It was cold; that was the first thing he noticed as he came to. It was cold and wiry, and uncomfortable against his side. He yawned and sleepily rose to his feet before his eyes fully opened. His attempt to stand on two legs failed however, as his head hit a similar mesh above him. He blinked open his eyes, and jumped, hitting his head yet again.

He was in a black, mesh box like he'd seen last night, except he wasn't surrounded by other mesh boxes, nor was he outside at all. He was in a picture perfect white room, with harsh, unforgivingly bright lights that were definitely not natural.

The walls had protruding boxes on them that were just as white as the walls were. Looping, smaller protrusions existed on them. He supposed those were handles and the boxes were to store items. Below those were undefined surfaces, like tables that pushed out of the walls. Basins the same silver color of the table his mesh box was on were in the tables that were connected to the walls.

Pulling his tail around him, he sat in the box, feeling undermined with how it was too short to stand in and annoyed. Annoyed because he knew when he got back, he'd have to tell Maurice and Clover the truth, and they'd be so convinced they needed to leave that they just may attempt to find some rule to override his decision to stay. His tail gave an irritated twitch.

He watched, unflinching, as the white door to the overly pure room opened and a furless stepped in. King Julien tilted his head, and then looked back up at the supposed protruding boxes. The loops were handles, and they were doors. He received a low amount of comfort from recognizing the strange, alien equipment, but it was better than nothing.

The furless held a collar exactly like the one Clover wore, except it was black instead of gray. The furless was wearing something blue and tight over its paws… or perhaps this one's paws were blue? He didn't know furless could have different colored paws. It also had a simple, white coat on; one almost as spotless and clean as the room.

The furless approached the table King Julien was on and used its oversized, blue paws to open the mesh box. It had some kind of clip on the front… Before King Julien could react, the furless grabbed him by his neck-scruff, and carefully pulled him out and onto the table. At first, he didn't quite understand - that action was usually reserved for parent lemurs trying to regain control of their (very) young children. Fluffing his tail in disbelief at how he was being handled, he grabbed onto the bottom of the mesh cage.

"Hey! Watch the hair, man," King Julien complained, brushing his chest fur down again. But the furless took no heed of him, using its other paw to take the prior's place at his neck. The now free paw picked up the collar off the gleaming table and unfastened it using buttons on the back of the boxy piece. It then put the collar on King Julien's neck in a quick motion, using both hands to both hold him down and fasten the collar.

Before the violated king knew it, there was a heavy, unattractive collar around his neck as well. But the furless wasn't finished. It then pulled a sharp, pointed object from its white coat that the king definitely recognized as a needle. He struggled a lot harder, but the paw on his neck only squeezed tighter.

"I order you to stop!" King Julien yelled, wrestling one of the furless's paws. Its strength was no match for his, however, and his actions did nothing but increase the pressure on his neck-scruff.

The needle was injected into his upper arm, near where the other paw had him immobilized. Julien had no idea what to do. Nothing he was saying was deterring the creature. So, he gave a deep, throaty growl - something he had never done before. Aside from surprise himself, that did nothing as well.

"I'm royalty… and this is humiliating, man!" King Julien shouted. After that he felt the familiar whoozy sensation. The furless loosened its grip on his neck-scruff and opened the mesh box again, carefully guiding King Julien back inside by loosely holding his sides and ushering him in the mesh box's direction.

He went back in without a fight. It was a lot nicer than being manhandled by the furless, and he knew where his situation was going anyway. He was being forced asleep again like they had done when they caught him at the clearing with all the chopped trees, he just knew it… he just wasn't quite so sure where he'd be taken after.

He growled once more as he fell asleep, the mesh box's door closing finally.

"King Julien? Is that you?"

King Julien groggily shook his head, his eyes too blurry to take in the figures in front of him. The sounds of the voices told him Mort was talking to him, and soon after, Clover's voice chimed in.

"King Julien, you've been given a collar like mine… I think it's time we consult Timo about having these removed. He proved mine wasn't a bomb, but he had no idea what it was or how to remove it. Let's get going, if it's on you he has to figure out how to get rid of it."

"Whoa… Slow down, Clover," King Julien yawned, rubbing his eyes as he sat up and blinked the blurriness away. "Do what now?" He was dully aware of sharp, pointed sticks beneath his rump and that they were just at the edge of where he had originally been captured. He gave the stump-littered area a quick glance before looking back at Clover and Mort. He thought he caught a glimpse of Maurice with them, too.

Clover's tail lashed in a sudden burst of excitement. "Of course! They hit you with the sedative too, Your Majesty. You'll be tired a while. Here, Mort and I can carry you at least closer to the camp so you can rest."

King Julien waved her off. "No, Clover…" He yawned again, finally able to clearly see them both. Mort was looking up at him with his large, round eyes. They looked wet, as if he had been crying. He looked incredibly worried. "Why is Mort all… not being annoying?" King Julien wrinkled his nose and stood up. He made an effort to brush off his neck and chest, where the furless had held him down to install the collar.

"Oh, King Julien, you're alive!" The smaller lemur immediately leapt at the king's feet, latching onto King Julien's left leg.

"I tried to tell him you were just sleeping. He was intent on being upset for you though," Clover rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips as she watched Mort lovingly rub King Julien's calf.

"Get - Get off, Mort!" King Julien shook his leg excessively. "Get off!" Finally, the lemur was kicked off his foot. "I'm fine! I was always fine!" King Julien raised his leg, balancing awkwardly as he brushed off Mort's germs (even if there weren't literal Mort germs, King Julien considered being touched by the mouse lemur enough to count as a germ).

"Save for that pretty penny around your neck," Maurice muttered. King Julien turned around and saw the aye-aye standing there, his arms crossed.

"What?" King Julien indignantly demanded, also crossing his arms. His advisor looked more than aggravated, and the way Maurice was avoiding meeting the king's eyes said he had been upset by it.

"Nothing, except you intentionally ran off and put your life in danger!" Maurice shouted, frowning at King Julien. "We warned you, King Julien!"

"Do you want me to admit I was wrong?" King Julien asked, kinking his tail over his back in a further display of indignance. "Well, it's not going to happen! Except… maybeCloverwasrightaboutthefurlesstearingintoourlandandstealinglemurs." King Julien spat the last part out really fast, still holding his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He then opened one, and started feeling about on his head. "My crown!" He expressively used both hands to feel about the top of his head, as if his crown may have shrank and was hard to find.

"Got it," Clover brandished the gem from behind her back (where had she been storing that? King Julien didn't care to ask) and set it on his head for him. He quickly adjusted it so that it was perfectly straight on his head. One of the leaves looked damaged.

"Anyway…" Clover started, gesturing back towards the kingdom, "as I was saying, we need to see Timo. He can afford to not be able to get it off me but he needs to get it off you. We don't know what these things do."

King Julien pawed at the device around his neck, noting its smooth, soft texture. Aside from that though, it was heavy, and there was something behind the thick part of the collar that made his neck itch.

"Yes, let's go see Timo." He agreed, beginning to walk after Clover, and ignoring Mort as he clung to King Julien's ringed tail. Months of Mort's annoying torment had taught him sometimes it was simply better to ignore him (though he couldn't always do that when Mort attached himself to his legs - after all, how does one dance with a lemur connected to its foot?).

Hoping everyone's enjoying the story so far! I always did love the Madagascar series, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Penguins of Madagascar's animation quality or how it fit with the main Madagascar timeline (and I came to realize that that series is considered to be in a different universe from the main one...). However, All Hail King Julien is canon to the main storyline, and is of beautiful quality - both animation-wise, dialogue-wise, and everything else one can think of! It's a great show, but I just couldn't help myself from playing with such a dynamic character as King Julien. The deforestation and expansion threat is one that's consistent everywhere, especially in countries with lower HDI, so I thought this was a perfect setting to exercise this idea in. I also have been writing this story for a while before posting any of it, so I have the next few chapters already written - I just am combing them over before posting. ;)