The Throne of Flame: Chapter Three
Skipper watched over Julien as he slept. Marlene had gone to check up on the other penguins and lemurs, leaving the two of them alone. Skipper was used to spending alone time with Julien, as reluctant as he was to admit. It was an oddly common circumstantial occurrence. Generally both parties were awake, of course. Granted they'd slept in each others' presence before, but never willingly. Skipper watched over Julien this time with purpose, however, now that he actually had reason to.
The king looked peaceful, and Skipper had to constantly strain his eyes to make sure that he was, in fact, still breathing. The idea of Julien's death had genuinely spooked him, something he was unused to. There were many occasions when he'd thought those around him had died and had been unaffected by it. Hell, he even still used Manfredi and Johnson as an example to live by (or more specifically, not die by).
Julien was, perhaps, too comedic to die. He was obnoxious to a puzzling extent, and his inability to decease seemed so factual that it was disorienting to see it almost be proven incorrect. Julien was like a cockroach, or a pesky fly. He never seemed to go down. And Skipper preferred it that way, no matter how insufferable he could get. He was one of the few constants in Skipper's life, and losing that, regardless of how unimportant Julien was, would be disheartening - to an extent.
Skipper was pulled from his thoughts when Julien began to breathe very heavily in his sleep, his face becoming anguished. After a moment, he started to turn and twist, almost violently, and a soft moan of distress escaped his mouth that sounded almost like a sob. Immediately, Skipper dived over and proceeded to shake him awake. Whatever was happening (it seemed like a night terror, less violent than the ones Rico had thankfully), Skipper wanted it to stop.
When the lemur's eyes snapped open, they were wide and confused, as though he hadn't been freaking out in his sleep. He looked at Skipper, tilting his head. It seemed he was completely unaware of his own lament.
"...Can I help you?" He questioned.
Skipper dropped his flippers to his side, realizing that he'd still been holding onto Julien. His expression reflected his emotions; undetectable. Usually it was Kowalski who dealt with Rico's night terrors, so Skipper was unfortunately unexperienced with such. Luckily for him, it didn't seem to matter, as apparently Julien was perfectly fine.
He shook his head and took a step back. "I thought you were having a nightmare."
King Julien's eyes seemed to darken at this, and he stared at Skipper for a moment cryptically, before he burst into laughter. "Oh, silly penguin! You know kings do not dream of anything bad."
Skipper's beak dropped, and he genuinely didn't know how to respond to that, aside from rolling his eyes. "You know, aside from your annoying personality, I don't know why anyone would want to kill you. You aren't exactly the most important king."
Julien's smile tightened at this, and he seemed almost offended, but shrugged it off regardless and took a sip of the water, which hid his muzzle from view. After a second or so, he set it back down and his jovial grin returned.
"Oh, it could be any reason." He waved a paw flippantly, raising a brow at Skipper. "Jealousy over my awesome kingliness, crazy wack-a-doo bloodthirst, or wanting to overthrow me and take my place as the king."
"Yeah, like I said. I don't know why anyone would want to kill you." Skipper reiterated, finding all the reasons Julien relayed to him to be inconsequential. Would anyone truly attempt to strangle Julien (no matter how irritating he could be) in such a violent manner over such trivial reasons? Maybe if he was important, but this was King Julien.
Julien's eyelids lowered and his smile widened further, if possible. "It's probably the last one," he continued, as though Skipper hadn't disregarded his words prior. "But I've usually gotten rid of my usurpers, you know. They are not so very impressive to me. Always with the, 'you will die and I will be king!' and the 'I will finally destroy you!' stuff. Ridiculous, yes?"
Skipper turned to him, frown now set heavy on his face. "Gotten rid of them? What are you getting at, ringtail?"
"Nothing." Julien shrugged impudently. "Many have tried to assassinate me, I've simply just not been assassinated by them. Pretty embarrassing for them, if I say so myself. But eh, such is the life of a king, right?"
Skipper stared at Julien as the lemur chuckled and took another sip of water. "...Right," he muttered, unsure of what exactly Julien was talking about.
He wasn't all too concerned, however. Julien had a tendency to over-exaggerate and spout nonsense. He was an incoherent fool... And yet, Skipper couldn't help but feel slightly impressed. The thought of Julien deflecting assassins was strangely appealing, invoking pride in the same way it did when Private succeeded in a mission. Even so, it was short-lived. Skipper felt strange about it, awkward almost.
It couldn't have been the truth. Julien was simply unable to cause any real harm to anyone, Skipper couldn't picture it for the life of him. He was so… Innocuous. Any time he tried to hurt others to a serious extent, he failed. His resume consisted of kicking Mort, at most. Skipper wanted to tell him his thoughts, and yet, he found himself unable to shake the weirdness of the situation. Why would Julien tell him something like that? It didn't sound like he was joking, nor did it sound as though he was trying to further his reputation.
He'd dealt with victims of near-death-experiences acting very oddly afterwards. When he'd first met his arch-enemy, Dr. Blowhole, he'd saved him from an extremely nasty accident that caused him to lose an eye. Blowhole had acted inconsistent and bizarre, a mixture of dependant on Skipper's presence in addition to random bouts of anger. Eventually, their whole friendship blew up into hatred. Julien was clearly a different case, but it was still just as uncanny.
Julien was no longer looking at him, either, which made matters all that more uncomfortable. Skipper felt like he was supposed to say more, as though it was his turn in the conversation. Maybe he was even supposed call him out on his lie (was that what the king wanted? To be confronted?), but Julien was staring at the wall, holding the cup to his face. Skipper squinted, and his suspicions were confirmed against the light - there was no water left. Julien was simply pretending to drink.
Skipper was just about to say something about it, if only to deter his own discomfort about Julien's dishonest behavior, but luckily, he didn't have to. An otter, two lemurs, and three penguins entered the cave.
"We're back!" Marlene called out.
Perfect timing. Skipper smiled and waved them over, but was somewhat overshadowed. Maurice, who had been dragging his feet, perked up immediately upon seeing them.
"King Julien, you're okay!" He cried out, sounding exhausted and relieved.
He ran forth, nearly pushing Skipper out of the way to see his king. Skipper was slightly put off by the treatment, but allowed it simply for the sake of Maurice's consolation. The aye-aye hugged Julien close, who looked mildly peeved as he set his cup to the side.
"Yes, and no thanks to you," his voice was indignant, yet soft-spoken. It carried across the room despite it's quiet nature, and Skipper was once again reminded that Julien was, in fact, a king.
Maurice pulled back from the hug, and his face was immeasurably guilty. "I-I'm sorry… I, I just didn't know what was happening, and I got scared…"
Julien stared at him, and they seemed to communicate without words, before a smile crawled across his face. "You know I am only messing with you, you fuzzy pumpkin. I know how you get, with all the scaredy-freezing. I do not care; it was a feeble attempt at hurting the king."
Maurice didn't look so convinced, but he didn't have a chance to say more as Mort hopped forth and hugged Julien's ankles close. "Oh, King Julien! I am so glad you are safe!"
Julien didn't break eye contact with Maurice as he took another fake sip of water and used one foot to scrape Mort off of his leg. Maurice looked away, his visage almost pained, before he gently picked up Mort, who was crying with joy.
"Have you narrowed down a suspect?" Skipper turned to face his men and away from the lemur's reunion.
Kowalski seemed almost embarrassed, glancing to Rico and Private, before he cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, we uh… We have no idea who the culprit could be."
The scientist winced at the look he was given, and pushed Private forward, who smiled. It didn't lessen Skipper's glare in the slightest, and his smile faded, before he too spoke up. "Ah… Skipper, we really did try our best! But It was just too hard to find anyone. Mort and Maurice didn't see anything, and neither did we."
Private looked regretful enough that Skipper allowed his scowl to drop and he sighed, rubbing his flipper over his bottom beak. There had to be a further explanation for who would've done such a thing. Surely nothing as over the top as an assassination. And yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that this ran deeper than it seemed.
"I take it you checked the security cameras?" He muttered, knowing the answer already.
"We took those out last week, remember?" Kowalski commented dryly. "Even if we hadn't, it would've been too dark to pick up anything."
"Hoover Dam," Skipper cursed, and was thankful that Rico had the tact to cover Private's ears before the penguin could hear him. "Looks like we're gonna have to go old-school to figure this one out, boys."
The three penguins exchanged glances, and Private gently pried Rico's flippers from the sides of his head. "What exactly do you mean, Skipper?"
He turned to them, partially bewildered by their expressions of incredulity. "We're going to have to get to the bottom of this with a good, old fashioned investigation."
"I might know how we can find out some answers…" Maurice chimed in, his voice sounding practically timid.
Skipper resisted the urge to chuckle at the ametuer, before he gestured for Maurice to continue. "Well, tell us then, man."
Maurice glanced around the room, before he turned his focus back onto Skipper. "If I could tell you in private, that would be great."
Private gasped, sounding offended. "No one is telling anyone anything inside me!"
Kowalski slapped him upside the head, and Skipper frowned suspiciously at Maurice. "You can't tell me right here?"
Maurice shook his head, and all eyes were on him except for Julien's. The lemur king was staring at the cave wall with little to no expression, before his eyes shifted to Skipper, and he took another fake sip of his drink. From the way he stared, Skipper immediately realized that Julien knew that Skipper knew the cup was empty, and was treating it like an inside joke. Skipper, not wanting to deal with the astonishment of Julien's bizarre behavior, sighed and waved a flipper to signify that he and Maurice would speak outside.
The two shuffled outside quietly, leaving the others to converse amongst themselves inside Marlene's cave. The last he heard before they were out of earshot was her offering everyone a bit of tea, and Julien instead requesting more water.
"Now, between me and you, I have an idea about getting to find out who this was." Maurice started off, and he looked away from Skipper. "Don't get mad or nothin' - I know you're all commando and stuff, but there's someone who I think would be perfect for the case."
"Whoa whoa whoa now," Skipper glared. "Me and my boys can handle anything dished out at us."
The skepticism on Maurice's face was well masked, but still blatant enough for Skipper to see. "Listen. We need to get in contact with someone. She can definitely help us; she's helped us with this sort of thing before."
Ignoring the fact that Maurice had insinuated past assassination attempts, Skipper huffed. "And who exactly is this someone?"
Maurice's expression softened, and he glanced back into the cave, before a wave of determination seemed to overtake him. "...An old friend."
I now have a playlist for this fanfiction! It can be located on my profile. Also, did you guys see the new AHKJ episodes? They were excellent. I can assure you, you'll see a few of the characters from that series in here as well.
