Chapter 18 – Silence (Julien's Story)

It was another day at the zoo, just before opening. Normally around this time, the penguins would be getting ready for another day of pretending to keep the humans entertained, but something came by that distracted them from being able to do their usual routines.

It turns out that while Alice was passing by the penguins earlier in the morning, they managed to overhear her talking about a new acquisition. Every one of them was curious to hear what kind of animal was coming in, but unfortunately she didn't spill the beans.

After she was out of earshot, Skipper dropped his cute and cuddly act and turned towards the rest of his team.

"Men, I think we need to get some information about this new addition to the zoo."

He turned towards Kowalski, intending to ask Kowalski for some options, but when he finally met eyes with the analyst, he was pleasantly surprised to find Kowalski already had his notepad out. As he continued to scribble out plans, Skipper couldn't help but compliment his second-in-command.

"Good job, Kowalski. You're on the ball today!"

"Thank you, Skipper. I do try my best."

Kowalski then cleared his throat before continuing on.

"Anyway, I think our best option is simply to sneak into Alice's office and search through her files to see if there's any information about the new animal."

"Sounds like a plan. Come on, let's go!"

However, before Skipper could make his way out of the habitat, Private cleared his throat.

"Um, Skippah? Isn't it almost time for the zoo to open?"

Skipper stared at Private for a few seconds before his thoughts were interrupted by the bell above the gate ringing, signaling for the zoo to open.

"It's time already? That went quickly. Looks like we're gonna have to hold off on Operation: Info Dump for now."

After he finished speaking, Skipper immediately went back into the cute and cuddly routine, the others managing to get into character just in time before the first groups started coming in.

Once the bell rung to signal closing time, and the humans have all cleared out, Skipper took it as a sign that they were free to go forward with the mission.

Dropping his character, Skipper signaled for the others to follow him out of the habitat. However, it didn't take long before they were interrupted, Skipper wincing as he heard the loud voice coming through.

"Hello, silly penguins! It is I, your king, and I command that you tell me what it is that you are doing dere."

Although Skipper really wanted to just ignore King Julien and move on, he knew that the lemur probably wouldn't get the idea, so he stopped in his tracks and turned towards Julien.

"Ringtail! This really isn't the time! Now leave us alone. We're in the middle of a mission."

Thinking that it was enough, Skipper prepared to move on, but before he could, Julien hopped down from the barricade and landed in front of the penguins, blocking his path.

"Ooh, what kind of mission are we talking about? You know, I've always wanted to be a secrety spy. Dey got all of dem cool gadgets, and all of de women you can carry! Isn't dat great?"

As Maurice and Mort hopped down to join their king, Julien started doing random spy poses, forming his hands into a gun and pointing it everywhere as he looked as suave as he could manage.

Obviously, Skipper wasn't too happy with getting interrupted while in the middle of a mission. As he watched Julien continue to act like himself, he began to get angrier, even almost resorting to socking Julien in the face.

Thankfully for the king's face, Skipper managed to calm himself down enough to speak rationally, although he was clutching his beak with one of his flippers as he felt a headache coming on.

"Ringtail, please stop. We really don't have time for your shenanigans."

"Oh come on, bossy penguin! Don't you think I would be a good spy like you?"

Both Skipper and Kowalski traded looks, each knowing that there was absolutely no way that was ever going to happen, but neither of them really wanted to voice that opinion.

Choosing not to answer, the penguins attempted to make their way through the lemur blockade so that they could continue with the mission, but somehow Julien managed to hold his ground.

"Hey, you did not answer my question! I will not be letting you go until you answer my question."

Skipper was beginning to get aggravated again, so for the sake of his sanity, he brought Kowalski to the side where the others wouldn't be able to hear. Julien attempted to chase after them, but thankfully Private and Rico took the hint and held the lemurs back so that they could have some privacy.

"Listen Kowalski, we really need to find a way to get around Ringtail and those other two before they drive me off the wall. Got any ideas?"

Kowalski thought for a moment before replying.

"I suppose we could find a way to distract him. With his limited intelligence, if we can manage to get him focused on something else, hopefully he'll forget all about his spy fantasies."

"Well, I guess that'll have to do. Come on, I've got an idea."

Kowalski and Skipper rejoined the rest of the animals a few seconds later, with Skipper immediately launching into his plan so that Julien wouldn't have a chance to speak.

"Alright Ringtail, how about we have ourselves a little wager?"

Julien couldn't help but be a little curious, but he tried his best to hide it from Skipper, adopting an unimpressed look on his face.

"So, what kind of wager do you have in mind, my friend?"

Although Skipper gave an involuntary twitch at the mention of Julien and him being friends, he chose to ignore that feeling and continue speaking.

"Now, to be honest, I don't know why I'm even bothering to do this, considering I'm almost positive I'm going to win, but I'm gonna give you one single day to remain completely silent. I mean it too, Ringtail. Not. One. Word."

"And why would I want to do dat?" asked Julien.

"Let me finish, Ringtail. If you can manage to remain silent from now until closing time tomorrow, I'll let you three spend the night inside our HQ, and we'll spend the night inside your place."

Shocked, both Kowalski and Private turned to face Skipper, surprised that he would do something so brazen.

"Skipper, why? We can't let these three run around in there with the amount of dangerous stuff we have in there! They'll end up getting themselves killed! Imagine all the stuff they'll do to my lab!" said Kowalski.

Skipper was so confident in his chances at winning, he simply walked over and patted Kowalski on the shoulder.

"Don't you worry, Kowalski. I doubt it'll happen anyway. Your lab's safe."

Although Kowalski didn't trust Skipper's judgment for a moment, he chose to remain silent, a worried look on his face as he tried not to freak out.

"So, what happens if Julien can't stay quiet?" asked Maurice.

"Easy. We get to have you two as our servants for the entire next day." said Skipper as he pointed towards him and Mort.

However, instead of readily agreeing to Skipper's plan, Maurice walked over to where Skipper was standing, whispering so that Julien and Mort couldn't hear him.

"Uh, are you sure that's a smart idea? I've been at his side for years, and he can't take care of himself for a few minutes, let alone an entire day!"

"Alright, fine. We'll take Maurice if we win. Ringtail, you can still have Sad Eyes."

Although King Julien wasn't exactly happy with the prospect of being alone with Mort, the allure of spending a night inside the penguin HQ was too much to overcome.

"You are on!"

Both Skipper and Julien shook to seal the deal.

"Great! Now, I want to make sure that there's nothing shady going on, so Kowalski's going to be keeping a close eye on you three."

"Wait, me?" asked Kowalski as he turned towards his commander.

"Yeah, you. Rico already had his turn, and I don't think Private's best for this kind of job, so you'll have to do."

Although Kowalski wasn't completely happy with having to babysit Julien, he sighed in defeat.

"Alright Skipper, I'll keep watch over them."

"Good. Now, the only problem is that we're gonna need Kowalski back when the zoo's open, so we need someone to watch Ringtail then."

"I can do it." said Maurice.

Skipper stared at the aye-aye, eyeing him up as he wasn't sure whether to let him do it.

"Don't worry, Skipper. I'll let you know if he says something. Honest!"

Skipper still wasn't completely comfortable with letting Maurice do it considering the prize he had hanging over their heads, but he knew that he had no other options.

"Alright, you can do it, but if I find any kind of reason not to completely trust your judgment, I'm gonna automatically disqualify Ringtail. You got that?"

Maurice nodded, but he was interrupted by Julien before he could voice his agreement.

"Ugh, fine, if it will be getting you off of my back!"

"Great, because it starts now."

Julien opened his mouth, intending to say something else, but when he noticed the pointed look that Skipper gave him, he shut his mouth again, remaining silent.

"Oh, this is going to be interesting." said Skipper, gleefully rubbing his flippers together.

This earned him a dirty glare from the king, but Skipper wasn't paying attention, as he was already facing the rest of his team.

"Private, Rico, let's head for Alice's office. Kowalski, you have your orders."

Kowalski saluted, but when the other three penguins disappeared from their sight, the scientist dropped his salute, sighing in disgust.

"What is this world coming to when a penguin of science has to bring himself down to the level of babysitting these simpletons?" he said to himself.

Sighing once again, he walked over to the smoothie bar, sitting down on one of the bar stools and turning towards the lemurs, leaning his head against one of his flippers as he rested on the counter.

"Don't mind me, you three. Just go about your business. I'll be over here." he said, absent-mindedly waving his other flipper towards the three lemurs.

Julien and Maurice traded looks as they took in the scene in front of them, but it didn't take long for Julien to once again start asserting his authority. However, as he was about to tell Maurice to get him a smoothie, he immediately clamped his hands over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything.

"Um, something wrong, your majesty?" asked Maurice, confused.

As much as Julien wanted to just focus on remaining silent so that he and the others could get that night inside the penguin HQ, all that talking he did before the cutoff made him parched, so he knew he had to figure out a way to tell him without speaking.

As Maurice continued to wait and see what Julien wanted, the king quickly looked around the room, trying to think of a plan. Eventually, he decided that charades would be the best option, so he began making random signals, hoping that Maurice would figure it out.

Unfortunately for Julien, he was pretty terrible at charades, so his signals pretty much meant nothing, and it only ended up confusing Maurice more. Thankfully Julien was smart enough to realize when a plan wasn't working, so he sighed and walked over to where Kowalski was sitting, pointing angrily at the smoothie maker.

"Oh! You wanted a smoothie! Well, why didn't you say so?"

Julien nearly face palmed, realizing that this remaining silent thing was going to be much tougher than he thought.

The rest of the day for Julien went exactly as he expected it would. With him being unable to speak, he had no way to order his two subjects around, so it essentially meant that he had no power over them.

This even led to the point where even Mort was taking advantage of it as well.

Julien was sitting on his throne, bored out of his mind with being unable to completely perform his kingly duties, when a small brown blur suddenly flew out of nowhere, latching on to his foot.

Caught off guard, Julien ended up falling out of his throne into a heap on the ground. When he managed to recollect himself and pick himself off of the ground, he looked down and found the mouse lemur cuddling his foot like usual.

Julien opened his mouth, intending to berate him for daring to touch his feet, but he looked up and saw Kowalski staring at him, despite not having moved from his original position.

Closing his mouth once again, Julien resorted to just kicking Mort off of him, but to the king's surprise, Mort simply latched on again.

Confused and wondering why Mort was being so daring, Julien decided it was probably best to just get Maurice to pull him off. So, hopping on one foot, Julien managed to make his way over to the smoothie bar where Maurice was busy cleaning.

Rapping his knuckles on the counter, he managed to get Maurice's attention as he lifted his foot, showing him the brown ball of fur that was attached to it.

"Mort, what are you doing down there? You know that Julien doesn't like it when you touch his feet without permission."

Mort reluctantly released his iron grip on Julien's leg, setting himself down in front of the king as he intended to ask for permission.

"Um, King Julien, can I please touch your feet?"

Mort waited for an answer, not realizing that Julien couldn't speak. Julien, though, could only give Maurice a dark look before Mort faced the aye-aye.

"He didn't say no."

Maurice looked back at Julien, who was vehemently shaking his head no, but Maurice decided to have a little fun.

"That is definitely true, Mort. Go on ahead."

"Yay!"

Mort immediately latched back on to Julien's foot, shuddering as he took it all in.

As for Julien himself, he gave Maurice the darkest look he could muster before hopping back to his throne.

Thankfully for Julien's sanity, the rest of the day went by smoothly, and once the sun fell, he decided to go to bed early, wanting to get an early start so that he could prepare for the zoo to open again.

So, as he lied down on the bouncy and placed his sleeping mask over his eyes, he scratched an itch on his leg using his other foot, nearly bumping into Mort, who was still attached to the king's leg.

At this point, though, Julien decided just to ignore the presence of Mort on his foot, hoping that he would let go eventually.

Mentally sighing, Julien closed his eyes, hoping that he would be able to make it through to closing time tomorrow so that this could all end.

The next day did eventually come, and while Julien was at least somewhat happy that a new day was upon them, he soon realized that there was still quite a bit of time left before he was free to speak again.

Looking down, he mentally sighed in relief as he noticed the lack of Mort on his foot. Apparently the mouse lemur must have gotten his fill, which Julien was totally willing to take as an answer, considering Mort would hopefully leave him alone.

As Julien sat up and began getting ready for the day, he noticed that Kowalski was gone, most likely meaning that he must have returned to the other penguins. With him gone and Maurice still asleep for the moment, Julien considered saying something to get it out of his system, but then he realized that with it being this early in the morning, it was quiet enough that he may still be heard.

Sighing, Julien sat down on his throne, waiting for the humans to arrive so that he could entertain them and get the day over with.

Thankfully, both Maurice and Mort decided to leave Julien well enough alone, although Maurice still was close enough so that he could keep an eye on him. He did still have to perform his duties.

When the zoo finally opened and the humans came filing in, Julien hopped off of his throne, pumping himself up as he got ready to perform.

Thankfully for him, keeping the humans entertained without speaking was surprisingly pretty easy for him, mostly because he barely spoke anyway, which was honestly out of character for him.

However, his mind wasn't entirely on the performance, as he also had one eye on the clock, waiting anxiously for closing time so that he could finally speak once more.

This led to a lot of confused looks from the people standing in front of them, as they were all used to the energy he brought to his performances. Thankfully, though, Maurice and Mort were there to pick up the slack, as they put out more effort than they usually do.

Eventually, the activities around the zoo began to wind down as closing time came near. The lemurs were busy continuing to entertain the stragglers, but by this point the three of them were starting to get worn out from the long day.

Finally, the remaining people soon left to go to another habitat, and Julien took the chance to look at the clock, counting down the seconds to closing time.

*BONG*

"Yes! I have done it! Pack your bags, my subjects. We are spending de night inside de penguin's house!"

Instead of being excited, though, Maurice just looked exasperated.

"Uh, King Julien, you do realize that it's not officially closing time until the bell stops ringing, right?"

Julien looked at Maurice, wondering what he was talking about, when he suddenly realized that the bell was indeed still ringing; stopping a few moments after Maurice stopped talking.

Having messed up his only chance to get to spend the night inside the penguin HQ, Julien desperately tried to think of a way out.

"Maurice! You have got to tell de penguins that I have kept quiet. It is de only way that we can get dat night inside de penguin's house!"

"I can't do that, your majesty! I'm a terrible liar, and you heard what Skipper said. He catches us lying, he's gonna disqualify you anyway!"

"Oh come on, Maurice! Do it for your king!"

"You don't need to. I've heard him loud and clear."

Both Maurice and Mort turned to where the voice was coming from and saw Skipper and the other penguins, the former looking quite smug now that he was proved right. Julien, desperate to get another chance, resorted to getting down on his knees as he tried to convince Skipper.

"I'm sorry, I am not being used to this, but please give me another chance! If Maurice would have told me dat de zoo closes once de bell stops ringing, I would have still kept my mouth shut."

Julien glared at Maurice to emphasize his point, earning a surprised look from the aye-aye, who remained silent. Skipper, however, was having none of Julien's begging.

"No dice, Ringtail. You know the rules."

Julien considered trying to convince one of the other penguins to change Skipper's mind, but even he was smart enough to know that wouldn't be likely. So, as he sighed in defeat, he stood up and went over to Maurice, pushing him towards the penguins.

"Here, you can have him. I won't be liking it, but dem's de breaks, I guess."

"I'm glad that we have this understanding, Ringtail. Now come on, Maurice, we have a couple of things that we'd like you to do."

Reluctantly, Maurice began following the penguins, glancing back at the other two lemurs before finally disappearing over the habitat wall.

As Julien watched Maurice go, he sighed once again before heading back to his throne, but not before Mort spoke up from off to the side.

"Can I massage your feet?"

Julien considered berating Mort now that he could speak again, but he decided not to, instead simply kicking him out of the habitat so that he could have some alone time sitting on his throne.