Alex had been pacing the beach so long that he'd worn a trench in the sand. The lion was only visible from the waist up. Back and forth, back and forth he went. Melman had fallen asleep watching him.

"Alex, for crying out loud, quit worrying and find something else to do!" Gloria called out to the lion.

Alex looked up briefly, and then resumed his pacing. "Glo, it's not like Marty to just disappear like this!" Alex rethought what he said, "Well, I mean, he hasn't done it for a long time!" Alex cried.

Gloria walked over to the trench and looked down at the lion. "I'm sure he's just gotten busy with some project in the jungle and lost track of time! You know how he gets sometimes."

The big cat stopped pacing and looked up at Gloria, his blue eyes worried and miserable, "It's been hours…hours since lunch. Marty never misses lunch. It's his favorite meal!" Alex jumped up and sat on the edge of the trench, staring into it, "What if something's happened to him? What if he got lost…or accidentally wandered into fossa territory…oh NO!" Alex leapt to his feet, ready to charge into the jungle to defend his best friend.

"If any ONE of those things has so much as LOOKED AT Marty, I'll…" Alex punched his paws menacingly, growling.

Gloria placed a hippo hand comfortingly on Alex's shoulder, "Cool it, Alex. Remember, we don't know what happened. Maybe we should go look for Marty. Probably, he's just down the beach and perfectly fine, and will be annoyed with us for disturbing his building."

Alex looked at Gloria, fear in his eyes. Fear of all the things that could happen to a zebra in the wild. Marty was vulnerable, and Alex was fully aware of it. He saw that Gloria wasn't entirely sure of her words, either. She too was worried. She was just trying to make Alex feel better. Still, he desperately hoped that she was right.

"Okay."

Gloria turned to Melman, whose mental clock still hadn't straightened out to Madagascar time. "Melman, come on, we've got to go find Marty!"

"Again?" Melman yawned.

"Again," Gloria looked determined, "And we will find him," she added for Alex.

Melman stood shakily to his feet, "What was in those mangos? I feel sooo strange."

"Can you feel strange later?" Alex asked him, "We've got an emergency on our hands right now!"

Gloria gave him a "don't overreact" look.

Alex cleared his throat, "We might have an emergency on our hands." He corrected.

Melman nodded seriously, "Ok, then. Let's go!"

Alex and Gloria exchanged looks. Melman must be feeling weird!

"All right, Alex? You see the best in the dark, why don't you lead the way?" Gloria suggested. Alex was only too happy to accept.

The trio headed out to find their missing friend.

It was dark. It was cold. It was quiet. It was lonely.

One striped figure moved forlornly through the now silent exotic jungle. Marty guessed from the absence of noise that it was now evening on Madagascar, though the trees were so thick that the sunlight (or lack of it) couldn't be seen. Contrary to his friend's jokes, Marty wasn't really nocturnal.

He wasn't scared of the dark, he just didn't get along with the local creatures of the night.

Marty was tired and lonely as he trudged through the thick vines and bushes in the dark jungle. He wanted to go home. He'd been following the human smell for hours. Though it had gotten somewhat stronger, he had yet to see a single person.

He missed Alex. Why did I go so far away from them? Marty thought with regret, I should've brought Alex. He'd have known what to do…or at least pretended to. And it's a lot more fun to be lost with Alex than to be lost alone.

A bush rustled near Marty. "Ahh!" The zebra jumped straight into the air and karate chopped the bush. A very surprised and sleepy rodent dashed out.

Marty chuckled at himself. "Look at me! Scared by a ground squirrel! Man, Alex shoulda seen that one!"

Then Marty caught sight of movement beyond the trees. It looked like an animal…larger than a rodent…about as large as Marty! A big dark…thing. Marty quickly ducked into a large bush to avoid being seen by the creature. One thing he'd learned about the wild; look first, make introductions later!

Curious, Marty snuck closer to the movement. He inched his way through the brambles, closer and closer. The forest thinned out. Before he knew it, Marty was hiding at the edge of the jungle! He saw a beach!

Excited, Marty nearly leapt up to dance with joy. Then he remembered the largish animal and decided against loudly announcing his presence. He instead turned to study the animal.

It stood on a rock outcropping on the shoreline. Waves crashed on the rock, highlighted by the full moon, creating a spectacular backdrop for the four-legged animal.

Marty looked more closely at the creature. It had hooves! It also had a long mane that drooped over its neck on one side. The animal swished its silky, full tail of long hairs. It turned sideways, and Marty gasped. It was a horse!

A girl horse.

A very pretty girl horse.

She tossed her head and stood proudly, moonlight casting shadows on her black coat and bouncing off the ocean waves. The wind blew her dark mane, and Marty thought he caught a glimpse of a silver sparkle.

Awed, Marty relaxed to watch the show of light, water, and motion.

Just at that moment, the horse stepped down from the rock and began walking down the beach.

Marty followed her at a distance.

Unknown to her, the two of them walked down the beach together. They passed sparkling lagoons, spectacular waterfalls, and breathtaking canyons; all of them lit dramatically by the moonlight.

Marty was star struck. He followed the prancing mare across the sandy beach as if in a dream, hardly aware of where he was going or what he was doing.

Suddenly, she stopped, whirled around, and yelled into the darkness, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

Marty, who had no time to hide, froze. "Uh," he tried to come up with something convincing to say.

The horse beat him to it.

"Hey, you're a horse of a different color!" she remarked, noticing Marty's stripes. She skeptically looked the zebra over.

Marty blinked, "Oh, I'm not a horse! Actually, I'm a zebra!"

The black mare's eyes widened, "Are you…wild?"

"Yeah, you could say that!" Marty grinned.

"Um," the mare backed away uncertainly, "where's your herd?"

Marty looked confused, "Herd?"

The mare nodded, "The people say that all wild zebras travel in herds. You know…stallion, mares, a few foals…a herd!"

"I don't have a herd, I guess," Marty shrugged, "but I have my best friends! We're usually together but today I…wait, wait, wait. Did you say people?"

"Yes, I did say people. Don't worry, they never come this far onto the island." The mare blinked at Marty, "I'm Cora, what's your name?"

"My name's Marty, and actually, my friends and I are looking for some people." Marty grinned at the horse, "See, we were kinda shipwrecked here and we'd like to get back home."

Cora's eyes almost went mischievious, "Ahh, so you're not so wild after all. What makes you think the people will take you home? They don't exactly speak our language, you know."

"Uh," Marty thought for a while. This had not occurred to him or his friends. "I don't know, but we'd come up with something. Can you show us where the people are?"

Cora frowned, "I don't know, they don't like to be interrupted…"

"Aw, c'mon," Marty smiled, "Please?"

Cora narrowed her eyes at the zebra.

"Okay, but you've got to promise to stay close. It's easy to get lost on this island." Cora led the way.

Marty followed, "No kidding," he muttered.

Marty and Cora passed more sparkling lagoons, spectacular waterfalls, and breathtaking canyons. Then she turned and went into the woods. Marty followed her, somewhat hesitantly.

"It's not far now," Cora looked back at Marty. Marty nodded. He could smell that scent from the beach. It was getting stronger. More and more, he was feeling illogically like he should avoid this place and run the other way.

Finally, Cora stopped. Marty stopped, too. They peeked through a clearing and Cora again looked at Marty, "There they are!"

Marty squinted. In the moonlight, he could see a circle of five canvas tents pitched on a grassy hill. A campfire lit the center of the circle, with several humans sitting around it. To the side of the encampment, a coarse wooden corral stood empty. Beyond the hill, a large fishing boat waited in a lagoon.

The zebra hadn't felt so confused in his life. Part of him wanted to run up and ask the people when the next boat to New York departed. The other part of him desperately wanted him to run for his life.

"Are you okay?" Cora asked, looking worried.

Marty tried to smile, "Yeah, sure, I'm fine! Why do you ask?"

Cora pointed to Marty's legs, "You're shaking like crazy, and your ears are all flat."

"Oh." Marty hadn't noticed his ears. He tried to wiggle them up and hold his legs still. It didn't work, so he decided to ignore it.

"It's nothing. Can we meet these people?" Marty asked the mare.

Cora didn't look any less concerned, but she glanced toward the human camp, "Um, well…I really don't think that's a good idea…"

Marty smiled shakily at the horse. The human smell was all around him, smothering him. But he tried to ignore it. "I'm fine, really. What's wrong?"

Cora looked down. Should she tell him? Tell him what the humans were really there for?

The way he was shaking, Cora decided against it. She didn't want him to collapse!

"I think maybe you should come back in the morning. They…don't like to have visitors at night." Cora winced for reasons unknown to Marty.

The wind suddenly blew a gust of people smell at Marty and Cora. It overwhelmed his nostrils, causing him to sneeze. Cora looked alarmed.

"Sorry," Marty snatched a leaf and blew his nose on it.

Cora glanced toward camp. Sure enough, one of the people had stood up and was looking into the woods.

"Shh!" Cora shushed the zebra. She ducked down into a bush. A bit startled, Marty ducked down with her.

"Why are we hiding?" he asked.

Cora's eyes were big and horrified, "You really don't want to know!"

The human lifted something long and skinny up. Another human called out, "Be careful, that could be whatever got the horse!" The first human nodded.

Cora gasped, "He's got a gun!"

At that moment, the man boomed like a car accident at close range. Something whizzed over Marty's head. His legs moved beyond his control, pushing him up and carrying him away from the human camp.

"Marty!" Cora's voice sounded far away. Marty blinked at the jungle whizzing by. He'd had no idea he could run this fast!

"I'm sorry!" Marty called back, but he was pretty sure she couldn't hear him. He suddenly felt sand under his churning hooves. The beach! He was finally able to stop, so he did. He didn't recognize this part of the beach.

Marty sighed, "Man, that was smooth, Marty. Real smooth. Now I'm alone again, and I still don't know where home is."

Marty looked left, then he looked right. He decided to go left, back the way he'd come. As far as he could figure.

Marty thought, if I follow the beach, I should find the huts eventually!

Alone once again, Marty plodded tiredly down the sandy, moonlit beach.

Alex ran as quickly as he could through the jungle. He was followed by Melman and Gloria.

"Marty! Marty? MARTY!" he called, trying to follow the hoofprint trail he'd found earlier. It was leading deeper and deeper into the jungle. Alex's heart was getting heavier and heavier.

"Alex, slow down!" Gloria puffed, having a hard time keeping up with the agile lion in the dense undergrowth. Melman "ow"ed and "ouch"ed his way behind her.

Alex reluctantly slowed down and stopped. He looked down at the hoofprints.

"It doesn't make any sense!" Alex cried, "Why would he come all the way in here?"

"We can ask him," Gloria said, "when we find him."

"The prints up there cross each other!" Melman lifted his head up to see better.

Gloria groaned, "Oh, no!"

Alex leapt to where the prints crossed Marty's trail. He sniffed them. "They're Marty's!"

"Which way are they headed?" asked Gloria.

Alex's night vision gave him the answer.

"This way!" he pointed, "They're headed back out of the jungle!"

Melman sighed, "Thank goodness!"

The three animals followed the trail. It went straight for a while, then it turned and went behind a bush. Then behind a tree. Then behind a log. Then behind a boulder.

Alex followed it every step of the way while Melman and Gloria watched.

"Alex, now what is he doing?" Gloria shook her head, baffled by the odd trail.

Alex looked thoughtful, "He's…sneaking up on something."

"Look! The beach!" Melman cried.

"Marty found the beach!" Gloria smiled, "I'll bet he figured that if he found the beach, he'd be able to find his way home!"

"Good for you, Marty." Melman said emphatically.

Alex grinned, thinking about his best friend. Then he frowned.

"Uh, guys? Now which way did he go?"

The tracks ended in the sand.