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
Julien watched his brother disappear over the edge of the cliff. "Patch!" he screamed. With Maurice close behind him, the king ran over there. Relief made him lightheaded when he noticed Patch hanging by a root sticking out of the side of the cliff. There was no sign of Mac, and Julien dared to look all the way down. He gasped when he saw the broken body of the lead fossa.
Maurice's voice brought his attention away from the horrifying scene. "Don't worry, Patch. We'll have you pulled up soon," he promised.
"Please hurry!" Patch gasped. "I'm slipping!" As he said that, the root shifted and dirt crumpled away. "Help!" he begged.
"Come on, Your Majesty," Maurice said, shaking him. "We need to save Patch!"
"Right." Julien quickly thought of a plan. "Lower me down by my tail and I'll grab him."
"You sure, Your Majesty?" his adviser questioned.
"Yes, Maurice!" snapped Julien. "We don't have much time!"
"Help!" Patch screamed, and Julien looked down to see more dirt falling away.
Maurice took hold of Julien's tail and Julien slowly climbed down, ignoring the sharp pain in his tail. He had to rescue his brother no matter what. But Patch was just out of reach. Julien stained to grab his outstretched hand, but he couldn't.
"It's no use," Patch yelled over the thunder and the rain hitting the ground. "I should just let go…"
"No!" Julien screamed. "I thought I lost you once. I'm not about to lose you now! Just. Have. To try. Harder…" As he spoke, he stretched out as far as possible, but Patch was still just out of reach.
"Your Majesty!" Maurice gasped from the edge of the cliff, tugging at his tail. "I— I can't hold on— much longer."
Julien was faced with a difficult situation. Either he let his brother fall to his death or Maurice drops him and they both die. He knew the decision he had to make. His subjects needed him, but the kingdom survived without Patch before and would again.
"I'm sorry for tricking you," Patch said, locking eyes with his brother. "I wish we could have been a real family."
"Me too," Julien agreed, starting to cry.
They stared at each other, which said more things than any words ever could. Maurice broke the silence.
"Your Majesty!" he gasped, and Julien felt his grip on his tail loosening.
"I'm sorry, Patch," he whispered.
"Me too."
Patch was the first to break eye contact. With a deep breath, he braced himself to let go.
"Nooooo!"
The scream got louder and closer, then Mort appeared out of nowhere and flung himself down Julien's tail, crawling over his back and his head, but he didn't stop there. Thinking fast, Julien grabbed his brushy tail.
"Mort!" he gasped.
Mort didn't answer. Instead he reached out for Patch, who stared at him in shock. "Take my hand!" the little mouse lemur shouted.
Snapped out of it, Patch reached out and grabbed Mort's hand. Then Patch climbed up the line of lemurs, followed by Mort, and then Julien. As soon as everyone was on solid ground, Maurice stumbled away from the cliff and let out a relieved sigh.
"Is everyone okay?" the aye-aye asked.
"I'm okay," Julien answered.
"Me too," Mort replied.
"I'm fine," Patch responded. He stood up and helped his brother back to his feet. Then he turned to Mort. "Thank you, Mort. You saved my life. But I thought you hated me," he reminded him, confused.
Mort shifted his feet. "I did," he confessed. "But you risked everything today to help King Julien and… Well, everyone. I realize that you changed. You made up for betraying us when you lead those fossa into the jungle away from us and then again when you killed the lead fossa."
Patch was touched. Before he could stop himself, he threw his arms around Mort and brought him into a hug. Mort struggled at first, then hugged him back. Patch let go of Mort when Julien walked over to him.
"Now, we can be a real family," the king was saying, but was interrupted by growling. Spinning around, Patch watched in horror as Sander and his patrol bursted out of the trees. "Stop right there!" he snarled, crouching down. "I'm gonna kill you, and then Mac would be—" He stopped talking and sat up. "Hey, where's Mac?"
The other fossa in the camp was staring in horror at the edge of the cliff. Hesitantly, Sander walked over there and even more slowly, looked over the side. He gasped and stumbled back, suddenly looking sick.
"N-No, no, it can't— this can't be happening," the second-in-command stammered.
"Unless you wish to join him, I'd suggest you run far, far away from here and never return."
Everyone, lemurs and fossa, turned to the speaker. "Mary Ann?" Julien couldn't believe his eyes. "I-Is that really you?"
"Yes, King Julien," she replied, stepping into the camp. "I have returned to claim my rightful place as head of the fossa."
As she spoke, the rain abruptly stopped and the clouds parted to let a spotlight of sunlight come through to shine on Mary Ann. It was a sign from the Gods. Mary Ann was the true leader of the fossa. Every fossa seemed to realize this, too, and immediately gathered around her, growling their praises and their congratulations. All expect Sander.
The former second-in-command still stood by the cliff, looking shook to the core. He looked up as Mary Ann walked over to him. "I'm gonna give you a choice," she growled. "Leave and never return."
"Or?" Sander choked out.
"Or join your friend at the bottom of this cliff."
"Y-Yes, okay, I'm going." Head down, he walked away, toward the trees. Patch watched him go, hardly believing he just left without a fight. He was completely in shock with what happened to Mac. Sander looked up at Mac and worshipped the ground he walked on. Now he was gone and Sander was all alone. Patch actually felt sorry for him.
A familiar voice spoke nearby. "It's time to take everyone home, Your Majesty."
Patch spun around and gaped at the chameleon. "You!"
"I see you've met Masikura," said Julien. "She's the royal physic… something or other. She tells me what's going to happen in the future. Well, normally she does!" he shouted, turning on her. "This time she didn't warn me in time!"
"I was torn about warning you, Your Majesty," she said. "Yes, I knew your brother will return to you and would betray you, but I also knew you two needed to work things out yourselves, so I only interfered when I had to."
Julien still looked pretty upset, but before he could reply, Mary Ann walked over to him. "The chameleon is correct," she said. "It's time you returned to your kingdom."
"Yes, please," Maurice wholeheartedly agreed.
"So, wait," Clover interrupted, looking confused. "What does this mean for fossa and lemur kind?"
"As leader of the fossa," Mary Ann replied," I stand by my decree not to eat lemurs, so you are safe. Mac was good for one thing, coming up with an alternative to food than just lemurs, and we will stick to that."
"Sounds good." Julien smiled. Then he turned to Patch, wrapping his arm around his neck. "Come, brother, let's go home."
Home, Patch thought. All his life, he thought the fossa camp was his home and that Mac and everyone else was his family. But none of that was true. Deep down, he realized he truly never felt at home with the fossa and only pretended to please Mac. Now, Mac was dead and he was free to go back to the lemur kingdom with his brother and his new friends. I'm finally going home…
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Deep in the jungle, in an abandoned airship, Karl sat with his feet on the table with a cup of tea. He was relaxed for the first time in a long time. Julien— his nemesis— finally taken care of. Lost somewhere out there on the island, separated from his friends forever, while his subjects were slaves to the fossa.
"Ah," he breathed out. "So this is what victory feels like." He paused, then said," I like it."
As he sat there, his hissing cockroach friend crawled up his arm and rested on his shoulder. "Ah, Chauncey, isn't this nice?" The cockroach whispered something in his ear, right when he was taking a sip from his drink, making him spit it out when he heard what he said. "What!" he demanded, throwing his tea to the ground. "Julien found his way back to his friends?" Chauncey whispered in his ear again. "And he forgave his brother?" Jumping out of his seat, Karl ran to the next room to check on something.
"Oh, it's still here," he panted, picking up the leaf crown. Returning to the other room, he placed the crown on the table and sat back down. "At least, I still have this. He can't be a true king without—"
He was interrupted by a crash at the end of the airship. "What was that?" Karl gasped. He ran to go check it out, but all he saw was a pile of junk that fell from a shelf. Retracing his steps, he went back to the dining room. At first, he didn't notice anything; then he realized that the crown was gone.
Knowing who was to blame, he slammed his fist onto the table. "Julien!"
Outside, King Julien placed his crown upon his head, a shiver running down his spine. "Ohh, this feels so good!" he whispered.
"It's good to see that back on your head," Maurice commented, and Mort nodded eagerly, but his eyes were fixed on Julien's feet.
Patch blinked. "Um… why is Mort staring at your feet?" he hesitantly asked.
Instead of answering, Julien glared down at Mort. "Stop looking at the royal feet!" he demanded.
"Hey, you don't have to yell at him," Emily defended the little mouse lemur. "At least he isn't attacking your feet like he normally does."
Weasel crossed his arms. "Still really weird how he just stares at them, though," he muttered.
Lilian nudged him. "Emily's right. He's showing willpower by not hugging on them right now."
Patch listened, very confused. "Is this normal?" he whispered to Maurice, but it wasn't the aye-aye who answered him.
"Very normal," Clover insisted.
Maurice nodded. "Normal is nice."
"Normal," Sage murmured. "What is normal? How do we achieve it? Is it good or is it bad?"
"Um… yeah, okay," Clover stammered, and Maurice and Patch shrugged, showing they were just as confused as her. Patch turned his attention back on his brother as the king, his love interest, Emily, the black-and-orange lemur, Weasel, and the other female ringtail, Lilian, argued about Mort's obsession with Julien's feet. So, this is what normal feels like, Patch thought. I like it.
The End!
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