[hr] [center][h1][color=thistle]Amheurst[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] [i]"Am I dead...?[/i] [color=dimgray] [i]Mired in shadow, a young knight leans heavily against a moss covered rock. His armor is worn and beaten and he carries the weight of sorrows several lifetimes long. The sword he holds in his hands-shorn clean off in the middle was once his fathers, and before that, his grandfathers. He ignores the flashes of light, the imposing darkness, all consumed by his grief.[/i][/color] [i]"How did I come to this place..?"[/i] [center][indent]Amheurst looked around the weary cavern. Travelers were congregating near a bonfire in the basin of the cave. The smoke unfurled and disappeared into the gathering mists above. The warm light from the flames fought the seemingly endless darkness of that place, save for the strange shafts of light that occasionally appeared and disappeared. Amheursts thoughts turned from his past and he began trudging towards the bonfire, broken sword still in hand. [i]"What use is this thing to me now...? All is lost...father would be...if he could be...I don't know what."[/i] The image of his father flashed through his mind. It was not of a man in full glorious plate armor atop his steed, axe at the ready as most men might remember the Lord of Guilliam Keep, but rather the simple work tunic he often wore when Amheurst would join him in the stables, late at night when the servants were asleep in the loft or drunk at the local tavern. Boarding the horses together was one of the few times that Amheurst felt an equal with his father. He became more personable or...less Lord of Guilliam Keep and more Bran, father of six. Amheurst was the youngest and his thoughts continued to spin from memory as he approached the bonfire. Others had gathered at the place of warmth and were talking. The light played strange tricks in this place concealing the other travelers faces. Amheurst clutched the remains of his families broken sword to his chest and and waited for the others to step into the light. [/indent][/center]