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It’s that time of year again in Julienuary. The month only exists in Madagascar and now Central Park Zoo. The young mouse lemur with sad eyes treats it as his favorite, because his idol shows appreciation toward his followers. Mort is his most loyal, and he honors the throwing of fruits as a sign of adoration. Julien shows individuality as each animal has a different sort of fruit hurled at him or her at mach speed. The King then encourages competition in a cake bake-off. The commando penguins versus the chimps versus the otter versus the lemur followers. He doesn’t seem to mind whether or not the others participate. He rarely interacts with them.
Mort sighs as he walks down the street to the zoo. He had been kicked out of the habitat, again, for touching the feet, again. Mort can’t help it. He simply has an infatuation that borderlines on obsession with King Julien’s feet. A rather large teardrop falls from his eye and glimmers onto the sidewalk. Another few join in, and Mort realizes with a start that it has begun raining. He quickly ducks behind a dumpster and covers himself with the lid.
Meanwhile, the penguins are on a recon mission in the wet weather. Mort has been missing for over a couple hours, and the other lemurs have begun to worry. With Kowalski and Rico in the penguins’ car, Skipper navigates the highways, and Private trails along down the sidewalk. Hearing a soft whimper that sounds like a cross between sadness and curiosity, the British bird dives behind the dumpster to find the object of their expedition.
“Mort?” He questions. “We’ve been looking ev’awhea for yea.”
“I’m sowwy.” Mort frowns. “I jus’ wanna touch da feet!”
Private nods, creating a makeshift umbrella from objects in the dump. He holds it over them as they begin trekking down the sidewalk. The boys make slow conversation for a few minutes until Mort suddenly lags behind at a shop window. A nice pair of shoes sit in the window alongside a pair of gloves and various lotions. Private comes to a stop and looks over.
“Wha’ is it?”
“Da feet cream.” Mort points out a specific lotion. “How do I gets it?”
Private reaches into his ‘pocket’, coming out with a few peanut butter winkies, a yo-yo and three quarters. He frowns, and Mort starts to whimper.
“Rocky like…”
The zoo habitants look back in shock. Sitting on another trash can is a scruffy raccoon. He eyes Private’s toy, smirking as the bird pulls away.
“What does birdie and mousey want?”
““Da feet cream.” Mort repeats in a quieter voice, pulling on Private’s flipper.
The raccoon looks between the sad eyes lemur, the window showcasing the admirable lotion, and the flipper holding out the treasures.
“Rocky can get it.”
Private looks at the shop window, reading the price as a dollar twenty-five. Rocky glances between him and the window. “Rocky wants pretty circle thing.”
Private hesitates to close his flipper and walking away, but the small lemur to his side stares up at him with adoration and hope. Private feels something brewing in his stomach and he lets out a long sigh. To help someone, even if he’s not sure if they’re friends, is part of the penguin credo. More important, it is something he can’t help on his own. Private pockets his winkies but offers the rest of the trove to the raccoon perched in front of them. Rocky snatches the treasures and immediately darts into an air vent on the side of the store. Private and Mort silently watch as Rocky maneuvers through the ventilation system. The raccoon dashes to the window, grabs an alike bottle, and throws the cash in coins onto the counter. He pockets the lotion and hightails it back into the vent system. Out in the dump area, Rocky has fashioned his new yo-yo into a necklace. He pulls out the bottle and hands it to the bird.
“Nice to doing business with bird and mouse.”
Rocky scrambles away as the rain clears up. Private and Mort can hear Julien’s acclaim for the Great Sky Spirits not so far away. Private hands the lotion to Mort with a smile on his face. Mort’s grin grows impossibly large, latching onto the slightly taller mammal in a vice-grip hug. Kowalski and Rico drive up, and Skipper slides up on his belly. He jumps to his feet, saluting his youngest team member.
“Nice work, Private. We’ll see you back at Headquarters.”
Private salutes back. King Julien’s Day is tomorrow, and the lemurs celebrate the day before with gifts, plus the day after with dancing. Private joins the others from his habitat, and Mort walks up the long steps to his own habitat. Julien is talking with Maurice at the smoothie bar and Mort walks up to them with the gift behind him. The King perks up when he sees the smaller lemur, showing off his palm tree umbrella.
“Look at what Maurice is to be given me for the great King Julien Day!”
“Ooh, pretty!” Mort smiles, thankful for Julien not to be mad for him coming back before getting ‘unbanished.’ “I gots a present for King Julien too-oo!”
“Another gift?” Julien performs a little happy dance.
“Ta-daaa!” Mort brandishes the lotion.
Julien’s eyes widen in excitement. “Lotions for the royal feet!” He falls to his backside, holding his foot in the air. Mort and Maurice look up in a mix of shock of confusion. Julien rolls his eyes like it’s obvious.
“Maurice did the holding of my magic sky spirit crying shield when the spirits were sad. Now the royal feet are of wanting to not be hurting of the always dancing. So, Mort is to be the one who gives the lotions. So he is to be the one to rub it on my royal feet.”
“I can touch da feet?”
“Uh, yes.” Julien nods. “To be on with the putting up lotions on de feet.”
The tall lemur wiggles his toes, and the mouse-like lemur’s eyes widen in upmost excitement as he begins to apply the gift.