Quete

by Comrade Bagel Muffin

Chambre De Dusk

Dusk Song hurried down each hallway taking sharp rights and lefts down seemingly random corridors. "Dusk where are we going?" Escutcheon asked, as he was dragged along by the enthusiastic thestral. The glow of the sapphire had grown back to it's usual strength.

"We're going to my home base." She looked back at him her yellow eyes glowing in the blue ambient glow of the sapphire. She took another sharp and sudden left turn. Escutcheon was pulled along as they headed down the new corridor. She wasn't kidding this place really is a maze. He thought as took a right at the end of the hall. "If the storm is over now, then I can go home, but first I need to get my travel stuff. Then I'll show you the way out."

"So you know where your family is?" Escutcheon asked. She came to a abrupt stop. "Dusk is everything alright?" He hoped that he hadn't just opened a can of worms.

"I'm fine." She continued down the hall at a much slower pace. "You see I know where they're at, or at least where they were." She sat down at the end of the hall. Escutcheon joined her sitting at her side. "You see the colony was migrating out of our home due to a terrible fire. We bumped into that giant storm and skirted the side of it for a long time." She sniffed and wiped the moisture from her eyes. "Some of our scouts came back and said that further on was a very big desert, that we'd need a lot of water to cross it. So Dad lead a team to get as much water from the storm as we could. It was the last day before we were suppose to head out. I went to help." He put his hoof around her shoulder as she started to shake. "The storm suddenly got really bad, and I was blown way off course." She wiped the tears from her place. "I was going to die I knew it, but then I found this cave, and I've been here ever since. I spent the first month at the entrance hoping that my Dad would come to get me. He never did." She lowered her head. "I guess I wasn't important enough."

"No!" Escutcheon was shocked at how loud he was. "I'm sure that he searched all over the place for you, but you just got blown tor far off course." Escutcheon smiled at her and helped her back up on her hooves. "I bet that he'll be more than elated when he sees that your okay."

"Elated?" She looked at him wiping all of the tears from her eyes and face.

"Really, really happy. It's was the word of the day when I got lost." Escutcheon blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "I know I'm an egghead right?"

"Don't know what that means either, but it sounds like a good way to describe you."

"Jee thanks." Dusk laughed, and nodded to a hall branching off to the left.

"Come on my base is just a couple more halls down." She headed down the hall. "So, Escutcheon how did you get lost?" It was his turn to stop now. His blood went cold in his veins. "Escutcheon?" She looked back at him, He wiped a tear that streaked down his face.

"I didn't" He croaked. "I ran away." His stomach started to grumble. He blushed her stomach growled too.

"Let's stop talking about this sad stuff and get something to eat." She put her wing around him and started heading back to her room. "I've got food at my base." The two of them quickly made their way down the last couple of halls. They came to a sudden dead end with a cloth sheet spread across the hall. She pushed open the curtain and walked in leading Escutcheon into the dead end hall that she had converted into her home base. She flew over to a light crystal and tapped it three times. It came alive shining with pure white light filling every crevasse with light. "Welcome to Dusk Song's Super Secret Hidden Base."

Her base was about the size of any of the halls that they had come down. There were several unique distinctions to it though. First the walls were somehow dyed or painted blue with dark spots that might have been birds or batponies. The was also a bush in the middle of the room. There were three buckets off to the side, and a small little pile of leafs with a blanket on the far end of the hall right in front of the wall. She trotted over to the bush and pulled a couple of berries.

"How is a berry bush growing down here."

"It's a Cavern Berry Bush. They only grow in caves. Back in our old home there was a cave full of these berries. They taste good and also can be used as a paint how do you think I painted the walls blue." There are a few more of these bushes around but this one's the biggest." She went over to a bucket and pulled out a dead fish. "And they taste delicious with fish." Escutcheon galloped out of the room, back into the cave and started heaving.