Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters. I do own the penguin Alex in this story.
"You want me to be hiding this female penguin here?" the tall lemur asked, and Alex was glad Kowalski gave away no major details except that they needed to hide Alex from her father. The lemur didn't even seem interested in the specifics, and she was hopeful that he might agree to help her.
"Precisely," Kowalski replied, nodding thoughtfully.
"But why do you want to hide her here?" It was the aye-aye who asked that, and Alex felt her hope shatter at that single question. She didn't want to explain to these lemurs why she was avoiding her father. Kowalski and the other two penguins had heard her arguing with their leader, but even they didn't know the whole story.
Alex watched as her father's team exchanged glances, but before they could answer, the tall lemur spoke up again.
"It doesn't matter why they want to be staying here, Maurice." He glared down at the aye-aye, and then turned back to the penguins. Alex felt like he wanted to say something, but it never came.
"It doesn't?" Maurice eyed his friend suspiciously.
"Nope," the ring-tailed lemur responded, keeping his eyes on the penguins. "I'm sure they would be telling us sooner or later. But," he added to Kowalski, with a slight smile," if you want her to be hiding here, you must do me a favor in return."
Alex heard Maurice mutter under his breath," Yep, that's the King Julien I know."
King? Alex suddenly realized what the hat on top of his head meant and she found herself getting excited. This lemur is a king? Wow! That's so cool!
"What favor?" Private's young, British voice broke into Alex's thoughts. He sounded confused and interested at the same time.
The tall lemur circled the penguins, letting his long tail rub against them, before coming to a halt beside Maurice again. Then the lemurs exchanged a look; Maurice nodded as if telling his king to go on.
"Well," Julien continued," when the zoo was opened, I heard these kids talking about losing something called a… um… What was it being called again, Maurice?" He turned to the aye-aye.
"I think they called it a MP3 Player, Your Majesty," he answered, shrugging.
"A MP3 Player?" Kowalski echoed.
Alex has heard of this human thing. She's seen kids listening to the device before, and she even managed to grab one for herself once, until she lost it. It was something the humans used to hold music, and usually it came with this snake-like cord called headphones which they plugged into the Player to hear the music. It was quite an interesting gadget.
"Yes." Julien nodded. "If you find me this… thingy, she can stay here as long as she likes." He smiled at the penguins, leaning eagerly toward them.
"But it could be anywhere in the zoo!" Private pointed out, waving his flippers wildly, then sighing.
"Even if they did lose it here," Kowalski added, looking doubtful.
Rico grunted in agreement.
"No, they did lose it here," Julien insisted. "I think they said they lost it somewhere near the alligator habitat." He reached for his tail and started stroking it as if deep in thought.
"You don't suppose Roger's seen it, do you?" Private asked.
"There's only one way to find out," Kowalski answered. "Let's go ask him, but we still need to keep a lookout for Skipper." The tall penguin turned to Alex and said to her," It's probably best if you stay here, in case we do run into your father, he would think we're still looking for you."
"When are we going to tell Skippah that we found her and we're protecting her from him?" Private asked anxiously, as if he didn't like this whole lying to his leader plan.
"We'll tell him eventually," Kowalski answered, but Alex saw his eyes darken as if he wasn't looking forward to telling his leader that they went against orders.
The three penguins were getting ready to leave, while Alex stepped back until she was beside Maurice, when Julien let go of his tail and said," Or they could have lost it by the chimps?"
Private looked at him, then back at Kowalski. "Phil and Mason?"
Julien nodded, then frowned. "Or was it by Marlene's habitat? Or the elephant's? Or in the park?" He kept naming off places in the entire zoo, and Alex could see that Kowalski was getting very upset now.
"Alright, that's enough," the tall penguin interrupted sternly, which made the lemur snap his mouth shut. "We'll look all over the zoo if we have to."
"And the park." Private sighed.
Rico nodded, though Alex saw boredom in his eyes.
The three penguins left the lemur habitat before Julien could give them more places to look. Alex glanced around at her surroundings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of black-and-white, and that's when she noticed Skipper jumping over the brick wall. Quickly, she jumped down to the ground just as her father landed onto the platform in front of the lemurs. He faced them and asked," Have you lemurs seen Alex?"
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