Chapter 5 The Escape
Sally, Julayla, Sonic and Rosie fled the castle through its network of tunnels and passageways and eventually ended up someplace deep within the Great Forest. Once they got outside of the door, they made sure to cover it with twigs, handfuls of grass and anything else they could find. Once they were sure that their escape path was concealed and after taking a careful look to make sure that Doctor Robotnik had not followed them somehow, only then did they dare say anything.
"Sally, do you remember the way to the retreat?" Julayla asked. They were all a bit winded from running down the stairs through the castle into the basement and down through the dark tunnels leading from the basement of the castle to where they stood. While catching her breath, Sally looked around at where they were trying to get her bearings.
"No idea… I've never been out this way. I know its behind the castle, but I've no clue where we are. I'd need to see which side of the castle we're on before saying." Sally said after thinking for a few moments. Sonic had sat down on a fallen log and was joined shortly by the others. They looked at the ground for a few seconds before anyone spoke up.
"Wait… the sun sets in the west, right? If we wait about forty-five minutes more, it should be setting. I remember the retreat was south of the castle… if we can wait long enough…" Sally started to say, but stopped when she was finally overcome by the reality of what had happened. Sally collapsed on the log and into Julayla's arms crying. Julayla held Sally in her arms and felt herself starting to cry, as did Sonic and Rosie. Sally cried until she could not anymore and finally opened her eyes. To her surprise, she found that Sonic and Rosie had fallen asleep curled up on the ground. Julayla was still awake and was gently rocking Sally singing quietly. She started a bit when Sally went to sit up.
"How long did I cry?" Sally asked as she sat up. Julayla wiped away her own tears, and finished the song she was singing before answering.
"A couple hours, at least. Sonic and Rosie fell asleep out of exhaustion about an hour ago. The sun set over that way." She said as she pointed behind them, "Sally, I'm sorry about all this. There's no one who could have prevented it from happening. The important thing right now is we get out of here and get to someplace familiar. I knew which way the retreat was, but I wanted to test your direction sense. I didn't mean to bring reality back so soon." Julayla said, but stopped when Sally placed a hand on her arm.
"I understand… you wanted to test me and ended up helping me get some of the sadness out. I'll wake up Sonic and Rosie… I can guide us and Sonic can help get around the forest in the dark." Sally said as she walked over to where Sonic and Rosie were laying. As gently as she could she managed to get both of them to wake up and they started the trek through the darkened forest. After almost an hour of walking, they finally reached their destination.
Few Mobians had ever heard of Knothole, and fewer still knew its precise location. That knowledge had been reserved for a handful of members of the King's court. The idea of an alternate command post had occurred to King Acorn and several of his advisors during the Great War, at a time when there was a very real threat to the safety of Mobotropolis. Yet with the easing of that threat, the King appeared to lose interest in the concept.
He began to conceive of the proposed royal redoubt in the peacetime role of a retreat, a protected place where he, his family, and selected members of the court could go to get a different perspective on things or simply to relax. Taking only a few into his confidence, he suggested modifications in the already secret project.
While the King was to be credited with the location of the site, it was Sir Charles Hedgehog who had planned the site as a base of operations, and then modified the plans for more peaceful purposes once the tide of battle had turned. The layout and planning of Knothole was more to Charles' taste than the war work that had kept him busy and that had earned him his knighthood.
Knothole had many things going for it even before the first pieces of timber were joined together. Located deep in the Great Forest in a slight depression, it was amply covered by foliage so as to be virtually invisible from the air. There were several small clearings within walking distance that could act as landing sites for hover units. There was farmable land close by and a river ran along the site. Access to it through the Great Forest was almost impossible unless one was aware of the network of trails and paths that would take one to it. To bring any ground vehicle to the site was impossible; it could only be reached on foot.
This, as much as Charles' own aesthetics, dictated that the design for Knothole be one of rustic simplicity. As much of the material as possible would come from the Great Forest itself, with some items brought to the site from the city. Work had progressed to the point where half a dozen huts of various sizes were finished as the Great War drew to a close.
Sally was the first one up well after sunrise and was surprised when she found that there were two more Mobians in Knothole. Sally recognized one of them right away, while the other seemed familiar to her. Before doing anything else, she ran to the hut she had slept in with Sonic, Julayla, and Rosie and woke the three up. Rosie came out first followed by Sonic and Julayla.
"Children, how did you find this place?" Rosie asked, walking up to the two children who were standing in front of one of the huts.
"Eet was me who led we to here." The young coyote dressed as if he were a royal guard said. It took a few seconds for Rosie to realize he was speaking with a decidedly French accent, meaning he had at least learned to speak in the French quarter of Mobius.
"Uh huh… we're real sorry about intruding like this, but we didn't know where else to go." The young walrus said. Rosie thought for a few seconds before saying anything else.
"It's quite alright. What are your names?"
"I'm Rotor and this is Antoine. We came from Mobotropolis after… you know… after it happened. We hid in the woods until it was night and stumbled across this place in the dark." Rotor explained. Rosie nodded.
"Well, come on then… let's get something to eat before we starve. Then, we'll talk more." She said as she led the two children back to where Sally and Sonic stood with Julayla. Sally recognized the coyote as being the son of one of her father's royal guardsmen.
"Sally, this is Rotor and Antoine. They escaped from the city after the takeover." Rosie said as she brought the two children before Princess Sally. Antoine bowed down on one knee before the Princess, as was tradition in the Kingdom. She had seen many of her father's visitors do the same thing when entering and exiting rooms that the King was present in. Rotor was confused at this gesture, as he had never seen anyone of any royal status before. Instead of bowing on one knee, he simply reached out to shake hands with Sally and Sonic. Sally and Sonic shook hands with Rotor and Sally let Antoine know that he need not bow to her.
"And, this is Sonic… he's a friend of mine from the city. I believe you two have already met Rosie and this is Julayla." Sally finished. She was not sure how to respond to someone bowing before her as Antoine had done. She had not gotten around to learning how to respond when someone did that from her father before Robotnik overthrew him. Finally, after a few seconds of awkward silence, Julayla spoke up.
"Well, seeing as we know each other now, we should find something to eat so we don't starve. Sonic… will you go down and get some fresh water from the stream over there? Antoine and Rotor, will you help Rosie get the kitchen in order? And, Sally… will you help me find something to eat?" Julayla asked. They all nodded in agreement before setting off to do their assigned jobs. Sonic went around the small village looking for a suitable jug that would hold water, Antoine and Rotor went with Rosie into the kitchen to help get it set up for its first meal and Sally went with Julayla to find something to eat.
"Sally, I know how awkward this must be to you, but just do your best. This isn't easy for any of us… we all left behind our lives in the city and I can't even guess how long this will go on, but life will continue here as it did in the city." Julayla said as she and Sally picked berries and other assorted edible greens that they found growing close around the area of Knothole.
"I know… it's going to be strange with Antoine around though. His father was one of my dad's personal guards… that and his treating me like I am royalty. I didn't know what to do when he bowed to me earlier… I barely even got started with learning my duties as Princess before all… this happened." Sally explained as she and Julayla walked back towards Knothole with lunch in tow. After a short informal lunch, Rosie and the others began work on finishing the huts and furnishing them with what they could. After crudely fashioning hammers and various tools from what was available, Rotor helped with finishing the huts and went for a swim in the river behind Knothole. While swimming, he came across some kind of device wedged in a crevice in the riverbed. From his estimates, the device had been there for months and no one had touched it since then. The device was about as tall as Rotor was and had some kind of receptacle at the top of it. When he got back to Knothole after his swim, he reported his finding to Sally and Rosie.
"Rotor… did it look dangerous at all?" Sally asked.
"Not at all… it looked like it was down there months before Robotnik… you know… before it all happened. I couldn't figure out what it did or anything… I'll go back down later to check it out." Rotor said as he dried himself off. At dinner that night, everyone sat around at the dinner table and tried to push the memories of what had happened out of conversation.
Before his own capture, Charles had managed to arrange that a handful of children and two adults be secreted in Knothole. The two adults were women, staff members of the royal household. Rosie, nanny for the Princess Sally Alicia, was an obvious choice. Sally was, after all, heir to the Mobian throne and was a natural candidate to be hidden away in Knothole.
The other adult had been recently retained to be Sally's tutor; an older feline named Julayla. She was reserved and, to those who did not know her, somewhat intimidating. What was intimidating was, in fact, her patience and circumspection. Unlike the open and affable Rosie, Julayla seemed at times to be playing a perpetual chess game; sizing up moves, reviewing and plotting strategy, seeking an overview of the situation. She let few have access to her mind and heart; eventually only Princess Sally would have that distinction, and she found Julayla to be as kind as she was wise, as tender as she was shrewd, as empathetic as she was observant. This complex character served as a balance to the simple straightforwardness of Rosie. Not that Sally or any of the other children could appreciate any of this when they first arrived in Knothole as refugees. For they had just seen their families and their world destroyed.
They were a diverse group of children, all of them about five years old. Yet at first they reacted to their new situation in the same way. It began with a reluctance to talk about what had happened. The pain of watching the arrival of the SWATbots, of seeing parents, relatives and friends being captured and turned into soulless mechanical caricatures of what they had once been, was too much for their young minds. The children pushed the scenes from their consciousness by day, only to have the memories trouble their dreams at night. In the beginning, the woods around Knothole were filled in the evening with the sound of screaming as one or another of the children found themselves haunted by their dreams.
Five days after Sally, Sonic, Julayla, Rosie, Rotor, and Antoine put the finishing touches on Knothole and decided to take up permanent residence in the village, one of Sally's friends from south of the former Mobotropolis, Bunnie, arrived at Knothole. Sally had told Bunnie about Knothole once while on a vacation to the Southern territories. Bunnie ran from the southern territory to Knothole after Robotnik sent an army of SWATbots armed with a smaller version of the Roboticizer that Sir Charles had built. She ran the three hundred miles to Knothole non-stop in near darkness. When she reached the village, it was just nearing sunrise. Not knowing what to do, she went to one of the huts and, curling up on the floor, fell asleep. In the morning, Sally happened upon Bunnie's sleeping form in the hut next to hers. Immediately, Sally recognized Bunnie and woke her friend from her sleep. On waking, Bunnie threw her arms around her best friend and they hugged for a few minutes. Sally let go of Bunnie's shoulders and held her at arms length away.
"Bunnie, you haven't changed at all! It's been too long! How'd you get up here from down south?" Sally asked. Bunnie and the Princess sat down on the floor before Bunnie told Sally what had happened.
"It started yesterday… some 'bots came into the city an' started bossin' us all around. I made it back into the forest behind my home down there and ran all the way up here. I shoulda stayed to try an' help mah folks get away." Bunnie said with tears in her eyes. Sally reached over and took Bunnie's hand.
"You couldn't have done anything to help them… the same thing happened here." And Sally launched into telling her friend about what had happened to her father and the castle. They both cried for a couple minutes before Sally pulled herself together and suggested that Bunnie meet the others. So, after both of them wiped away the tears they had cried, Sally took Bunnie to the Mess Hall where the other children and the two adults were busy getting breakfast ready. Sally walked in, holding Bunnie's hand.
"My… my… who is this young lady?" Julayla asked. Everyone else turned so they were looking in Bunnie and Sally's direction.
"This is Bunnie… she's a friend of mine. I met her while mom, dad and I were on a vacation down south." Sally answered. She led Bunnie to the table and sat down next to Julayla while Bunnie sat down next to Rosie and Sonic.
"Bunnie, I'm Julayla… mentor to Princess Sally. Sitting next to you are Rosie and Sonic, and next to Sonic is Rotor. Sitting next to me is Antoine. It's very nice to have you here in Knothole with us." Julayla said once she finished introducing the group of children and the one other adult at the table.
"It's nice to meet y'all. Ah hope Ah'm not intrudin' or anythin'… ah just figgered this would be th' last place those 'bots would look for me." Bunnie said as she piled her plate with everything she could find. They all ate a hearty meal, and after cleaning up from breakfast, it was time for that days schooling session. She had assembled a collection of the most basic lessons she could from memory and from what books she had been able to get out of the remains of the castle. Doctor Ivo Robotnik had already begun to set up his base of operations where Castle Acorn had one stood, but had not gotten very far in the six days since he had ousted the King from the throne and effectively taken over.
Once the day's lessons were over with, the children ran outside to play and enjoy the wonderful weather. Lately, they had taken to teasing Antoine about his heavy French accent. As night fell on Knothole, the children were herded back to the mess hall for dinner. Once that was done, they were left to burn off whatever energy they had left and then it was bedtime.
(End of Chapter 5)