Chapter 22 Julayla

When King and Queen Acorn gave birth to their daughter, Princess Sally, they immediately began searching for a suitable teacher and mentor for her. This proved to be no easy task as there were not that many teachers on the continent. Almost when they had given up all hopes of finding a teacher that met their criteria, they stumbled across a middle-aged feline teacher in the Eastern quadrant who was willing to come to the Kingdom and teach their daughter. After arranging for her to be brought to the Kingdom and setting up room and board in the castle, they showed her around the Kingdom and talked to her.
After showing her around the town and getting her settled in her room in the castle, they introduced her to their daughter, Sally. At first, Sally thought Julayla seemed too stern and set in her ways, but the more they talked, the more Sally came to understand Julayla. It was Julayla and Rosie, Sally's aunt, who were in charge of taking care of Sally when the King and Queen were away on diplomatic missions.
Sally turned out to be an impressive student; she passed almost all of Julayla's classes and proved to be most intelligent at her young age of six years old. By the time she was ten years old, Julayla lightened up on Sally's schooling. Some days Sally would bring a friend or two to the castle for a sleepover and Julayla would teach Sally's friend. It was by bringing friends to the castle that Julayla met Sonic and Bunnie; Julayla had a tough time getting Sonic to sit still through one of her lessons, while she had no problems with Bunnie. Bunnie was a quiet child, caught up in natural things. She and Sally were equals in Gym, though Sally could not learn how to get plants to grow as fast and as green as Bunnie could. Sonic was the opposite of Bunnie; Sonic was the fastest runner anyone had ever seen, though he was nearly incapable of sitting through three hours of schooling when he was at the castle.
With all of Julayla's teaching abilities, she was told by the King and Queen to leave Sally's royal training to her parents. It was this one thing that Sally needed more than anything. When Robotnik betrayed the King, it suddenly became Rosie and Julayla's duty to take care of the six children. Julayla had never raised children before and neither had Rosie, so as much as they taught the children, the children taught them. Even as strict as the two older women in the small village could be at times, the children still managed to get away with many things. Much was made of Sonic's bringing young Miles Prower to the village shortly after Robotnik had taken over the city, but behind closed doors Julayla was glad that one more child could be saved.
When Bunnie was taken by Robotnik and partially roboticized, something changed in the village; it seemed everyone had finally realized what Robotnik was capable of. Bunnie's being roboticized made everyone else become more aware of what they were up against in the war, and though they knew what they had to do, it almost always fell on Robotnik to make the first move which would be countered in every way possible. The Freedom Fighters did not have much, but they did everything they could with what little they had; Rotor being the engineer he was, he was constantly building new things that they would need out of what he could find.
Rotor's intelligence, Sally's persistence and leadership skills, Sonic's speed, Antoine's military training all added up to barely enough to hold Robotnik at bay. What they needed was some kind of edge; Rotor and Sally were almost positive the small computer would give them that much needed edge, Sonic was sure it was the power rings his Uncle Chuck had designed that would give them the edge. Julayla knew that whatever the edge would turn out to be, it was only a matter of time.
It had been while Julayla was helping the children and Rosie build the three new huts that she noticed the pains the first time. She had been carrying an armload of straw and lumber for the walls of Bunnie's hut when she suddenly developed an excruciating pain in her chest. Immediately, she called for Rotor and they went back to his hut. Rotor did as good as he could in trying to diagnose where Julayla's pain was coming from, but he found nothing. The closest thing he could come up with was she pulled a muscle or two from the heavy lifting she was doing. His advice was for her to lie down for a day or two and relax.
All the while she was lying in bed relaxing, her condition slowly got worse to the point that it hurt her to breathe. It was at this point that she realized that she was going to die. She called for Sally.
Sally had been out helping Tails, Sonic, Bunnie, Antoine, and Rosie when Rotor came out and got Sally. He led her without saying a word to Julayla's hut where she lay slowly slipping away. Sally went up to Julayla's door and knocked on it. Julayla's weak voice answered from the other side. Princess Sally walked in and closed the door behind her. Unsure of what to do, Sally stood by the door for a few seconds.
"Sally… come closer, my child, that these aged eyes might more clearly see." Julayla said from her bed.
"Are… you…" Sally started to ask, fearing that the answer would be what I thought it would be.
"Hush, favored one. There are, to all things, a season… and time is in short supply. You bear the mantle of leadership with honor and grace. Though you might have longed for other paths, the duties of your birthright could not be denied." She rather slowly said, "From the first, you studied long and hard, ever growing in knowledge and spirit, and as your teacher, I would have accepted no less. Each day brought new lessons." Sally's memories slipped into the past to one of Julayla's many lessons.
"Here, snatch it from my hand." Julayla said to the younger me as she held an acorn in her hand. Young Sally, as quickly as she could, reached out and made an attempt to grab it. Pulling back her hand, she was surprised when she opened my hand and did not see the acorn.
"Huh? Where is it?" Sally asked.
"Where it always was. This ceremonial acorn has been a symbol of your heritage for twelve generations, and once you have successfully claimed it, you will have mastered the most important discipline of all." Julayla had said.
"I remember that day, and many others like it… you never let up for a moment." Sally said.
"Only because I cared… and knew you to carry the seeds of greatness. None were prouder than I at your commencement ball… nor more sorrowful on the day your father was taken from us. That was long ago, and you have since grown much. Let us discover together… exactly how much!" Julayla said as she opened her closed hand and in it was the acorn. Sally knew what she was to do; try to get the acorn from her hand using her wits and intelligence. For a few seconds, she observed the situation and finally came up with an idea to get it. She tapped her hand with her knee, bouncing the acorn into the air and as fast as she could, grabbed it.
"An elegant solution. Such wisdom cannot be taught... it must be acquired! You are ready... farewell, beloved one…" She said as she faded away into the grips of death. Sad, Sally left Julayla's hut and walked out to the clearing where she had seen the orb come crashing down a few nights ago. There she sat alone until Sonic came walking up to her. She had been crying and for once made no attempt to hide it from Sonic.
"Sally, I thought I might find you up here. Is everything alright?" Sonic asked.
"I guess. Just feeling a little lonelier tonight, Sonic." Sally sighed.
"Tonight is almost yesterday, Sally… and there are many more tomorrows ahead." Sonic said. At that, Sonic took Sally back to her hut for the night and then went back to his.

(End of Chapter 22)