Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters. But I do own Emily and Patch and the idea of this story.

The sunlight coming into the clearing acted as a spotlight as the prince jumped around in front of his baby brother, wiggling his tail and shaking his hips. The little lemur looked on in wonder, clearly impressed by his older brother's dance moves.

The young prince suggested that he give it a try, and stepped aside as his brother stumbled to his feet and ran into the spotlight. He tried copying what the prince did but lost his balance and fell on his face. The prince burst into laughter.

The baby lemur sat up, his eyes full of tears. The prince stopped laughing at once and crouched down in front of the younger lemur. He patted his head and said to him that it's okay and he'll learn how to properly dance some day. His little brother wiped away his tears and hugged the prince.

Suddenly they were running through the jungle, unseen lemurs screaming and calling for help. The prince found himself up a tree, his little brother cowering beside him. Below fossa circled the trunk, growling in frustration because they couldn't get to the lemurs.

The next thing the prince knew his brother went missing for a terrifying moment, then reappeared on the ground with a fossa towering over him, teeth bared. The prince tried to draw its attention away from his brother, but the last thing he saw was the fossa snatching up the baby lemur before running back into the forest.

The prince froze, staring after the fossa, at first not registering what happened.

"Patch?"

No answer.

"Patch! Come back, Patch!"

The ringtail king woke in a cold sweat. He found himself breathing heavily and his heart was pounding fast in his chest.

After a few moments, he was finally able to calm down and his panic started melting away. But his dream was still fresh in his mind and he felt a familiar stab of grief. Today was the anniversary of when the fossa took his brother, and even though it happened many years ago, the pain he felt right now made it seem like it was only yesterday.

He often wondered what it would have been like to grow up with a sibling, but every time he imagined having his brother there, he reminded himself that it was his fault that he wasn't. Because of him, Patch was never able to live his life; he never got to make any friends; he never got the chance to meet that special someone and settle down and start a family of his own. All missed opportunities, and it was all because of the now king of the lemurs…

What was I thinking? I shouldn't have taken Patch so close to fossa territory. I should have listened to Mother and Father and stayed closer to the kingdom.

Suddenly he felt another painful stab in his heart as he remembered his parents. If losing his brother hadn't been bad enough, he hasn't seen either of his parents since they set out to find their missing son. When they never returned, everyone assumed the worst and didn't want to send another search party to the same fate.

After that Julien's uncle had been made king since at the time Julien had still been too young to rule over a whole kingdom. But then his uncle had left so suddenly and gave the crown to his nephew. Now he had no family, only his friends, which wasn't a bad thing. There were just moments like this one where he wished things had turned out differently.

He shook his head to clear it, knowing that he had to stop dwelling on the past before he went into a deep depression. Leaving his bamboo house, he climbed through the trees, making his way to the crashed plane where he found his adviser, his bodyguard, the annoying mouse lemur, and…

"Emily," the king greeted her, a huge smile crossing his muzzle as soon as he laid eyes on the female ringtail. She was the one who kept him going day in and day out, the reason he got out of bed, when he really wanted to curl into a ball and mourn the loss of his family. "How are you today?" he asked her.

"I'm good," she replied. As she stared at him, her worried gaze studied him, and he knew what she must be thinking. "How are you doing, my king?"

Julien sighed and gently pushed past her, climbing onto the chair that he had claimed as his throne. "I'm fine," he lied. He didn't want to talk about today, but he knew his friends would just keep bringing it up. He used his foot to spin the chair around to look out the broken window, gazing up at the blue sky. Outside, it looked so peaceful yet guilt ate at Julien on the inside and he didn't know how to make it stop.

Suddenly his adviser appeared in front of him. "Do you want to talk about today, Your Majesty?" he asked.

Julien shook his head. "No," he responded as he jumped out of his chair. He stared down at the mouse lemur. Mort stared back at him, his eyes huge and bright. For a moment the king was reminded of his brother. Patch used to look at him the same way as he would watch Julien show off his dance moves.

He was pulled back to the present by a touch on his shoulder, and he blinked. Emily was beside him. His heart swelled with affection for the female lemur, but then sorrow crashed over him when she said," You can't just keep shutting down this time every year. If you need someone to talk to, you know I'm here for you."

The king shrugged her off and stormed toward the exit of the plane. "I don't want to talk about today!" he called over his shoulder.

He jumped into the tree and climbed down it, aware that the others were following him. Once on the ground, he expected the rest of his subjects to give him sympathetic looks like they always did every year on this day. But then he realized that nobody was around.

"Where is everyone?" Maurice appeared beside the king with the rest of their friends.

Suddenly the orange lemur pushed her way through the group, stopping when she stood in front of her king. "Maybe there's an invasion," she suggested in her British accent as she held her arms out as if to protect Julien, who sighed and rolled his eyes but said nothing. His bodyguard always assumed the worst. When will she learn to relax and have fun?

"I don't think there's an invasion," Emily spoke up, heading to the center of the kingdom. The others ran to catch up to her. When Clover gave her a doubtful look, the female ringtail pointed out," If there was an invasion, it wouldn't be this quiet. We'd hear screams and see lemurs running around in a panic."

Everyone nodded in agreement, deciding that she was right. They continued to walk in silence, but when they got closer to the open clearing where all the lemurs liked to gather, they heard what sounded like a loud commotion like a bunch of animals talking all at once.

"What is that?" Emily questioned as she exchanged a confused look with Maurice.

"Let's go find out." Julien hurried to the clearing, hoping whatever was going on would distract him from missing his brother. He burst out of the bushes and skidded to a halt, his friends stopping beside him.

A large group of lemurs stood in a circle in the middle of the clearing, murmuring amongst themselves. Most looked confused, but there were two or three that wore surprised or shocked expressions.

"What in the world?" Clover turned to her friends like she expected them to have an explanation to what they were seeing. But Emily and Maurice just shrugged, and the little mouse lemur continued to stare at the group with a vacant look in his eyes; clearly his mind was elsewhere at the moment and not on what was happening around him.

"Come on," the king called over his shoulder as he ran over there to see what all the fuss was about. He pushed his way through his subjects until he stood in the middle of the circle. Now he faced a strange lemur who was a ringtail just like the king himself but shorter and with a black spot on his gray belly.

Julien eyed him curiously. "Who are you?"

The newcomer's gaze switched to the crown upon Julien's head. "Your Highness," he greeted the king as he bowed down, showing respect to the higher rate lemur. Julien felt a shiver of pleasure go down his spine.

Behind him, he heard his adviser whisper something to one of the others. "What's that new guy doing?"

It was Emily who answered. "Showing respect to the king of the lemurs, of course, like everyone should do."

Julien smiled to himself, glad to have the female ringtail's support. "Now new guy," he went on, turning back to him. "What's your name?"

"They call me Elliot."

Julien blinked. The king opened his mouth to ask who they were, but suddenly he was pushed aside. Maurice stopped in front of Elliot, and looked him up and down. His gaze lingered on the spot on Elliot's belly.

"I-It can't be," the aye-aye stammered, his eyes growing huge.

Emily walked up. "What's wrong, Maurice?"

"Do I need to show this lemur out of the kingdom?" As if to make herself seem threatening, Clover cracked her knuckles and glared at the newcomer.

"No!" Maurice threw his hands up dramatically. Then he turned to Julien, who was staring at him with huge eyes. What had gotten into his adviser? "Julien, don't you recognize him?" He pointed to Elliot. "I mean he's older but the spot on his belly is unmistakable."

Julien looked over the new lemur again. For a couple of moments he still didn't understand what Maurice was talking about, and Elliot seemed confused too. Then a long ago memory flashed in Julien's mind. "P-Patch, is that you?"

Patch shook his head. "N-No, I told you. My name is Elliot."

"No," Maurice said. "Your name is Patch and this here—" He pointed to Julien—" is your brother."

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