Chapter 36: The City that Never Sleeps
The sun began rising at about 630.
"Isobel."
Isobel heard someone calling her name as she stirred in her sleep. She would have already been awake had her soreness not woken her earlier.
"Isobel! Wake up!"
Isobel's eyes fluttered open, but the sun was so bright to her. She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She looked to see who had called her name, but no one was there. She stretched her arms, trying to relive the tension in her neck.
"Morning!" Julien popped out of nowhere.
Isobel sucked in her breath to keep from shrieking.
"So, the palm tree was roomy, yes?" Julien asked sarcastically.
"Oh, yes." Isobel remember she was laying on his throne. "Very roomy."
"Great. I am glad the Sky Spirits gave you good sleep." Julien was tossing a mango from hand to hand. "The Sky Spirits allowed Mort to be kicking me while I slept."
"Are they awake yet?" Isobel asked quietly, referring to Mort and Maurice.
"No, they are too lazy to be up at this glorious hour."
Isobel nodded. She noticed Julien liked to have flair in all of his statements. You couldn't forget what he said that way, even if it was something that made entirely no sense. "I would have been awake already, had the palm trees not been so…Roomy."
"I was going to be showing you around." Julien told her. "You know, the zoo."
"I would like that." Isobel sat up, popping her stiff back. She jumped down and snatched Julien's mango right from his hand. She sashayed past him, leaving him wide eyed.
"You have quite a view around here." Isobel remarked as bit into the sweet mango.
"Y-yeah." Julien came around and walked to her.
They stood at the edge of the cement ledge. Isobel's ears pricked forward as she looked at the park.
"You see that hill?" She asked Julien as she nodded towards it.
"Yes." Julien nodded. "So first you are staring at grass, and now hills?" He added with a smile.
Isobel laughed and pushed him playfully. "At least I am not the clumsy one."
Julien smiled and returned to the hill. "What about it?"
"That's Violet Hill." Isobel told him. "On the first day of spring every year, a singly violet grows. But by the next day, it has withered away."
Julien nodded. "Ah, yes…what is a violet?"
Isobel's eyes sparkled with a laugh, but she realized that Julien probably had not seen the same violets in Madagascar as she had in Atlantis. "It's a bright purple flower." She offered the remaining part of the mango to Julien. Would you like some?"
Julien wrinkled his nose a bit. He had not shared even when he was a child, but he decided it couldn't be so bad. He ate up the last bits.
"We should go." Isobel suggested. "The morning is wasting away."
Julien agreed, throwing the core of the mango a fair distance. He knew the visitors would be there within a couple hours. "First, we must see the 'panzees."
"Chimps?" Isobel guessed.
"Yes, whatever it is they are." Julien waved it off.
They were out of the habitat and walking along the pathway. "One of them speaks with his hands, and the other one, who is the neat freak, does all of the talking. And they hate the conga. I cannot be believing them." Julien instructed Isobel on the chimps.
"Well, they're chimps, of course they do not like dancing." Isobel pointed out.
"I never considered this." Julien agreed. "It is so obvious!"
A small smile crossed Isobel's lips as they passed by other habitats. It appeared that no one else was awake yet.
Strange, she thought, the city that never sleeps is not even awake with the sun.
Author's notes: Yes, I used the Coldplay song "Violet Hill" as the name for the hill Isobel told Julien about. :p So just giving them some credit. And thank you, treemist, for all your support. :D It makes my day to see the reviews.