"I need to prove to the peoples I'm not like Uncle!" King Julien exclaimed when Clover came up in front of him and held her hands out. He was dragging Boombox to the clearing, where he planned to cut it on and host a party to raise the kingdom's morale. He looked ridiculous, alone and dragging the heavy boombox behind him. His fur was unkempt and greasy, which usually happened whenever he was stressed, and his tail was rigid and matted. Yet, Clover couldn't disagree more with the plan to boost the kingdom's spirits.
Clearly, based on his horrid appearance, something needed to be done! But Clover would have none of it.
"King Julien, it's a really bad idea. If parties can attract foosas, I'm sure they can attract furless, too. Do you want them to come and handpick lemurs?" She wrapped her tail around one of his legs to prevent him from walking past her, and raised a questioning brow at him. Her arms were crossed in a show of disbelief. "This is a bad idea, King Julien." She shook her head as if to prove her point.
"Clover, I don't know if your brainy bits understand but, I can't have the peoples thinking I'm going to run the kingdom like Uncle did! He's taken the kingdom and held us all hostage at 'Feartopia,' for Frank's sake! Really upsetting to be compared to someone like that, you know, Clover." King Julien set Boombox down and crossed his arms. He could play that game too! "And when he was king, everyone had to be silent all the time. If I remember correctly, you weren't even allowed to speak if spoken to! Maybe I should make that a rule again." He gave her a pointed look, and shook his leg harshly to throw her tail off.
Clover's expression was unreadable. She replied in an incredulous tone, "Are you serious? Maurice is at the hospital still, and I'm the only one around who's still helping you! I haven't seen Mort in days. And I'm just trying to help protect the kingdom and you pull that card?" She slapped the ground with her tail in frustration. Her lips were curled in an ugly expression as she growled, "Go have your party, Your Majesty." She thrust a finger in his face, and then she dropped to all fours and ran into the trees, kicking up decaying leaves from the forest floor. King Julien looked sorrowfully after her, feeling bad in a way he didn't quite understand.
"Well that's fine! Who needs you for a party anyway?" he shouted, balling a fist after her and stamping a foot. Muttering as he turned around to face the clearing again, he picked Boombox back up. Half with the machine over his back, he hobbled into the clearing, setting the device in the center. He used his tail in a swift move to click the buttons and turn on the sweet tunes. The ultra bass pumped and the song flowed into the clearing.
"C'mon, peoples! It's been too long since we had a proper party, let's do it!" He called out, shaking his body and waving his tail in a sexy, smooth motion. He carried on for a few moments, expressing his fluid, expert dance moves before he realized nobody was joining him. Not even Mort!
He paused and looked around, raising his arms in a confused gesture. "Why isn't anyone else… dancing?" And where was Mort, anyway? The king realized then he hadn't seen the mousy lemur in a while.
A few brave lemurs ventured out their huts and approached King Julien. "Are you sure it's safe enough to be… dancing out here, like this?" A black and white lemur asked, his tail tucked between his legs as he walked. His crimson eyes were nervously darting back and forth, and when a furless machine far in the distance gave an unusually loud growl, the lemur ducked, his chest heaving to a point where he almost appeared to be hyperventilating.
King Julien raised a hand and opened his mouth to answer only to be cut off by the creaking noise of moving tree branches, and the grating, growing noise of furless equipment. King Julien dared to look behind him, and, as well as being surprised by how thin the forestry was in that direction, he saw a tree leaning in their direction.
Leaves shook and shivered as dust sprayed from where a machine was eating into the tree's trunk. Scissoring, silver teeth were breaking through the tree's smooth trunk. King Julien's tail fell limp against the forest floor as he watched the event. He felt as if his heart had stopped, and he was frozen until he heard someone shout his name.
Back to his senses, he went to run out the way of the tree's fall line when he noticed lemurs running out of a hut just underneath the tree's path. The flimsy, bark-hewn hut would be no match for a heavy, hard log. Thinking just how much praise he received when he saved a baby lemur from a falling tree months prior, and how he wouldn't be able to live with himself if lemurs died when he had the opportunity to save them, he dove to the hut's door and wrenched it open quickly, swinging the lemurs inside of it out and shoving them to safety. There were four total.
King Julien then sprang away from the door, pushing off it to gain momentum. He made it just far enough to get out of the tree's way, but even then, the tip of his tail was caught underneath the log. The sound of it hitting the clearing was unimaginably loud. It felt as if the very earth beneath him groaned. He yelped in pain when he attempted to run (though nobody could have possibly heard him above all the noise), only then looking back to see his caught tail.
The lemurs he had saved shared a worried look between them, then moved forward and began to push on the log in hopes of freeing his tail. The four lemurs were nothing more than common brown lemurs; two were fairly tall and middle-aged, possibly a married pair. The other two were adolescents, possibly their children or younger siblings. They shoved and shoved as hard as they could, and they finally succeeded.
The king scrabbled at the ground in his hurry to get out from under the tree. He panted as he looked back, his eyes wide in shock. He realized in that moment, looking at the aged palm tree covering their once safe clearing, that Clover and Crimson had been right. They had no choice. They had to leave, now.
The largest blow of the situation was that the tree had landed on Boombox. The red and yellow machine lay in a metallic heap beneath the upper branches. King Julien looked at it in dismay, his ears falling flat against the top of his head. They pricked again when he heard the babbling sounds of furlesses speaking to one another.
In a hurry, he pointed to the tallest of the lemurs he had saved. "I need you to find Clover and tell her we're leaving. I'll go talk to the peoples at the hospital. Everyone else! Meet at the bottom of my tree with the metal bird in it, and do it fast! Get your behinds into it, people!" He didn't give the lemur a chance to object as he turned and darted to go to the hospital at the rockier parts of the beach along their western borders.
When he reached the hospital, King Julien was greeted by Rob. The red-furred lemur grinned (at least, on one side - combined injuries from Mort as well as his natural look from old age had left one side of his face unresponsive), and opened his arms wide. "King Julien! I was hoping to see you today. Maurice is doing much better, almost ready to leave, even. I think Dr. Snake was going to release him soon…" Rob sucked in hard, a habit he had picked up due to his somewhat unresponsive jaw, which often led to long dribbles of drool.
King Julien, after ensuring he was a few steps away from Rob at all times, nodded. "That's great news! Because… I kind of need him to come with me anyway. And you and Dr. Snake." He pointed at Rob and then deeper into the cave. "Because… I don't know how updated you guys keep up here, all inside this stuffy -"
"CAVE!" Dr. Snake shouted, his tongue twitching as he lowered his head to King Julien's height. He gave a broad, overjoyed grin. "Why, hello, Mr. King Julien. So nice to see you!"
King Julien was ducking away from the cobra, his tail wrapped around himself in an attempt at calming himself down. "Dr. Snake, love you man, but you gotta stop that whole cave… screaming thing, it freaks me out, dude." King Julien sidestepped from Rob and Dr. Snake, and took a deep breath. "Okay, so here's what's all going on. The furless are getting closer, and are coming into the clearing, where all the peoples usually are. We have to move, and you guys and whatever patients you may have here… we need to go. Okay?"
Rob tilted his head at him. "Sure, Julie, but… did something happen? You don't seem so fun right now." He wrinkled one side of his nose and coughed. "You smell like dust. And your fur looks gross. You never let your fur get gross…"
"My kingdom's in trouble! How you think I'm doing?" King Julien's fur ruffled as he sarcastically answered Rob's question. When he saw how Rob shrunk back at his words, King Julien took yet another deep breath and straightened his crown, smoothing the fur on his head. "Seriously, I'm sorry. But we do need to move. I don't want anyone…" he paused, thinking of Boombox. He resumed with, "Anyone else... to get hurt."
"Of course, King Julien," Dr. Snake smiled at him while his ruby tongue flicked. "Phantom, if you'd go make sure all the patients are able to move…"
"Of course!" Rob sucked in his saliva again and bowed to Dr. Snake. He then wobbled away, back into the patient rooms of the cave. His heavy footsteps echoed against the walls.
King Julien anxiously awaited his return. He'd never admit it, but he desperately needed Maurice's advice, and was a bit frazzled from being away from him for so long (and potentially having nearly been crushed…). Even if it had been his job, Maurice had been his caretaker for as long as he could remember - his parents had rarely interacted with him, leaving the aye-aye in charge most of the time…
Rob returned with a few dazed looking brown lemurs, and Maurice. Maurice was limping a bit, and looked almost as confused as the rest of the lemurs, but was otherwise in great condition and able to move on his own.
"Maurice!" King Julien called, opening his arms wide and grinning. "I've needed you buddy! Glad to see you're alright!"
"Well, aside from the concussion and partly broken leg… yeah, I'm alright," Maurice shrugged. "Rob says the furless are getting closer? Is that true?" Maurice tilted his head in curiosity, moving forward quickly.
"Too close. They hurt my royal tail! This ringed, fluffy tail is one of a kind, man!" He raised his tail and flailed it a bit in their faces, causing Rob to sneeze. At that moment in time, his tail was less than fluffy or royal - in fact it was clumped and matted, but the king seemed to not notice. King Julien kinked his tail over his back again, and then focused back on the situation at hand. "Anyway, the peoples are in danger, so I'm moving the kingdom. Maurice, why didn't you suggest that before?" King Julien pointed an accusatory finger at the aye-aye, his happy expression gone.
"I did. So did Clover. Many times."
"Quiet with your doubts, Mo-Mo! To the bird's tree! And no climbing up it, seriously, I have no idea what trees those furless are after." King Julien shivered, the fur on his back standing upright.
King Julien marched through the crowd that had gathered at the base of his baobab tree. Maurice was waddling after him as fast as his short legs could carry him. Urgent and confused whispers filled King Julien's ears, but he silenced the gathered lemurs by touching their noses with his tail as he passed by. Raising a bony arm he had retrieved from the skeleton in his metal bird before arriving, he gained their attention. When most eyes were on him, he pointed to Maurice.
The aye-aye raised a shell-carved horn and blew it, a resonating, deep sound exiting the end of it. "Presenting the illustrious King Julien the Thirteenth, self-proclaimed lord of the lemurs… etcetera, etcetera, King Julien everybody!"
He was met with grins and twitching tails, but no noise. Among the gathered lemurs, King Julien saw Clover watching him from the back. Her expression was once again unreadable, but she was watching him intently all the same.
King Julien swished his behind back and forth, and pointed up with the bony arm. "Alright, peoples! We may be moving, but it is by no means permanent! We will be back and we will fight these aliens off! But for now, peoples, we're moving down by the beach!" King Julien hopped onto the baobab tree's trunk, clinging to it with his dexterous fingers. "Once there, we come up with a plan to take our jungle back!" He shouted the last of the statement, pointing to the crowd with the bony arm. He nodded his head to the beat of the growing cheering, smiling all the while.
He was by no means anything like his uncle. He would protect his people, and he would do it right. They'd regroup, then they'd fight. This was his kingdom. And nobody was taking it from him or his people!
"I'm with you every step, Your Majesty," Clover called above the noise, pushing her way to the front of the crowd. She stood straight and saluted him. "I knew you'd see reason… eventually, anyway." She smirked and rolled her eyes.
"I hate to end the celebration but, I hear furless machines literally just a few trees away! Let's go!" Maurice yelled and motioned for the lemurs to go in his direction. King Julien nodded and hopped down from the tree. The king and his advisor headed in the western direction, the kingdom (or what was left of it, seeing how many lemurs had been captured by the furless…) tailing him.
In their excitement and King Julien's determination to stay adored by his people, he had lost count of one particular lemur. Crimson was nowhere to be seen among the crowd, and nobody had any plans to look for her. She had all but disappeared.
Indeed, I am alive!