King Julien was sleeping on his ‘royal’ bounce house, snoring loudly. Maurice and Mort were sleeping on the opposite side of the exhibit, which was strange because usually Mort made it a point to sleep at least fairly close to Julien. Obviously, this snoring was not normal.

Julien rolled over and opened his eyes. “Whew, all this nasty stuffy air is not treating me well at all” he said. “Or maybe it was that bowl of lychee nuts I ate during the party yesterday.” He shuddered and rolled over, trying to get comfortable.

As he prodded the bouncy house as though it was suddenly going to become comfy for him, he felt a slight tugging sensation on his tail. Fearing it was Mort coming to bother him, he kicked backwards and continued poking the bounce house. It continued for a second, then suddenly Julien felt himself being pulled up into the air kwa his tail. Not a pleasant sensation.

Julien yelped as he was pulled into the air, but neither of the other lemurs heard him, as they were wearing earplugs to block out his snoring.

Right as Julien regained his composure and was about to shout out, something wrapped around his mouth, preventing all but the slightest of sounds. Julien was then tied around a branch on the giant artificial palm mti in the lemur exhibit. Now he could not songesha either. He squeaked, hoping kwa some miracle he could attract some attention. Instead he was slapped in the face.

“Quiet lemur, wewe don’t want this around your neck, do you?”

“Now that wewe mention it, it is rather itchy” alisema Julien in a very muffled voice. He was slapped again.

“Now, I’m going to pull this off, and wewe will be quiet…you don’t want me to tell wewe what will happen if wewe aren’t quiet…”

Julien felt the cloth around his mouth being untied and pulled away. Half of him wanted to shout loudly, both for help and to purposely defy this idiot’s wishes, but he really didn’t want to find out what would happen to him, although he sensed that it would involve his foot being tied up and him being swung in circles kwa the rope until he was on the verge of vomiting.

As soon as Julien was free enough to rotate his body, he looked around to see if he could spot who was holding him captive. Of course, he couldn’t.

“I’m right here,” alisema his captor. Julien flipped around to where the voice was, but it was much too dark to see anything. Then the animal stepped into view.

“Skipper!?” alisema Julien.

“Yes, it is me,” alisema Skipper. “Let’s skip the pleasantries and I’ll give wewe a briefing of the situation. Kowalski…you know, the smart one…suddenly got all interested in muziki and ditched us a few nights ago. We assumed he was gone, but yesterday Private heard something coming from a corner of the room and went to investigate. He found a tiny peephole and through it he saw a black feather on the floor. A tail feather. And what’s more, a secret camera we installed in our headquarters the night before caught Kowalski sneaking inside while we were away on a mission and messing around with our stuff.”

“And what is it wewe are asking?” alisema Julien.

“We want wewe to help us catch him, duh!” alisema Skipper. “Or at the very least keep your eyes open and warn everyone wewe can. We have no idea what Kowalski might be attempting, but based on the inventions we saw him take from the box it won’t be pretty.”

“If all wewe are asking of me is help, then why did wewe pull me into the mti kwa my royal tail?”

“As an example, lemur. To encourage wewe to stay on your guard. If I had come up to wewe politely and asked this, I doubt it would have had the same effect.”

“You have a point,” alisema Julien.

“Well, that’s all,” alisema Skipper. He untied Julien and Julien rolled off the branch and landed on the corner of the bouncy house. “Remember, keep on your guard. Oh, and Julien…please try and take this seriously.”

Julien gave a mock salute, hoping that it would be enough to drive the annoying penguin, auk away. It succeeded.

“He gone?” came a voice from inside the bouncy. Kowalski poked his head out of the tube that filled the bouncy with air. “Thanks for hiding me.”

“You are quite welcome, silly penguin!” alisema Julien. “But tell me…”

Kowalski cut him off. “It’s not important Julien. I just went away for a few hours and Skipper went wacko.”

“Then why…”

“No time for talk; just forget about it. But, don’t Skipper you’ve seen me because I…er…want to surprise him! Yeah, when he get back to the headquarters, I’ll jump out and surprise him and he’ll scream just like a girl!”

Kowalski wished he had zaidi time to think up a zaidi believable story, but apparently Julien was convinced.

“Very well” alisema Julien. “But remind me…why did I agree to help wewe again?”

“Well now that Skipper’s gone, I guess we can talk about it. Remember that amphitheater in the park that the humans built not too long ago? Well, they occasionally have performances in the afternoon but at night, it just sits, unused. This may seem a little unorthodox, coming from me, but I want wewe to start having nightly performances there. I don’t care what they are as long as they don’t attract human attention. Keep the lighting and noise to a minimum, and if wewe see any humans nearby, shut everything off au hide.”

King Julien looked like he had gotten Lost on the first sentence. “So, wewe want…”

“Just do something with the amphitheater in the park! If wewe need help, get the chimps, I’ve heard them playing opera CDs one too many times recently; they need to get some of that ‘musical urge’ out of their system, if wewe know what I mean.”

Without waiting for Julien to reply, Kowalski squeezed himself out of the tube and began to walk away. “Remember, Julien, I’ll be watching you. And also, please don’t let anyone know that you’ve seen me au why wewe started this, especially Skipper. Just act like it was something wewe pulled out of your head, right? I’m sure a talented lemur king like wewe could come up with something.”

“It is good to know that at least one of wewe silly penguins has come to recognize my kingly talent!” alisema Julien. “But aren’t wewe the smart penguin, auk who’s always making stuff? That little Private is the one who likes the music.”

Julien looked around and saw that Kowalski was gone. However, a feeling of him being watched from very close kwa made him intensely uncomfortable, and he got the feeling that he probably shouldn’t argue with Kowalski on this one. But he definitely didn’t want to get in Skipper’s way.