Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters. But I do own Emily, Patch, Weasel, Lilian, and Elizabeth, and the idea of this story.

The chair squeaked under Julien as the king crouched there, unable to sit still. His fur was crawling with excitement. On one side of him, Maurice stood, looking thoughtful while Clover, on Julien's other side, narrowed her eyes, her gaze betraying her mistrust of the situation. Mort stood next to Emily, who patiently waited for someone to talk.

More lemurs peeked through the window as if they were curious to know what was going to happen now that the king's brother had returned. The king's brother; Julien wiggled with excitement.

My brother has returned to the kingdom! the ringtail thought, still hardly able to believe it. For many years he believed Patch was gone forever, turned into a snack for the fossa, the wild cats who roamed the far side of the island and hunted lemurs. But now here he was, standing in front of all of them, as liveful and healthy as ever.

After Maurice told Patch that he and Julien were brothers, the three of them and Clover, Mort, and Emily returned to the crashed plane. The rest of the kingdom crowded outside, eyes shining, tails flicking. Tension was high. Everyone was waiting for Julien to speak, but Maurice beat him to it.

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration!" The aye-aye glanced at Julien. "Don't you agree, Your Majesty?"

Julien nodded eagerly.

"Wait a minute!"

Everyone turned to the speaker, a lemur with an orange front side, and a black back, hands, arms, feet, tail, and black around his eyes. He eyed Patch suspiciously. "Brother to the king or not, he's still a stranger, and we learned from the mountain lemurs that strangers can't be trusted!"

The female lemur beside him rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh Weasel, in case you didn't notice, there's a huge difference between him—" She pointed to Patch—" and the mountain lemurs. He doesn't have muscles like them."

A lemur who looked just like Weasel spoke up. "My brother has a point though. We don't know where he's been all this time. Maybe he has been staying with the mountain lemurs! I say we drive him out once and for all!"

Yowls of agreement broke out.

"I didn't mean to start a riot, Elizabeth." Weasel glared at his sister who always enjoyed causing trouble.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, eyes blazing with anger, but before she could say another word the female lemur at Weasel's side interrupted their fight. "Guys, stop it! Kicking him out is not your decision. It's King Julien's."

"Thank you, Lilian." Julien felt a rush of relief. For a moment he feared he had lost control of his kingdom, but now everyone was calming down and avoiding Julien's gaze as if ashamed about agreeing to send the king's brother into exile. As Julien's subjects rose against him, an alarm look flashed across Patch's face, but now he was relaxing and smoothing down his ruffled fur.

"Now," Julien went on, turning back to Patch. He tried to be serious, but he was far too excited. Unable to sit still any longer, Julien jumped out of his seat and landed in front of his brother. "I'm so happy to see you alive, Patch!"

Julien threw his arms around him, and he felt Patch hug him back. Patch smiled, but where he stood next to Emily, Mort could see that it was forced. The others might think he was zoning out, but since he found out that this stranger was Julien's brother, Mort has paid close attention, afraid that Patch would steal all of Julien's love. It took him forever to get used to Emily, and he still didn't like how close she was to the king.

Mort narrowed his eyes. There was something about this lemur that felt wrong.

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"And that's my kingdom!" Julien announced, coming to the end of the tour. He halted and forced Patch to stop as well. "Did you recognize anything?" He looked hopefully at his brother but frowned when Patch shook his head.

Maurice appeared beside Julien. "Lots have changed, Your Majesty. It makes sense that he doesn't recognize anything."

"I think I remember the crashed plane," Patch said slowly, staring up at it through the leaves above their heads.

"That's been here for ages!" Maurice chuckled.

"Yeah!" Julien agreed. "Momo was only a little baby when it crashed landed on Madagascar!"

Maurice started nodding, but then he realized that Julien just called him ancient. "Hey, I'm not that old!"

The king playfully stuck his tongue out at his adviser, and Patch laughed at the two. Close by, Mort watched them while Clover kept guard a few feet away. The mouse lemur snorted and crossed his arms.

"What's wrong, Mort?"

The voice made him jump. Then he realized it was just Emily. "I don't trust this new lemur," he admitted.

"Why not?" the female ringtail questioned. "He's Julien's brother so he can't be all that bad." Affection showed on her face as she stared at the king.

"There's something very bad about him," Mort argued. "I don't know what, but I will find out."

Emily frowned and turned back to him. "You're just afraid Patch will steal all of Julien's attention, and while that might be true—" Was that hurt in her voice? "—you should just be happy that for the first time in many years, Julien is finally happy on this day. His brother has returned, Mort. He's not dead. It's a miracle!"

The mouse lemur blinked up at her, at a loss for words.

She patted his head. "At least pretend to be happy for him and not ruin this reunion, okay?" Before he could respond, she went to go join the three males, followed by Clover, who kept looking around as if watching out for danger.

Mort stood there alone for another moment and then finally joined his friends.

"The tour was great," Patch was saying as Mort came up. "But if you excuse me I have to go to the little lemurs' bush."

"Get it!" Julien exclaimed. "Because you're the little brother!" He continued to laugh at the joke he made himself, but when nobody joined in, he stopped laughing and cleared his throat, hot with embarrassment. "It's over there." He pointed to some nearby bushes.

"Thanks." Patch made his way over there, pushing through the bushes. As the leaves swished back into place, Mort narrowed his eyes.

He's up to something, the mouse lemur thought. Making sure none of the others were watching him, he followed Patch. Where is he going? Mort wondered after awhile of tracking him.

He stayed far enough behind that Patch couldn't see him but still close enough to keep an eye on him as he took a trail deep into the jungle. Then he took a sharp turn away from the lemurs side of the island. At first Mort wondered where he was going, then it dawned on him.

Fossa territory!

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