"King Julien!"
The lemur bounced, hitting his head against the canopy of his regal bed. The broad leaves gave in, breaking and leaving a hole almost the exact shape of his head. When he landed again, he huffed. A millisecond later, his crown plopped back down on his head. "Somebody's going to need to fix that, and it's not going to be me." With that, he turned around to see Crimson standing in his doorway, panting and looking urgent. Her fur was fluffed, and her ears were twitching.
"We need you, and quickly! Maurice is hurt," she puffed. Her expression was one of shock. Her blue eyes were wide and her pupils were but small pinpricks in them. Once she was sure she had gotten his attention, she turned and ran back down the tree on all fours. King Julien had just barely processed the words when he began to follow her. He followed also on all fours, his paws skidding harshly against the bark. He caught up to Crimson on the ground, him being the one out of breath now.
"What do you mean 'hurt?'" King Julien asked finally, seeming to not understand the concept of the word with the awkward way it rolled off his tongue.
"Clover found him under a stray limb from a fallen tree, and he was unconscious. She told me to come get you to calm him down so we could take him to the hospital," Crimson explained fully, standing up and off her front legs. "He's babbling nonsense at Clover and won't let her touch him."
King Julien paused their hurried pace by coming to a near complete stop. "Why are you being so nice all of a sudden? And not so… stabby?" He was standing now, and tilting his head at her. Something about the situation was strange. Too strange.
"This isn't the time!" Crimson snapped, pausing as well. She lashed her tail at him. "If you really must know, I'm a little more concerned with the falling trees and approaching furless and the weird necklaces they're giving to everyone to care about you right now! Besides… if it becomes truly deadly I'm sure it'll somehow end up taking you down." Crimson shrugged, and then broke back into a run, leaving him.
King Julien raced after her. "Wait, so you don't want to actually start over?" He questioned, thinking back on the plea she'd used to get them to trust her.
"Of course not, Julie, now. Do you want to argue or save your friend? I don't particularly care either way. Just wondering. I'm only acting so urgent to keep Clover off my tail."
"Save Maurice, we can argue while we carry him or something," King Julien waved her off with his tail as they ran. He supposed he didn't blame her for lying in front of Clover. His head of security could be a little… insane.
Upon reaching the site, he found that Clover had managed to at least pull Maurice out from beneath the large tree limb. He was face-down in the dust, and Clover was standing over him. The tree the branches had come from was nowhere to be seen. Tree stumps littered this part of the forestry, as well as clumps of leaves and sticks. In the distance, one could hear the malevolent snarling of the furless machines.
When Clover spotted Crimson and King Julien, she pointed to the fallen lemur. "Help me carry him, Crimson. Your Majesty, you should speak to him, to keep him calm."
The ring-tailed lemur awkwardly made his way to Maurice, who looked outwardly fine, but perhaps he only appeared that way to the king because he wanted him to be fine. "Um… Maurice? You're going to be fine, ah… Clover and the rest of us are going to take you to see Dr. Snake, and you'll be all better soon…" He received a pitiful grunt for his efforts. Then he realized that Clover and Crimson working to pick the aye-aye up had probably brought that about, not him. King Julien struggled to help carry his friend's weight from the front.
"Ah, Maurice, not to be mean what with what just happened but… you should really lose a few pounds, dude," King Julien grunted between straining his arms to carry his friend.
Luckily for them, Maurice had fallen closer to the western edges of the forest. He wasn't far from the rocky beach, where their hospital was set up. King Julien grimly recalled how Maurice had pressed for a hospital for weeks and it had taken a run-in with an insane witch doctor of a snake and a vengeful old friend for him to listen to his advisor.
Perhaps he really was a terrible friend.
Finally, they reached the rockier parts of the island, where Dr. Snake and Rob McTod stayed. The hospital was where everyone went when they were sick or injured, and more often than not Dr. Snake and his partner did well to fix the lemurs up and send them on their way. After climbing precariously through the rocky slopes and into an eerily skull-shaped cave, Dr. Snake relieved them of their charge. The large, monocle cobra murmured to himself as he overlooked Maurice, checking the aye-aye's physical condition. He then asked King Julien, Crimson, Clover, and the few other lemurs that had tailed them following the incident to leave.
King Julien stood just outside the room Maurice was in, pacing, his muzzle pointed down in thought. "I have an idea brewing in my brainy… parts.."
"King Julien, we must evacuate. They're simply getting too close," Clover insisted from the side, cutting him short.
"For once," Crimson added, ensuring to give her sister a dark stare as she said so, "I agree with Clo-Clo. Those furless are just going to keep getting closer, Julie."
King Julien stamped his foot. "We are not leaving!" The strange surge of anger overtook him again. "I will set a new thing of… rules that the peoples will follow. It will keep them safer from the furless! But we aren't leaving. This is our home, we don't know of anywhere else that's as safe or good as this." He put his hands on his hips and raised a brow at Clover. "And you tell me where I can find another huge tree with a metal bird in it."
Crimson and Clover didn't want to admit it, but they really didn't know. They had no idea if beyond where the furless were if there were more or less furless, and if there were any fruit trees, or even any hospitable conditions. The king was eying them with an imposing stare as they digested what he'd said. It was clear he had made his decision and wasn't wavering.
"That's actually a really good idea, Your Majesty," Clover nodded slowly, her voice slowly rising in excitement for the idea, "adding rules to protect the kingdom. We should get on that right away… Let's get to the bird."
King Julien stepped into the sunlight of the clearing, held by a platform two brown lemurs were carrying. His regal appearance was on purpose. Clover had said it would give him a sense of increased authority in a time where lemurs were scared. He waved and smiled to lemurs that poked their heads out of their homes to see him. Clover was walking alongside the platform, and since Maurice was out of order, she was carrying the megaphone.
"Alright, everyone! Out, to the clearing! King Julien has some very important information to relay!" Clover shouted, her voice much larger and more intimidating in the megaphone than Maurice's ever was.
Lemurs stepped out and, after nervously looking back and forth, they looked up at their king. King Julien looked around as they gathered, noting how fidgety and nervous they were. It was making even him feel uneasy, all the tucked tails and twitching noses. "Okay, peoples, I have an important announcement to make! As we know… the furless are doing some pretty messed up things. So, I'm going to tell you some…" He trailed off and then looked down at Clover, spitting a rather loud whisper at her, "what's that word again, Clover?"
"Temporary, Your Majesty," she muttered back, crossing her arms.
"Some temp-or-ary rules! When the furless decide they've had enough lemurs and trees they'll leave and these rules will leave also! But until then… ah… where's my cheat sheet…" The king looked around the platform he was standing on, feeling the two lemurs below him strain to keep him upright. "You can put me down you know," he said as he got on all fours and poked his head over the side, looking at them upside down.
The lemurs gladly did so, tipping the float and throwing the king off in an ungracious manner. King Julien's mouth had been open, so when he stood up, he spat grit out of his mouth. After he dusted himself off and finished spitting, he glared after the two lemurs that had dropped him. "I didn't mean like that!"
"Here, Your Majesty," Clover flicked an ear and handed him a piece of paper. He swore he saw a smirk on her face.
"A-ha! Here, all of the peoples must… Okay. Nobody is allowed to go past the south side of the clearing. It's too dangerous…" The king raised a hand and pointed south. Everyone turned their faces to look in said direction. It was clear to see the forestry was thinner, and the hum of furless equipment was still very audible. King Julien continued.
"Nobody can travel alone, always have three or more lemurs in your group… If you see a furless or any of their weird machines, do not climb a tree, run back to the clearing and report it to me or Clover… and children shouldn't leave the home unless absolutely necessary," King Julien finished, and handed the paper back to Clover. He put his hands on his hips and looked down at her. "Is all that really needed?" He hissed. "It sounds a bit harsh… y'know?"
"We're trying to keep people safe, Your Majesty," she reminded him in a firm tone.
"Those sound kind of… tough, don't you think?" A lemur from the side voiced the king's quiet fears. "You're not going to start making us stay quiet all the time and stuff like your uncle did, are you?" The red-ruffed lemur's eyes widened slightly, and he swept his tail across the ground in anticipation of King Julien's response. "King Julien the Eleventh was really tough…"
"What? I'm nothing like Uncle! No, these are only… what's that word again… temporary," King Julien reminded them, his voice starting to shake. "Temporary… When the furless leave, the rules leave too." He repeated himself firmly.
"And what if the furless don't leave?" A squat, but rather large creamy, female lemur asked. "What if they never leave?" She had her paws on her hips, and her red-eyed glare was challenging. She wore a decorative collar as well, though hers was darker than Clover or Crimson's. Her tail lashed as she spoke.
King Julien began chewing his left hand's nails a bit. Clover stepped in front of him and held up the megaphone. "We'll discuss that if we come to it! For now, follow the new rules! I'll be enforcing them, so I don't recommend trying to be slick." She snapped, ending the townspeople's discussion with King Julien.
King Julien looked back around and saw no smiles. He saw apprehension and fear and he wondered why. He was supposed to be the fun and dance-loving king. He inspired the same in his people. But he couldn't, not under these circumstances. Were they losing faith in him?
He was silent as Clover walked him back to his hut.