A/N I own nothing except the story and Sky. I hope you enjoy reading. I've had a long break from writing so any critique is welcome, just be nice
Chapter One.
It was cold, foggy and grey. The air was heavy with mist and water, soon it would rain and that rain would be ice cold sheets of wet despair. Spring was soon to be making its annual appearance but it was taking a long and leisurely time in doing so. It was nearing evening and the grey night was drawing in quicker than it should have been for the time of year, and it was the quickness of the shadows that had Bard returning to his barge quicker and slightly less cautious than normal. Carrying a satchel of rabbits he had caught that day on his right shoulder, his bow slung over his left and holding his quiver of arrows and a dagger tightly in his hands he scurried through out the trees toward where he had safely docked his transport home. His ears were alert to the stillness around him, awaiting any sound which might be cause for alarm, his eyes had adjusted to the dank fog that covered everything from the ankles up toward the sky, blocking out the dull sun. He topped and stood as still as stone, there was nothing to sense; no danger, no enemy nor friend. Just himself and his catch. He sighed and took toward the edge of the lake, walking around boulders and rocks, certain his feet would get him there with ease. And get him there they did, with a sigh of relief he bounded on to his vessel and unloaded his belongings in to a wooden barrel and leaped off the barge once again and made his way to the rope that had been keeping his barge docked to a large boulder for the afternoon. A chill ran down his spine and he shrugged it off, his fingers numb with chill struggling to undo the knot. The chill seemed an inconvenience to him at the moment, but it soon became the inconvenience of another, as out of the corner of his eye he saw something not even three feet away from him; a cloaked figure walking slowly and unsteadily toward him. He stood straight, ready for anything that may launch itself at him, but the figure continued to sway toward him until it was in arms reach.
"H…..Help me." It whispered, before taking one last stumbling step toward him and falling in to his arms. The bargeman caught the figure and held it steadily against him, using his right hand to support it upright against his chest, and his left to pull the hood away to reveal the stranger. What he saw caused his breath to catch; a woman! Or was it? She was pale, a bruise on her right cheek and a gash on her forehead, her bottom lip was cut, her ear was subtly and slightly pointed, the shape was not obvious unless you looked hard for a diffrence. She was in bad condition.
"Who are you?" Bard muttered to the unconscious woman before picking her up and carrying her on to the barge. He settled her in the only dry corner he could find on the deck and covered her in a spare blanket that he kept inside one of the many barrels, he put her hood back over her head to keep her warm and dry and once again leapt off the deck to untie to barge and push it away from the edge. Finally he was setting off toward home, but instead of just rabbits for a stew, he was also returning home with an unexpected passenger.
"What trouble have you bought down on yourself now Bard?" He saidquietly to himself, steering his vessel along the darkening and icey waters.
