New Arrival
Chapter 2: Marlene's Welcome
Meanwhile, over at the Otter Habitat, the new face in question was just starting to settle into their new home since they had just arrived. The otter had dark brown fur along with a white patch on her chest and bottom half of her face, and she had deep brown colouring on her paws with a white mark along the top of her right foot, and she also had light yellow eyes with an amber iris and judging from the eyelashes, it was evident to see that she was female. Since she had stepped inside, she was taking the time to survey her new home. After she had a few minutes to take in her new surroundings, she showed a bright smile. "Well, this place doesn't look too bad. I mean, it's not exactly as big as the aquarium, but I guess I could make this place work. And that means it's time to start doing some setting up." The otter commented, placing her paws together as she was ready to start setting this new home up to her liking. As she was starting to look around to see where she could start, she was unaware of the fact that she had four new visitors already; the lemurs had arrived and they were poking their heads inside to see who was there. After a few moments of scanning the inside of the small cave, Julien's eyes very quickly fell on the otter standing inside as she was turning her attention to her bedding area and as he had a closer look, he felt his eyes grow wide in amazement and he let out a laugh of excitement. While that was happening, the others were waiting to hear from Julien as he was taking a look inside.
"Well? Who can you see in there, Your Highness?" Maurice asked, having his arms crossed as he and the others were wondering what was going on. After a few more moments passed, Julien turned his head to face the others with a big grin on his face.
"Oooh… you are never going to believe just who has moved in there. This is even better than I was expecting it to be!" Julien exclaimed, clapping his paws together in excitement while the others stared at him in surprise as they were waiting to know who it was.
"Really? Who's in there?" Julia asked. Julien simply pointed inside, indicating that he wanted the others to find out for themselves. So with this, the group of four poked their heads inside to notice the otter inside as she was busy setting up some pillows for herself. "Wow… this is the new face? What kind of otter do you think they are?" Julia wondered, showing an expression of surprise upon seeing her. Julien quickly felt his grin grow bigger as he turned his glance to Julia.
"Who is caring about that? The best part is that… this otter's a girl!" Julien commented. The others quickly showed matching expressions of surprise at this statement; as far as they knew, the only female in the zoo was Julia herself. So needless to say, this was coming as quite the surprise to them. "I know! Even I didn't believe it! But it's true; we have yet another female in our presence!" Julien exclaimed. Julia simply raised an eyebrow in his direction, since she didn't seem to understand why he was so excited about this arrival being a female.
While that was happening, Maurice turned his head to look at the new otter while Mort was showing a smile of eagerness. "Oh, she's so pretty!" Mort happily commented. As Maurice turned his glance to Mort upon hearing his statement, he was met with a surprise as the otter turned around to the front and he quickly felt an expression of amazement show on his face; now that she was facing the right direction, he could catch every detail about her. Her lovely brown and white fur, the eager smile on her face as she was excited to set up this new home to her liking and her lovely amber eyes… they seemed to shine brightly in the sunlight. Maurice could only stare in amazement before he felt a big smile slowly cross his face.
"I… I think that's an understatement, Mort…" Maurice was only able to say as he continued to watch the otter with that big grin on his face. Just then, the female otter showed an expression of surprise as she started to get the feeling that someone was watching her and she started to walk over to the entrance to find out for herself. The lemurs nearly jumped from shock upon realising that they had been spotted, before they quickly ducked to lean against the wall and watch as the otter stepped outside, looking around in confusion.
"Hello? Anyone there?" she asked. The lemurs simply watched, doing their best to remain silent and make sure they wouldn't get spotted. Luckily for them, the otter started to scratch her head in confusion. "That's strange. I could have sworn there was someone here…" After a few seconds passed, she then shook her head. "Nah. I must have just been imagining it. Well, guess I should get back to sorting things out." So with this, she turned around to walk back inside the cave while the lemurs watched her before letting out sighs of relief.
"Thank the Sky Spirits… that was way too close…" Julien breathed, placing a hand on his chest and showing a small smile of relief that they weren't spotted. Julia then turned her head to him with an expression of puzzlement as something didn't make sense to her.
"Wait. What are we doing hiding? I thought we were going to go meet her." Julia commented. As Julien removed his hand from his chest and turned his head to Julia in surprise while she was talking, he slowly shook his head with a sigh of dismay.
"I don't think you're getting the point here, Julia. We have to make sure we go about this the right way, otherwise we'll freak her out. And do you want that to happen on her first day here? I do not think so." Julien stated, pointing at Julia while she took a step back from surprise at this sudden outburst from him. Maurice turned his head to the two as he was listening to them before walking over.
"You know, I think Queen Julia's right. We don't need to hide while doing this. Let's just go in there and say hello. I'm sure she won't mind having four new faces to meet after her arrival." Maurice agreed. Mort seemed to agree with him on this, as he hopped over before stopping just in front of Maurice.
"I want to meet the pretty otter too!" Mort added. The others could only stare in surprise at Mort for a few moments, wondering what he was going on about, before Julien let out a sigh as he lowered his head.
"All right, if you all say so. But let me do the talking first; I'm like the master at this sort of thing." Julien replied. The others simply nodded in agreement with this idea; that seemed to be fair to them. So with this in mind, the four started to make their way over to the entrance of the opening so they could step inside and greet the otter.
While that was happening, the otter in question had just finished setting up her bedding area with a few pillows set up for herself. "There we are. Now I'll be nice and comfortable during the night! Next up, I think it's time to start setting up a few flower vases and help give this place a bit of colour." The otter commented to herself, turning her head to look around at how barren the rest of the room seemed to be. However, as she was starting to think about what kind of flowers she could use, she suddenly heard a voice from behind her.
"Greetings, lovely otter! Welcome to our humble home!"
The otter nearly jumped from surprise at the sound of that voice and she slowly turned around to see the source: standing there behind her were Julien, Julia, Maurice and Mort, with Julien having been the one to give the greeting. "Gah!" The otter stumbled backwards from fright upon seeing the four, leaving her to drop on the floor on her back. As she was struggling to catch her breath from that sudden shock, Julia turned her head to Julien in annoyance.
"I told you that was going a little too far." Julia said. Julien turned his glance to Julia in alarm before crossing his arms.
"No, you did not! I didn't hear you say a word about me going too far with my welcome." Julien retorted. Maurice simply shook his head at the two before he showed a comforting smile and walked over to the otter while she was lying on her back, starting at the four in shock.
"Sorry about that. We didn't mean to scare you." Maurice simply said. As the otter stared up at him in silence, she could see the big smile he was showing her before she managed to regain her composure and stood upright before turning her head to the four, showing a small smile in response. "You okay?" Maurice then asked, just wanting to make sure she didn't hurt herself too bad from that fall, which was quickly answered when the otter gave a nod.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Guess I just wasn't expecting any visitors so soon." The otter replied. As Maurice showed a smile of relief at this reply, the otter ran her paws against her fur to dust herself off before she turned her attention to the four lemurs. "Now that we have that out of the way… who are you guys?" she asked, pointing to the four. Julien immediately showed a big grin as he was ready for this.
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know? Since you happen to be so curious, I'll tell you." Julien replied. He then cleared his throat while the other lemurs turned their heads to him before he continued. "I am King Julien, ruler of Madagascar and new arrival in the concrete jungle of New York! Whatever that last part means." Julien announced. As the otter simply stared at him in bewilderment, Julia let out a sigh as she slowly shook her head before turning to her.
"Don't mind Julien. He has kind of a thing for big entrances." Julia explained. She then showed a bright smile as she was ready to introduce herself. "Anyway, it's really nice to meet you. My name's Queen Julia, but you can just call me Julia. I don't really like to let my title do the talking." Julia added. The otter showed a smile in response before she nodded in understanding.
"Well, it's nice to meet you two. I'm Marlene. I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that you and Julien are mates?" she asked, pointing to Julien and Julia as she was asking that question. As Julia nodded in confirmation, Julien let out a gasp of amazement before turning his head to Julia while she looked over at him.
"Yes! That's amazing! How does she know that?" Julien gasped. As Julia showed a smile of amusement at her mate's excitement, Marlene gave a blank stare before crossing her arms.
"I'm pretty sure the fact that you have the titles 'King' and 'Queen gave that away for me." Marlene replied. While Julien was simply staring in amazement at the fact that Marlene could recognise the relations between him and Julia, Maurice was quick to speak up.
"Well, it's great to meet you, Marlene. My name's Maurice." Maurice said. As he was finishing up with his introduction, Mort quickly popped up and rushed over to Marlene while the aye-aye watched in shock before jumping up into her arms while she stared in surprise.
"I'm Mort! And you're pretty." Mort commented, letting out an innocent giggle. Marlene stared in silence for a few moments before she showed a nervous smile and bent down to place Mort back on the ground.
"Uh… thanks, Mort." Marlene nervously replied. As Mort rushed back over to the small group of lemurs, Marlene turned her head up to them. "Well then, since you guys are here to welcome me to the zoo, I was wondering if maybe you could give me a bit of help with setting up with this bed." Marlene suggested. Julia quickly showed an eager smile at this suggestion, but as Julien was about to give his objections to this idea, Maurice stopped him as he gave his reply.
"Of course! What can we help you with, Marlene?" Maurice asked, a big grin showing on his face to show his eagerness to help her out. Marlene quickly showed a grateful smile that the lemurs would help her before she turned around to look around the rest of the cave.
"Well… I was thinking about maybe setting up some potted flowers around here and help give this place a bit of colour. I was going to go see what kind of flowers I could use to decorate this place, and wanted to know if one of you guys could help." Marlene explained. As the group of four were hearing her out, Julien turned his head to Julia as he currently had his arms crossed from annoyance.
"I don't remember agreeing to help her with home decorations. We have other more important things to do." Julien commented. Julia turned her glance to him in surprise at this statement before she showed an expression of annoyance and placed her hands on her hips.
"Julien, be nice! Marlene's new here and the reason we came to see her was so we could give her a proper welcome, remember? So the very least we can do is give her a hand with setting this place up to her liking." Julia whispered in response. As Julien let out a sigh of exasperation at this reply, he did know that Julia had a point with that; after all, he was the one who suggested that they should come meet Marlene in the first place, so there was no way they could refuse helping her out. So with this, he turned his glance up to think for a few moments before a bright smile came to his face.
"I think I have an idea." Julien stated. As Julia showed a smile of eagerness at this statement, Julien then turned his head to Maurice. "Maurice, could you help Marlene find some flowers for her home decorations?" he asked. Maurice quickly stared in amazement for a few moments before he showed a big grin and nodded in agreement.
"You got it, Your Majesty!" Maurice happily replied. So without a moment to spare, he turned his head to Marlene. "Marlene, maybe I could help you with finding the flowers you want for your place, if it's okay with you." Maurice suggested.
Marlene stared in surprise for a few moments before she showed a grateful smile that Maurice would be willing to help her out. "Really? Thanks, Maurice. Come on, let's get going!" Marlene happily replied, before reaching over to Maurice's hand and drag him along with her. However, as the two were about to leave, Marlene stopped in her tracks before turning her head to the others. "Wait… what are you guys gonna do while Maurice and I are out?" she asked.
The other lemurs were silent for a few seconds, since they hadn't really thought about what they were going to do while Maurice and Marlene were busy. Fortunately, Julia was quick to give a reply. "Oh! Um… we were going to see if we could help with setting up some snacks for you, in case you ever got hungry." Julia explained. Once Marlene heard this, the smile returned to her face and she nodded.
"Oh, thanks. That'd be great! We'll be back soon!" Marlene replied. So with this, Maurice and Marlene turned around to make their way off towards the gate of the zoo while Julien, Julia and Mort watched them leave.
"Okay! We'll have this place set up in no time!" Julia replied, waving as the pair were on their way out. "Make sure you don't run into the penguins on your way out! They're bad news!" Julien added. Once Maurice and Marlene had disappeared, Julien and Julia turned to each other with Mort watching them in silence.
"Well then! While they're busy there, what say we get to work with those snacks?" Julia suggested. Julien then showed an expression of puzzlement as there was something they were really overlooking. "Uh… just one question. How do we know what otters eat?" he asked. Julia turned her glance upwards and placed one hand underneath her chin to think it over.
"Hmm… that's a good question. From what I learnt about otters from reading the zoo brochure, I do know that they really like fish." Julia replied. Julien quickly showed a bright smile in response as it was clear to him what they had to do.
"So it's settled then." Julien stated. With this, he turned around and bent down to Mort. "Mort! Go over to visit the penguins and see if they have any fish to give to our new otter friend." he said. Mort quickly showed a bright smile and nodded in understanding.
"Okay!" So without a moment to spare, Mort started to speed off out of the cave to find where the Penguins' HQ was located while Julien and Julia watched him leave. Once he was gone, Julia turned her head to Julien.
"Well, now it's just the two of us. What are we going to do?" Julia asked. Julien felt his smile grow in eagerness before he wrapped an arm and pulled her closer to him while she was briefly left in shock before turning her eyes up to see his big smile.
"As for us, Julia, we're going to make this place a real home and then afterwards, we'll give our new otter friend the true welcome she deserves. And you know what that means, right?" Julien asked. As Julia simply stared in silence as she seemed to recognise where this was going, Julien grabbed her hand in his before rapidly spinning her in a circle. "That's right! Party time! We're going to throw a dance party to welcome Marlene to Central Park Zoo!" Julien happily replied, before letting out a laugh of excitement as he pulled on Julia's hand to stop her spinning before catching her in his other arm. As Julia looked up at him seeing his eagerness for this welcome party, she let out a quiet sigh of dismay.
"Why do I have the feeling that this won't end well?" Julia quietly asked to herself. Now she was really starting to hope that Maurice and Marlene would be back sooner rather than later.
