The Throne of Flame: Chapter Seventeen

When the meeting ended, Julien took Skipper by the wing and the two of them disappeared from the eyes of the crowd. Julien had sent him a secretive smile, full of playful wryness and laughter. Skipper was startled at the sudden departure, but not disapproving, not with Julien leading the way. He was curious for what the king had in store. Maurice and Clover were the only ones who noticed them slip away, and the two of them looked at each other in their own form of surprise.

It was clear that Julien did not do this sort of thing often, spared no surprise for another, a thought that made Skipper feel all the more elated. An emotion he needed, being that the amount of turns they took in the jungle was exhausting at best. Julien was practically running ahead of him, forcing him to pick up the pace of his waddling as the lemur led him through the foliage. The jungle floor was dark, hidden from the sky by thick layers of branches and leaves. Had it not been for Julien's grip on his wing, Skipper would have no doubt lost track of him by then.

"Where are we going?" Skipper questioned out of obligation when he sensed Julien would not tell him, only to receive a soft giggle from the king. He supposed he'd just have to wait and see.

The running seemed to go on for longer than necessary before Julien suddenly pulled to a halt, seemingly in front of a dead end. Their path was obscured by huge, elephant ear leaves. Skipper was just about to speak up when Julien sent him yet another reticent look, before he peeled one of the leaves to the side to reveal an intense patch of sunlight. In contrast with the darkness of the jungle, it momentarily stunned Skipper.

With the leafy curtain withdrawn, he was mesmerised by the breathtaking view.

Before him lay the vast clearing that so highly resembled the zebra mural back at the zoo, but instead, it was so much more… Vivid. The lush, sun-soaked grass acted as a red carpet, drawn into focus by the endless supply of trees lining each side. At the end of the far reach was a crystalline pool of water, cool and clear and glimmering within the light of the hot sun. It was real, the painting in the flesh. Skipper had seen wonderful sights in his life, and this definitely was an unexpected pleasure he could add to the list.

"It is my corner of paradise," Julien's sensual voice drew him from his thoughts.

Skipper turned to Julien, speechless for a moment, before he finally spoke up with a tender smile. "I can see how it got it's name."

Julien laughed at that, before he uttered out a "C'mon!" and urged Skipper forth once more.

They ran through the blades of sweet, soft grass for the stretch of the clearing for a little while, just basking in the stunning atmosphere. A grin broke across Skipper's beak, endlessly thankful that Julien would share this with him. If that wasn't a sign that his feelings were mutual, he didn't know what was. Skipper couldn't help but feel wild joy all the while that they ran; he had forgotten what it was like to have fun just for the sake of having fun. Julien had reminded him how.

Yet another reason to adore him.

The lemur seated himself by the water's edge once they'd calmed down, staring down at it's reflective surface. He seemed deep in thought. Skipper rested beside him, but his eyes were on the king as opposed to the water. Between the two beauties, the royal lemur was more captivating. Skipper wasn't notorious for his romantic mind, but he couldn't help himself, not with the wonderful King Julien seated beside him in broad daylight.

Julien looked utterly gorgeous in the gentle, honey light of the Madagascar sun. His golden eyes reflected the beauty of the sky itself, a faint smile playing at his features as he lost himself in the serenity of his corner of paradise. Skipper was completely infatuated, head over heels. He couldn't help but wonder if Julien knew how far he'd wound Skipper up, just from the mere action of existing. Did he have any idea how wonderful he was?

"I'm a fraud, you know." Julien spoke up all of a sudden, taking Skipper by surprise.

He tilted his head to the side. "A fraud? What do you mean?" Julien was definitely misleading in his social cues and emotions, but not to the extent that Skipper would call him a fraud. Such a negative connotation for someone so fantastical.

Julien's eyelids fell and he looked dismal, albeit in a pleasant manner. He was the only one Skipper ever knew who could pull off that sort of look. "I have not been very honest. The truth is… I am not scared of death."

Skipper's confusion only rose at this answer. This took him entirely by surprise, as Julien seemed keen on doing at every turn. The lemur was just a bundle of unexpected variables. "You're… You're not? But… Why?"

"Live or die, I do not care." Julien shrugged as he waved a paw, his smile still just as tired. "I like the living of course, but death is going to happen to all of us anyway. When it happens, I will let it."

Skipper inched closer, his interest piqued with concern. "If you don't think it's such a big deal, why'd you make such a huge effort to stay alive? All of this-" he waved around himself, "-doesn't mean anything to you?"

He was disturbed by how deep the cracks in Julien's soul seemed to go. The more and more he found out, the more and more plaintive Julien became. The last question he wanted to ask remained unspoken, if only for the reason that he couldn't bring himself to say it outloud, not with the circumstances of the situation or his building bewilderment.

Don't you want to be happy?

Julien only shrugged once more. "Ehh. I am alive only because I am worried - worried about who will take my place once I am gone. Who they will be, what type of government they will be enforcing of... I can't know for certain what they will be like. It will probably be Clover, but you never know. She will not want to lead for long, she hates it. I don't even have an heir… And, to be being honest, I do not plan on ever having one."

"Why not?" Skipper inquired, finding the whole thought process to be more confusing as Julien went on.

Julien, with no heir? Why wouldn't he want one? Skipper understood that Julien had qualms with his family history, but could he be at ends with his own beginnings? Surely he couldn't harbor that much built up detestation towards the thought of continuing the Julien legacy. He didn't even want to build a family? That was generally a universal trait. Skipper was content with his own family - Kowalski, Rico, and Private, the three he could always count on and trust.

But Julien didn't want to experience that? The concept was startling, and Skipper felt anxious for his response. It didn't come immediately and the atmosphere of confusion fell between them. And then, when King Julien looked to him, his answer came in the form of something unexpected and alarming and completely perfect.

Without another word, Julien leaned in, and suddenly, they were kissing.

Julien's lips were soft against the tip of his beak, gentle, knowing and understanding. As though he could read Skipper's mind just from seeing the look on his face. His lips, smooth and dark and velvety. His eyes were closed, and Skipper could see every detail of every fur from how close he was. The silky strands of well groomed softness that would make any other fur covered mammal envious. Skipper had to hold himself back from fainting when he realized that yes, they were, in fact, really kissing.

The times when they'd almost kissed in the past had been hypnotizing, but this was so sudden, so sincere, so real, so casual. It was romance in it's truest, purest form. It wasn't mesmeric or delusional, it wasn't the image of a hazy dream. It was no fantasy, no falsehood, nothing fraudulent about it. It was real and it was so, so right. Julien was gorgeous. He was the epitome of what Skipper craved in a lover.

And they were kissing.

Skipper had heard of perfect kisses in the past. He had heard they began and ended with explosions, a notion Skipper rather fancied, but he also knew that such a concept was an overwhelming exaggeration. Granted, his skepticism left him open for unprecedented glee when he did experience that perfect kiss - and he was experiencing it right now. He never would have imagined how amazing it could have felt.

There weren't fireworks, of course, but there was the rush of blood throughout his body, the sound of Julien's heartbeat in his skin, the whisper of romance between their mouths. There were the flashes of memories that ran through Skipper's head of all the time he and Julien had spent together, there was the sweet clenching of his heart that told him he only desired more and more and more of this lemur. And there was Julien, the beautiful god sitting before him, lips puckered and pressed against Skipper's beak. He swooned.

A soft sound of pleasure hummed in Skipper's throat as he wondered how this had even come to be. How in the name of anything logical had he been lucky enough to find Julien? In the midst of it all there was the recognition that they were from two different sides of the globe, naturally. They may as well have been worlds apart. Skipper had been born on Antarctica with all the other penguins, and Julien was a native Malagasy resident.

Different climates, different continents, endless miles of sea to separate them. Two distant flickers of light in the cosmos that found each other in a sea of unrelenting darkness. Two spectrums on each side of the earth, never meant to meet. And yet, there they were, sharing the perfect kiss, the pinnacle of Skipper's romantic life. The amount of precise planning lady fate had done for this exact moment in time was so intense that Skipper nearly shouted his gratitude to the sky (that would have required breaking the kiss, though, and he was not interested in doing such).

Against all odds, they still found a way to fall in love.

They pulled away, starry eyed and blissful, sharing a private laugh of amor, just in time to be intruded upon. Kowalski came bounding through the bushes with panic that Skipper rarely saw in his scientist; whatever happened to cause his anxiety must have been trouble. Kowalski spotted them and came running, and Skipper, although still dazed from the heaven he'd just gone to, jumped up to see what the fuss was about. He sent an apologetic look towards Julien, who seemed to be primarily worried about what Kowalski had to say.

"Skipper!" Kowalski's voice was downright frantic. "You've got to come quick. Private's been bitten by a venomous spider!"

"Which one?" Julien immediately demanded as he rose to his feet.

"I'm not sure. But you have to come now!" Kowalski stared at them pleadingly, his voice cracking with dismay.

Alarmed and slightly mortified, Skipper and Julien exchanged a disquieted glance before they both nodded. And into the jungle they went, fear wracking their systems as they followed Kowalski through the darkness to help Private. They were so distracted by this endeavor that neither of them could have known about the visitors to Madagascar that were just arriving.

As luck would have it, they were entirely oblivious of what sinister events were soon to transpire.