Esctucheon groaned as his eyes opened up. The sky above him was bright and clear. "Bright." He held his hoof up trying to shield his eyes as they adjusted.
"You’re up that’s good,” Myrrh said walking into up to him. “You had me worried there, kid, not that I doubted you.” He looked around Myrrh was resting next to him in. They were in a small clearing surrounded by underbrush and small mountain trees. He looked around; it was just the two of them.
“Where are the others?” he asked slowly getting up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as the last vestibules of the sleep spell faded away.
“Honestly I have no idea.” Myrrh looked up to the sky. “I’m certain that they got out too, but apart from that, well, I don’t know.” Escutcheon’s heart fell into his stomach.
“What happened?”
“Lay back down kiddo this is going to take a while,” Myrrh sighed. Escutcheon nodded and lay back down. She looked back down to him; she looked tired. “We were doing pretty good getting out. Made it out of the Pick’s manor pretty easily, and were working our way down the side streets and alley ways to avoid the guards.” She paused for a minute. “We were about half way down Black Rock Mountain when the alarm went off. Things got complicated then, Atlas is old and not as fast as a stallion in his prime, and Turkeylegs is, well noticeable.” The wind blew through their small shelter, it felt unnaturally peaceful. “It didn’t take long before the city guard found us, and the fire fight erupted.” She closed her eyes there was a long pause before she began again. “Red Wine lived up to his reputation and position. The spells he was using were scary.”
“Why don’t you get some rest right quick.” Escutcheon offered as Myrrh struggled to keep her eyes open. “You can feel me in on the rest when you wake up.” She nodded and yawned. The second her head hit the ground she was out. He sat there for several long minutes not knowing what to do. He felt completely lost if it weren’t for Myrrh being there it would have been just like when he woke up that first night after running away. This time though the pit in his stomach wasn’t for himself. He was terrified for Dusk, Turkeylegs, Atlas, and even Red Wine. Despite their poor first introduction Red wasn’t bad, just completely untrusting. After a few minutes the anxiety faded. He needed to find his friends. He grabbed his combing stick from his bag and started working the tangles out of his golden blond mane. He dumped the contents of his bags onto the ground and started shifting though it.
It was about noon when Myrrh’s yawn snapped him out of what he was doing. “Oh, it wasn’t a dream. That’s, that’s unfortunate.” She looked over at him and the sixteen small piles he had made of his stuff. “What’s all this?” She totted up next to him.
“So you know how dowsing works right?"
"I know the fundamentals of it yes." She walked over to his side. "But I don't recall any of those basic principles being inventory management."
"I'm looking for something to use as a focus for a search spell my mother taught me." Escutcheon answered as he looked over his piles. "The focus needs to be something of value to the pony that it's from." He pointed to the first row of four. "These are all my things." He moved to the next column of four. "These are Dusk's, but I don't have anything to special that belongs to her. At least nothing that would lead me right to her. I'm having the same problem with Atlas and Turkeylegs too, I have feathers, but they aren't exactly valued by Turkeylegs."
"Really, I'd think she would have some attachment to this bracelet here, given the necklace and earrings she wears." Myrrh tapped a small silver bracelet made of elaborately twisted silver wires.
"She's not seen it yet." Escutcheon answered his cheeks becoming flush a bit. Myrrh gave him a knowing look and patted him on the head.
"I'm sure she'll love it." she looked at the rest of the things. "I mean could you still cast the spell on what we have?"
"I'm going to have to." He conceded. "It'll give us a direction at the very least. But it may be off by kilometres."
"Hey a direction is a place to start. I was never good at tracking spells so I'm glad you know one at the very least." She got up. "Now let's try and get everypony back together."
Escutcheon nodded casting the spell on one of Dusk's earrings it floated up pointing to the south west of their location. He put everything back into his bag, and the two started heading off.
"Myrrh, could you tell me what happened after the alarm was raised?"
"Well we're going to be walking for a while, I don't see why I shouldn't."