Me: I wasn't planning on using Mort, but Meagan Snow wanted him in the story (and I'll bet the rest of you wanted to see him, as well). I think he might fit pretty well, actually!
Mort: Hooray, for readers!
Me: Get back in the fic.
Mort: Okay! :D
Chapter 11: The Littlest Lemur
A mouse lemur with big, yellow eyes and brown fur was running towards a huge waterfall in the middle of the night. "I'm coming, Explorer J!" he shouted to the two explorers.
J turned around, saw the mouse lemur, and facepalmed. "Why does he keep following us!?"
His partner smiled and shrugged. "I know he gets in our way, sometimes, but he admires you. It's cute."
The ringtail eyeballed M in outrage. "Cute!? CUTE!? Dat guy is annoying, stupidity, and-" the tiny lemur gripped J's foot, "-dat. Seriously, what does dat even mean?" He kicked the lemur off.
The tiny lemur hit the ground with an "oof!" He stood up and dusted himself off. A shadow appeared over him, and he looked up. A puffin was standing there, staring at him, his face expressionless. The lemur happily waved at it and said a cheerful "hello!"
Johnson was standing near the edge of an enormous waterfall. He spotted two lemurs-a ringtail and an aye-aye-run behind it. Johnson followed them, and soon found himself staring up at the mouth of a cave. The lemurs were nowhere to be seen, so Johnson assumed they were already in the cave.
His theory was confirmed, when he heard voices come from inside.
"I think it was over here," someone said.
"We'd better be hurrying it up, before you-are-knowing-who-I-am-speaking-of returns and ruins everything," someone else said.
Johnson was awoken by someone jabbing his side. He blinked and saw Skipper staring at him, eyes tinted with slight annoyance. "Mornin', Sleeping Beauty," the Aunka said.
Johnson stood up, rolling his eyes. It was morning, and the three of them were hiding out behind the church.
"Any useful dreams?" Manfredi asked. Johnson nodded and describe what he had dreamt about. Then, Manfredi said "a cave behind a waterfall, eh?"
Skipper smiled. "Too classic to be chiche."
A rustling sound was heard, and the penguins turned around. Manfredi's back pack was moving, as though something was inside it.
A tiny brown-furred head popped out and greeted the penguins with a perky "BOO!"
The penguins jumped into fighting stances, but dropped their guard when the lemur crawled out, and they saw how small he was.
"Um," Johnson said awkwardly to Manfredi, "why do you have a gerbil in your back pack?"
"Actually, that's a mouse lemur. Now, to answer your question," the scientist shrugged, "I have no idea."
The mouse lemur looked up them, still grinning. "My name is Mort! Is one of you Skipper, or Manfredi, or Johnson?"
"That depends who's asking," Skipper stated, folding his arms.
Mort seemed confused. "Well, um," he smiled, "if you see them, tell them that a puffing wanted me to tell them that if they don't bring the orbs-whatever those are-to the castle, then he and his friend will hurt the queen!"
The penguins looked at Manfredi in shock. "I didn't know about this!" he testified.
Mort clapped his hands, happily. "Okay! I'm going to find Explorer J behind the waterfall, now!" He started to walk away, but Johnson interrupted him.
"Did you say 'waterfall?'"
The lemur turned around. "Yes..."
"Do you know where this waterfall is?"
"Uh-huh..."
He looked at his teammates and smiled coolly. They nodded, and Skipper asked Mort "can you take us there?"
"Ooh!" Mort's eyes light up. "You want to see Explorer J, too!?"
"Uh, sure..." was the puzzled response.
Is it me, or are these chapters getting shorter? *shrugs* Oh well. Please review!
