I like to snooze it, snooze it...

[Morathi]

"Well, I thank you kindly, stranger," Morathi continues, shaking Julien's hand, but clearly having another senile moment as he calls him "stranger", "If there's any way I can return the favor, let me know."

[kingjuliengirl]

"Well..." Julien thought putting his finger to his mouth. "There is something you could do!" Julien smiled sneakily at Maurice who was standing beside him...

(About an hour later)

Mort was crying beside Morathi...who had been ordered by the king to baby-sit the crybaby mouse lemur.

[Morathi]

Fortunately, because Morathi is partially deaf, Mort's whining doesn't bother him as much as it would another lemur. He sits there, watching Mort cry for quite some time before he says anything.

"How long are you planning to keep this up?" he asks randomly, not because he's annoyed, but because his near-silent world is becoming boring and he keeps dozing off.

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien watched the two lemurs from his throne Mort-free. "Ahh...life is NOW officially awesome!" He said pretty much to himself. "Mort-free and DROOL-free!"

[Morathi]

Julien's reprieve probably won't last very long though. Morathi has fallen asleep sitting up, but he tips over a few minutes later, out like a light. This leaves Mort unsupervised and the first thing he does is wander back to Julien's throne and...snatch his crown and run away with it playfully.

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien, who was also half-asleep, leapt to his feet after the little lemur! "Mort! Get back here! Give me ba..." On his chase after the mouse lemur, Julien ran across the sleeping Morathi. "Wake up you dimwhit! And I want YOU to get me back my crown!"

[Morathi]

Morathi opens his eyes--barely--and blinks at Julien, looking a bit disoriented as he blinks first one eye, then the other.

"Do I know you?" he finally asks, confused...much to Julien's aggravation.

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien grabbed Morathi by the fur and pulled him off the ground! "You! Get that peewee with my crown! I've about had it with you!" Julien dropped the ruffed lemur and stomped back to his throne to watch the show that was about to unfold.

[Morathi]

Morathi regards Julien with a look of total bewilderment as he watches the king tromp back to his throne. With a nonchallant shrug, he stiffly gets to his feet and hobbles after Mort, catching him quickly, to everyone's surprise. He carries the young lemur back to Julien.

"Here's the peewee you wanted," he states simply, dropping Mort on Julien's lap--without the crown.

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien lowered his face to Morts level and got almost as close as he dared without the fear of Mort yanking his whiskers. "Mort, where did you put my crown?"

[Morathi]

Mort blinks at Julien, looks over his shoulder, then looks back at the king and shrugs with an innocent grin.

[kingjuliengirl]

"You little rat!" Julien grabbed Mort and held him up close enough to his face so Mort could feel his breath, "You tell me where my crown is or, or, or...I don't know what I'm gonna do with you but something bad..." He paused and looked Mort straight in the eye, "Really, bad!"

[Morathi]

Mort's lower lip quivers and he quickly bursts into tears as Julien threatens him. True, he knows what became of that crown, but he knows he'll be in big trouble if he informs Julien of the details. Unfortunately for him, Morathi is there to explain.

"He put it on a crocodile's head before I could catch him," the old lemur shrugs, scratching his ear in a habitual attempt to try and get it to work like it used to in his younger days, "It's probably still there. The croc was sleepin'."

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien sighed and dropped the brown lemur, "And guess what...YOU'RE GONNA GO GET MY CROWN NOW!" He shouted at Morathi, "It's all YOUR fault this happened!" Julien was steaming as he glared at Morathi. "Now go!"

[Morathi]

"Well, at least I brought you the peewee you wanted," Morathi grumbles, hobbling away, "The nerve of today's youth! Ingrates! That's what they are--disrespectful ingrates!"

Of course, being that he's distracted himself with his own muttering, Morathi forgets his mission for nearly an hour before he remembers he is supposed to fetch Julien's crown. Hobbling toward the swamps, he squints his weak eyes at the lazy reptiles lounging in the green water. It takes him a while, but he eventually spots the croc sporting a leafy crown on his head.

"Piece of cake--whatever that is," he smirks, climbing a tree and heading for a tight-rope-like vine suspended across the swamp. Going hand over hand, he eventually ends up dangling just above the sleeping crocodile's head. He then turns upside down, gripping the vine with his feet while trying to reach the crown.

"Oh, I know I'm gonna pull somethin'," he groans, stretching as far as he can, but still being unable to reach the crown. Finally, he remembers he has his cane with him and he uses that to reach down and snag Julien's most prized possession.

"Ha! I've got it!" he cries triumphantly, waking the crocodile, who immediately leaps up and snaps his jaws--closing them right on the crown, "And now I don't. HELP!!!"

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien couldn't hear Morathis cry for help through the jungle, but some of the other lemurs could. They ran to try and save the old man, still dangling from the vine. Slowly and carefully he was lowered to the ground and back to saftey.

(Back to Julien)

The numerous lemurs who had helped save the ruffed lemur soon came back and complained to Julien about putting the lemur in danger.

"So now it's all MY fault?" Julien asked standing up.

"Yes!" About the whole lemur troop below answered.

"And I still didn't get my crown!" The king grumbled under his breath so none of the others could hear him.

[Morathi]

"You're a dunderhead," Morathi snarls, marching past Julien and climbing back up his tree to sulk. He's bent out of shape because he'd nearly lost his tail to that crocodile and--naturally--he's going to take it out on Julien. Of course, he needs to look in the reflecting pool before he accuses anyone of being a "dunderhead".

[kingjuliengirl]

"You still didn't get my crown!" Julien shouts back at the old lemur, "You're gonna pay for that!"

[Morathi]

"I got you the peewee!" Morathi reminds him in a cranky shout, "Aren't you grateful for anything? At least I got one out of five!"

Yes, that's right. Morathi is so senile, numbers mean nothing to him and he can't count anymore to save himself.

[kingjuliengirl]

"Okay, have it your way! If you're not going to get me my old crown, you're gonna make me a new one!"

Julien laughed at his own comment, he knew the old coot probably couldn't see very well. I'd be funny to see what the concoction of leaves and vines and ect. turned out to look like.

[Morathi]

Now Julien is in for the shock of his life. A few minutes later, a perfect duplicate of his old crown drops from the tree and lands squarely on his head. Little does the king know, Morathi has been making those things for years. In fact, he's probably been making them throughout most of the Julien generations and he's become so familiar with crafting them, he doesn't need his eyes to do it anymore.

[kingjuliengirl]

Truely, Julien was amazed but he couldn't let it show! Nor could he show Morathi how thankful he was either! Truthfully, he wanted to give the old man a challenge, not something he could just whip together just like that! He'd think about it in time...

[Morathi]

Of course, it doesn't take very long for anyone to figure out what activity Morathi has engaged in now...considering the steady drip of drool that's begun to rain down once again. Add to that the loud and obnoxious snoring and it becomes pretty obvious.

[kingjuliengirl]

But luckly, this time Julien was prepared. He had already had a set of construction lemurs tie large palm leaves above his throne so whenever the old lemur drooled it would land upon the leaves (not him) and whould pour onto the earth beside his throne.

[Morathi]

Some time later, Morathi awakens again and staggers to his feet. Getting back down to the ground has been a real chore since he's gotten up there in years. He finds everything to be easier if he just purposely falls from the tree.

Fortunately, in doing this, he doesn't land on Julien's canopy or his throne. He somehow manages to hit the ground just behind it, raising a cloud of dust with the impact.

"Maybe I should see about getting a place in the ground floor," he mutters to himself, coughing as he gets up stiffly and cracks his neck to one side, "Of course, the last time I tried that, I got flooded out for some strange reason..."

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien had been waiting all day for when Morathi would finally awaken, he finally found a task not even old Morathi could complete.

"You! Old man!" Julien shouted behind the throne.

[Morathi]

"I have a name, you know," Morathi frowns, hobbling around to stand before Julien, "I just forgot what it is. Anyway, how might I be of service to you, Mr. Mayor?"

[kingjuliengirl]

"I seem to have lost something out that way and I want you to retreave it! Yes, don't say a word! I know that's foosa territory but go!" Julien's story wasn't very convinsing. "I have lost this! Julien held up a replica of a large purple berry. "Just don't eat it on the way that's MINE remember! Now go! The foosa await!"

[Morathi]

"Y'know somethin', sonny? If I didn't know better, I'd think you were tryin' to get me killed," Morathi replies, squinting up at the king, "And if ya are, mark my words--if I die, I'll come back to haunt you for the rest of your reign."

Leaving Julien to think about that threat, Morathi stumbles off at a snail's pace--or less--in the direction the king had indicated.

[kingjuliengirl]

Julien shrugged his sholders as he watched Morathi stumble down the trail. He probably WOULD be killed, but it's not like he'd really come to haunt him.