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

Panting, the king stopped to catch his breath. He looked up, but the chameleon was gone. "Wait! Masikura? Masikura!" He was breathing heavily. "Where did she go?"

Suddenly she appeared in front of him, startling him. "Hurry up, Your Majesty! We are almost there!"

"Where?" Julien panted.

"No time to answer. Come on!" She vanished again, reappearing farther down the trail.

Julien sighed and ran after her. He was blinded by exhaustion that he didn't see anyone in front of him until he ran head-on into them. He stumbled backwards, his head pounding.

What was that?

He looked up and gasped. "Emily!" The pretty lemur was sitting on the ground, knocked over by the king. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" He stretched out his hand to help her up.

She stared up at him with huge eyes. "J-Juli- King Julien, is that really you?"

Suddenly Julien remembered that he was not wearing his crown because Karl had taken it, but Emily wasn't like the rest of his kingdom. She can recognize him even without his crown.

"Yes, it's me," he said, still holding out his hand for her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," she responded. Three more lemurs appeared behind her. They stared at him in astonishment as if they couldn't believe he was really there. Then there was a loud squeal and Mort ran toward him, wrapping himself around the king's feet and kissing his toes.

Julien sighed, but still smiled. He couldn't lie to himself. He even missed the annoying mouse lemur, that's how lonely and scared he was. He bent over and picked him up, hugging him. Mort hugged him back, but after a moment, Julien dropped him and shooed him away. Then he turned to Emily. She was already prepared for a hug, and Weasel and Lilian joined in.

"We thought you were dead," Weasel admitted after the hug.

"They thought you were dead," Emily put in, pointing at Weasel and Lilian, who both shifted their feet nervously. "Mort and I kept the hope alive. Right, Mort?"

Mort nodded eagerly, standing close beside Julien.

"Really?" Julien looked at her with sad eyes. "Even I thought I was dead. When Karl left me in the middle of nowhere, I didn't know what to do."

"Wait," Weasel said, lifting his hand up. "Did you say Karl?"

Julien nodded. "He's behind all this. He got together with the fossa and talked them into kidnapping everyone, and he took my crown and left me kingdomless. He said he finally won, but I don't know what he got against me. I did nothing to him! It just doesn't make any sense…"

Suddenly Julien noticed something. "Wait, where's Momo?"

Emily, Weasel, and Lilian all shared an uncertain look, and Julien got a bad feeling.

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"Well?" Sander demanded as the fossa came trotting back to camp with their heads down. "Did you get them? I hope no sign of them means that you killed and ate them," he growled.

The fossa crouched low and avoided Sander's gaze. The second in command growled again and turned his back on them. As he passed the cages, he heard Patch whisper," They got away."

Sander snapped around and snarled at his former campmate. "You were behind this."

"Um... perhaps..." he said sheepishly.

Sander growled and lunged at him through the bars of the cage. Pain struck him and he fell to the ground. That was smart, he scolded himself.

In the cage, Patch suddenly had an idea. "Hey, cat-face!" he yowled, and Sander looked up, narrowing his eyes.

He threw himself at the cage again. Joy ran through Patch when he saw the hole Sander had made in the bars of the cage was getting bigger. He continued to taunt the fossa, making him very angry. Suddenly he burst into the cage, snapping the bars and sending the lemurs inside flying through the air. They all landed some distances away from Sander, who was snapping his jaws all around, but he stopped when he realized he was eating bamboo and leaves.

His eyes flashed as they landed on Patch. "Come back here!" he growled, running toward them. Patch and Maurice took off to get out of the camp, while Clover went farther in.

"Clover!" Maurice called. "What are you doing?"

"Saving Sage!" She dodged Sander's snapping jaws and landed in front of Sage's cage. "Come on, Sage! Let me—" She had started tugging at the bamboo, but suddenly Sage stood up and brought the roof off of the cage. He climbed out and put the roof back on as he stood there next to Clover. "Um… okay. That works," she stammered, clearly not expecting that.

"Come on, guys!" Maurice called to them between a sea of hungry fossa.

Clover and Sage shared a glance before jumping in, dodging fossa and punching the ones who they couldn't dodge. Finally they made it to Maurice and Patch, and they took off, out running the fossa.

Sander was about to chase after them when a menacing growl sounded behind him. "What is happening here?"

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