Two Different Animals, One Close Bond
Chapter 2: First Chance to Socialise
That morning, Maurice was relaxing in his hammock. That was when he noticed that there was something unusual going on; he looked up to see Julien sitting nearby, looking surprisingly happy.
"I better check that he's all right." Maurice said to himself. He got out of his hammock and headed over to where Julien was. When Julien turned to see Maurice, he brightly smiled. "Hello, Maurice. Did you sleep well last night?" Julien asked, brightly. Maurice was confused, but nonetheless decided to answer that.
"Yes, I did. But I could hear something going on. What was that about?" Maurice asked, pretending not to know what had happened. Hearing that, Julien stood up. "You won't believe what happened last night, Maurice. You know how I have been wanting to tell Marlene about my feelings, but it never turned out well?" Julien asked.
"Yes." Maurice responded, doing his best to restrain his irritation. "Well last night, I felt in such despair from knowing that Marlene wouldn't understand how I felt about her. But then unexpectedly, the Sky Spirits spoke to me!" Julien smiled.
Maurice was surprised; that meant that Julien bought his act. He thought it best to go alone with this, mostly because he didn't want Julien to get suspicious already. "Really? What'd they say?" he asked, doing a surprisingly good job at sounding convincing. Julien smiled, catching on with Maurice's interest. He was however unaware of what was really going on.
"They said I wouldn't have to feel alone anymore soon; that Marlene would soon realize what I meant to her. Doesn't that sound amazing, Maurice?" Julien asked. Maurice could tell that this was working already, so he decided to keep this going. "That does sound impressive. I hope that's true; I wouldn't want to think of what would happen to you if it wasn't." Maurice explained. Julien shivered at that thought.
"I wouldn't want to either." Julien responded. "If I knew better, I wouldn't want to interrupt while you're in a good mood, would I?" Maurice asked. Julien smiled, hearing that common sense.
"I like the sound of that, Maurice. It sometimes impresses me, how well you know your king." Julien commented. "I guess I know you better than you expect." Maurice responded, and he headed away leaving Julien by himself. Once he was alone, Maurice smiled amazed.
"I can't believe how well this is going. I better get a move on." Maurice said to himself, and he headed out towards the Otter Habitat; it was time to really get down to business. There, Marlene was relaxing for a little. She always enjoyed whenever she could have some time to herself. She decided to head outside for a little.
"This is more like it." Marlene said to herself as she looked around. Maurice could see her from where he was, at the top of the slide. "There she is." Maurice smiled. Now it was time for him to really get serious. "Hey, Marlene!" he called. Surprised, Marlene turned around and looked up to see Maurice at the top of the slide.
"Maurice?" Marlene asked, confused. Maurice headed down the slide and jumped off near the bottom, landing nearly in front of Marlene. "What are you doing here?" Marlene asked, confused.
"I thought I'd come visit and see how you were doing today." Maurice explained. Marlene was surprised by that. "I find that to be unusual because you normally don't ever get the chance to visit." Marlene explained; she was aware of the fact that Maurice was normally busy, so this came as quite a surprise to her.
"Yeah, that's true." Maurice responded, nodding in agreement. Then he realized he should continue. "But Julien was in a surprisingly good mood today, so I thought it best not to interrupt." Maurice added. Marlene could figure that out.
"I don't need to ask, do I?" she asked. "No, you don't." Maurice responded, shaking his head. Marlene smiled at this; she knew that a lot of things with Julien were very self-explanatory. "That's how he is, isn't it?" she asked. Maurice nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it is." Maurice smiled. Marlene was surprised; it wasn't that often that she got to see Maurice, yet she was finding it hard to understand how she could have an easy conversation with him. It was like he was the only one that made sense besides herself.
"Would you like to go for a walk with me, Marlene?" Maurice asked. Marlene smiled. "Okay, that sounds great." Marlene responded. With that, the two headed out of the habitat. A little later on, the two were both walking through the zoo looking around. After a bit of silence, Marlene turned to Maurice.
"Could I ask you something, Maurice?" Marlene asked. Maurice looked back at Marlene and responded "Sure. What is it?" Marlene had a bit of thought of herself before continuing. "It's something personal about Julien. If he thinks of himself as king, why is he always alone?" Marlene asked. Maurice could figure out what she was talking about; he knew exactly what she meant.
"Well back at Madagascar, he had a really amazing wife. Her name was Julia. She wasn't any royalty, but Julien chose her as his queen because he wanted to make her happy after she broke up with her previous boyfriend." Maurice explained. Marlene was surprised; she had to wonder what happened as to leave Julien by himself.
"Things were great for quite a few years, but one day when he and Julia went to look out over the island, Julia was killed by a plane that had crash-landed." Maurice continued. Marlene was shocked; she couldn't believe she had just heard this.
"Julien was devastated; Julia was really the one that mattered to him. He felt like he couldn't live with it; he felt like it was his fault because he wasn't there for Julia when she needed him most." Maurice explained. After saying that, the memory came back to him and he couldn't contain himself any longer.
Marlene could clearly see that Maurice was upset, and she looked over at him. "Maurice, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what that must feel like, to lose someone that matters so much to you and then feeling like you can't continue after that But that doesn't mean I don't understand." Marlene explained. Maurice looked up at her in surprise.
"What do you mean?" he asked, confused. "I went through a bit of a bad experience myself back at my old home. My parents died when I was very young; I didn't know much about them when that happened. It was so frightening for me, living by myself without anyone to really care for me." Marlene explained. Maurice was alarmed; he couldn't believe that Marlene had been through such an experience like that. He just couldn't imagine it in the least.
"Marlene, that's terrible. I can't imagine being by myself either. You're lucky to be here, you know." Maurice said. "Really?" Marlene asked, surprised. Maurice nodded, showing that he was being serious. Marlene smiled at this.
"Thanks, Maurice. It makes me happy to know that there is someone I can relate to somehow." Marlene smiled. "Me too, Marlene." Maurice responded in agreement. What Maurice didn't know was that things were getting way out of his plan; that it was starting to become different.
He looked up to see Julien still at the Lemur Habitat. "It looks like he's going to be like that for a while." Maurice commented. "Well while you're waiting for him to calm down a bit, would you like to stay at my place for the night?" Marlene asked.
"Yeah, that would be great." Maurice responded. Marlene smiled at this response. It looked like things were going in a different direction from how Maurice imagined it.