An oddly familiar voice spoke up.

The sun shined in their grey fur, possibly because it was early in the morning. Every time the voice spoke, it went from friendly to irritated. Currently, they watched Alex's lids slid down to close and head back to sleep.

"Wake up, Mr. Alex. Wake up, Mr. Alex. Rise and shining. Wakey-waking, Mr. Alex!"

From his point of view, Alex could swear that the creature was King Julien.

"Wake up! Alex!"

King Julien had shaken Alex awake, furiously, and rested his hands on his hips.

Alex jolted awake, blue eyes wide, wrapped like a body pillow, Ayana resting in the crook of his right elbow with his paw on the side of her face, and sucking his thumb with his left paw.

Despite Julien being the one to disturb Alex, he rose a brow to question him.

"You suck your thumb?"

Then he screamed, jostling out of the other big cat's hold.

Then everyone else, except Ayana and Alex, screamed.

The four of them jolted- screaming at the sight of the lemurs swarming around on all sides, the sand and trunk they slept on was on top of a warm-colored rug which was on top of multiple tree trunks.

The animals swerved around, bumping into each other many times, and even stepping on their sleeping friend, pondering what they were doing as Julien and Maurice hopped on a pair of stilts.

"Where are we? What the heck is going on?"

"Take it easy."

"What is this?"

"Ow! What are y'all doing?"

"Who built a forest?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't be alarmed, giant freaks!" Julien tells them, leaning slightly on the wooden stilts. "While you were asleep, we simply took you to our little corner of heaven. Welcome to Madagascar." The ring-tail directed his arm to a certain direction.

All of them turned their heads to the right, as Marty questioned him in turn.

"Mada-who-ah?" The zebra had his mouth shut by Alex with a click so he could move his head to where everyone else was.

"What?" Gloria questioned in awe.

"No, not who-hah. Ascar." Julien corrected.

Madagascar was nothing as it seemed when they got there; there was an open view The grass was a lush green, the palm trees tall, and the water was a brilliant sky blue. The entire scenery shimmered from the Sun's light.

"Marty. It's..." Alex starts, but couldn't finish because he was still awestruck, along with the rest, even unaware that Julien had stilted himself beside them.

"It's just like my mural back at the zoo." Marty finished for him.

"Oh, no, fella, that is the real deal right there." Gloria disregard, planning her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, man, this is beautiful," Ayana adds.

"Look at that, that's not a bad view." Julien continued.

"I mean, that's the thing that you were always looking at, but it's actually there. I mean, that's like the real version of your..."

"Hey, how about once around the park?" Marty inquired. "Let's get our blood pumping, get those lungs breathing all this fresh air. Who's with me?!"

Ayana smiled at that. "Sure, I'm not that tired."

"Ah, naw. I really, I don't think I could..." Alex pretended to not be interested or into the idea when all of a sudden he tags Marty and exclaims before running off into the clearing. "You're it!"

"Hey! Want to play around?" Marty calls out dashing behind Alex with Ayana racing along.

It went back and forth between the three animals, Marty tags Alex, Ayana tags Marty, and Alex tags Marty again, though they didn't mind how much they fell over one another as Gloria, Melman, and the other lemurs left them to mess around and pick on each other.

Later, Alex could barely keep up with his zebra friend, staggering from side to side, giving up on the entire game in total, as he announced his loss.

"OK, Marty, I'm it. I'm it. I'm it. You win."

The lion kneels into the grass, certainly out of breath, Ayana slumps on the ground beside him, possibly consulting with herself of why she even agreed to do such an activity. Unfortunately, she didn't want to lose to her zebra pal just yet. so in a desperate attempt, she picks up the lion over her head and moves him a few inches farther.

"C'mon Alex...we've gotta beat that trotting nightmare. Don't give up!" Ayana encouraged, dropping him onto his knees again, miserably as the said "trotting nightmare" does the exact action.

"Come on, you two, get in the groove." Marty taunted lightly.

"I haven't eaten in two days. My blood sugar's real low. I just don't have the energy." Alex tells him through harsh breathing.

Ayana rolls onto her back, stretching herself on the grass. "I never had the energy."

"I don't think that's your problem. First of all, that's not how you run in the wild." Marty pushes Alex down into the ground, making him get on all fours before he jerks Ayana off her back and make her do the same. "Let's go, man. Put the rubber to the road! You just have to let out that inner lion. Remember how, right Yani?" The zebra had cranked them up on their feet by their tails like a lever, propositioning them on their paws and feet. "Now, who's the cats?" He asked them.

"Marty, I really don't..."

"Pretty sure we can't..."

"You guys are, that's who!"

Marty propelled them in the air by kicking them, officially having them run on all fours.

They began running faster than before with Marty along beside them with a smile. "Here we go! That's it. Now let's build up some steam! You the cats."

"Who's the cats?"

"You the cats."

"Who's the cats?"

"You the cats."

The felines continued chanting on their withdrawal. Both felt their hearts pounding through their chest, energy surging through them like a lightning strike, they felt empowered as they grinned ear to ear, eyes zooming in on the zebra galloping far ahead.

"Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats? Who's the cats?"

All at once, their pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, ocean eyes, and dark brown eyes becoming clear in the sun.

"We're the cats!"

The cats began a full-on sprint, dashing right past Marty as he looks behind him, only catching a glimpse of the blurs of gold, brown, and orange-brown. He turns himself back,

"SURPRISE!"

Shocked to be zooming right towards his best friends, Marty screams, colliding with Alex and Ayana as they tumbled forward into a stop. Once it was over, Alex and Ayana leaped on their feet.

Their words along with their tones were loud and excessive, and they ran together at a maximum speed. Along with over the top words were the biggest and broadest smiles they've had.

Alex's mane and whiskers stick out as if he had been electrocuted. Ayana's fur, let alone the sides of her muzzle, seemed to have exploded in a mess of shagginess.

The only word that could describe them: wild.

"Hoo! You're it. You're it! Can't juke the cats. Cats too quick."

"See I knew we could do it, Ally! Now I'm gonna throw everyone a party to celebrate our victory!"

You can't tell whether these cats are just tired, hungry, enthusiastic, or maybe even all of that together at once.

"Whoo! I feel like a mile-high, pastrami on rye, on the fly, from the deli in the sky!" Alex chanted, plopping on the ground.

"Nothing can stop us, Marty! We're able to take over the world!" Ayana exclaims, shaking Marty by his shoulders, her smile seeming to get wider.

All of sudden, Alex leaped to his feet again, his smile seeming to be wider as well.

"Roar! Let's go wild!"

"Now you're talking!" Marty agrees.

-/-

Wild yells ate heard, followed by a lion, leopard, and zebra swinging from a vine. The land in the lemurs' party as their friends enjoyed what Madagascar had to offer, or in this case what the lemurs had to offer.

"Whoo! Man! I feel," Alex laughs, then playfully punches the zebra. "different."

"The fact we don't feel like this all the time is a shame." Ayana wrings her arm around Alex's neck, casually lifting herself off the ground before the lion playfully noogies Marty.

"Noogie, noogie, noogie! Noogie, noogie, noogie! Whoo!" He front flips as he cheered. "Kind of charged up or something. Hoo!"

"Ah, Marty, Marty, Marty!" They heard Gloria call as she relaxed in a mini pool, getting a manicure from the lemurs while being fanned with cucumbers on her eyes. "Like you said, baby, it's..."

Alex and Ayana bounced and flipped all over the place in an energetic bound motion, and they landed beside Gloria so they could each grab a fanning lemur to fan themselves and finish the female hippo's sentence differently.

"Crack-a-lackin'!"

"Off the chizain!"

"You guys okay?" Gloria asks, eyeing her friends. "Ain't that right, Melman?" Alex shouted before jumping off.

"What'd'ya mean, Glo?" Ayana mused.

"You and Alex are acting weird."

"By weird, you mean like Alex licking Marty-"

"You talk in your sleep too, you know."

Ayana shrank back. "I-I do?" Her pupils increased to normal size immediately. It occurred to Ayana at that moment that, despite her best efforts to keep her secret a secret, she might unwittingly reveal it in the night. "Did I…did I say anything, um, weird?" she asked the female hippo, trying to sound casual.

Gloria snorted a laugh. "You called out for a 'Levi'. Anybody I should know?" The hippo smirked mischievously, raising a trimmed brow.

Ayan returned the favor. "Definitely not anyone you should know."

"Hey Ayana, get over here!"

The leopardess's pupils shrank to pinpricks and she dashed off.

Ayana jumped to join Alex on the giraffe currently receiving and neck message by many lemurs to cover his long neck. The two large cats began tap-dancing on the neck with glee.

"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm in heaven." Melman hummed as Alex flipped away. He landed after a handful of aerial flips and twirls near the dancing lemurs.

Ayana plopped on the ground right beside Melman's head. If Gloria knew about Levi through sleep talking, Melman might've been up as well. It's possible because he does have feelings for her. So, she took a deep breath and as if they were in her command, they became normal.

"Hey Melly, did you happen to hear anything last night?"

Melman blinked. "Why?"

"I couldn't get that much sleep due to some noises, happen to hear any?"

"I heard a loud yell, and a name- Levi, I think?"

"Well, in that case, I was wondering-"

"Ayana, dance with me!"

The leopard jolted, her brown eyes wide.

She lands where Alex stood, and their hands immediately clasping onto each other.

They spun rapidly, wild eyes focused on the other, choruses of cackles releases from their muzzles with no realization that they were stark hungry. The sight of it was joyous and maddening, but from the craze everyone at the party was in, they didn't care.

"You see, Maurice," King Julien spoke as he and the aye-aye lemur synchronized their dance, expressing himself through various moves. "Alex and Ayana are now our friends and the fossas are nowhere to be seen. It could be said that my plan is working in a very good working kind of way."

During Julien's sentence, the said felines zoomed right past them, cartwheeling right behind them, smiles not faltering for a second.

After reaching Marty, who was grinning at the amount of food being served in bowls that were held by lemurs, the zebra grabs a pineapple off one of the bowls.

"Alex, Ayana. You got to try some of this." Marty tells them, shoving pineapple in Ayana and Alex's mouth, but they look around and spat it out into King Julien's arms.

"I feel good. Feel like a king again!" Alex comments proudly.

"King?" Julien questioned with his hands on his hips after tossing the pineapple away to Maurice while the stout animal tumbles away.

"Yeah! You should see his act." Marty encouraged wringing his arm around his friend, proudly representing him.

Ayana's legs moved without her brain really giving them permission, abandoning her post on Alex's right side. Her tail lashed- knocking Marty's arm off the lion- to connect scarcely with Alex's tail. She wrapped her arm territorially around Alex's middle while keeping her toes on the ground.

Marty was slightly taken back by his leopard friend's actions but proceeded. "Come on, Alex, why don't you show him some of your act."

In a flash, the lion's answer sped from rejecting the offer to accepting it.

"Oh. No, I really don't think I could- OK."

Marty had grabbed a conch shell to announce to the crowd of lemurs as Alex waited behind a huge rock and Ayana standing beside it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, primates of all ages. The wild proudly presents: The king."

Alex's smile stretched out, even more, mimicking the words along with Marty...

"Alex The Lion!"

"E flat, fellows," Marty instructed to lemurs using a hollow log with a hole which they stuck multiple vines through to make an instrument and string the chords, as the rest pounded the log like a drum.

The moment the music began playing, Alex stepped up on the jagged rock and performed, doing his signature pose while the lemurs cheered.

His heart soared when noticed Ayana clapping for her.

Back at the zoo, she would wear an Alex The Lion custom Foam Hand Finger in a show of support. But this was different. One moment, she's quiet and introverted, and the next she's this protective, strong and imaginative leopard.

Alex just couldn't help but love it.

"Yeah! The king is in the house!" Marty commented.

King Julien pouted in his throne, Maurice standing with his back straight. Food surrounded the mini throne only fit for a lemur as the ring-tailed complained.

"See, if he is the king, then where is his crown? I've got a crown. Got a very nice one. And it's here on my head. Look at it. Have I got it on?"

The fossa crept out to see the lemurs having a party, but they spotted Alex and Ayana so they stopped in their tracks. They watched as the lion did tricks for the small creatures and the leopard cheering for him loudly enough, even signaling over to her friend to keep them hyped.

Then, Marty calls out to Alex from the crowd.

"Do the roar, man. Do the roar."

A roar escaped from Alex's throat- through his mouth- no longer using his normal roar, leaving everyone, except Ayana, gasping from shock, and the fossa ran off in fright. Ayana's black lips pulled over to form a feral, toothy grin. Maurice stepped forward, becoming more suspicious of the pair.

"Wow." Marty breathed with a smile as Melman and Gloria looked back to each other, their mouths agape, not in the way their friend had his. "I've never heard that one before. Yeah! Go wild, man!" The animals cheered, Alex panted, Marty continues to call out to him.

"Come on! Break out the wave!"

Alex rose his arms and without a moment's notice, the lemurs jumped in the air at a significant time to initiate, his friends raising their arms or ears.

The wild lion and leopard sniffed the air, peering at the lemurs, and saw them all transform into numerous walking, cheering steaks.

Neither could resist licking their lips.

Alex and Ayana extended their claws, the pointed ends shining in the light of the sun.

Marty had his back turned, keeping the wave up for his friend, a huge smile stretching out on his face, his hooves raised high.

Large teeth sink into his hide.

And he lets out an agonizing scream.

Silence rang out besides Mort clapping jovially until he noticed the frightened looks of everyone else. It was like time stood still. Everyone didn't make any sudden movements, their eyes focused on Alex biting Marty on the butt.

He had stopped holding his arms up and settled back on all four hooves. His head peers to Alex and where his canines resided with a look of confusion.

Then it turned to anger.

"Excuse me," Marty says, getting Alex's ocean blue eyes to look directly at him. "You're biting my butt!" The zebra leaned on the words "biting" and "butt" just enough to bring Alex, but not Ayana, back to reality; seeing as his eyes went back to normal size in an instant. The lion glanced down to the exact place he was biting, not phased at the moment.

"No, I'm not," Alex said.

"Yes, you are." Marty snapped back.

Alex glanced once more, then released his teeth and began spitting, sputtering, and even made attempt to rub it off his tongue and onto Marty, as he desperately tried to get the taste of his mouth. Ayana hops off where she stood, walking near the lion on all fours, her eyes still in a craze.

"Alex, what did you do?" Gloria asked, racing over with Melman.

"You just bit me in the butt!"

"No. I didn't. Did I?"

"You kind of did." Melman agreed.

Ayana stands on her toes, licking her lips to her friends with only carnivorous thoughts about them. Nothing fazed her. Not even the confused and fearful looks she got from them.

Alex noticed and immediately took action, grabbing her arms. He picks her up slightly and shook her head, causing Ayana's wild side to wear off.

She looked back at Alex, normal-sized eyes, and reacted as she would when someone woke her. Surprised and in attack mode, a mode she didn't need but had.

However, instead of punching the air, Ayana slowly turns her head to Alex. Then to the fearful lemurs. Then to her friends.

"What happened?"

"He just bit me on the butt," Marty tells her, his tone becoming furious before he turns back to Alex. "What the heck is wrong with you?"

Alex stumbled over his words; or what was supposed to be words since he could barely form a sentence as he backed, obviously still in shock of what he did. Marty's angry face staring daggers at him didn't help him either.

Ayana felt her empty stomach drop in terror- her only way to describe how she felt- observing the zebra yelling at the lion.

The craze was over and reality was horrifying.

"Why'd you bite me?" Marty asks in a sharp tone.

"Man, it's because you are his dinner," Maurice told him after having pushed past the crowd of lemurs with Julien trailing behind, his tiny finger pointing up to them.

In an instant at the accusation, the stout lemur receives remarks.

"What!?" Marty exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Gloria bristled, glaring at the small animal, her hands keeping post on her hips.

"That's dumb," Melman commented.

Ayana held her paws up in defense of the lion. She couldn't say he wouldn't do something like that because it can. So the leopardess stepped back to the lion.

"Who knows, maybe this 'Levi' guy might be bad news as well."

Ayana instantly froze. Her dark brown eyes flickered in a perplexed manner that was almost untraceable.

They knew.

"I don't know who you talking about." The leopard comments as she shrugged her shoulders innocently, avoiding the gazes of her friends.

"The animal you were mumbling about in your sleep last night," Maurice explained, turning Ayana's confusion into annoyance. Her ears flickered with impatience.