Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters. I do own Emily, Patch, Weasel, Lilian, Elizabeth, and the fossa with names, and the idea for this story
"Slaves!" the king exclaimed, widening his eyes in shock. This was so weird. Instead of eating them, the fossa were gathering the lemurs together to make them their slaves. It was the fossa named Mac's idea to use Patch to get close to Julien and when they weren't expecting it, they launched their plan to take over the kingdom.
Maurice's voice echoed in his head. Fossa eat. Fossa sleep. Fossa does not plan.
You were wrong about that, Momo, he thought, frowning. "So I failed my subjects by welcoming my brother back," Julien murmured.
Emily put her hand on his shoulder. "You were excited to see your brother alive; it's not your fault. It's his." She shot a glare at Patch.
"I'm sorry." Patch frowned. "You've been nicer to me than most of these fossa, besides Mac up until now. But they raised me. My loyalty lies with them."
"They stole you!" Julien blurted out, and Patch blinked. "When you were a little lemur," the king explained," I was teaching you how to dance, but we were too close to fossa territory. They found us and—"
"And they chased us back to the kingdom," Patch cut in suddenly, his eyes shining with lost memory. "They chased us up a tree, and I lost my balance and landed right in the jaws of… Mac." Anger flashed in Patch's gaze. "He told me that he found me, that my family abandoned me and he was all I had. He never mentioned I also had a brother."
"What did you expect?" Emily snorted. "He is a fossa, after all."
"But I thought I could trust him…"
Julien opened his muzzle, but before he could speak, a yowl split through the air, and the fossa that stayed behind got to their feet. Mac stood on the cliff above, more of his patrol huddling close to him, surrounding all of the lemur kingdom so they didn't run off. Not all of the kingdom, Julien noticed.
Where were Maurice and Clover?
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"Come on!" the orange lemur urged Maurice, staring back at him impatiently as he climbed over a fallen tree. He flopped down on the other side, panting.
"Can we slow down?" he begged.
"No!" Clover insisted. "Our friends are in trouble. We need to go faster!"
I don't think I can, the aye-aye responded to her in his head, and, as if she heard him, she encouraged him. "You can do it. You do want to save King Julien, don't you?"
He stared at her without actually seeing her. He was remembering the first time he laid eyes on the ringtail king right after he was born. Since then they've been the best of buddies and have done everything together. Maurice didn't want to live without him, and he still owed Weasel for saving his life.
"Okay, come on then." Maurice hurried away with Clover right behind him.
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With his head held high, Mac jumped down the rocks. His patrol followed him, pushing along the lemurs who stared in horror at the fossa. Mac padded over to Patch. "I hope there were no problems while we were gone," he rumbled, but before Patch could answer, he turned to Simon.
"No problems," the fossa replied.
"Well, Patch was talking to the king," Adain put in. "But nothing to worry about. They were just remembering their time together. Stupid lemurs," he muttered.
"Relax, Adain," said Mac. "Our plan worked perfectly. Well, two lemurs escaped, but we can get them back later."
"But didn't you say we need all the lemurs?" Damon questioned.
"I did, and we will get all of them," Mac responded calmly.
"How?" Damon sounded doubtful. "They could be anywhere on the island by now!"
Mac shook his head. "No, they are on their way here right now."
"How do you know?" Adain growled.
"We have their friends. Of course they are heading this way, to rescue them. And when they get here, we can grab them and put them with the others." He gestured with his tail toward a group of fossa that was forcing lemurs in cages made out of bamboo and leaves. "Don't forget the king and these two!" Mac called out to them.
The fossa immediately dropped what they were doing and hurried over to herd Julien, Emily, and Mort into a cage. Patch watched them, suddenly wishing he could help them. After the conversation he had with his brother, he felt unsure about the fossa and even felt terrible for taking part in kidnapping all the lemurs to turn them into the fossa slaves.
I wish there was something I could do to help…
"You forgot one." Mac's voice broke into Patch's thought, and he turned to his former friend in confusion. Who did they forget? All the lemurs were in cages. Then it dawned on him.
He means me!
Suddenly he noticed all the fossa stalking toward him. Patch backed up, but ran into something soft. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a fossa baring his teeth at him. Before it could catch him, Patch dropped to his belly and rolled out of its reach. Jumping back to his feet, he noticed more fossa running toward him.
Patch turned and made a break for the cliff. He climbed it in a hurry and, with one final push, was standing, panting, on the top. But he had no time to catch his breath. The fossa were climbing up after him. He took off in a random direction, going so fast that everything around him was a blur. Suddenly he hit something and fell back onto his rear.
Groaning and rubbing his pounding head, he looked up to find another lemur sitting in front of him.
Maurice!
Another lemur joined him. Clover. She helped him to his feet before turning to Patch. "Patch?" she questioned. "What are you doing out here? We thought the fossa kidnapped everyone."
"Well… not exactly." Right now wasn't the time to come clean about everything. "We need to get away from here! The fossa is after me!"
Instantly Clover jumped into action. "Come on!" But she was going the wrong way. She was going toward the fossa!
"What is she doing?" Patch glanced at Maurice.
"We're going to save our friends," the aye-aye responded.
Mac was right…
"Is Julien okay?"
Maurice's voice startled Patch. "Um… yeah, he's fine. For now," he added darkly.
"We need to hurry!" Maurice took off after Clover.
Every instinct inside him was telling Patch to run the other way, far away from the fossa. He was a fool to ever think he was one of them. But he had wanted to help his brother, and maybe he can do that by going with Maurice and Clover. He just didn't see what three lemurs can do against a whole pack of fossa.
Reluctantly, he followed them. They had stopped and were standing still. "Did you hear that?" Clover murmured.
"Is it the fossa?" Maurice whispered back.
"I don't think so…" Clover crept closer, and Patch hardly dared to breathe. A bush was rustling. If it was a fossa they wouldn't be hiding, so what was it?
As Clover inched closer, fists ready to punch, something stood up. Patch widened his eyes. Was that a lemur? It looked like one, but larger and with muscles.
Clover squealed with delight. "Sage!"
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