I don't own any of the animals, apart from Colin

As days turned into weeks on Madagascar, homesickness again began to set in for Vitani, and she became listless and cranky, as had previously happened in Central Park Zoo. There were differences this time though, because now that the lioness had space to run, she did so, often pushing herself to exhaustion simply to pass the time.

Nor did any attempt by anyone else seem to affect Vitani's moods, quite the opposite in many cases, as they came away more depressed than they had been on approaching the lioness. This even seemed to effect Gloria and Melman, neither of whom had any real contact with her.

Vitani was sitting down on the sand after one of her many runs, just how many she'd done she'd lost track of long ago. She was about to begin basking, her second most common pastime these days, when a dark spot out to sea caught her eye. With nothing else to do, she concentrated on the point, trying to identify it, but couldn't, at least, not at that moment.

Vitani continued to watch the dark point with interest, noting after a while, that it seemed to be getting bigger. Eventually, she decided the point, still unrecognisable, but obviously approaching, was worth telling the others about, so she rose, and made her way into the jungle.

It didn't take Vitani long to reach the lemur's clearing, and when she did, she walked right in, and asked, "not interrupting anything am I?"

Everyone spun in surprise at the voice, and Alex asked, "Vitani, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just thought I'd let you know something's coming towards the island," Vitani replied, "I don't know 'what' it is, but it was definitely headed this way last time I looked."

"Something coming towards the island," Alex asked, and when Vitani nodded, turned to the others, and said, "I think I'll go and look at that."

"Hey, why don't we all go," Marty asked, and so, the four former New Yorkers, and a few of the lemurs followed Vitani onto the beach to look at the distant black object.

"You see it, over there," Vitani said, indicating the general direction of the object.

"Yeah, I see it," Alex said, "and it's definitely a ship."

"It's also getting closer," Melman said, having been watching the ship slowly growing in size as it neared.

"So what do we do then," Marty asked.

"What did you do last time," Vitani asked.

"Tried to hide," Marty replied, "but it didn't exactly work out."

"So why not sit and wait for them," Vitani asked.

"Sit and wait," Alex asked, "that's the last thing I expected you to say."

"Why's that," Vitani asked.

"Because I thought you hated them," Alex replied.

"Oh, I do," Vitani replied, "believe me, I do, but I'm not so fond of this place anymore either, for all that it's better than the zoo was."

"And have you thought they might be going to put us back in the zoo," Gloria asked.

"I've, considered that," Vitani replied, "but on the other hand, they might take us to wherever we were going before we ended up here." After a moment, she shrugged, and said, "I'll take my chances on it anyway."

"And if they do take us back to the zoo," Gloria asked, "what are you going to do then?"

"As well as I can," Vitani replied, "and at least for a while, it'll be a change of scenery."

"She does have a point," Melman said, "it tak..."

"Shut up Melman," Gloria interrupted, then turned to Vitani, "you better start explaining yourself girl, and quickly."

"Girl," Vitani queried, her eyes narrowing, "hey, I ain't no girl, and I don't have to explain anything to you."

"I never said you did," Gloria replied, "but it would be nice for the rest of us," then smirked, "mind you, you've never been very nice."

"You're pushing your luck now," Vitani warned, "and with me, that's not a good idea."

"Hey," Alex called, interrupting the argument, "quit it, both of you."

"Glad to," Vitani replied, "I hadn't even wanted it in the first place, but Gloria here insisted."

"Why you little..." Gloria began but fell silent at a glare from Alex. Silently, she glared at Vitani who smirked in return, at least, until he looked at her.

"Well, now that that's over," Melman said, "I suspect we've been seen."

"So hiding's useless anyway," Vitani said, "ah well, things ought to go fairly quickly anyway." This said, they all sat down to wait for the inevitable.

The ship took longer to arrive than any of them had originally suspected, so long in fact, that several of them left to eat. Eventually though, The ship arrived, and dispatched a boat with some crates on it. The humans seemed disconcerted that the animals they wanted to capture seemed to be waiting for them, but they made full use of the situation for a quick capture.

So preoccupied were the humans with properly stowing the crates when they got back to the ship that they didn't notice Colin had slipped aboard, or that Zazu had flown aboard from the forest while they were distracted. Soon enough, with the crates carefully stowed, the ship began to leave.

It wasn't until some time later, when they were far too far from shore for him to be able to fly back, that Zazu realised he didn't know how long the journey was going to take. This was, while not exactly worrying, a concerning subject, especially as even now, the spray from the sea was cool, and the salt was beginning to crystallise in his feathers.

It took several hours, but eventually the combination of hunger, thirst, and eye stinging spray was enough to overcome Zazu's misgivings about being near humans, and so he warily approached the tall structure at the rear of the ship, looking for a way in.

A way eventually presented itself, when a human emerged from the structure, and left the door open. Inside the structure wasn't much of an improvement though, because while it was warmer and free of the sticky, sting spray, there wasn't enough room for flight, at least, for any bird of Zazu's size.

One problem Zazu was surprised to find himself not having to deal with was the humans themselves, he'd assumed the structure would be crawling with them like a termite mound, but instead, they seemed to have disappeared. Despite this, though, the structure wasn't entirely empty, as was proved rather forcefully, when, after some time, he found himself being tumbled around by an unseen assailant, who then suddenly stopped, and asked, "Zazu, what are you doing here?"

Zazu looked back, and recognised Colin, though his former attacker seemed surprised about the whole incident. "I was looking for food actually," He replied, righting himself, and beginning to preen the dust out of his feathers, "I don't suppose you'd know where I can get some?"

"Yep, I know where the food is," Colin replied, then indicated down a passage, "now?"

"Perhaps not right now," Zazu replied, "but later, definitely."