Stormy Night
It was another peaceful night on the island of Madagascar; King Julien and Queen Julia were both in their room, getting ready to turn in for the night. As the two got into their bed, Julia let out a content sigh and turned to Julien. "There's nothing like relaxing after another exciting day, isn't there?" she asked. Julien showed a bright smile listening to her and nodded in agreement.
"Oh, you said it, Julia. And we can even see the night sky from here so long as the ceiling is out of the way." Julien agreed. Julia jumped out of the bed and walked over to a level that was in the corner and pulled on it, causing the roof to pull away, exposing the night sky and all of the stars that were shining like diamonds. "Now that's more like it." Julien happily commented, while Julia walked over and jumped back into the bed, making herself comfortable beside him.
"Yeah...the night sky looks just as beautiful as it's ever been." Julia replied, as she and Julien snuggled up beside one another; they always enjoyed being content in each other's company, especially on a night like this. But then, Julia noticed that dark grey clouds were slowly starting to appear, covering the night sky completely. "I don't like the look of those clouds. I think we might have a storm tonight." Julia said, glancing up at the sky with an expression of concern.
The second Julien heard that, his eyes immediately shrunk and he started to shake in anxiety. "D-did you say...a storm?" he worriedly asked. After a few seconds, he grabbed hold of Julia, causing her to look over at him in surprise. "I can't stand those! I always feel like this room will be torn asunder one of these nights. The heavy downpours are bad enough on their own, but there's also the loud rumbles and those white flashes...I always jump when I see them!" Julien explained as he started to shiver from fear.
Julia stared at him in silence for a few seconds before she showed a comforting smile and gently pushed Julien off of her before grabbing hold of his hands softly. "Oh, it's all right, Julien. There's nothing to be afraid of." she kindly said.
"Oh, that's easy for you to say; you're the one who doesn't suffer from fear of the gods' anger!" Julien retorted. Julia simply shook her head with a smile of amusement; she knew how easily Julien's own beliefs sometimes overtook the rational side of his mind, if it ever decided to show. So it was fortunate for her that, whenever that happened, she was the one to bring him back down to common sense.
"What am I going to do with you, Julien? There's nothing to worry about. This place is as sturdy as it could ever be; I doubt it would be brought down by a simple storm. And besides, we'll be safe in here. Let's not forget that we're always being watched over, so I'm sure that you won't have anything to worry about." Julia explained, showing a bright smile all the while; while she wasn't as vocal about her beliefs as Julien was, she knew how to handle things like this when necessary.
Julien was silent for a few seconds as he listened to Julia and then he showed a bright smile and slowly nodded. "You're right, Julia. I guess I'm worrying too much about this again. Thank you." he replied. Julia simply showed a bright smile hearing this and nodded in agreement. Just then, the two looked up to see raindrops standing to pour down from the open roof into the room.
"I better go close the roof. Don't want our room to get flooded like it was last time." Julia commented as she jumped off from the bed and walked over to the levers, showing a cheeky smile while saying this. Julien crossed his arms with an expression of annoyance at that.
"It was one time, Julia! How was I supposed to know there would be a storm that night?" Julien snapped. He then lay down at his side of the bed and sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, sometimes it feels like you won't let me hear the end of that." he added to himself.
Julia cheerfully giggled while Julien turned a glance of annoyance in her direction before she walked back over and jumped onto her side of the bed, and then turned her glance to Julien. "Oh, relax, you. You get so worked up over the littlest of details. It's no wonder you don't get a good sleep." Julia cheekily commented. Julien glared at Julia, but it didn't last very long because after a few seconds, a smile quickly replaced that.
"Yeah, I guess so..." Julien said, scratching the back of his head while Julia simply watched him with a bright smile. "I'm going to turn in for the night now. Goodnight." Julien said before turning his head and making himself comfortable.
"Goodnight, Julien." Julia replied. With that, the two were soon sound asleep as the rain poured down from outside.
A few hours passed into the night and by that point, the rain had become a heavy downpour. Julien and Julia were both sound asleep, so they couldn't hear it amidst their peaceful slumber. Suddenly, a bright white flash lit up the whole room for a second before disappearing, but that was enough to wake Julien up; he immediately sat up and looked around with an expression of worry. "What was that?" he asked. His question was quickly answered by a loud rumble from the storm outside. As soon as he heard that, Julien let out a loud shriek of terror.
Julia was sound asleep, but she slowly opened her eyes upon hearing Julien's scream and sat up to see him darting his head around the room rapidly, with an expression of worry written all over his face. "Julien? What's the matter?" Julia asked as she rubbed his eyes to make sure that she was fully awake. Julien quickly turned his head to Julia and grabbed hold of her in fear.
"Julia, there it was again! I heard a loud rumble from outside, and there was a white flash just before it!" Julien exclaimed. Julia nearly jumped from surprise seeing how tightly Julien was holding her and then she simply showed a smile as she pushed Julien off to see his expression of immense worry.
"It's all right, Julien. It was just some thunder and a bit of lightning; it's nothing to worry about." Julia softly explained. She then looked outside to see the downpour occurring outside and she showed an expression of surprise. "And here I thought we were just going to get rain, but we have a full blown out storm instead. I guess even I can be wrong sometimes." Julia commented. While she was talking, she didn't notice Julien staring out the window shaking in fear, but luckily it didn't take her very long to notice because she turned her glance back to him. "Are you okay, Julien?" she asked, showing an expression of surprise from seeing just how afraid he really was.
"Do I look like I'm okay?! There's a huge storm happening outside and I have a feeling that it's going to tear this place apart! So what do you think the answer is?" Julien retorted, nearly prompting Julia to jump off the bed from surprise just hearing how panicked he sounded. Julia looked down to think about how to handle this issue for a few moment before she looked up with a smile; she had an idea in her head, but she just needed Julien to cooperate with her on this.
"Come on, Julien. Follow me." Julia said, before she jumped off the bed and started to walk over to the front door to head outside. Julien watched on before he jumped off and quickly ran over to Julia just as she was about to open the door to head outside. "Wait! Where are you going?" he asked. Julia turned to him with a smile; to him, that didn't seem like a good sign.
"I'm not the only one who's going. You're going to come with me." Julia replied. Julien's eyes widened upon hearing this, and then he quickly scattered back to the bed while Julia watched in surprise. "What?! Julia, are you out of your mind? I'm not going out into that danger zone!" Julien exclaimed.
Julia turned to him, placing her hands on her hips, and simply shook her head letting out a sigh of dismay. "Come on, Julien. I'm going to show you that storms aren't as scary as you think they are. And the only way I'm going to do that is if you come with me." Julia explained as she walked over to fetch Julien; she wasn't going to be afraid to take drastic measures if she needed to. As she walked over to him, Julien grabbed onto the bed tightly shaking in fear all the while.
"No! I'm not going out there! I want to live!" Julien cried. His cries went unanswered, though, as Julia walked over to him and started to pull him behind her by the tail.
"Julien, I'm only going to say this once: you're coming with me, whether you want to or not." Julia simply stated as she walked to the front door with Julien in tow. She wasn't planning on stopping until she was able to succeed; she had a feeling it would be the only way to get Julien to face his fears. If he wasn't going to do it himself, she'd take over the honours. Julien simply stared at Julia as she dragged him by the tail; he was wondering whether or not she knew what she was doing.
Soon, the two were outside, staring at the storm from underneath the tree they lived at. Julien was still shivering as he watched the heavy downpour; he was finding it hard to stay here while there was this happening in front of him. Just then, a loud rumble suddenly went off and Julien jumped and screamed in alarm before grabbing hold of Julia for the second time that night. "There it was again! It was that rumble again!" Julien yelled out as he was shaking in Julia's arms; he wasn't sure how long he could take this before he lost it.
Julia simply placed Julien down on the ground and showed a bright smile. "Julien, it's all right. You're with me, so you'll be safe." she simply said. She knew that if this was going to go well, she had to be gentle with Julien. Sure, she wasn't exactly gentle with him in terms of getting him out here, but she had to take drastic measure there. Now that he was out with her, that left her to do her thing. "All right, it's time to get to work on helping you with your fear of storms. If I know anything about fears, it's that the first step to overcoming them is to face them. So you wait here, and I'll go first." Julia explained.
Julia simply remained silent wondering where Julia was going with this, before he let out a gasp of horror as she started to walk over to stand out in the storm. "Julia, what are you doing? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" he asked as Julia didn't seem to listen to him. He watched in horror as Julia soon stepped out into the heavy downpour and she turned back to him with a big smile.
"See, Julien? There's nothing to worry about! It's just a heavy dose of rain pouring down on you. Come on, you give it a try." Julia called. Julien slowly trotted over until he came to just standing underneath the tree and being just a step forward to being out in the storm. He slowly turned his glance up to the black stormy sky before a flash of lightning suddenly went off, lighting up the clouds and causing him to step back from shock. After the lightning cleared, Julien looked back up at the stormy sky before he turned his glance back down at Julia; she was standing there unharmed and only drenched from the rain. "You see? Thunder and lightning is harmless, and it's just heavy rain pouring down on you. If I'm standing out here with no harm done to me, then that means you'll be safe too." Julia explained, showing a comforting smile all the while. She wasn't in any hurry; she was ready to wait for as long as needed for Julien to come out here.
Julien was simply silent before he quietly took a deep breath, ready to do this; he had a feeling that Julia was telling him the truth. If she wasn't harmed by the thunder and lightning, then that meant it would be the same for him too. So with this, Julien slowly took small steps into the rain while Julia watched on all the while until he was standing with her. "So, how does it feel?" she asked. Julien was silent for a few moments to let the rain pour down on him before a bright smile slowly crossed his face and he turned his glance to Julia.
"Julia...you're right. I've been worrying about nothing. Come to think of it, I don't think this is all that frightening anymore. In fact, I think I really like it!" Julien happily explained. Julia showed a bright smile hearing him say that; this worked out better than she thought it would. Just then, the rain slowly decreased in intensity before it stopped altogether and the clouds slowly cleared showing the sky in its place.
"Julien, look! I think the storm has stopped." Julia said, pointing up for the two of them. Julien looked up with her to see that she was right; the storm clouds had cleared to reveal that the morning sun was slowly rising over the horizon. "Wow, I didn't notice how fast time had gone by during the night. We were up just long enough to see the sunrise." Julia commented, as the two lemurs turned to see the sun slowly rising.
Julien watched in silence for a few seconds before he turned to Julia. "This might sound hard to believe, Julia, but I think this is the first sunrise I've ever seen." Julien commented. Julia turned to him in surprise hearing this.
"You mean you've never seen a sunrise before?" she asked. Julien simply shook his head in response. Julia then showed a big smile. "Well, I guess that means you're in luck! You get to witness one of the most special displays a lemur could ever see for the first time." Julia said.
Julien nodded in agreement, and then the two sat down on the grass together to watch the sunrise; being stuck out in the storm was worth it to see a wonderful sunrise like this. And Julien had a feeling it was more worth it after facing to face his fears like this, and he had Julia to thank for making it possible.