I don't own the rights, they belong to their respective owners. OC's belong to me.

This chapter was not originally in the final, nor was it in the rough draft, for this chapter was to be the calm before the storm, so it might have some mistakes and don't worry Tamriel isn't far off. This chapter is one of many to be remade, when the others will be remade is unknown.

Chapter 5: respite

Bushes, giant leaves and underbrush rustled revealing an all to upset Alex the lion, with Marty was not far behind and tailing him in hopes to diffuse the angry feline. Both Gloria and Melman arrived minutes just in time to see Marty and Alex get in a heated argument, both hippo and giraffe looked at each other in worry, the last argument the lion and zebra had almost ended up in a fight. The two slowly walked to the cabana clearly hearing the start of a heated argument, though when they got in they could barely see since the fire pit was completely out and all that was left was smoldering ash. Gloria found her way to the sand couch as the two bickered, she was going to diffuse the argument if it got too heated. Alas the whole reason there was an argument in the first place was of her and it all happened just seconds after she agreed with Marty's view of dealing with this vision.

-Flashback-

Alex stared at her as if she'd gone mad, did he just hear her correctly, did she just say Marty was right, he looked over towards Melman for some help, but the giraffe surprisingly sided with Marty. Alex pointed accusingly at Gloria "I thought you two were New-Yorkers, but it seems you would rather betray me!". He crossed his arms furious that his friends stabbed him in the back, Marty told him he wanted to go back, but the lion knew deep down that the zebra secretly didn't want to. Now that he found out that Gloria and Melman wanted to stay, made the lion all the more angered at how his friends would leave him, betray him even, he wasn't going to let that happen.

Gloria couldn't believe what the lion had said, betrayed him?! They didn't betray him, if Alex wasn't like this he'd support Marty in a heartbeat, now that she thought of it. Marty did tell her Alex has been acting really weird yesterday. She thought of the moment when the zebra talked to him, he informed her that he was talking to thin air and that someone was in his head, who the zebra didn't know, but it made him worry. Now Alex was acting like a spoiled child who didn't get his way, only this time it wasnt Alex, the lion wouldn't act like this, he's usually laid back like Marty; somewhat.

"I am a New-Yorker-" Gloria said calmly trying to diffuse the situation "-we all are, you, Marty, Melman, and i. We're all on the same side.". Gloria hoped this would work, cause this was all she had, Marty's the one who is best at helping others out with his kind words, one of the many reasons why the zebra is loved by other animals back at the zoo. She hoped it would work, sadly her words did not affect the lion in any way, he shook his head and ran back to where the cabana was, furious.

-End flashback-

Marty didn't know what to do, he's never seen Alex this furious before and at him nonetheless, it's not like he wanted these dreams to happen, he doesn't even know this Vaermina. When he tried to explain to the lion he just shrugged him off and told him to hump a fossa; to Marty's dismay he said he found one. At first Marty would tolerate the lion's attitude shaking it off as pouting, after finding out the boat had no fuel, 'thanks Skipper', but right now with Alex's colorful language, Marty had just about had it, it was time to get serious. Walking on his hind legs, something Marty didn't do often, he began to lay it straight to Alex.

"Alright ali-al now you listen here, i didn't want this, i didn't want these nightmares, nor this Vaermina showing up and nearly ripping my head off.". Alex was barely listening, he just sat at Marty's bar on the barstool, staring at an empty coconut cup, all the while Marty kept going. "I just wanted a normal life, i wanted to see the wild, the world even, not these nightmares, i- i just i didn't want to waste away in the zoo.". Marty sat on the sand couch next to Gloria, she looked at him after hearing his explanation she felt kind of bad for him. Of course she never understood why someone would want to hurt him or send nightmares after him in a way that would kill him, in hopes to cheer him up she began to rub his back giving him support.

Their ears twitched after hearing the wood creak after the lion stood up from the stool and began to stumble, his shambling worried the others as they began to see him walk in a way similar to a zombie. The penguins waddled in, skipper was about to speak, but when he saw Alex in a zombie-like daze, he looked at the lion's friends for an explanation, to his surprise they only shrugged. It was then Marty slowly began his way forward towards the lion, he was downright worried for his friend and wanted to know what was happening to him, the lion's head slumped to the side as he kept stumbling towards the zebra. In a concerned fashion, the monochromatic steed placed a concerned hoof on the feline's shoulder.

"Alex?!".

In a blinding speed faster than the penguins can muster, Alex lunged at Marty in an attempt to kill him, the steed wasn't fast enough as the lion wrapped his large paws around the zebra's neck in hopes to strangle him. Marty desperately tried to breath and get Alex's paws off his neck, looking up at his attacker as he was doing so a dark fear began to rear its ugly head, what he saw in Alex's eyes was no animal in hunger, but possession. Alex the lion was possessed by an unknown entity, but as he was looking in his eyes he noticed a red glow coming from them and it was soon going to be the last thing the zebra sees before his death. His mind began playing the memories he had as a young colt, meeting Alex for the first time, talking with his friends, having fun together at the zoo, it all passed through his mind, up until the point he said to Alex that one day he would like to settle down with a mare and have a foal of his own. Now it was about to be taken away, tears fell down his cheeks and onto the sand realizing that his future was about to end. Fate however had other plans, when a furious Gloria punched Alex across the face nearly breaking his muzzle, which also released his hold on Marty's neck, the zebra coughed trying to get what air he could get back.

If Gloria wasn't mad now she was outraged, how dare Alex try to murder his best friend, his brother and in front of them no less, it was appalling. Marty himself was downright disgusted at what the lion did, but at the same time knew something was up, for starters he noticed the lion's eyes were glowing red and on top of it all he was walking like he was possessed. Melman thought he was concerned he knew there had to be many different outcomes as to why Alex was acting the way he was, he listed the many options ranging to a virus, to a parasite, but when he caught sight of his eye's the giraffe was terrified. As fast as Gloria charged him, the injured lion fell to the sand in an unconscious state causing the others including the penguins to stare in confusion. Not seconds later the air around them went from a calm warm to scorching hot, the air dry and seared their blood and bones, while the very air they breathed became harder to take. Forebodingly what happened next made the very occupants of the cabana terrified, a dark and threatening laughter echoed around them sending a chill down everyone's spine and when it spoke it spoke in a dark masculine voice filled with malice and hate.

"wretched creatures, you dare mess with the prince of destruction and ambition!". The voice boomed, making everyone glance at each other in confusion, terror and dread.

"W-who are you?!". Marty stuttered, though the monochromatic steed knew he had to be careful, whoever this was wasn't merciful.

The glowing red eyes soon disappeared from Alex, only for a dark clouded aura to form above the lion's unconscious body and what they saw horrified them to the core. Floating above the lion was a creature of pure nightmare, his body had bright red skin, his head covered with horns (think of darth maul's horns), his teeth had a large under bite similar to an ork, but what terrified the zoosters was his arms. four, four muscular arms crossed each other over his bulky body, they could clearly tell this beastly fellow was more buff than Alex ever will, good thing he was unconscious. Around his waist were black fur and leather leggings covering the top of his thighs and above the knee, the leggings covered more on the back than the front, but still covered much of his waist. Around his neck was the same fur and leather attire, but his only covered his upper shoulders and upper torso, on his back though made Rico drool, on his back was a two handed double bladed battle-axe.

The being introduced himself in a malevolent voice "I AM MEHRUNES DAGON!". He held his arms out as if he was getting praise, but in truth he did so, so he could have those in front of him fear him.

Looking at him in confused terror the zoosters all spoke in unison of what they were thinking "your who". In response hearing the being known as Mehrunes dagon groan in irritation, drove a spike of fear in them, knowing full well this being is not one who repeats himself at all.

In a sudden quick speed Dagon lifted the zoosters up with his four arms. He was clearly strong, snarling at them, he wanted them to listen and listen good, for he wanted them alive for a reason. "Alright-" he snarled "-listen carefully, or I'll use your guts to feed my armies. The whole reason I'm letting you live is so I could bring a great change, but if you want to live and not have your flesh peeled from your bones, you will follow my gate, failure means I'll skin you alive. Understand!". His threat was clear and he meant it, wanting to keep their skin on, they nodded and will do what he said, but were confused when he said 'follow my gate'. Dropping them he soon evaporated into a cloud of smoke and wisped away into the trees towards the fossa side. After being dropped , the zoosters finally began to realize that this 'gate' is more of a threat than they realize, the penguins witnessing this whole ordeal knew without a doubt that this threat was top priority.

A moaning Alex brought everyone back to their senses as the lion began to slowly stand up, only to fall to his knees, the lion felt like he's had the most viscous migraine ever with a side of severe dehydration. He felt a pair of hoofs grab his under arm and slowly lift him up, he looked up to see a smiling Marty, how can the zebra smile at him after all he did and why. He felt Gloria's hands grab his under arms too and helped Marty lift the lion up, her face however was laced with regret and remorse, she's usually in a good mood, not as much as Marty, but she's usually relaxed, not remorseful, that is unless she did something wrong and why was he bleeding? When he saw Melman though, the giraffe was more terrified than the time he thought another brown spot on his coat was going to kill him, but this wasn't that of an overreaction, this was downright terror. After Alex was helped and seated on Marty's round sand bed, the lion felt like he was going to vomit, but the feeling of it wasn't there nor was the nausea, he just felt it.

"Wh-what happened" was all the lion could ask, groaning as if he was in a whirlpool and the room was spinning.

It took awhile for the information to sink into the lion, but the more he listened the more he grew disturbed and sickened, what sickened him was the fact he nearly choked Marty to death. What disturbed him however was not only the fact he nearly choked Marty, but also the fact of a malevolent being named Mehrunes Dagon, who in turn possessed his body. He was told the penguins witnessed the whole thing and were keen on helping out anyway they can, but by now they were gone, retreating back to the large freighter parked outside of Marty's cabana.

After being all caught up Marty glanced towards Gloria " yo Glo, did Velen say anything after i went after Alex? I was too concerned when he stormed off earlier.". In truth Marty was concerned and when he went after Alex he noticed that Gloria wasn't really following him at the moment, but arrived much later.

Gloria nodded confirming the zebra's suspicions "he did, we're to leave a little after noon, around one. Velen says it's much too dangerous after dark and in the morning." the hippo explained to her friends as they listened.

"Wait-" Melman replied, his face contorted with worry "- wouldn't it be more dangerous to travel in the afternoon. I mean that's around lunch.". He got several nods from Alex and Marty, Gloria too shared his concern and wondered if Velen was not all there.

"well- " Alex yawned, sleep wanting to take over "- it wouldn't matter now, we'll see what happens in the morning". The lion started laying back on the sand bed, sleep quickly taking over, his nausea dissipating.

Soon the others followed suit, Melman and Gloria both sleeping together on the sand, while Marty slept on the couch, but as the others slept soundly Marty stayed awake worryingly. The zebra looked towards the fossa side of the island, and barely saw a faint fiery glow off in the distance, soon the zebra was going to meet the creatures he saw in his nightmares, soon they would find Anders and close this gate...or die trying.

Meanwhile Maurice skulked around, nervous about the king's condition. He knows Julien isn't an evil lemur, but from what he's seen these past days, he started to get worried. Reaching his destination by a large bush he made three light whistling sounds, the bushes shook and parted revealing a female lemur. She wasn't the same as any of the other female lemur's being as she was skinnier at her lower waist and had a tan belly with an orange coat and tail.

"Were you followed!?" she asked her tone, taking a militaristic matter, her blue eyes glowing with experience, she just loved the sense of battle and danger.

Maurice shook his head "no, king Julien's asleep, but his mental health has taken a turn for the worst and not only that, Velen an old 'acquaintance' returned.". Listening to what the advisor said made the female lemur concerned, then she asked about the security of the king, along with the fossa threat.

"Have the fossa struck after I left, and what's being done about the protection of the king?" what she was about to hear would shock her to her core.

The aye-aye confirmed, nodding "they have, but were soon defeated before the king's mentality snapped when four giants of New-York arrived.". Upon hearing about the New-York giants she looked on intrigued by this, but was soon informed about a disturbing report.

"Today though, the security proved useless when the party in honor of the giants was attacked.". Hearing the word 'attacked' made her worried for the safety of the kingdom.

"Who attacked!?" she demanded

Maurice looked around as if someone might be listening, leaning in and whispering "a monster, a creature by the name of Vaermina. She told us, or Marty, if he wanted to stop his nightmares he'd have to travel to the forbidden canyon, and kill Anders. Whoever that is" after hearing this she was now convinced that the kingdom was in jeopardy and it was now her mission again to protect it and with the help of these 'giants', they would make the kingdom more protected.

She looked down at him "thank you Maurice, I'll make sure I'll arrive within a week and help protect the king.". He looked at her in shock, trying to figure out if he heard her right.

"Y-you're coming back!?" she nodded, confirming to him he heard correctly. The two were spooked when the snap of a twig interrupted their meeting.

"Quick go-" he said "i'll stall whoever is coming-" she nodded, pulling the leaf back. She was about ready to leave when Maurice replied "- oh and Clover, thanks.". Smiling, she disappeared into the night.

The footsteps got closer and closer; he had to stall and give her some time if he was caught conveying behind the king's back. It wasn't that he hated the king, no, Julien was his friend, even though he was his advisor, the two viewed each other as friends, not enemies. Once the footsteps were on top of him, he tackled whoever was spying on him, bringing whoever it was in the light, the aye-aye soon got off and backed away in shock.

"MORT?!" The mouse lemur looked at him in a way he has only seen in a few circumstances, but this one was much worse. It wasn't the fact that Mort was the one who was sneaking, but the fact that the little lemur was crying and not in a good way, he was crying in both fear and pain. Now mort wasn't the most popular lemur in the kingdom, since he was 'very annoying' but he knew that and got used to it when others called him annoying, he always did a cute chuckle then ran off somewhere else. To see mort crying, that meant that something horribly wrong happened and to see it happen to him made Maurice feel bad. He does view Mort to be annoying, but he doesn't hate him, Julien 'somewhat, but in a fun way', so after seeing the crying mouse lemur, he kneeled down and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Mort, what happened!?" his voice went serious when he asked the question, fortunately the little guy stopped crying and spoke through his light sobs.

"he-(sobs)-he hit me!-(sobbing)". Maurice looked at him in confusion, king Julien never hit anyone, he needed to hear the story, mort could've been kicked too hard by Julien.(Mort gets kicked by julien, due to Morts, how do we say, unhealthy obsessive foot fetish towards King Julien.).

Maurice looked into Mort's eyes and spoke in a serious manner "mort listen and don't lie to me, did king Julien really hit you and if he did why". At this point Mort calmed down to be more cooperative, he began to explain in detail what happened.

"It happened the way I usually do, I sneak into Julien's room and look at his feet, or even touch his feet. Today though was different-"

-Flashback-

Mort snuck into Julien's house (yes house, seen in all hail king Julien, made of bamboo and palm leaves) through his window, silently he crept as to not make a sound from the creaky floors. To mort it was very easy to find the king's room, since there was only one room and that's the bedroom he was currently in. Surprisingly to the mouse lemur Julian's end table light was still on, 'shouldn't it be turned off?' he thought 'it's way past his bedtime', the door to the outside creaked open, only to slam shut when Julien entered the room. Right now Mort was a bit worried upon seeing Julien angry about something, which made Mort confused. The king was rarely angry, he's more fair and fun to be around. Julien was too enraged to even notice Mort and when the little lemur was about ready to leave something weird happened, he began hearing Julien speak in a way he's never spoken before.

"Soon, I will reach his gate and with it I will call upon the forces of Cold Harbor and score this world, in the name of Molag Bal and with this mortal creature in my possession, no one is the wiser.". He was interrupted when he heard something fall by his window, looking at the intrusion, he noticed Mort and the little lemur noticed him, along with his glowing blue eyes. When his eyes faded back to normal, Julien noticed Mort, his voice in his head told him mort was trying to steal and he believed him. Marching up to the lemur, Mort had no time until -SMACK- the little lemur went flying out the window, his face burning with a crude and painful hit across his face. He landed hard on the ground, blood began to pour from his nose. The strike was hard enough to cause a nosebleed, and any further might've killed him, sobbing he ran to find Maurice.

-End flashback-

Maurice couldn't believe what he heard, king Julien struck Mort after hearing a deranged voice in his head, no wonder the king was acting up, he knew what he had to do. However he couldn't do it alone and if this was the case Julien was going to be in serious trouble, hitting someone in the kingdom was an offence, but for a king that was a capital offence. He knew first thing in the morning he would march to the king and demand he'd step down, either that or get help, he and Mort still love Julien, and Julien was a good king, which is what he wanted to have him get help. He looked at mort.

"Mort go find Velen and explain to him what happened, i'll see if i could get others to help myself" the little lemur nodded and scoured off, when he was gone another lemur ran up to Maurice panicking while screaming

"HE'S GONE, HE'S GONE, KING JULIEN IS GONE!"

Things have just gotten more difficult.