A large thud awoke Julien and he instinctively kicked his right foot out and a smirk spread across his face as he heard Mort scream briefly and then land somewhere else. He sat upright and clapped his hands to summon his right hand man who was still asleep.
"Maurice, can you not hear me clapping for your assistance?" Julien lifted the sleeping mask off his eyes and rested it on his forehead. He looked around and his gaze was drawn to large, wooden crate next to his throne. Curiously, he jumped up to the stone platform where it was and gently knocked on the crate.
"Ooh, is it mangos?" Mort happily hugged the box and pressed his ear against it.
"Well whatever it is, it is uglying up my throne. Mort, make it go away." Julien commanded the mouse lemur who tried in vain the lift the crate. It suddenly opened, crushing Mort and narrowly missing Julien who peered into the dimness. The inhabitant of the crate stepped out into the sunlight and stretched their arms.
"Hey there handsome." They said. They were a female ringtail lemur. Julien stared open mouthed; it was like looking in a mirror, except she had a few more curves and tufts of fur on the top of her head. She lifted up the front of the box and Mort crawled out so he was lying at her feet.
"The royal feet!" Mort exclaimed and hugged her feet tightly. She glanced down at the small lemur holding onto her and then looked back to Julien, raising an eyebrow at him. He was still staring at her and closed his mouth with his hand.
"I'm Tiana, and you are?" She asked. He finally snapped out of his trance and walked over to her, physically removing Mort from her feet.
"I am welcoming you to my kingdom! And I am the King, Julien." He threw his arms in the air and she looked around.
"So this whole place is yours? How many subjects you got?" Tiana said, sounding impressed. Maurice had finally woken up and sleepily walked up to where the three were gathered and froze when he saw the two ringtail lemurs.
"Am I dreaming or are there two Juliens?" Maurice pinched his arm and confirmed that he wasn't. "Okay then, who are and what are you doing here?"
"Name's Tiana and I've just been transferred here from some other zoo." She extended a hand to the aye-aye who shook it, wary as to whether she was real or not. She half smiled at him and spun round to face Julien again, "how 'bout introducing me to everyone?"
"Of course. These are Maurice and Mort, my most loyalest subjects." Julien gestured to the other two lemurs. Tiana looked at all the other habitats around the zoo and the animals inhabiting them. Except for one where no animals were present. It was a small island surrounded by water with a metal bowl near one corner.
"Who lives there?" She pointed at it.
"Penguins, and you might want to be careful around them, they're... well you'll find out." Maurice explained.
"Yes I will." She grinned and leapt from the platform and over the fence, landing on her face.
"What's on the agenda for today, Kowalski?" Skipper asked the taller penguin, taking a sip from his mug. Kowalski pulled out a clipboard and was about to speak when he was interrupted by the hatch to their HQ opening and someone falling in, landing badly but quickly recovering. Skipper saw the black and white tail out the corner of his eye, "what do you want, ringtail? We're busy."
"Skipper, that's not Julien." Kowalski whispered to him and Skipper turned around to fully look at them.
"Clever observations." The lemur commented and folded her arms. When she spoke it was very clear that she wasn't Julien, their voices were completely different. Julien's was difficult to understand at times and he had an unidentifiable accent, whereas hers was clear with a seductive tone to it.
"So, who are you?" Skipper asked, and made a mental note of the dazed expression on Rico's face.
"I'm Tiana, Skipper," she put emphasis on his name and smiled smugly, "so who are your friends?"
"Kowalski, Private and Rico. Now what do you want?" Skipper introduced the other three penguins and asked his original question. She didn't answer for a while; she instead looked each of the penguins up and down, assessing them.
"Just meeting my new neighbours, is that such a crime?" She finally replied and placed one hand firmly on her hip.
"Well you've met us, anything else?" Skipper was starting to get annoyed at her despite only knowing her a few minutes. She shook her head once and went to walk away but tripped over nothing. Rico, who was closest to her, caught her quickly. She smiled gratefully, winked and climbed out of the underground base and replaced the hatch.
"I wonder why they've brought in another lemur if there's already one here." Private thought aloud.
"Who cares? There are two of them now and she's just as bad as him." Skipper slammed his mug down on the table and just as he did, they heard a splash and she appeared in one of the porthole windows and waved, then swam to the surface.
"Do you think I'm being replaced Maurice?" Julien asked as he climbed onto his throne and adjusted his crown so it was straight. Maurice had a good idea of why they'd brought in a female ringtail lemur, but he also had a good idea of how Julien would react. He still didn't understand how mammals had children.
"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for it." Maurice looked over at Mort who was still confused at whose feet he had hugged that morning. Tiana came vaulting over the fence, landing on her feet that time but still stumbling.
"What do you guys do for fun around here? Other than annoy the short, uptight penguin." She sat down on the steps to the throne and smirked at the possibilities of how she could irritate Skipper. Mort walked carefully toward her and then jumped onto her head and reached for Julien's feet which were just slightly out of his grasp. She sat up straighter so he could grab them but almost as soon as he did, Julien kicked him off.
"It's nearly opening time, I'll go get Mort." Maurice sighed and went after the mouse lemur. Tiana climbed up the throne so she was sitting on one of the arm rests, next to a bowl of fruit. She took a grape and threw it in the air to try and catch it in her mouth but leant too far backwards. Julien grabbed her arm and pulled her forwards so she was now lying on top of him with a grin on her face.
"I just remembered something that I must be attending to." He pushed her off him and jumped off the throne and ran off somewhere. She sat down properly and clamped her hands over her mouth the muffle her laughter at his embarrassment. She knew what she could do for fun now.
I hope you like this and I hope I'm keeping to everyone's character (apart from Tiana, who's my OC). Thank you for reading.