The Throne of Flame: Chapter Sixteen
Skipper was awoken in the morning to the sound of Maurice clearing his throat rather harshly to wake him. He shot up from bed, paranoid as ever, but calmed immensely when he found it was only him, Maurice, and Julien in the room. Had he been in such a deep sleep that he hadn't heard the aye-aye enter?
Julien was already up and about, preparing himself for the day ahead. Most of his fur had already been fine tuned to a state of perfection, but he was still brushing over his tail with his back paws, meanwhile fixing his crown with his front ones. Rather than wearing the crown Skipper had known from Central Park, he was wearing instead a much larger, more extravagant one, brimmed with gold and brown, pink flamingo feathers framing it like a headdress.
If Skipper hadn't known he'd been a fit of tears only hours ago, he would have never been able to guess from how quickly Julien cleaned himself up. It also occurred to him, darkly, that this must have meant Julien had experience in doing such.
Skipper wondered how Julien had managed to get up without waking him, but thought nothing more of it when Maurice simply handed him some water to clear his throat. It was cool and refreshing, and Skipper sent him a thankful glance, which was returned with a nod. The advisor seemed anxious to leave, and soon explained his reasoning.
"We have a meeting with the royal council to discuss the changes that have been carried on in the king's absence." Maurice relayed, expression slightly grim.
Julien glanced over from where he'd been staring in the mirror, attempting to work his appearance to it's best. He did not seem concerned at all, and Skipper thought he should have been. He had no idea what had happened in his country while he was gone, how was he not worried?
"I am sure Clover did not let anything awful happen while I was gone. She's always been very good at following orders." He flashed a smile before he turned to look at his reflection again.
Skipper shrugged. He too had a high opinion of Clover, but still, he wasn't even sure how the lemur government completely worked. "I guess there's only one way to find out."
Maurice escorted Skipper and Julien to an entirely separate tree, much larger and more noticeable than Julien's chambers. At first Skipper wondered why, when the king was so notorious for being vain, but then he realized it was a tactical move. Making the kingdom stand out too much could bring attention to his whereabouts when he was in his most vulnerable state - sleep. He wondered to what lengths they'd go to protect their king, and with an awful cringe, he remembered what Julien had told him last night.
He vaguely recalled the tree they climbed, but it was only once they reached the thickest collection of branches that he realized where they were in particular. It was the same exact tree they'd launched Julien's plane from when they'd first left Madagascar. A flood of memories washed over him, and a mixture of nostalgia and disbelief were at the frontlines. The first time he'd met the ringtail lemur, all the adventures they'd gone on together. Had it truly been three years since then? An odd thought, that he and Julien had spent so much time knowing each other, and only over the last couple of days did he really get to know the lemur.
His heart clenched in on itself, for reasons he could not identify, and he decided not to mull over the pain too much. Not when a curtain was pulled to the side, and Skipper was ushered in first, being the least important. After, came Maurice, who pat his chest and cleared his throat.
"Presenting our royal highness, the illustrious King Julien XIII, self proclaimed lord of the lemurs, etcetera etcetera." Maurice bellowed out the introduction when they entered, and as he did so, Julien stepped forth.
There was a collective bow and applause across the large trunk, which functioned as a floor. Sitting upon it in rows were several lemurs, chameleons, and tenrecs, all of which must have held a high political position of some sort. Skipper resisted snorting at the thought. At the front was a single throne, which Julien delicately seated himself upon. Maurice and Clover (who had already been there) stood to his right side, Skipper at his left. Julien sent a mildly scrutinous gaze over the room, before his brow furrowed in a way that was only noticeable if one was paying great attention (which Skipper was). Something was bothering him, and he made it clear only within the next moment.
As the council members settled themselves, Skipper overheard when Julien leaned to Clover and whispered, "Where is the messenger pigeon? He never misses a meeting."
Clover's expression became instantly nervous. "...You mean you don't know? I thought Maurice told you… He's been missing for over a week now. I believe he was compromised in transit, sir."
A messenger pigeon! That explained how Julien managed to keep things the way he wanted them, even from afar. Skipper couldn't help but feel awe over how well Julien kept that locked up. He had no idea that Julien had been seeing someone on a continuous level for the last three years, and would have gone the rest of his entire life without a single clue had it not been for eavesdropping just then. Julien was even more elusive than he'd thought.
Still, Julien was obviously not pleased, and he straightened his back with a curt nod and sniffled very quietly. It was one of those moments that Skipper could tell he was hiding his true emotions, which was far more understandable. He couldn't exactly react fully to the news of death when in front of a large group that expected him to be professional. A sad thought indeed, but Skipper could empathize with him there. He too had been informed of another's death at inappropriate times, and it was never a fun way to spend the morning.
The meeting began when a small group of lemurs came forth and began to speak. Skipper was immediately surprised, if not slightly impressed, at the amount of thought the lemur society (and all those who resided in the land with them) put into everything. At first, there was a status report on the amount of spas and water-slides Julien had set up (and geez, there were a lot - how many luxury resorts did one civilization need?). Some of the structures had been broken down and rebuilt, others had been replaced with new ideas all together. They also spoke of recent parties and how they'd affected lemur morale - positively, of course.
They then went into detail about the amount of wreckage they'd received from the Sky Gods over the last three years and what materials they managed to utilize. The list seemed to go on forever, but eventually Julien drew it to a halt with a simple wave of his wrist and a nod. Skipper was internally grateful, especially when Julien requested a tangible list of all the goods they'd gotten. He also reminded them to make sure they made extra leaf sacrifices to the Gods for bestowing gifts upon them, a notion Skipper thought was ridiculous. He remained silent all the while, however, being that even Julien himself rarely spoke, and only in a succinct manner.
After that, the tenrecs relayed information about the bug population. Skipper was knowledgeable in a lot of areas, but this was not one of them, and he found himself slightly lost as the small creatures went over rises and falls of insect life. They then explained that this could cause increases or decreases of fauna life, which Skipper realized made sense. Lemurs did mostly survive off of fruit, so he surmised that a high bug population wouldn't necessarily be good for them. The tenrecs said that they had hired a small militia of frogs to decrease the bug levels, which Skipper thought was mildly amusing.
The tenrecs also went into the details of something called LALA, which he later discovered was an acronym for Lemur Alliance Liberation Army. They explained they'd disbanded a year and a half ago and were no longer a threat, especially once King Julien's newer policies came into play. Skipper wanted to know the specifics, but they reseated themselves before they could elaborate. LALA sounded like a terrorist group, but even Clover seemed unbothered by them, and being that she was infamous for her paranoia, Skipper dismissed the idea.
The chameleons came forth and discussed, rather drearily, how harvests had been going as of late. They mentioned a surplus of kumquats, but a shortage of bananas. New trees had been popping up over the southern part of the island apparently, too. They also went into detail about how they predicted a large mango harvest in the next month or so, which Julien nodded towards almost indifferently. It was then that he finally spoke up.
"How has the indri population been faring?" Julien inquired. You couldn't tell from his expression, but he leaned in from his throne ever so slightly, clearly very impassioned by this particular topic.
"It has been rising. Slowly, but surely." A chameleon responded. "I believe that with this next mating season, it will have grown by a full 76% since the babakoto purge."
He nodded, evidently pleased with this information. "And the fossa territory and their population hasn't expanded, yes?" He asked, though from the look on his face he already knew the answer.
"No, your majesty." The chameleon spoke up once more. "They still believe the giant freak is here to protect us."
Julien smirked, ever so slightly, before it was gone in a flash and he moved on. "How much of the recent harvests have been distributed among the lower class?"
A group of lemurs to the far left exchanged glances, as that question had been directed at them. One of them winced, before clearing her throat and speaking up. "Well… None of it has really been distributed. We've started using bananas as currency again, and-"
"What!?" Julien snapped. He glanced over to Clover, who looked just as betrayed as he.
"I did not authorize a currency system." Clover growled out. "How long has this been going on? None of you have ever mentioned this to me! That's class A mutiny!"
A lemur cringed openly. His voice cracked when he spoke. "U-uh, well… Not long. Only for the last couple of months-"
"How dare you defy a direct decree from your king?" Julien's voice boomed, filling the room as he stood. "This is why there is a banana shortage. I command that you stop using this currency system at once!"
"B-but-"
"There will be no objections! My word is final!" Julien exclaimed, silencing all protests. "I have explained this to you before. We do not use a currency system because not all lemurs have access to bananas, since we only have them towards the Northern region. You can not expect them to pay for food with other food, food that they can't get either way, can you? Why would you want them to starve?"
There were no further objections to that, but the implications were clear. Julien was calling them outright on their greed, and Skipper had to resist the urge to jump him right then and there because wow, this was a side he'd never seen of Julien before. His mouth hung open as he was slightly overwhelmed by the politically advocating trait Julien pulled off flawlessly. Not only did he lay the complete smack-down on people who'd been taking advantage of their power, but he actually made a good point while doing it.
He also recalled the horrific trauma Julien had confided in him the night prior, and realized with compassion that Julien must have had an extreme soft spot for the lower class lemurs. He couldn't help but wonder what other policies Julien had in play to help them, but he imagined that they must have been contenting if LALA had disbanded itself.
Skipper generally believed that this sort of anti-classist behavior was some hippie communist bullcrap, but after he reflected on how awful the lower class must have had it, he realized that maybe… Maybe it wasn't all entirely ridiculous.
And when he looked to Julien, saw his determined expression, his passion for the civil rights of his lemurs, the pain he hid from the pain he saw, Skipper thought that maybe none of it was ridiculous at all.
