Crystal113: Emmm…enroll him in a cooking class:P Another update should be coming soon- I'm pretty well snowed under right now. Not much to do besides writing and shoveling. :D

Avalon Estel: Wow! Thank you for all the reviews! I'm glad you like this story. Glorfindel is my favorite. :D

Joou Himeko Dah: Thanks!

Dark Borg Drone: Ugh. Printers. The bane of our existence!

Saturn's Hikari: Thanks for the reviews:) As for Elrohir and Elladan, maybe I will write some of them in the future. I've never been to Norway, but much of my family is from there, so we have a lot of pictures. It is beautiful. Thanks for reviewing my holiday ficlet!

Noldo: I've inspired you? This is fantastic!Terrific! Whoo!This is all part of my secret plan to take over the world:P Well, I think we need as many Glorfindel stories as we can get, and I know you'd do a wonderful job. :) Good luck on your exams!