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 oleh 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 pohon in the kubung, pukang exhibit. Now he could not pindah either. He squeaked, hoping oleh some miracle he could attract some attention. Instead he was slapped in the face.

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

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

“Now, I’m going to pull this off, and anda will be quiet…you don’t want me to tell anda what will happen if anda 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 oleh 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,” berkata 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!?” berkata Julien.

“Yes, it is me,” berkata Skipper. “Let’s skip the pleasantries and I’ll give anda a briefing of the situation. Kowalski…you know, the smart one…suddenly got all interested in musik 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 anda are asking?” berkata Julien.

“We want anda to help us catch him, duh!” berkata Skipper. “Or at the very least keep your eyes open and warn everyone anda 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 anda are asking of me is help, then why did anda pull me into the pohon oleh my royal tail?”

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

“You have a point,” berkata Julien.

“Well, that’s all,” berkata 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 pinguin, penguin 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!” berkata 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 lebih time to think up a lebih believable story, but apparently Julien was convinced.

“Very well” berkata Julien. “But remind me…why did I agree to help anda 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 anda 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 anda see any humans nearby, shut everything off atau hide.”

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

“Just do something with the amphitheater in the park! If anda 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 anda 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 atau why anda started this, especially Skipper. Just act like it was something anda pulled out of your head, right? I’m sure a talented kubung, pukang king like anda could come up with something.”

“It is good to know that at least one of anda silly penguins has come to recognize my kingly talent!” berkata Julien. “But aren’t anda the smart pinguin, penguin 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 oleh 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.