CHAPTER THREE: Lemurs for the rescue

Skipper heard his comrade’s voices echoing behind the wall. All foursome were sitting in Kowalski’s lab, discussing over some medicine stuffs. He felt thirsty, terribly thirsty. And the only thing he could concentrate his thoughts on was a hot cup of his favorito catfish flavored coffee.
He rolled over in his cama and glanced at the table. It was about three meters away from his bunk. Although he felt terribly dizzy and weak he decided to try. He collected his strength, scrambled out of the cama and made few wobbly steps forwards.
He was on his halfway towards the mesa, tabela when he felt a hot, feverish wave bathing his chest from the inside. His eyes went all foggy and he felt his legs sluing from under him. Everything faded into black…

King Julien jumped down on the ground and took a curious peek inside penguin’s HQ. On seeing Skipper’s unconscious body lying motionless in the middle of the room he gasped and took few steps backwards.
“Maurice!” he turned to his older servant who was still busy climbing down the ladder. “Why is this silly pinguim lying on the ground?”
As soon as Maurice had found himself seguinte to his King he took a thorough gaze at the leader pinguim and stated: “Looks like he’s lost consciousness, your Majesty!”
“Really? Why?”
“Dunno, maybe he’s sick” muttered Maurice, while Mort goggled his eyes out and covered himself with his bushy tail which he usually did when feeling unsafe or terrified.
“Hello, silly penguin!” King Julien leaped up towards Skipper, kneeled beside him and waved his hand in front of the bird’s beak. “Why are you taking a nap in the middle of the floor, ha? Your King has a request! And you would do well if you didn’t refuse! Because I need to “barrow” some stuffs from your magazine!” seeing that Skipper doesn’t respond, he stopped short for a while and squinted his eye.
“Something’s wrong with that bird” he stated and turned his face to his servants. He stretched his hands forward, took Skipper por arms and bended him over. “Holy Sky Spirits!” he cried out, seeing Skipper’s burning face and foggy eyes. “He IS infected!”
“I wonder where is the rest of the team?” asked Maurice.
“There’s no time for that, Maurice! Fetch me a bucket of icy-cold water!” ordered King Julien.


**
Skipper felt an icy-cold stream of water splashing against his face and startled.
He saw King Julien’s face staring at him with curiosity.
“What are you doing here, Ringtail?” he asked, his voice sore and languid. He didn’t have enough strength to pull himself from the ground. His whole body was shaking from fever.
Before King Jullien had a chance to respond, Kowalski, Marlene, Private and Rico came out of the lab in Indian file.
“What’s with all this noise..?” started Marlene and laid her eyes on Skipper. “Geese! What happened?”
“I’m fine, Marlene” uttered Skipper, each word pounding in his head like a hammer. “I just wanted to fetch myself some coffee from the mesa, tabela but I must have .. passed out on my way…”
“Oh dear” moaned Private, anxiety and concern plastered on his face.
“Don’t you worry, Skipper. We’re gonna bring you back to cama right now, and I’ll prepare you something to eat” said Marlene. “Seems like you’re still too weak to walk up and around on your own”.
“But it will pass, Skippa” added Private quickly. “I guess that several days of intensive treatment will do just fine”.
“By the way, why are you here?” asked Marlene, watching over the three lemurs attentively.
“Here is some coffee for you” chirped Mort at the same time. All eightsome turned their looks at the youngest lemur, who was holding a copper cup of coffee in his small hands, cereja smile plastered on his childish face.
“Thanks, Sad Eyes” mumbled Skippa, both confused and touched. He received the cup and took several sips. “Feeling much better now” he stated. He then forced himself to sitting position.
“How about some catfish salad, Skipper?” asked Marlene, leaning over him and touching his forehead.
“Love some!” said the leader penguin, gradually regaining the good frame of mind. He then recalled about the lemurs having some request, so he turned to King Julien and asked:
“What was that you wanted, Ringtail?”
“Ermm.. I wanted to ask If you’ve got a pump. I need to repair my Bouncy Bounce” said King Julien, paddling with his fingers.
“No problem. Rico!”
Rico gurgled out a brand new, green bomba and handled it to King Julien, with big green shining on his beak.
“Why thank you, Mohawk- Penguin!” cried the King of Lemurs.
Marlene smiled under her nose and made her way towards the kitchen. Meanwhile Rico and Kowalski lifted Skipper up from the ground and led him towards his bunk.