Work Text:
"Wake up, Miss Xiao Long~," a playful low voice softly called to her.
Yang groggily tried to open her eyes, briefly catching a glimpse of a clear blue sky before slipping back into darkness. For a split second there, it seems like a little hand was waving at her.
"Wake up, Miss Xiao Long. Rise and shining~!" The playful, accent-heavy voice called again to her. A little louder and more sing-songy this time.
Yang struggled to open her eyes again and caught a brief glimpse of another pair of eyes, deep yellow encircled by black, up close and staring into her violet eyes. Her heavy eyelids shut closed again. There was a slight weighted feeling on her chest. Surely this was a strange dream.
"Wakey, wakey Miss Xiao Long!" The voice called louder this time; impatience growing. Suddenly little hands here on her face, shaking her head violently "WAKE UP! Yang!"
"AH!" Yang sprung up, wide awake now. A gray, black, and white ring-tailed lemur wearing a tall crown of leaves was standing on her chest, with he face right up in hers. "AHHH!!!" Yang bolted up, sending the lemur flying with a swat of her metallic yellow arm.
"What a heck is going on? Where am I???" She wildly looked around, her hair flinging sand from it as she moved her head sharply, trying to assess her surroundings.
She was surrounded by lemurs.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Don't be alarm, giant freak. While you were asleep, we simply took you to our little corner of heaven."
There's that voice again! She spun around looking for the source of the voice, but there were only hundreds of marsupials of all types all around her. She squinted, looking into the dense jungle of thick trees for the voice, but nothing stood out. Her gaze stopped on the crowned ring-tailed lemur standing in front of her. Is it smiling at me? She held her breath.
"Welcome to Madagascar!" The lemur threw his little grey arms up in the air as if in celebration and he did a back flip onto the head of another, shorter lemur.
"MADA-HOO-HAH?!" Yang couldn't process any of this. This is a dream, right???
"What? No, not 'hoo-hah'... AS-CAR!" the silly looking creature emphasized. "MADAGASCAR!" He said with another flourish. He sprung onto a pair of tiny stilts that another critter was holding for him. Now he was up to the height of Yang's waist.
She covered her face with her hand in defeat and sighed. "Oh my gosh, I'm dead. Aren't I?
"Oh, no giant freak. This is real! Look at that, it's not a bad view. Eh? Right?" He chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows as he gestured to the gorgeous beach and vibrantly green jungle.
Yang stumbled as she looked out at the ocean meeting the blue horizon. Stretching for miles and miles, yet the space seemed empty and she felt alone, despite being surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of furry, obnoxious, little lemurs. She groaned into her hands. Gosh my head hurts.
"And all this, is mine," he gestured with another flourish, the movement jiggling his furry little stomach. "I am the King! King Julien! You remember me now right?" he said, pointing with both paws to the silly crown of green and yellow leaves that sat atop his head. "I've got the crown. Got the very nice one! And it's still on my head! Look at it. Look at it, but no touch," he teased in his low, playful voice.
She wracked her brain and a foggy memory of golden paths and darkness began to surface. "Oh my gosh, I do remember now," Yang put both hands to her face in horror. "I fell over the side! I'm dead now!"
The lemur waggled his finger at her; interrupting her crisis. He lectured her, "No, no! You're not remembering ME!" He jumped onto her chest and grabbed her by the shoulders to shake her some more. "You saved my LIFE!"
For a moment, everything was so absurd that Yang forgot to question why she was talking to an animal. "I did? How?" She gave an incredulous look at the dramatic lemur.
He jumped to the ground, waving his little arms around to emphasize his story. "I was cornered by the fossa!" The entire crowd of marsupials gasped in unison. "And then! I bravely summoned you from the sky to CRUSH my enemies!" Another collective gasp from the crowd as every little creature leaned in anticipation. "And it worked! You came from the heavens above and flattened them all! Right in front of me!" The crowd of lemurs erupted into cheers and applause. Music started playing and flowers were being thrown at Yang's feet.
Yang looked up at the clear blue sky above. "...I fell from the sky?"
"Ahem, I summoned you!" clarified the brazen, crowned ring-tailed lemur. Thunderous applause from their audience rang out until he raised his hand to silence them.
His tone sweetened as he jumped up to Yang's shoulder in a graceful, energetic bound. "And I cradled your golden head and asked for your name," he ran tiny fingers through her hair which she swatted away. "And you whispered in my royal ears, 'are they safe?' and I said "no, you crushed them all. The fossa are all dead," he said sweetly, booping her on the nose with a little black finger.
Yang straightened up. "Ruby! Blake! Are they ok? Where's Weiss???"
"Calm down, giant freak. Whomever you speak of are not here," he said dismissively.
"I need to find them! They must still be alive!" Yang looked up at the sky desperately. "How do I go back?!"
Now more of her memory was coming back. The mysterious portals they asked Ambrosius to design, throwing herself in front of her treasured little sister to protect her, and watching Blake's heart break through lidded eyes as she fell into the black void. All of it was painful to remember. Why didn't that asshole put handrails on those stupid paths??? My friends think I'm dead! Am I sure that I'm not actually dead? I probably shouldn't rule that out-
"Whoaaaa whoa whoa WHOA!" The lemur jumped off her shoulder and onto a new pair of rugged stilts. "You aren't going anywhere! I summoned you, and now YOU work for ME!" he declared from his stilts, still several feet below Yang's eye line.
Yang scoffed at the declaration from the lemur on stilts. "Work for you? Hell no! I need to get back to my friends! They need me!" She spun around to walk away, but a wall of small lemurs of all shapes and sizes blocked her way. Each lemur intensely staring at her.
She turned back to face the crowned lemur on stilts. "Hey what's your deal?! Let me go! I saved your life didn't I?"
"Yessss, and that is why you have to stay!" He chided. "I am your King! King Julien!" All around them, the crowd of lemurs cheered and chanted his praise until he held up his hand.
Yang couldn't believe this. She had fallen from the sky and possibly a whole 'nother dimension where she and her friends were fighting against an immortal, evil witch and now she was going to let a bunch of lemurs stand in her way?
I need to get back to them. I promised.
She raised her fists towards the masses of marsupials and pumped her arms to activate her weapon, Ember Celica. Immediately she noticed the absence of the satisfying click of her weapon loading and arming that she was expecting. Blank stares from hundreds of pairs of little eyes were on her and the silence was deafening. She tried again, pumping her forearms harder, but the action sent a searing pain up both arms and into her back. Her weapons remained inactivated.
Now that the shock of talking animals and strange surroundings was wearing off, the pain from falling from the incredible height was starting to creep into her awareness. Her aura was still broken and sand had very likely gotten inside Ember Celica, preventing the weapon from opening.
No no no no! I need to get back to them! Blake...
Yang slowly lowered her fists under the watchful eyes of the massive audience of little creatures. She turned to face the grinning black, white, and grey ring-tailed lemur - who was probably smugly thinking that his forces intimidated her into submission.
This is crazy.
"So, King Julien, my liege," she started awkwardly with a slight bow at the grinning lemur king- this was her first time bowing to a lemur. "Do you guys eat breakfast here in Mada-hoo-hah?"