Chapter One: Goodbyes

Yes, you read that right. Somebody is leaving when the story is just starting. What a shame, they're missing out on a great tale! And a great tail! Look at him swish that thing around!

Skipper awkwardly made his way over to Marlene's habitat. There was a matter he needed to discuss with her. He liked her, yes, she was very nice, yes, she made a great friend, all yes. But there was something that put an awkward knot in his stomach. He tried to plan out what he was going to say, but he couldn't, not really.

Too soon, he was there. With a big, bracing breath, Skipper knocked at Marlene's door.

Marlene had been rearranging some flowers she had found. They reminded her of a fuzzy memory of a large, wide place, with brown and green and blue and so many colors. It had seemed so beautiful, but she couldn't remember anything except for it being so wonderful and big. And… there seemed to be a half-buried memory of Julien being cute. Marlene laughed out loud at the thought. She liked Skipper much more than him.

Just then, she heard a knock. She paused a little. No one she knew of would knock. Still, it might be Skipper… or Julien. She laughed a little at her own joke as she went to answer the door.

It was Skipper. He stood awkwardly in the doorway. "Um, Marlene? I need to talk to you."

Marlene was a bit surprised. It wasn't everyday that Skipper would knock- let alone be awkward about… anything, really. "Sure, come in. I, uh, was just looking at some flowers I found." Skipper, who had been waddling in, stopped for a second, powerlessly letting some strange, new sort of agony surge through him, but just as suddenly as it came, it stopped. He shook his head and continued inside.

"What is it, Skipper?" Marlene asked when he was seated on her couch.

"Marlene…" Skipper took a large breath before asking her, scared of her response. "How do you feel about… me?"

Marlene paused. Did he mean what she thought he meant? Did he, maybe, just maybe, feel the same way as she? Was it as awkward for him as it was for her? Could it be that he loved her?

"I like you. A lot. I feel really happy whenever you're around. And sometimes, I think, no, I'm certain, that I love you." Marlene looked straight into Skipper's eyes. She was just as afraid of his response as he had been of hers.

"I was afraid of that."

"What?"

"I was afraid of that. I'm sorry, Marlene, but I don't… I just don't…"

Marlene felt tears begin to swell in the corner of her eyes and felt her face get hot. "-Love me. You just don't love me."

It hurt Skipper to hurt Marlene, but he nodded. "I like you. A lot. And I feel happy around you. But I've never thought for a second that I loved you. And, before I go, I wanted to know how you felt."

One word caught Marlene's attention. "Go? Go where?"

"To... To Africa." Skipper felt his face get warm.

"You're transferring to Africa, just because you don't LIKE ME?!" Marlene blinked away her tears and felt a different emotion. Anger. Throwing things, white hot fury. She was happy to feel the chemicals released into her blood, to feel the reactions taking place in her brain as she quickly turned from sad to angry. She felt more in control. She grinned on the inside and growled on the outside as she took the flowers out of their vase and threw it at Skipper. He ducked, letting it fly over his head and crash against the wall.

"Marlene, I know you're angry at me, but there's no need for destruction and violence."

Angry as heck, Marlene clenched her fists and stalked right up to him, glaring him straight in the eye as she spoke. "I. Loved. You. You finally knock, you come in acting all like you might love me too, then you say you don't love me, and you're transferring yourself to AFRICA, and I'm supposed to be left all alone, left with no one? What do you expect me to do? What can I do? I want to rip you limb from limb, but I can't do that; I want to kill you, but no, I could never do that; I can't kiss you, I can't kill you, I can't scream at you until my lungs are too tired for me to even breathe, and now I can't even throw things at you?! I DON'T THINK SO!" Marlene grabbed a broom and tried to knock Skipper over the head with it, but he was too fast.

"Marlene! Stop!" Skipper's voice was becoming whiny. Now that she knew how he felt about her, she was disappointed. She was angry. And she wasn't going to let him go without a fight. As Skipper edged out of her habitat, she ran after him and tried to beat him, but he started running to the aircraft waiting for him. His years of military training and his prepared getaway did not fail him. They took to the sky.

Marlene saw this, grabbed some stones, and began pelting his plane. The humans didn't notice the plane very much, but they saw the rain of rocks. Several felt it as well. Her anger left her as the penguins left her. Marlene sighed. Kicking over a few more rocks, she walked back home. It would hurt without him. The days, the nights when she didn't hear Skipper's commanding voice call out orders. When she didn't hear a peep from next door. When she looked over there, and saw it empty. She would wonder what they could be doing, then realize that they weren't there anymore, and it would hurt again and again. As she thought about how poor her existence in the zoo would become now, a few tears began streaking down her cheeks.

Julien noticed her brief episode and hid in fear. Seeing that they got out in the open, he tried to find out what made her so angry, but he could tell nothing except that she was yelling at the penguin leader and that she was extremely furious. He dodged the rocks, and stared in wonder at the plane. It seemed far too small to hold a hippo, a lion, a giraffe and a zebra, but that seemed to be the idea.

"Aha! Now no one will stop me from playing my music all night long!" Julien danced with glee and ordered Mort to hit it. Sadly and slowly, Mort did as he commanded. Julien saw that he wasn't happy about serving him eternally, and leaned over to Maurice. "Eh, why is Mort not being happy to follow my every word? Usually he is being annoyingly happy."

"King Julien, the penguins just left. Don't you feel a little sad?" Maurice prompted.

"No. Should I?"

Maurice sighed. "King Julien, have you noticed how everyone in the zoo has a purpose?"

"To serve me."

"…Sure. You noticed how they serve you?"

"Uh…"

"Julien, you are our king, and I can't say anything bad about you. I advise you, Marlene helps everyone feel better, the gorillas and flamingoes … are over there and hardly ever come into our problems. Mort annoys you. You get rid of him. There isn't really anything interesting going on, is there?"

"You left out the pesky penguins. They yell all the time, and they never let me play my music, and they never relax."

Maurice bit his lip and held on to his slipping patience. "Yes, but they spice things up, in their own way of course, they protect us from being transferred away, and they fight off sewer rats, alligators, and skorcas before they ever reach the zoo."

"True. But so?"

"So, now you have to protect us from getting transferred away! You have to fight off all these things! You have to provide us all with entertainment! You have to cover for them now that they are gone!"

Julien backed away from the angry lemur and his list of his new responsibilities. "Maurice, I am thinking that you are being a little ridiculous. I don't have to do all those things. Eh, Mort does." Julien gestured to the tiny fur ball dancing around slowly and obediently.

Maurice put his head in his hand in frustration. "You'll see, King Julien. You'll understand tomorrow, maybe." And he turned and stalked off, leaving Julien and Mort. Julien wore an expression on his face that he never wore before. Maurice had just walked away from him. Julien slowly, blankly turned off the boom box and looked at his hands as if they weren't even attached to his arms. Something deep inside him changed. Julien sat down numbly, then proceeded to curl up on the floor and think about what was happening. Mort hesitated around him, not quite sure what to do, then sat down and fell asleep leaning against his feet.

Soo… Julien is sad and numb, Marlene is crying over Skipper, who left her, and also felt a weird sort of agony when Marlene mentioned flowers, and Maurice is angrier than usual. Doesn't everything seem very topsy-turvy and out of character? Yet, somehow, they had to do all this to make my plot workable. Stay tuned!