For those of you who've read before: I added a new, short, segment prior to this. So sorry for the false hope of moving forward with the story just yet. Some of the backstories for canon characters may be AU but bear with me eh? Please let me know what you think of the story thus far with reviews/critiques. Cheers!

The stars screamed out their brightness from the darkened sky above when Katun emerged from the house. The hour was late, or early depending on how you looked at it, and Lake Town was still abed. There were few lights lit in the town, allowing the starlight to be that much brighter and for Katun to feel that much more isolated despite the fact that she was surrounded by the hovel homes of the townspeople. Her sleep had been restless, filled with more images of people she felt she knew but all without names or connections to her present circumstances. She'd woken in a panic, her hand reaching for a weapon she no longer had, and had lain on the bed for some time after with her body thrumming with pent up adrenaline. Knowing that it'd be useless to remain in bed with so much nervous energy, she'd tiptoed down the stairs and past the sleeping forms of Sigrid and Tilda where they were nestled close to the warm stove. There'd thankfully been a cloak near the door that she'd snagged and now draped about her shoulders, though it offered her very little protection against the bone-deep chill that crept around her on the night breeze. She'd been outside only a few minutes and already she couldn't feel the tip of her nose and her lips were beginning to feel numb. She was loathed to return indoors however and so she glanced about for anything that could distract her from the cold.

When her eyes fell upon what looked to be a staff leaning against the railing she smiled. She tied the cloak more tightly and reached for the staff. Well-weighted and well-worn from use, it was perfect for her purpose. She balanced the staff first in one hand then tossed it in the air and caught it in the other hand, balancing it there as well. She grabbed hold of both ends and stretched her arms behind her body and then brought them back in front again, repeating the motion a few more times until her shoulders felt warm. Katun closed her eyes as her fingers sought out an appropriate grip upon the staff, her body beginning to move of its own accord in spite of her blocked memory. She shifted on the balls of her feet and lunged forward, releasing a series of thrusts and parries with the staff, before moving backwards and doing the mirror image of her forward attacks but in a defensive stance. Twirling the staff with her hands, Katun pivoted on her heel and tracked an imaginary foe as s/he circled her. "Seeing" an opening with the imaginary foe she attacked again, this time utilizing both the staff and her natural body weight with a series of staff thrusts combined with kicks and blocks. She continued the imaginary sparring until she no longer felt the chill in the air, until her muscles began to unkink themselves from the atrophy they'd fallen into during her bedrest, and until her mind began to feel more at ease than it had since she'd first awakened.

She only stopped when her body reminded her that she still wasn't at full health levels, a sudden bout of fatigue near sending her crashing into the side of the house. A warm body and a strong pair of arms saved her the discomfort and Katun looked up to see that Bard had for the second time that day managed to rescue her from falling—though thankfully this time she was clothed.

"Oh." Was all she managed to say as he helped her stand upright again, his hands a little slow in letting go of her shoulders as her body continued to sway. "Thank you."

Bard smiled, "Do you often come out in the dead of night to fight invisible enemies?"

"I don't know." Katun stared at the staff for a moment before she shrugged. "Maybe I did once."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset-" He held his hands up as if he could brush away the supposed offense.

Katun reached out and laid a hand on Bard's forearm, "You didn't upset me." She squeezed her hand against his arm before she let go. "I honestly don't know if I did or not. But it seems that I was skilled with fighting though." She replaced the staff against the railing and pulled the cloak tighter about her shoulders. Her body was still warm from the exertion but she knew soon enough the sweat would cool and she'd grow chilled. In spite of that though she still didn't want to return indoors, especially not now that Bard was with her. She frowned and looked over to the man. "Did I wake you?"

"Being a father of three, I am easily awakened." He gave her a smile. "When I heard the door close I wasn't sure who it was who'd left and it actually took me a moment to remember that you were staying with us." He sounded apologetic and Katun shook her head but Bard continued. "In any case, it still surprised me to find you out here armed with a staff, about to take off the head of anyone who happened to get too close." Katun chuckled. "I don't think I've ever seen a woman fight like that before."

"So it isn't common amongst your people, for a woman to be a warrior?" she asked.

Bard shook his head, "There are some lands further east of us here where it is rumored that women fight alongside men as equals and even that some of the women command armies and kingdoms." He studied her silently for a moment, reminding Katun that the starlight was bright enough for him to see just as many features upon her body as she could see upon his—and she still found that she admired his features greatly. "Perhaps you are from those lands."

"Sigrid thought similarly, hence the name. But that doesn't solve the mystery of why I was in the river, and alone."

"And dressed in elven clothing."

Katun nodded but then frowned after a moment, "I can't even picture what an elf looks like. Are they short?"

Bard laughed, "No they are quite tall and otherworldly looking."

"Do they have pointed ears?"

Bard nodded and added, "Some are said to be so fair that one look casts an enchantment upon the observer."

"Maybe I became enchanted and nearly drowned from it."

Bard laughed again, "Not likely but it is most curious that you would be drifting downstream from King Thranduil's lands."

"King Thranduil? The name seems to echo faintly with a memory but it doesn't seem to be as deeply rooted in my mind as the others that are trying to come back."

Bard moved to the railing and pointed across the rooftops in the general direction of where they'd sailed from the days prior. "King Thranduil is the elven king who rules the forested area on that side of the lake. It was once called the Greenwood but recently more and more people have begun to call it Mirkwood. Our hunting parties have come across bands of orcs and goblins more in recent years than ever before and we've even found signs of giant spiders nesting there."

"That doesn't sound particularly pleasant." Nor did it sound plausible to Katun. For some reason her brain couldn't compute the words Bard was saying to her as fact but instead was trying to file it away in the fiction compartment of her mind as it had with Sigrid's earlier description of a dragon. "Is this king a kind king?"

Bard looked at her with surprise, "Your memories must've been thoroughly wiped clean if you thought it possible to put the word 'kind' next to King Thranduil's name. He is a strong king, a feared and respected leader of his forces, but far from kind. Very few of our people have seen him face-to-face and those who have wished they hadn't. Our only business with the elves is in trade of barrels and mead. He has a liking for the mead we make, taken from the blooms near the foot of the mountains here, and the deal between Lake Town and Mirkwood was struck up years ago. No one has tried to sever or alter it and I'm fairly certain no one is of the mindset to attempt to do so for fear of incurring the dissatisfaction of the king."

"And the river you fished me out of," Katun came to stand next to Bard, mirroring his posture in leaning against it, her shoulders almost brushing against his, "it can only come from his kingdom?"

Bard nodded. "The tributaries that flow into it are not large or strong enough to carry you. It is possible that you fell in outside of the cavern realm of the king but still that is elven territory and it is impossible to encroach upon their territory without them knowing it." He glanced over at her, "Are you cold?"

"A little." Katun smiled. "I don't want to return inside just yet though."

Bard looked back at the staff she'd set aside then at Katun and nodded. He seemed to understand without specific explanation what it was that had driven her out of doors to begin with. Instead of insisting that she go back inside he instead shifted closer until their sides were fully touching and some semblance of shared warmth could aid her in her fight against the chill. She gave him a smile which he returned before they both looked back out to the starlight reflections upon the calm lake below them. Watching the starlight flicker on the few ripples that the breeze stirred up brought forth an image in Katun's mind that made her smile.

"What is it?" Bard appeared to notice her smile with his question.

"I think I remember something." She closed her eyes in order to formulate the memory into a coherent thought. "A night, similar to this, spent on the lakeside with my family. I don't remember much just the smell of campfire smoke, the starlight reflecting on the water, and a sense of peace and warmth at being surrounded by my family." She opened her eyes and looked over to Bard. "For some reason I know it wasn't this lake though."

"There are many lakes in the world." Bard smiled. "That is a good start though. You're apparently from a place where it gets cold at night like it does here and where there are large lakes. That narrows down the list of possibilities in that it cuts out the Easterling regions; that is primarily a desert region and though it grows cold at night, or so I hear, I don't think it would be the same type of chill as this, nor would it have ample amounts of lakes."

Katun nodded and fell silent again, her mind mulling over the few memories that her brain had offered her thus far, seeking to find connections between them. Some were, as she'd said earlier, more deeply rooted in what felt to be her true past while others seemed more recent and stranger, as if she'd been trying to come to terms with them prior to her accident. Bard shifted at her side and she looked over to him, studying his profile. Even in the starlight she could see the scattering of white hair drawn away from his temples by the leather thong he'd used to tie his hair behind his head. She thought it gave him a more distinguished look instead of making him look aged. The lines around his eyes spoke of a time when there had been more laughter while the lines around his mouth were testimony of the harsher times he and his family had fallen under. He looked at her then and Katun blushed, having been caught in the act of staring.

"What do you remember of your family?" He asked then.

"What do you mean?"

Bard folded his hands together as he leaned on his elbows, "Do you remember a husband or children or just a mother, father, and siblings?"

"I know I wasn't married." Bard seemed surprised at the swiftness of her answer. "I mean I think I know. It just feels like I'd grown used to being alone and that I lived an independent life. Almost as if I lived apart from my family, by choice or necessity I'm not sure, but that that independence wasn't filled with loneliness. And," Katun blushed, "my body doesn't feel like it's given birth."

Bard laughed, the smile on his face doing much towards making him look both younger and full of greater vigor, "I suppose that is something a woman's body would remember even without specific details."

Katun shared in his mirth with a chuckle of her own before she spoke again, "You were present for all of your children's births?"

While he didn't immediately lose all mirth, the question did sober Bard's features and his eyes took on a far-off look as if he'd begun to travel in time. He nodded after a moment, his smile soft and melancholic.

"Sigrid took us by surprise. We'd only just gotten married and begun to settle into our lives together when it became apparent that she was with child. The timing, being so sudden, led to some of the women of town gossiping that we'd shared the marriage bed prior to our nuptials but that wasn't the case." Bard smirked. "Granted it wasn't because of a lack of desire," he looked over at Katun and then quickly looked away as if he suddenly remembered who it was he was talking to, "we just hadn't had the time or opportunity to do such things. Her family were farmers and mine merchants and it always seemed that we were being pulled in two different directions, even after we were married that was the case until Sigrid came along."

Katun nodded and smiled, "I hear that newlyweds can have a difficult time the first few years of marriage if they live too close to their in-laws."

Bard let out a snort. "That is very much the truth."

"So Sigrid," Katun continued after a moment's pause, "took you both by surprise. What about Bain?"

"Sigrid wanted a little brother and kept pestering her mother and I about buying a little brother." Katun laughed and Bard nodded. "Yes, she was certain that we could buy a little brother at the market just as easily as you could fruit and vegetables. In any case, when my wife became pregnant with Bain it took some time to teach Sigrid the truth of where it was baby brothers came from." Bard's smile sobered once more and Katun felt a change come over the man, as if the memories he'd been reliving had taken on a darker note. "Tilda had not been planned for, much like Sigrid, only by the time Tilda came along Lake Town was having a harder go of it. We kept having bad harvest after bad harvest and then there was the sickness that swept through the town that left many family's with fewer members and those that were left behind were weaker than before, my wife being one of them. I lost the last of my family to that sickness and my wife's family had years before that decided to seek out better fortunes elsewhere. They'd tried to get us to go along but it had been my wife who'd insisted that we stay. She wanted to raise our children on the lake." He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before he straightened to his full height. "Tilda was a beautiful baby though."

Katun also stood to her full height, still much shorter than Bard, and looked up to him, "Your wife died that night, when Tilda was born?" Bard nodded. Katun reached out and laid a soft hand upon his forearm. He didn't look at her right away and Katun waited until he made eye contact before she spoke. "I'm truly sorry for the loss of your wife. Your children are beautiful and while I don't want to presume, I'm sure she would be thankful that you've managed for them as well as you have."

Bard laid a hand upon hers and nodded, "You're right." He patted her hand before looking over her shoulder. "Look." He took hold of her shoulders and turned her until she could look in the direction he was pointing. She could see a faint change in colors beginning in the east and realized that soon the sun would rise. "I haven't stayed up to see the sunrise in many years." His voice was close to her ear and she realized that he still stood close behind her, ever aware of the fact that she had less body mass than he, and had bent down to speak close to her ear. "Usually I'm getting ready for the day by this time."

"Oh," Katun glanced up and angled her torso to the side in order to look more directly at him, "by all means please go about your regular routine."

Bard smiled down at her and took hold of her shoulders once more, angling her back until she again faced the east. Katun smiled and allowed the sunrise to continue in companionable silence with the man behind her. She wasn't quite sure what it was about him that had her so at ease in his presence, in spite of the odd circumstances under which they'd met, but she was thankful that it had been he who had found her. She wasn't naïve and so fully recognized that she was already attracted to the near stranger, and if she was completely honest with herself she sensed that he was also drawn to her. However, whether or not there was a place for him in the mess of her memory-less past or for her in his dire life here in Lake Town, well that remained to be seen. For the time being they both seemed content enough to share the beauty of a sunrise together.

They were also both unaware of a a pair of young faces smiling at them through the window of the house beside them.