Alright, so I told you all I was going to plan five Chapters ahead of time in order to keep up and not be totally late for writing the next Chapters. Sadly, I only needed two more before I could start writing/submit this one and nothing came to me until yesterday where I found a way to introduce another character and get on with Diamond's personality so you guys will know him better, not saying that you'll like him, I do, because he's just so pretty XD I kid, I kid, but he is a well rounded character in my opinion.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this next Chapter, I hope you enjoy all the mushy stuff and serious stuff in here, I hope you enjoy! ^^
Disclaimer: Madagascar DOES NOT belong to me. Madagascar and all of it's CANON characters belong to DreamWorks and the OC's belong to me and several other users on Fanfiction and out of. I am NOT using this story to create a profit or claim it is canon to the actual series, this story is simply made to explore an idea I had for another continuation of the story. Please support the Official release.
Chapter XXXVI – Night Reveals All
Night was the perfect place for a meeting, and just because he could spot conspiracy at a lemonade stand, it didn't mean he could deny that very fact. Skipper eyed the midnight scenery before him, steaming in his own thoughts. Duni's Hill. It took his team a few explosives, interrogation and a small bird suffering from loss of memory to find out that Duni's Hill was one of the biggest mounds of dirt, grass and mud surrounding the perimeter of the Circus arenas put together.
Apparently, according to the story the bird had told them, it was also the place of the first meeting that the animal leader's from every participating Circus held in the first ever Circus Showdown, they all took an oath to swear fair play and honesty in each and every competition. Each generation of animal leaders took an oath here before the show had even started. Skipper frowned, if that was so, why wasn't their Circus taken to such a meeting? Indeed, it was a very big and confusing mystery that needed to be looked into.
So, to make a short story even shorter, it was a very important place to all of Circus animals. Skipper huffed and turned to Kowalski, who was busy putting calculations into his calculator and writing down notes in his notepad. It was four to twelve. They had been waiting here for more than ten minutes, hoping to be the first ones at the hill, which they were, before their tipper could arrive.
He huffed again. Now it was three to twelve. "Why is it that no one ever follows the time they set up for themselves? It's standard procedure and it would make things a whole lot more easier!" Skipper ranted loudly. Two to twelve until Midnight. He huffed once again, more annoyed than he was before, circling the hill for any sign of anyone coming as the others did their own thing. Private, who was sitting down on the grass and making flower necklaces for his teammates, looked up at his commanding officer and tried to reason with him.
"Oh, but Sir, what if something came up and they can't make it in time?" the younger Penguin said, quite sadly. "Oh dear, I hope they are alright"
One to twelve.
Rico smiled and rubbed his belly as the distinctive noise of a cellphone ringer rang. Skipper eyed him until Rico got the hint and made gurgling noises with his throat. It took a while before a cellphone exited out of the scarred penguin's mouth and into the flippers of Skipper, who answered eagerly.
"King Penguin speaking, who is this?"
"It's me. A-are you alone?"
"I assure you, we are perfectly alone" Skipper answered, not paying mind to Rico's pointing and grunting over a lone figure heading towards them from behind the hill at a slow pace from less than a mile away. Skipper heard the call click and he handed the phone over to Rico who ate it eagerly and rubbed his tummy happily once more. "Kowalski, track the line" The Commander Penguin said loudly, not knowing that the said Tipper was already climbing the hill.
"Uh Sir…" Private said, looking at the direction opposite from where his leader was facing.
"What is it now Private?" Skipper huffed, turning his head.
"I- I'm…here" a coat-covered animal had shown up, their hoodie covering their whole face. From what Skipper could tell, the animal had red paws, a red tail and a dark nose with a white muzzle. Must be a mammal, he thought as his eyes sized up the animal in front of his team. Not quite tall when standing, quite thick in build, why did its form nip at his brain?
It took a while before the mammal caught its breath and spoke again. Skipper noted that the voice was distinctively female. "S-sorry, I- I had to make sure you w-were alone" she said as she removed the hoodie, red pelt with black stripes, and a creamy undercoat, with deep brown eyes.
She was a tigress.
"Thank you for coming, I'm afraid going out at night is way too dangerous, especially because of whoever spies on you could be out here. And thank you for not bringing anyone else but yourselves, it would catch too much attention from other Circuses"
Skipper merely stared the feline down. "Alright, enough jabber, how do you know all this stuff and how can we trust you?" he questioned. The tigress had looked around, left and right before she looked back at the Penguins and sighing, though even as she was about to explain, and with evidently no one else around, she still felt pretty edgy.
"Follow me" she said, heading towards a tall hill, filled with small bushes and a few trees and, most notably, very near Zaragoza. Skipper's eyes narrowed. As they finally arrived at a certain spot, behind some bushes, Skipper noticed the grass behind the shrubs were flattened, some paw marks and dirt were partly visible, he also noticed that the tigress was careful not to mess with the evidence before them.
"As you can see, this part of the area has been explored before, but I doubt any of your animals have done it, look, these paw prints are too small to be any of your felines, and the claw marks are not any of your feline species" Skipper examined the paws. They were very skinny in comparison to Alex's and Vitaly's paws, they were slightly bigger than Gia's, and the "fingers" were a big longer. Some small dots above the paws, which he supposed were claw marks, could not have been made by any of the felines. They always retracted their claws, unless they were running, but they never ran.
Still, as convincing as the evidence was, Skipper was not going to be fooled by just one evidence piece.
"I'm not sure these prints are even real, toots, they could have been forged"
"I was afraid you'd say that" the tigress said, her brown eyes saddening a bit for some particular reason. "If you do not believe me, then come and look at this" she guided them to another part of the bushes and towards the trees, "what do you see here?" she pointed behind one of the trees, one that looked very fat and tall. Skipper examined it.
It was nothing but an old tree. What was so great about it? The tigress caught his expression and looked back at the tree. "Look at the bark, claws marks all around the easiest place to climb up. May I?" she held her paw out to one of the Penguins. Private, who was more than convinced of the tigress telling the truth, eagerly climbed up her paw, smiling.
"Maybe with one of your comrades, I'll be able to show you why this particular tree is so important and evidence of someone spying on your Circus" With Private settles on her back, the tigress had carefully climbed up the bark, trying not to mess with the claw marks or fall, made it to a cozy spot that almost reached to the top. She had let Private onto the branch and said aloud.
"What do you see, little Penguin?" she asked. Private looked over his Circus and nearly fell off.
"Bollocks! You can see the whole bloody Circus from here! I see the big tent and the food table, and the practice grounds! The cars are all the way to the left! Skipper! If I can see this at my height, what would a feline as big as she would see?" the small Penguin cried, worried as he glanced down as his comrades who did the same. The young penguin could see the calculating look on Kowalski's face, the furrowed expression of Skipper, and the dopey expression of Rico.
"I'm still not buying it! You're gonna need more than that!" Private did not see the glowered look on the tigress' face.
"Alright. There is one more place I want to show you" she climbed down the tree with Private, as carefully as she could maneuver and immediately began to lead them near the carts. Skipper could not place a flipper on it. Why was she helping them? There must be a reason, not because out of her good old heart, almost every feline in these parts had their own planners, so what was next after this? What did she want?
He noticed her go behind one of the carts and stood next to a big one, Skipper noticed this particular cart was Russkie's. She pointed to a small hole near the edge of the wood. "If you are wondering how in the world Safi's necklace has ended up from her neck to here, this hole is the sole simple reason. Behind this hole, there is a drawer of the Tiger's knives, he basically glued the shelf onto this part of the car, there's a small, but good enough hole at the far back end of said shelf. A small animal, like a mouse or cat, or even lizard can fit through here, slither through the bottom of the shelf and put the necklace on the knife shelves, where Saffy had found it"
Skipper could not help but feel outclassed. This hole, he would check it out later on when Russkie, but if her story proved to be right and accurate…
"Hoover dam!" he exclaimed. "I guess we'll be checking out your story, thanks for coming by and informing us! Now, before we let you go and continue to love life as we know it- what's your name? Who are you and why are you helping?" the Tigress smiled faintly.
"I was wondering when you were going to ask me" she said before rubbing her paws nervously. "I'm helping because this used to be my home. This Circus, right here. I left, too selfish to think of others. I used to be a hoop jumper, like Vitaly. My name is Natalia, I am Vitaly ex-wife"
0O0
The bodacious hippo moved around her car, she had been trying to sleep for the last 3 hours, but no amount of sheep counting or even trying to come up with a lovable dream would work to make her eyes droop.
She sighed as once again she tried another feeble attempt to go to sleep. Groaning, she held up her poofy, pink, heart-shaped pillow and fluffed it a bit before she rested her head onto it once again. As she tried to sleep, her eyes wondered to the various random objects in her car. When she looked up at the door Melman usually holds his head in, in order to watch her sleep.
That's weird. It's been three hours, but why wasn't he here? He never leaves her alone for more than 10 minutes when he's working. Well, maybe that will keep her occupied; she didn't feel sleepy at all. She got up, determined to find her love and walked out of her car, making sure not to disturb anyone from their sleep.
She looked around where the tightrope was usually held, Melman was not there. "Melman?" she spoke quietly, looking around. Where the heck is that Giraffe?
As she wondered throughout the Circus, calling Melman's name, she did not notice that, on the other side, Melman was with the finished Diamond Orchard ring. He held it in his hoof as he bent both knees, one facing the ground and the other standing; he looked intensely at the gray bucket in front of him.
"Gloria, my dear love and inspiration, I, Melman Mankiewitz, would like to ask for your hoof- I mean paw- No- GAH!" the Giraffe sighed as he messed up his speech, yet again, to propose to Gloria. "Alright. Melman, you can do it. Just, pretend she's here, yeah. Ahem. Gloria, my dear love and inspiration, I, Melman Mankiewitz would like to ask for your hand in holy matrimony. You've been the apple of my eye for years, you've been the only thing that held me and pulled me through my hardest times" the giraffe looked down at the ring, which he fumbled with nervously with his hoof. "A-and I thought, now that we've been dating for over a year and we've been through so much and known each other I- whoa!" the Giraffe called as he accidentally threw the ring up and tried to catch it, to no avail, as it fell into a patch of mud. Yelling in fright, Melman, despite his hatred for mud, threw his hooves towards the patch and retrieved the icky and smelly ring.
He sighed sadly. He would never get the proposal right in time. He still needed to figure out the perfect scenario for the proposal. Should he do it at the end of the contest? When they win? No, what if they didn't? No, he didn't want to chance such a thing, besides; it would be another five or six weeks before the whole contest ended.
"Melman!" he heard a distinctive and familiar female voice call. Melman gasped and looked around for a hiding place for the ring. Man! This was just like in Africa! Only, he wasn't hiding a valentine, he was hiding their future! He spotted the bucket, before he could get it, Gloria's voice called out to him, far closer than she was.
With nowhere else to put it, Melman sat on the ring. "I-I'm here, Gloria!" he called out. Gloria soon came into view, smiling as she saw her boyfriend fumbling nervously with his hooves.
"Baby, what's wrong? Did the Penguins hide your needles again?" Melman's eyes widened.
"Oh no! I keep those under my safe in my car now! Those Penguins can't possibly get it!"
"I wouldn't say that, baby, they were smart, though small" Gloria laughed. Melman laughed with her. It was true, it really was. "But why aren't you in the car? You said you'd be there in five minutes" Gloria questioned. Melman, though a nervous wreck he was, had an excuse ready if she ever had asked.
"I was just staring the stars, y'know. Orion, Big Dipper, Small Dipper, Pegasus, Hercules… the usual" Gloria smiled and looked up at the stars. They weren't as great in number as they were in Madagascar or Africa, but still a lot more than New York.
"Can I join?" she asked, smiling at him. Melman gulped.
"Actually, I was just going to leave, y'know?" he yawned to make it more real. "I wasn't tired and I thought you were asleep so I came and watched, and I don't want you to feel tired tomorrow, just go back to the car and I'll be there in a few minutes. Promise this time!" he said all too quickly.
Gloria raised an eyebrow and Melman thought for sure she had caught him but she yawned and smiled at him. "Alright, baby. Just make sure you clean up before you go to bed, and drink your medicine"
"I won't forget" Melman said, smiling after her as the hippo left out of sight and back to their cars. Melman sighed, taking the diamond out from his butt and looking at the sky. That was close, but how long will he be able to keep up like this? Lying and sneaking from her? Well, he had to find a way to propose to her soon, or he'll never be able to give her what she wants.
He looked back at the diamond ring and sighed sadly.
I hope you all enjoyed all this Melorianess. I did. XD More chapters coming up soon but I have to stop now so I can take a good, long shower and, of course, nap. X3
And for Super Guest who asked for the Character Marlene to show up in the story, I am sorry to tell you that I cannot, and will not, put her in the story. Wbelieved I find the show "Penguin's of Madagascar" to be incredibly funny and entertaining, I do not believe it to be canon since 1) It doesn't make sense with Julien, Maurice, and Mort there, 2) The zoo gang isn't there, so where are they? Africa? I don't think so. 3) Including the first two reasons, it doesn't make sense if the Penguins left for Africa and lived in the Zoo, and in the movie it shows that Julien and his mob of lemurs didn't go with them, I cannot possibly find a way to put them all in a specific point in time where the events in that show could happen, while some of the main characters do make cameo appearances. Because of that, I do not consider Marlene canon.
However, even if I can put her as a DreamWorks OC I cannot find any other way to put her in. I already have to keep count and make sure all characters get their very own spotlight, and adding Marlene won't help me trying to get organized. That, and since I don't even watch the show that much, I can't even make Marlene seem Marlene in this story without me hypothesizing how she acts and what she does. I don't watch TV that often and even if I can watch it online, I cannot, since I honestly don't have any interest in it.
So, once again, I apologize for not adding Marlene in here. I tried to, but me and Funkywatermelon made the decision not to as she would not have any important role in the plot and she would just be here in the story, doing nothing and helping nothing go foraward just because. I'm sorry. I tried, but no idea came and I won't change my mind, because I also need to incorporate more ideas into the chapters to make the story flow more gracefully and nicely in order to get you guys familiar with what is happening.
I understand if you were upset, I'd be too. Just to let you know, I've tried.