Chapter 8 Vision

It was just before dawn when Sally was roused from a dreamless sleep by a knock at the cabin door.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"Get your cloak, Princess." It was Julayla. Sally got out of bed, felt around the side of her bed for her boots, slowly pulled them on, and then walked across the hut to a wardrobe. Fumbling through, she found the heavy hooded cloak that belonged to her. She draped it over her shoulders gladly, for the morning was cold.
"Whuh the hoo-ha's goin' on, Sally?" Bunnie asked in a sleepy slur of words.
"Julayla wants me for something. I wonder what?"
"Homsanomuh," Bunnie mumbled as she drifted back to sleep. Sally stepped out of the hut, slowly closing the door behind her. Julayla was already dressed in a long cloak of her own. Without a word, she began walking to the edge of the clearing, with Sally following close behind.
Ordinarily, Sally would not have hesitated to ask Julayla a hundred questions: Why get up so early? Where were they going? Did she bring provisions? But there was something about Julayla's demeanor that morning which forbade questioning, which forbade conversation altogether.
The two walked on for several hours. Breakfast was taken on the run, as Julayla and Sally ate berries and other edibles they found along the way. This was nothing new to Sally, for Julayla had taught her survival skills already. At last, after several hours, they had circled back to a large meadow about ten minutes walk from Knothole. Julayla sat down on a fallen tree trunk, and Sally sat down next to her.
"What is this place?" Julayla asked.
"Well," Sally began, not really sure just what Julayla was asking, "It's a meadow. We usually come here to play Capture the Flag."
"Why?"
"I guess because it's so open. See, if the flag were placed at that small sapling there, or over by that stone, you'd have a hard time getting to it without being seen."
"Princess, when you play this game, what is it you're after?"
"We try to capture the flag that's held by the other team."
"No, Princess; what is it you're really after?"
"I don't understand." Julayla said nothing. She leaned back slightly and studied a few small clouds overhead in the sky. Sally looked too, not knowing what she was looking at.
"There," Julayla said at length. "That cloud toward the northern horizon."
"I see it."
"Do you see the face in it?"
"No, I don't. Whose face do you mean?"
"You never met him," Julayla said as she turned to look at Sally. "More years ago than I care to recount, when I was only a little older than you are now and living in our village far to the East, I loved a boy. Juleric, his name was. He never sought my heart, but I gave mine to him gladly." Sally listened in rapt attention. The thought of Julayla as a young girl in love was one she had never entertained before.
"He could have claimed the heart of any girl in the village. When he chose another, it was devastating. Yet I knew that I would always love him, and that I would still see his face even when he was gone."
"You saw his face in the cloud, then?"
"Yes… but only because I carry his face with me. In my heart." The two were silent for a short time. "Princess Sally, you miss your home. I think we all do. And yet you still have that home."
"I do? Where?" Julayla did not answer the question. She just looked at Sally and waited for the Princess to answer her own question. "But Julayla, what good is a memory?"
"That I cannot answer. You yourself will discover the answer. When it is time."
"Time for what?" Julayla did not answer. Instead, she rose to her feet.
"You must remember. Remember everything and anything. You said you were worried because you could not remember your old room, even its color. Then remember the shape of the door or window. Remember the sounds you heard every day in that room. It will return. And once it returns, you will understand what a memory is good for. That is your assignment: to stay here and remember. Come back to Knothole when you are finished, whenever that may be." And without another word, Julayla walked away.
"This is ridiculous!" Sally thought. "There's no way this can help me! Why should I even bother?" She spent the first twenty minutes or so studiously and angrily avoiding her assignment. She circled the meadow, looked at the clouds in the sky, tried, and failed to count the number of trees surrounding the meadow, and then finally as the sun climbed to its midday height, she sat at the foot of the willow.
"This is stupid!" she said out loud. "Remember this! Remember that! It's all a bunch of…" She was so disgusted she was at a loss for words, but she finally came up with a phrase: "It's all a bunch of… of moonshine on water!" Sally gasped. Her eyes went wide. She had not heard those words spoken since she was a girl. She had said them while watching the delicate willow branches as they swayed in the breeze, branches as fine as hair.
Suddenly it all flooded over her. She was young again; she must have been only three. She was seated on someone's lap, looking at her own reflection in a mirror as that someone brushed Sally's hair after her bath. That someone was singing a song, a lullaby, about night and the moonshine on water.
And Sally was remembering. She remembered that she was in the nursery, only now she could see it all. She saw everything with absolute clarity and conviction. She remembered every sound, every scent, and every color. But most of all, she remembered how good it felt at that very moment, to sit without a stitch of clothing on someone's lap watching yourself in a mirror having your hair brushed by someone singing a simple song.
Sally's reaction was simple and straightforward: for the next forty minutes, on and off, she cried her eyes out. The memory had created a joy in her she had not felt in a long time; the realization that that joy was now lost to her was too much to bear. Finally, worn out from crying, she looked across the meadow from beneath the tree.
"Anything and everything," Julayla had said. Then she looked at the meadow itself. It was familiar, but in a way Sally could not describe. It looked like the palace garden in Mobotropolis. Was this what Julayla was driving at? Had she chosen this meadow because it was a good game field, or because of the memory it evoked, a memory unidentified until now?
This was getting to be too much. Sally quickly walked away from the willow and stepped into the Great Forest. She took one quick look back over her shoulder at the willow, and then turned. And now she saw something that almost stopped her heart.
She looked up at the trunks and branches of the trees as they interlaced to form the protective shield that kept Knothole hidden. Only now it looked less and less like a covering of tree branches and more and more like a ceiling… the ceiling of the Throne Room at the Palace. And before her she thought she could see an aged tree trunk shift into the ornate throne of the Acorn kings. And seated on the throne…
"Daddy?" she heard herself say in a half-whisper.
"What's wrong, my dear?"
"Daddy, I… I don't know what's happening to me. And I'm scared."
"I know. I wish I could calm your fear but it's not within my power."
"What is happening to me?"
"You're growing up, my dear. I only wish I really was here to see it." And he smiled the smile he gave when there was a joke that only the two of them could share.
"But I'm not ready yet!"
"I know. But there's nobody to assume the throne as Regent until you come of age, and you no longer have the luxury of waiting. Whether you're ready or not, whether you like it or not, this old throne is yours… If you're ready to take it back… that is the point, Sally." When Sally awoke, it was with eyes red and swollen from crying. She was at the base of an old tree stump, its wood long rotted with decay. She looked around. The light was failing. The sun was low in the sky; almost night. How long had she been asleep? She gathered her cloak about her and began running back toward Knothole.
Despite all the emotions that had overwhelmed her that day, Sally felt no fatigue. In fact, remembering what she had gone through buoyed her up as nothing had before. She had to tell someone. She ran into the center of Knothole. There appeared to be no activity of any kind. She quickly walked to the cabin she shared with Bunnie.
"Bunnie?" she called out as she opened the door. No sooner had Sally entered the hut than the door slammed shut behind her. Sally turned, and could see Bunnie in the dim light.
"Bunnie, I've got to tell you what…" But before she could say anything else, Bunnie placed her hand across Sally's mouth as if to silence her. Sally simply batted it away.
"Bunnie, what's your problem?"
"Tails is missing, that's mah problem!"
As Sally's eyes became adjusted to the dark, she could see that Sonic, Rotor, and Antoine were in the room with them. It was a major infraction for any of the boys to be in the girls' hut after curfew, but that fact seemed to pale in comparison to Bunnie's news.
"When did it happen?" Sally asked.
"We don't know. Last anyone saw of Tails, he was sittin' next to Sonic at dinner. He left the table and never came back. Whenever Rosie or Julayla asked about him we told them that he was with someone else who wasn't there at the time, Sonic or Rotor or someone. I think we managed to fool them through bed check, but we still don't know what happened to the little darlin'!"
"I even took a quick dip in the river," Rotor added. "At least we know he didn't fall in."
"Sonic, did you say anything to Tails that might have gotten him mad or…"
"No way, Sal! I was just, you know, talking to him."
"What did you say, exactly?"
"Not much, just the usual, like how I was getting tired of the same old thing over and over for meals and how much I missed Uncle Chuck's chili dogs and… Oh boy."
"Sonique, what is meaning this 'oh boy'?"
"Well…"
"Sonic, what are you trying to say?"
"It's probably nothing, Sal, but… well, last night I was talking to him about Uncle Chuck's chili dogs and how he used to make 'em and…"
"Sonic, please! I don't want to hear any more about chilidogs! Besides, it's not like Tails knows the way to Uncle Chuck's."
"Well…" And so Sonic told the others of their conversation the night before.
"Sonic, you didn't! Why would you tell Tails where Uncle Chuck's house used to be?"
"How'd I know he'd go looking for it?"
"He's four years old! Four-year-olds do things like that! Smart move, Sonic! He's probably lost somewhere in the Great Forest right now."
"He is not. I…"
"There's more?"
"I… sort of kind of drew him a map."
"And he's got it?"
"I can't find it anywhere; he must have taken it with him."
"Perfect! You gave him directions to get to Robotnik! And if Tails gets caught by any SWATbots, they'll have directions to get to us!"
"Relax! I'll just go get him."
"Sonic, you can't just go walking back to Robotropolis and…"
"Who says I can't?" It looked like the two of them were two seconds away from a fight. That would really have brought out the grown-ups. Instead, Sally lowered her voice. But while she spoke calmly, she continued to look Sonic in the eye.
"What is it, really?"
"I…" Sonic hesitated. "Well, it's just that I promised Rosie that I'd look after Tails all day today. And… And I promised her I wouldn't let her down. Look, Sal, we both know the grown-ups think I'm a loser, some kind of screw-up. Just 'cause I don't do well in school or I don't help out as much as they say I'm supposed to. I wanted to show them I was good at something, but…" Sonic turned away from her and the rest of the children.
"It's okay," Sally said in a whisper, placing her hand on his shoulder. "We'll look for him together. All of us."
"Sal, you weren't even here when…"
"That doesn't make any difference, Sonic. I don't want to see anything happen to him, either."
"But Princess," Antoine asked with a tremor in his voice, "for the all of us to be going to that terrible place…"
"Fine. We'll only take volunteers, then. All those who care about Tails, raise your hand. Okay, it's unanimous. Get your cloaks… we're leaving."

(End of Chapter 8)